the lake in 1914 and 1915, respectively. They were troop ships during the First World War East African Campaign and passed into civilian service after the Armistice. EAR&H withdrew Rusinga for scrap in 1966, but she passed into private ownership and in 2005 was still in service. Usoga was laid up in 1975, sank at her moorings at Kisumu in the 1990s, and as of 2006 her remains were still there. and were steamers built by Bow, McLachlan & Co in 1925. In the 1980s, Buvuma was laid up and sank at her jetty. Buganda later became additional accommodation at the Mwanza's Hotel Tilapia, where she remains. East African Railways and Harbours motor vessels RMS Victoria was built in 1959 by Yarrow Shipbuilders at Scotstoun and reassembled for the East African Railways and Harbours Corporation (EAR&H) ship at Kisumu in 1961. When the ship was commissioned, Queen Elizabeth II granted her the "Royal Mail Ship" designation: the only EAR&H ship to receive this distinction. However, since Kenya's independence from the UK, she has operated as MV Victoria. The train ferries and are sister ships built by Yarrow in 1965. Kenya operated Uhuru, but she has been suspended from service since 2007. By 1970, the East African Railways and Harbours Corporation operated regular sailings clockwise around the lake from Kisumu, using rail ferries that carried rail wagons loaded directly from rail tracks extended on the jetties at Kisumu, Port Bell and Mwanza. The rail network linked to the Indian Ocean ports of Mombasa and Dar es Salaam which allowed countries of the African interior such as Uganda and Rwanda to transport freight to and from world markets. Typical journey times were 13 hours between Port Bell in Uganda and Kisumu in Kenya, and 19 hours between Port Bell and Mwanza in Tanzania. In 1977 EARH was dissolved and its assets divided between Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. Uhuru was transferred to the new Kenya Railways Corporation (KRC) and Umoja and Victoria to the new Tanzania Railways Corporation (TRC). In 1978, the new Uganda Railways Corporation (URC) purchased three train ferries from Belgium, MV Pemba, MV Kaawa and MV Kabalega. However their production was interrupted by the war between Uganda and Tanzania that broke out in October 1978 and ended in April 1979. The ferries were assembled after the war at Port Bell and launched in 1983. TRC's Marine Division introduced the ferry