Kościuszko was a passenger steamship that was built in Scotland in 1915, sailed as a troopship in both World Wars, was an ocean liner between the wars, carried displaced persons after World War II and was scrapped in England in 1950. In her 35-year history the ship was registered in the merchant navies of the United Kingdom, Latvia and Poland. She was built as Czaritza and later bore the names Lituania, Kościuszko, Gdynia and Empire Helford. The name Kościuszko refers to Tadeusz Kościuszko (1746 – 1817), a military leader, statesman and Polish national hero. Construction The Russian American Line ordered the ship before World War I to be an ocean liner to carry up to 1,000 passengers between New York and Arkhangelsk. Barclay, Curle & Co Ltd of Glasgow laid her keel in 1914, launched her as Czaritza on 14 February 1915 and completed her that May. Her yard number was 512. As built, Czaritzas tonnages were and . She had twin four-cylinder quadruple-expansion engines driving twin screws. Each engine had a stroke and cylinders of , , and bore. Between them the engines developed 889 NHP and gave her a speed of . The engines were fed by six 215 lbf/in2 single-ended boilers with a total heating surface of . Her boilers were heated by 18 corrugated furnaces with a grate surface of . First World War and Russian Civil War She spent the remainder of the war as a troopship. She was evacuated from Russia during the Russian Civil War. Cunard Line bought her in 1917 and used her to carry troops between the USA and Europe and between the UK and Malta. In 1920 she returned to Arkhangelsk, this time with the Allied expeditionary forces intervening in the Russian Civil War. Between the wars The Russian American Line was a subsidiary of the Danish East Asiatic Company. In January 1921 the ship was transferred to another East Asiatic Company subsidiary, Baltic American Line, who renamed her Lituania. She worked various trans-oceanic routes, including a circular route Halifax – New York – Copenhagen – Gdańsk – Liepāja. In 1930 the East Asiatic Company sold Baltic American Line to Polish owners who renamed the company Polskie Transatlantyckie Towarzystwo Okrętowe ("Polish Transatlantic Shipping Company Limited" or PTTO) and renamed the ship Kościuszko. On 8 June she reached Gdynia, which became her port of registry on 20 June. She was operated