The Compagnie Générale Transatlantique, typically known overseas as the French Line, was a French shipping company. Established in 1855 by the brothers Émile and Issac Péreire under the name Compagnie Générale Maritime, the company was entrusted by the French government to transport mails to North America. In 1861, the name of the company was changed to Compagnie Générale Transatlantique. The company's first vessel, SS Washington, had its maiden voyage on 15 June 1864. After a period of trials and errors in the late 19th century, the company, under the direction of its presidents Jules Charles-Roux and John Dal Piaz, gained fame in the 1910s and 1930s with its prestigious ocean liners such as SS Paris, SS Île de France, and especially SS Normandie. Fragilized by the Second World War, the company regained its fame in 1962 with the famous SS France, which suffered major competition from air transport and was retired from service in 1974. In 1977, the company merged with the Compagnie des Messageries Maritimes to form the Compagnie Générale Maritime. Then, in 1996, the company Compagnie Générale Maritime merged to form the CMA CGM.
France was a French transatlantic liner that sailed for the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique (CGT), known as "French Line". She was later nicknamed "Versailles of the Atlantic", a reference to her décor which reflected the famous palace outside Paris. Ordered in 1908, she was introduced into the Transatlantic route in April 1912, just a week after the sinking of RMS Titanic, and was the only French liner among the famous four-funnel liners. France quickly became one of the most popular ships in the Atlantic. Serving as a hospital ship during World War I, France would have a career spanning two decades. Her overall success encouraged CGT to create even larger liners in the future.
SS L'Atlantique was a French ocean liner owned by the Compagnie de Navigation Sud Atlantique, a subsidiary of the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique (CGT). When completed in 1931 she was the largest, swiftest and most luxurious ocean liner on the route between Europe and South America.
SS Pasteur was a steam turbine ocean liner built for Compagnie de Navigation Sud-Atlantique. She later sailed as Bremen for Norddeutscher Lloyd. In the course of her career, she sailed for 41 years under four names and six countries' flags.
HMS Sportsman was a third-batch S-class submarine built for the Royal Navy during World War II. Completed in 1942, she spent most of the war serving in the Mediterranean Sea. After an initial patrol off Norway, she sank the heavy transport Général Bonaparte in the Mediterranean in 1943 and missed a French oil tanker. She was heavily damaged after a mistaken attack by an Allied bomber, and was sent east after repairs to participate in operations in the Black Sea. After the operation was cancelled, Sportsman patrolled the Aegean Sea, sending several Greek and German ships to the bottom. She sank the German transport SS Petrella in early 1944 despite it being clearly marked as a prisoner-of-war ship, killing 2,670 out of 3,173 Italians aboard. Sportsman sank several more ships, and suffered minor damage when she was detected and sighted while attempting to attack a convoy.
The 51st Infantry Division "Siena" was an infantry division of the Royal Italian Army during World War II. The Siena was formed on 15 September 1939 and named for the city of Siena. The division was a Campanian unit and its men were almost entirely from Naples. After fighting in the Greco-Italian War the division was sent to Crete as garrison unit. There the division was disbanded by invading German forces after the Armistice of Cassibile was announced on 8 September 1943.
SS De Grasse was a transatlantic liner built in 1921 by Cammell Laird, Birkenhead, United Kingdom for Compagnie Générale Transatlantique, and launched in February 1924. In August 1924 De Grasse set sail on her maiden voyage from Le Havre to New York. After the fall of France to Nazi Germany, the ship was used as a barracks ship. Sunk at Bordeaux, France, during the German retreat, she was refloated, repaired, and put back into service. Over the years, she became Empress of Australia and then Venezuela. She ran aground off Cannes, France, in 1962 and was scrapped at La Spezia, Italy.
Claus Rickmers was a 5,165 GRT cargo ship which was built in 1923 for Rickmers Reederei AG. She was sunk by Allied bombing at Larvik, Norway in 1945 and then salvaged and towed to Bergen for repairs. She was then seized as a war prize) and ownership passed to the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT), being renamed Empire Carron on completion of repairs in 1947.
SS Friedenau was a German cargo steamer sunk during World War II.
SS Oria was a Norwegian steamer that sank on 12 February 1944, causing the death of some 4,095 Italian prisoners of war, 21 Greeks and 15 Germans. It was one of the worst maritime disasters in history, and the worst maritime disaster caused by the sinking of a single ship in the Mediterranean Sea.
"Italian Military Internees" was the official name given by Germany to the Italian soldiers captured, rounded up and deported in the territories of Nazi Germany in Operation Achse in the days immediately following the World War II armistice between Italy and Allied armed forces.
The SS Gaetano Donizetti was an ex-Italian merchant motorship, captured by Nazi Germany for war use then destroyed by HMS Eclipse on 23 September 23, 1943 in the eastern Aegean Sea, taking to the bottom its munitions and killing 1,800 people on board: 1,576 Italian prisoners of war significantly overcrowded aboard, 220 German guards, and a small crew.
Sinfra was a cargo ship built in 1929 as Fernglen by Akers Mekaniske Verksted in Oslo, Norway, for a Norwegian shipping company. The ship was sold to Swedish owners in 1934 and to a French company in 1939, on the last occasion having her name changed to Sinfra.
The SS El Grillo was a British oil tanker sunk without casualties by a German air attack at Seyðisfjörður, Iceland on 10 February 1944.
SS Bury Hill was a cargo ship built in England during the First World War as Cardigan, later becoming Pensylvanie of Compagnie Générale Transatlantique (CGT). In 1934 she returned to the British register as Bury Hill but was wrecked on the coast of Senegal in 1936.
SS Scillin was a 1,591 GRT cargo steamship that was built in Scotland in 1903, passed through a succession of owners of various nationalities and had a succession of different names. She was built as H. M. Pellatt but was successively called Memling, Nicole Le Borgne, Giuliana Pagan, and Scillin Secondo before becoming Scillin in 1937.
Général Bonaparte was a 2,796 GRT passenger ship that was built in 1922 by Chantiers & Ateliers de Provence for the Compagnie Marseillaise de Navires à Vapeur. She was torpedoed and sunk by HMS Sportsman on 19 May 1943 with the loss of 130 lives.
SS Tanais, mistakenly referred to as Danae or Danais, was a British-built, Greek-owned cargo ship that German occupation forces in Greece requisitioned in World War II. On 9 June 1944, a Royal Navy submarine sank her off Heraklion, Crete, killing hundreds of deported Cretan Jews, Cretan Christian civilians and Italian POWs aboard. Sources differ as to the number killed; estimates vary between 425 and 1,000.
Suzuya Maru was an auxiliary transport and hell ship of the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II.
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