HMS Empress began as a cross-Channel packet ship and was converted into a seaplane carrier in 1914. Her aircraft conducted reconnaissance, observation, bombing, and Mediterranean anti-submarine patrols, using a hangar and cranes to handle four seaplanes. British maritime aviation therefore entered the interwar years with operational precedents, even though the later Coastal Area lacked the scale to turn that inheritance into continuous global coverage. Early anti-submarine success is difficult to attribute, but forcing a submarine to dive and abandon an attack still had operational value.
Notable Point · 1:11:29-1:13:44
HMS Empress and the First World War maritime-air precedent
The converted packet ship HMS Empress links Coastal Command's later mission to wartime reconnaissance, bombing, and anti-submarine patrols flown from seaplane carriers.