stored on her deck caught fire. The firefighters managed to control the flames by flooding the bridge and throwing the burnt barrels into the sea. When the war was over, the liner was fully refurbished, and her facilities were modified to carry fewer passengers. Later career and demise The Adriatic returned to service on 3 September 1919, departing from Southampton and accompanied by the Lapland, to ensure provisional service pending the return of requisitioned ships and the arrival of new liners. From 1920, the Lapland was replaced by the Olympic. She was finally withdrawn after a last crossing, on 14 December 1921, in view of the arrival of the Majestic and the Homeric. After an overhaul in Belfast, she joined the Celtic, the Cedric and the Baltic on the Liverpool route on 13 May 1922. On a westbound voyage at 01:30 on 10 August 1922 near Cobh, the Adriatic suffered a gas explosion in her number three hold, which she was using as a reserve coal bunker. The explosion killed five crewmen, severely injured another three, tore the hatch off the hold, broke and twisted girders and beams and started a coal fire. Some of the dead and injured were stokers who had gone into the hold to work coal for her furnaces. One was an electrician, Leslie Ablett, who was rigging a cluster of electric lights by which the stokers were to work. Three were stokers who had been sleeping in the open on the hatch cover because it was a hot summer night. One of the stokers sleeping on the hatch cover was blown overboard Two liners, CGT's Lafayette and United States Lines' Reliance, changed course to come to Adriatics assistance. Adriatics crew fought and extinguished the fire. Her Second Engineer, James Corrigan, entered the burning hold and rescued two injured men. At 03:55 Adriatics wireless operator signalled that there was no further danger, so Lafayette and Reliance resumed their normal courses. The injured were treated in the ship's sick bay. Two of the ship's stewardesses were trained nurses and helped to tend the injured and dying. All of the dead and injured were from Liverpool. Before Adriatic reached New York, her passengers raised $7,000 to help their families. Adriatic reached New York on 13 August. Marine insurance agents came aboard and assessed the damage at less than $1,000. Temporary repairs were made before she began her return