The Lady Boats were liners operated by the Canadian National Steamship Company.   They were built by Cammell Laird of Birkenhead, on the  Wirral in England and were named after the wives of British Admirals who had served in the Caribbean. They operated between Halifax in Canada, Bermuda and the Caribbean carrying mail, freight and passengers. Lady Rodney and Lady Somers were built for service to western Caribbean while the .Lady Nelson  Lady Hawkins and Lady Drake  served the eastern Caribbean including St. Kitts and were fitted out to carry more passengers.  In 1942 while in Castries, St Lucia, the Lady Nelson was torpedoed by a U Boat.  Eighteen persons were killed in the attack. The ship sank at the wharf but was refloated and towed to Mobile, Alabama in the US where it was repaired.  For the rest of the war it operated as a hospital ship, carrying wounded Canadian servicemen back home for treatment. The Lady Nelson and the Lady Rodney, the only two of the fleet to survive the war returned to civilian service.  The Lady boats facilitated passenger travel in the Leeward and Windward Islands until air travel gained popularity making their continued sailing in the region uneconomic.