SS Île de France

SS Île de France (literally Island of France in English) was a French luxury ocean liner that plied the prestigious transatlantic route between Europe and New York from 1927 through to 1958. She was built in Saint-Nazaire for the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique (or CGT, also known as the "French Line"), and named after the region around Paris known as "Île-de-France". Launched on 14 March 1926,[1] she commenced her maiden voyage on 22 June 1927, as the first major ocean liner built after World War I, and the first ever to be decorated almost entirely in modern Art Deco style. Though she was neither the largest ship nor the fastest, she was considered the most beautifully decorated built by CGT, becoming the favored ship of the pre-World War II era among the young, wealthy and fashionable elites.

When World War II broke out she briefly served as a troop ship before all her luxurious fittings were removed for conversion into a prison ship. After the war Île de France resumed transatlantic operations. In 1956 she played a key role in rescuing passengers from the SS Andrea Doria after the latter ship's fatal collision with the MS Stockholm (1948) off Nantucket, Massachusetts. Her last public appearance was starring as a doomed ocean liner in the 1959 movie The Last Voyage, filmed while waiting to be scrapped in Japan. She was partially flooded and the actors filmed their scenes as if she were sinking. She was subsequently refloated and scrapped.

Construction and launch

Maiden voyage and early career

After her sea trials, Île de France traveled to her home port of Le Havre on June 5, 1927. The novelty of Art Deco aboard a ship was an immediate sensation and the reaction of the visiting press would be evident by favorable reviews the next week.

On June 22, 1927 Île de France traveled from Le Havre for its maiden voyage to New York. Upon its arrival in New York it received great attention from the American media and thousands of people crowded the docks just to see the new ship.

Her official accommodation was for 1,786 passengers, but her normal capacity was closer to 1400. With a listed capacity of 537 in first-class, Île de France, like SS France (1912) and Paris, became fashionable. Captain Joseph Blancart and his chief purser, Henri Villar, became celebrities. With the contribution made by this splendid vessel, the CGT ended the year 1928 with record earnings. For the first time the company's receipts exceeded a billion francs, and half of this derived from the New York service, which had transported more than 90,000 passengers. Its popularity was such that by 1935, the ship had carried more first-class passengers than any other transatlantic liner.

The ship was popular especially among wealthy Americans. It quickly became the chosen ship of the youthful, the stylish, and the famous. But they did not choose it for its speed – it was about as fast as the Aquitania of 1914, and no larger. In 1936 it was immortalised in the song "A Fine Romance" performed by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in the film Swing Time with the lyric "You're just as hard to land as the Île de France".[5]

Even though Île de France was not the fastest vessel in the world, it briefly pioneered the quickest mail system between Europe and the United States. In July 1928, a seaplane catapult was installed at the ship's stern for trials with two CAMS 37 flying boats that launched when the ship was within 200 miles, which decreased the mail delivery time by one day. This practice proved too costly, however, and in October 1930 the catapult was removed and the service discontinued.

In 1935 Île de France and Paris were joined by a new mate, the new superliner SS Normandie. With these three ships the CGT could boast of having the largest, fastest, and most luxurious ships traveling the north Atlantic.

But this was not to endure, and two events ended the CGT's new prosperity. The first occurred on April 18, 1939, when Paris was destroyed by fire while docked in Le Havre. The second was on September 1, 1939 when Nazi Germany invaded Poland which began World War II and ended civilian (as opposed to military) transatlantic traffic.

World War II

Île de France was the last civilian ship to leave France before the outbreak of war. She departed from Le Havre on the morning of September 3, 1939, just hours before France and the United Kingdom declared war on Germany. (The last ship to leave Europe during the war would be the paquebot Jamaique that left in May 1940 from Bordeaux to South America). Île de France carried 1,777 passengers, 400 more than her usual number.[6] Most of the passengers were Americans, many of whom were tourists clamouring to leave France before the war broke out. During the voyage, the passengers were not only inconvenienced by the overcrowded conditions, but their activities were limited because the ship sailed with her lights extinguished.[6] Other ships were not so lucky. Île de France arrived in New York harbor on September 9 and, while she was crossing the Atlantic Ocean, 16 vessels were sunk by torpedoes, mines, or gunfire.[7]

Once the ship was berthed at its New York pier, her career as a passenger ship was temporarily ended. Since the French were not anxious to return the ship to its homeland, she was towed to Staten Island by ten tugs and was laid up after special dredging that cost $30,000. Her crew of 800 persons was reduced to a security staff of 100 while she was inoperative for the next five months. Then during March 1940, commanded by the British Admiralty, to which it had been lent, the ship was loaded with 12,000 tons of war materials, submarine oil, tanks, shells, and several uncrated bombers that were stowed on the aft open decks. On 1 May 1940 she departed for Europe, veiled in gray and black. From there, she traveled to Singapore where, after the Fall of France, she was officially seized by the British. In 1941 she returned to New York[8] and made several crossings from the northeast as a troop ship such as the one on February 14, 1944, sailing from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Greenock, Scotland, carrying among others the 814th Tank Destroyer Battalion.[9][10]

In October, 1942, Île de France tied up alongside the Charl Malan Quay in Port Elizabeth, South Africa.[11] Furniture, chandeliers, carpets, fittings, and hundreds of square feet of rare and beautiful panelling were torn out as "she was gutted as thoroughly as a herring".[12] A small party of workmen then fitted the liner out as a floating prisoner of war camp, "with festoons of barbed wire sprouting from her decks and disfiguring her graceful lines" as the ship was prepared for the task of bringing POWs back from north Africa.[12]

The extensive alterations were the largest ever undertaken in the harbour,[13] and were completed in 1943.[14]

owner	Compagnie Générale Transatlantique
registry	Le Havre, France
route	Le Havre – Plymouth (later Southampton) – New York
builder	Ateliers et Chantiers de Saint-Nazaire Penhoët, Saint-Nazaire, France
laid down	1925
launched	14 March 1926‡R1R‡
christened	14 March 1926‡R1R‡
maiden voyage	22 June 1927
in service	1927
out of service	1959
identification	Official number: 173054
fate	Scrapped in Osaka, Japan, 1960-61
notes	Used as floating prop in the movie "The Last Voyage".

Construction and launch

Interior

Maiden voyage and early career

World War II

Post-war career

Scrapping

Legacy

In popular culture

See also

Further reading

External links

References