View source for MS Batory

{{Short description|Polish ocean liner}}
{{About||the preserved patrol boat|ORP Batory|the successor ship of the MS Batory|TSS Stefan Batory}}
{|{{Infobox ship begin
}}
{{Infobox ship image
| Ship image = M.S "Batory". 1937-1939 (81562876) (cropped).jpg
| Ship caption = MS ''Batory'' ca 1937-1939
}}
{{Infobox ship career
| Hide header = 
| Ship country = [[Poland]]
| Ship flag = [[File:State Flag of Poland.svg|60px]]
| Ship name = ''Batory''
| Ship namesake = [[Stefan Batory|King Stefan Batory]]
| Ship owner = *[[Gdynia-America Line]] (1936–45)
*[[Ministry of War Transport]] (1945–46)
*Gdynia-America Line (1946–51)
*[[Polish Ocean Lines]] (1951–71)
| Ship operator = *[[Gdynia-America Line]] (1936–45)
*[[Lamport and Holt]] (1945–46)
*Gdynia-America Line (1946–51)
*[[Polish Ocean Lines]] (1951–71)
| Ship registry = [[Gdynia]]
| Ship ordered = 29 November 1933
| Ship builder = [[Cantieri Riuniti dell'Adriatico]], [[Monfalcone]]
| Ship original cost = 
| Ship yard number = 1127
| Ship laid down = 1 May 1934
| Ship launched = 3 July 1935
| Ship completed = 
| Ship acquired = 23 April 1936
| Ship in service = 1936
| Ship out of service = 1 July 1969
| Ship identification = *[[Maritime call sign|call sign]] SPEE (1936–45)
*{{ICS|Sierra}}{{ICS|Papa}}{{ICS|Echo}}{{ICS|Echo}}
*call sign GJNV (1945–46)
*{{ICS|Golf}}{{ICS|Juliet}}{{ICS|November}}{{ICS|Victor}}
*UK [[official number]] 180583 (1945–46)
*{{IMO Number|5038088}}
| Ship nickname = ''Lucky Ship''
| Ship fate = Became a hotel ship in Gdynia, 1969. Sold back to Polish Ocean Lines in 1970, scrapped between 1971 and 1972 in Hong Kong.
| Ship maiden voyage = 18 May 1936
}}
{{Infobox ship characteristics
| Ship type = [[Ocean liner]]
| Ship tonnage = *{{GRT|14287}}
*{{NRT|8167}}
| Ship length = 160.4 m (526.25 ft)
| Ship beam = 21.6 m (70.87 ft)
| Ship height = 
| Ship draught = 7.5 m (24.6 ft)
| Ship decks = 4 + 3 in superstructure
| Ship power = two [[Sulzer (manufacturer)|Sulzer]] 2SSA 9-cylinder [[diesel engine]]s, 12 680 [[Horsepower|hp]] (12 500 hp from April 1947)
| Ship propulsion = 2 propellers
| Ship speed = {{convert|18|kn|km/h}}
| Ship capacity = *to March 1940: 760
*from March 1940: 1650 troops
*from February 1941: 2200 troops
*from April 1947: 832
*from May 1957: 816
*from June 1969: 600
| Ship crew = *to December 1939: 313
*from April 1947: 343
| Ship nickname = ''Lucky Ship''
}}
|}
'''MS ''Batory''''' was a Polish [[ocean liner]] which was the flagship of [[Gdynia America Line|Gdynia-America Line]], named after [[Stefan Batory]], the sixteenth-century [[King of Poland]]. She was the sister ship of {{MS|Piłsudski}}. After Allied wartime service, mainly under the UK [[British Admiralty|Admiralty]], she became in 1951 the flagship of the [[Polish Ocean Lines]] and the Polish merchant fleet. She is often described as the "''Pride of the [[Polish Merchant Marine]]''". ''Batory'' along with her sister ''Piłsudski'' were the two most popular ocean liners of Poland.

==History==
===Construction===
[[Gdynia America Line]] (Gdynia–Ameryka Linie Żeglugowe, GAL), a Polish-Danish partnership based in [[Gdynia]], was formed in 1934 as successor to ''Polskie Transatlantyckie Towarzystwo Okrętowe'' (PTTO), an enterprise originally dedicated to transporting Polish migrants to the [[United States|USA]]. It changed its focus to leisure travel and for that purpose decided to commission a new vessel. ''Batory'' was built in 1934–5 at the [[Cantieri Riuniti dell'Adriatico]] [[Monfalcone]] shipyard in [[Trieste]], Italy,<ref>{{cite book |url= https://plimsoll.southampton.gov.uk/shipdata/pdfs/45/45a0140.pdf |year=1945 |title=Lloyd's Register, Steamers and Motor Ships |place=London |publisher=[[Lloyd's Register]] |access-date=13 October 2020}}</ref> under an arrangement where part of the commission was paid in shipments of coal from [[Poland]].

She was among the best-known Polish ships of all time. She was launched on 3 July 1935. She was powered by two [[Sulzer ZG9|Sulzer]] diesel engines driving two screws giving a speed of {{convert|18|kn|km/h}}. She began regular service in May 1936 on the [[Gdynia]] — New York run, and by 1939 had carried over 3,000 passengers.

===World War II===
[[File:HMS Batory FL1582.jpg|220px|left|thumb|''Batory'' in WWII]]
Mobilized at the outbreak of [[World War II]], she served as a [[Troopship|troop ship]] and a [[hospital ship]] by the Allied Navy for the rest of the war. In 1940 she, along with {{MS|Chrobry||2}}, transported allied troops during the [[Norwegian campaign]]. She was also one of the last ships to leave St Jean de Luz during the [[Evacuation_of_the_Polish_Army_from_Saint-Jean-de-Luz|final evacuation of Polish troops from France]]. She was also used for secretly shipping many [[Wawel Treasures|valuable Polish treasures]] to Canada for safekeeping. She participated in the evacuation of [[Dunkirk]] late May early June, taking aboard 2,500 people. Later she carried as many as 6,000 people in one evacuation. In June to July, she secretly transported much of the UK's gold reserves (£40 million) from [[Greenock]], Scotland to [[Montreal, Canada|Montreal]], Canada for safekeeping ([[Operation Fish]]). On 5 August 1940 she left Liverpool with convoy WS 2 (Winston's Specials) evacuating 477 children to Sydney, Australia, under the [[Children's Overseas Reception Board]] until the war was over.<ref>{{Citation |last=Jones |first=Helen |title=Doris Anne Beeston (1897–1940) |url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/beeston-doris-anne-9470 |work=Australian Dictionary of Biography |access-date=2023-11-13 |place=Canberra |publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University |language=en}}</ref> She sailed via Cape Town, India, Singapore to where she had carried 300 troops and Sydney. The journey had been a happy one, with so much music and laughter that the ''Batory'' was dubbed the ''"Singing Ship"'' and was the subject of a book of the same name.<ref>{{cite book |last=Maclean |first=Meta |year=1941 |title=The singing ship: an odyssey of evacuee children |place=Sydney |publisher=Angus and Robertson}}</ref> In April 1942 British writer [[Roald Dahl]] boarded the ''Batory'', bound for [[Halifax, Nova Scotia|Halifax]], [[Canada]].

She was involved in the allied invasion of [[Oran]], Algeria in 1942 ([[Operation Torch]]). That same year she took troops to India and later took part in the [[Allied invasion of Sicily]] and southern France ([[Operation Dragoon]]), where she was the flagship of General [[Jean de Lattre de Tassigny]], Commander-in-Chief of the [[French Army]]. She came under attack several times from the ground and the air, but managed to escape serious damage.

Dubbed the ''Lucky Ship'' for her military career during World War II, she was a [[sister ship]] to the less fortunate {{MS|Piłsudski||2}} which sank in November 1939 off the east coast of Scotland.

===Postwar career===
Returned to [[Provisional Government of National Unity|post-war Poland]] in 1946, she resumed civilian service after a refit, transporting such eminent people as [[Ryszard Kapuściński]]. From May 1949 through to January 1951, she was the subject of several political incidents in which American dockers and shipyard workers in the United States refused to unload her cargo, or to service the ship.

After these incidents, she was withdrawn from the North Atlantic route, refurbished at [[Hebburn]] for service in the tropics, and sailed in August 1951 from Gdynia and [[Southampton]] to [[Bombay]] and [[Karachi]], via [[Gibraltar]], [[Malta]], [[Aden]], and [[Suez]]. In 1957, she returned to the North Atlantic run. She continued in service until 1969, when she was decommissioned and became a floating hotel in Gdynia. However, after about a year, she was sold back to Polish Ocean Lines, and from there she was sold for scrap to [[Hong Kong]]. She left Gdynia on 31 March 1971 and arrived to the scrapyard on 26 May. On 2 June, the Polish flag was lowered and the scrapping process began. The ship had been scrapped completely by 1972.

She was replaced by a larger vessel {{ship|TSS|Stefan Batory||2}}, which operated from April 1969 until 1988.

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:MS Batory 1937.jpg|''Batory'' in [[Gdynia]], 1937
File:BatoryNewYork.jpg|''Batory'' arriving in [[New York City]]
File:Batory~1962.jpg|''Batory'' in 1962
File:MS-Batory.jpg|Unloading in Gdynia wharf, 1960s
File:Gdynia Muzeum Miasta (2007) 10.jpg|A scale model of ''Batory'' in [[Gdynia]], 2007
File:Batory zespol pradotworczy.jpg|''Batory'''s saved electrical generator in [[National Maritime Museum, Gdańsk]]
File:BatoryPostcard.jpg|''Batory'' postcard 
File:Batory in 1965.jpg|''Batory'' in 1965
File:Batory 1965 02.jpg|''Batory'' in 1965
</gallery>

==Citations==
{{reflist}}

==References==
*{{cite book |year=1971 |title=ts/s Stefan Batory |place=Gdynia |publisher=Polish Ocean Lines }}
*{{cite book |last1=Mitchell |first1=WH |last2=Sawyer |first2=LA |year=1967 |title=Cruising Ships |place=New York |publisher=Doubleday }}

==Further reading==
*{{cite book |last=Swoger |first=Gordon |year=2004 |title=The Strange Odyssey of Poland's National Treasures, 1939–1961: A Polish-Canadian Story |place=Toronto |publisher=Dundurn Press }}

==External links==
*[http://stefanbatoryoceanliner.weebly.com/predecessors.html '''Peter Wieslaw Grajda:''' M/S BATORY, the Polish Ocean Liner - History & Photographs]
*[http://www.derbysulzers.com/shipbatory.html History of M/S Pilsudski and M/S Batory]
*[http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f244/Rheghead/National%20Service%20Royal%20Signals%20Suez%20Canal%20Zone/batory1953fl.jpg A photo of MS Batory at Suez Canal Zone 1953]
*[http://stefanbatoryoceanliner.weebly.com/predecessors.html M/S Batory, the Polish Ocean Liner - History & Photographs]
{{commons category|Batory (ship, 1936)}}
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{{Cantieri Riuniti dell'Adriatico}}{{Museum ships in Poland}}{{Gdynia America Line}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Batory}}
[[Category:Passenger ships of Poland]]
[[Category:Ocean liners]]
[[Category:Cruise ships]]
[[Category:Ships built in Monfalcone]]
[[Category:Ships built by Cantieri Riuniti dell'Adriatico]]
[[Category:1935 ships]]
[[Category:Ships of the Gdynia-America Line]]