"Veterans of Grim Italy, Sicily Battles Return Next Week". Seaforths mentioned: Lt K.F. Barton, Pte E.S. Smith, Pte G.H.L. Begley and Capt Drummond-Hay The wounded soldiers returned on the Hospital Ship, The Lady Nelson to Halifax. The RMS Lady Nelson was a steam turbine ocean liner which served in passenger service from 1928 to 1968 and operated as wartime hospital ship from 1943 to 1945. The Lady Nelson was torpedoed by U-161 while alongside at Castries, St. Lucia. Fifteen passengers and three crewmen were killed. The ship sank at the wharf but was refloated in late March and towed to Mobile, Alabama for repairs. The Canadian government decided to convert Lady Nelson to a hospital ship to bring home Canadian wounded. Canadians had previously been sent home for treatment on British hospital ships but as casualties mounted from fighting in North Africa, the British asked Canada to provide its own hospital ships. Completed as a hospital ship in April 1943, Lady Nelson had an operating theatre, x-ray machine and wards for 515 men. A special medical embarkation unit was created at Pier 21 in Halifax to unload patients and transfer and escort them on hospital trains which took the wounded to hospitals across Canada. As a hospital ship, Lady Nelson made 30 crossings of the Atlantic and brought 25,000 wounded Canadians home. When fighting ended in Europe in June 1945, Lady Nelson was switched to returning Canadian soldiers and war brides. Attached to Media.