Named for the two Germanic chieftans who led the Jutes' conquest of southern Britain in the fifth century, Hengist and Horsa were a pair of identical cargo steamers built for the Leith, Hull & Hamburg Steam Packet Company (Currie & Co., managers) in 1928. Constructed in the Dundee yards of the Caledonian Shipbuilding & Engineering Company, both vessels were registered at 984 tons gross (400 net) and measured 231½ feet in length with a 35½ foot beam. Each powered by one of their builder's own 175nhp. triple-expansion 3-cylinder engines, the two sisters entered service simultaneously and were operating successfully when the outbreak of the Second World War necessitated a change of their company's name to the Currie Line (of Leith). Apparently, the authorities had taken to intercepting and opening the company's mail in the mistaken belief it was German-owned and it was therefore deemed advisable to renounce the association with Hamburg and take a new name without German connections. After two-and-a-half years of vital war service, Hengist was sunk by a German U-boat on 8th March 1942 about 250 miles NE of Cape Wrath whilst on passage from Reykjavik (Iceland) to Grimsby with a cargo of 700 tons of fish; three lives were lost. Horsa, by comparison, survived the War and was broken up in 1959.