Corinthian at Cairo in wartime BOAC colours. Hit debris while landing and sank off Darwin, Australia, on a military transport flight from Brisbane on 22 March 1942. Photo from: Alexander Turnbull Library

The passengers were having breakfast on the Imperial Airways station boat. Coriolanus was brand new, having commenced her maiden trip to Alexandria as flight IE 559 on 20 June and going back to Southampton as IW 557 on 22 June. She carried out evacuation missions from Java to Broome, Australia in February 1942 and was transferred to Qantas as VH-ABG later in 1942. The last Empire flying boat in service, she was withdrawn on 23 December 1947 and scrapped soon thereafter. Photo by: Sophie Petersen / National Museum of Denmark

Short Calcutta flying boat on the Nile before departure with King Albert of Belgium on board who was travelling to the Congo. Photo from: Library of Congress