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 Massilia at Bordeaux, about 1930 | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 France | |
| Name | Massilia |
| Namesake | Massilia |
| Owner | Cie de Navigation Sud-Atlantique |
| Operator | Cie de Navigation Sud-Atlantique |
| Port of registry | Bordeaux |
| Route | Bordeaux –Buenos Aires |
| Ordered | 1912 |
| Builder | Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée,La Seyne-sur-Mer |
| Laid down | 1912 |
| Launched | 1914 |
| Completed | 1920 |
| Out of service | 1942 |
| Identification |
|
| Fate | scuttled 1944, scrapped 1946 |
| General characteristics | |
| Tonnage | |
| Length | 175.9 m (577.1 ft) |
| Beam | 19.5 m (64.1 ft) |
| Depth | 11.3 m (37.0 ft) |
| Decks | 7 |
| Propulsion |
|
| Capacity | 943 passengers total: |
| Crew | 410 |
| Sensors and processing systems | wirelessdirection finding |
| Notes | sister ships:Gallia,Lutetia |
SSMassilia was an ocean liner of theCompagnie de Navigation Sud-Atlantique. She was launched in 1914 and completed in 1920.[1]Massilia was theRoman city on the site of what is nowMarseille.
In 1911 the previous mail contract from the French state for routes to and from South America had been in the hands ofMessageries Maritimes, but the new contract was awarded to Compagnie de Navigation Sud-Atlantique. As a condition for the contract and to ensure that enough ships were in service to provide a reliable mail service, the company was required to build four 18-knot passenger liners with a minimum length of 175 metres and provide sixpaquebots mixtes (passenger freighters). This would maintain a fortnightly mail service betweenBordeaux andBuenos Aires. However, these arrangements were not confirmed by the French Parliament until 31 December 1911.
Orders were placed, the day after parliamentary approval was achieved, with theChantiers de l'Atlantique atSaint-Nazaire forLutetia and with Forges & Chantiers de la Mediterranee at La Seyne for a similar ship, theGallia,[2] both to be delivered in 1913.Massilia was the third ship, also built at La Seyne. She was launched in 1914, but theFirst World War delayed her completion until 1920.[3] AsMassilia was completed later she had a more modern 1920s décor than her running mates, which were very pre-War in their fittings.
The ship was in use from 1920 as a running mate withLutetia on the route Bordeaux – Vigo – Lisbon – Rio de Janeiro – Santos – Montevideo – Buenos Aires.
In 1927 she was converted from coal-burning to oil-burning.
In 1933–34 hercode letters OMYH were superseded by thecall sign FOTN.[4]
In 1922Marcelo Torcuato de Alvear, then Argentinian ambassador in France, sailed onMassilia when he was recalled to becomePresident of Argentina.
In 1928 an Italian migrant to Brazil, Giuseppe Pistone, strangled his wife, Maria Mercedes Féa, and tried to send her partly-dismembered body fromSantos to Europe hidden in a suitcase aboardMassilia. The murder was discovered when the suitcase fell and was damaged when being loaded aboard the ship. The murder became known as theTrunk Crime.[5]
When theSecond World War broke out in 1939Massilia was painted camouflage grey. When she left La Rochelle on 19 October 1939 she carried 384 passengers fleeing Europe, of which the largest contingent were Spanish Republicans who had previously taken refuge in France. The group included many artists, journalists, writers, academics and theatre figures.[6] Amongst those aboard were the writer, playwright and copyist Salvador Valverde; the journalist, writer and editor Arturo Cuadrado Moure; the lawyer and author José Ruiz del Toro; the former parliamentarian of the Izquierda Republicana, Elpidio Villaverde; the painter and set designerGregorio (Gori) Muñoz Montoro; the authorElena Fortún and her husband the painter and military officer Eusebio de Gorbea y Lemmi; the lawyer and legislator Pedro Coromines Muntanya;[7] the sculptor Alberto López Barral; the academicWenceslao Roces; the painter, set designer and ceramicist Manuel Ángeles Ortiz; the academic Ramón Martínez López; the graphic artists Andrés Dameson[8] and Mauro Cristobal Artache; the painters Ramón Hidalgo Pontones and Esteban Francés Cabrera; the film director Luis de la Fuente; the playwrights Manuel Desco Sanz and Pascual Guillén; the journalists Antonio Salgado y Salgado, Clemente Cimorra, Mariano Perla, and Miguel A. Carreta; the engineer José Arbex Pomareta; the military pilot Juan Aboal Aboal; the film-maker José Fernández Cañizares; the actors Severino Mejuto and Ángel Giménez; the actress Maricarmen García Antón; the medical doctors Manuel Conde López and Miguel Cadenas Rubio; and the professor Carmen Santaolalla. She reached Buenos Aires on 5 November 1939.[9]
On her return voyage, leaving Buenos Aires in mid-November 1939, she carried French reservists from Argentina back to France. TheRoyal Navy cruiserHMS Ajax escorted her at the start of the journey to protect her from German raiders.[10]
In April 1940Massilia was atroop ship in theNorwegian campaign.
In June 1940 she carried a large number of prominent politicians, including 27 ofthe Vichy 80, who fled fromMetropolitan France toFrench North Africa afterFrance capitulated to Germany and Italy.[11] The group includedÉdouard Daladier andPierre Mendès France.
Massilia was a troop ship between North Africa and France for theVichy government. It then became a naval school forChargeurs Réunis moored in theÉtang de Berre, and then as a floating barracks for German troops in Marseille.
As Allied forces advanced into France after theNormandy landings, German forces scuttledMassilia on 21 August 1944 to block the entrance to Marseille. After the war she was raised, then scrapped.[12]
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