Japanese battleship Ise
On 12 April 1922, while at Yokohama, "Ise" hosted a delegation which included the Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VIII), who was accompanied by his second cousin, the future Lord Mountbatten of Burma. Captain Kanna Norikazu relieved Nagasawa on 1 December. The ship aided survivors of the Great Kantō earthquake in September 1923. From the early 1920s through the late 1930s, "Ise" mostly cruised off the coast of China. Little detailed information is available about her activities during the 1920s, although she helped sink the obsolete destroyer during gunnery training on 10 August 1926. The ship was overhauled in 1928–1929, during which her forward superstructure was enlarged and her aviation facilities improved.
Irish Mercantile Marine during World War II
In the economic depression, the Limerick Steamship Company sold both its ocean-going ships, "Knockfierna" and "Kilcredane". They were Ireland's last ocean-going ships. At the outbreak of hostilities Ireland did not have a ship designed to cross the Atlantic. British ships were not available. American ships would only travel to Portugal. Ireland depended on other neutrals. In 1940 a succession of these ships, from Norway, Greece, Argentina, and Finland, usually carrying wheat to Ireland, were lost. Soon many of these nations were no longer neutral. Ireland had to acquire its own fleet. Irish Shipping was formed. "Irish Poplar" was Irish Shipping's first ship. It was acquired in Spain after it had been abandoned by its crew. Other ships were acquired from Palestine, Panama, Yugoslavia, and Chile. The Irish government minister Frank Aiken negotiated the bareboat chartering of two oil-burning steamships from the United States Maritime Commission's reserve fleet. They were both lost to U-boats. was sunk in controversial circumstances by . All 33 crew of were lost when she was sunk by "U-608". Three ships were from Estonia, They were in Irish ports when Estonia was annexed by the Soviet Union. Their crews refused to return to the new Estonian SSR. The ships were sold to Irish Shipping. The SS "Cetvrti" (Jugoslavia) was abandoned in Dingle Bay after being strafed on 1 December 1940. She was salvaged by "Fort Rannoch" of the Irish Navy; she was purchased and renamed "Irish Beech".
An Italian ship, "Caterina Gerolimich" had been trapped in Dublin since the outbreak of the war. After the fall of Italian Fascism she was chartered, repaired and renamed "Irish Cedar". When the war was over, she returned to Naples with a cargo of food, a gift from Ireland to war-ravaged Italy. was bought on 17 June 1941. She was 46 years old, and required extensive repairs. "She was fit for nothing but the scrap yard." A British yard bid for, and won, the contract to renovate her. This work was completed in November 1943. Even though the Irish government paid for her purchase and for the repairs she was requisitioned by the British Ministry of War Transport and renamed "Empire Don". She was returned to Irish Shipping in 1945.