MS Gripsholm (1924)

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Gripsholm in her original black-hulled livery
History
Sweden
NameGripsholm
OwnerSwedish American Line
BuilderArmstrong Whitworth & Co. Ltd.[1]
Yard number999
Launched26 November 1924
CompletedNovember 1925
Maiden voyage1925
In service1925–1954
FateSold to Germany, 1954
History
West Germany
NameBerlin
Owner
North German Lloyd
In service1954–1966
FateScrapped in 1966
General characteristics
Type
Passenger liner
Tonnage17,993 GRT
Length573 ft (174.7 m)
Beam74 ft (22.6 m)
Installed powerBurmeister & Wain diesels
PropulsionTwo shafts
Speed16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph)
Capacity127 first class
482 second class
948 third class
Crew360
Notes[2]
Ship christening on November 26, 1924

MS Gripsholm was an

motor vessel, rather than as a steamship
.

Initial service

From 1927 onwards, the Gripsholm made transatlantic passenger crossings and regular recreational cruises. Gripsholm was one of the first ships to call at the Canadian Pier 21 immigration terminal in Halifax, Nova Scotia and made 101 trips with immigrants to Pier 21.[3]

Exchange and repatriation ship

Gripsholm unloading Red Cross supplies in Goa

From 1942 to 1946, the

Mormugoa (now Goa) in Portuguese India with the Japanese, and Stockholm or Lisbon
with the Germans.

After the war, Gripsholm was used to deport inmates of US prisons to Italy and Greece.

Image of a Polish passport used for repatriation from China to Africa in 1942.

Post-war service and renaming

NDL passenger ship Berlin starting from New York City in 1957

The Swedish American Line sold Gripsholm to Norddeutscher Lloyd in 1954, who renamed her MS Berlin. As MS Berlin, the ship resumed Canadian immigration voyages to Pier 21 in Halifax, making 33 immigrant voyages before the ship was retired.[5] An image of MS Berlin arriving at Pier 21 in 1957[6] became the centre image of the newly redesigned Canadian epassport in 2012.[7]

The ship was sold for scrap in 1966.

Passengers of note

Regular service

  • Ernest Hemingway, American novelist, short story writer, and journalist, sailed with wife Pauline Pfeiffer from Mombasa to Villefranch in early 1934, and again with her in January 1938 from Southampton to Nassau after his return from Spain reporting on the Spanish Civil War.
  • W5
    , immigrated to Canada as a child on the sailing of March 22, 1956 from Bremerhaven, in company of his mother and sister.
  • Count Zsigmond (Sigismund) Széchenyi, Hungarian hunter and writer, sailed from Mombasa to Villefranch in early 1934 after his hunting expedition in East-Africa.

Exchange and repatriation ship

References

  1. ^ "MS Gripsholm (1925)". www.tynebuiltships.co.uk. Retrieved 15 Jun 2017.
  2. ^ The First Great Ocean Liners (pg 116) William H. Miller 1984 General Publishing Co. Ltd Canada
  3. ^ "Gripsholm", Ship Arrivals Database, Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21
  4. . Retrieved 14 September 2009.
  5. ^ "Berlin", Ship Arrivals Database, Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21
  6. ^ Wetmore Collection, Library and Archives Canada, PA-187858
  7. ^ "The Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 will be part of Canada’s new ePassport", Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21, October 26, 2012
  8. ^ "Pittsburghers Held by Japs Coming Home on Gripsholm". The Pittsburgh Press. 1943-10-14. p. 15. Retrieved 2023-01-28 – via Newspapers.com.

External links

History