imported>Parsecboy: avoid redirect

2025-04-19T09:34:14Z

avoid redirect

New page

{{Short description|Ocean liner (1931–1940)}}
{{about|the ocean liner|other ships|Champlain (disambiguation)}}
{{More footnotes needed|date=February 2012}}
{|{{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image
|Ship image= File:Paquebot Champlain.jpg
|Ship caption=
}}
{{Infobox ship career
|Hide header=
|Ship country=[[France]]
|Ship flag={{shipboxflag|France|civil}}
|Ship name= SS ''Champlain''
|Ship ordered=
|Ship builder=[[Ateliers et Chantiers de la Loire]]<ref>{{cite web|title=Liner Champlain|url=http://www.frenchlines.com/ship_en_91.php|publisher=French Lines Association|accessdate=6 February 2012}}</ref>
|Ship original cost=
|Ship laid down=
|Ship launched= 15 June 1931
|Ship completed= June 1932
|Ship maiden voyage= June 1932
|Ship yard number= Y6
|Ship acquired=
|Ship commissioned=
|Ship decommissioned=
|Ship in service= June 1932
|Ship out of service= 17 June 1940
|Ship owner= [[Compagnie Générale Transatlantique]]
|Ship operator= [[Compagnie Générale Transatlantique|French Line]]
|Ship registry=
|Ship renamed=
|Ship struck=
|Ship reinstated=
|Ship honours=
|Ship captured=
|Ship fate=*Struck an air-laid mine on 17 June 1940
*Later torpedoed
|Ship identification=
|Ship notes=
}}
{{Infobox ship characteristics
|Hide header=
|Header caption=
|Ship class=
|Ship tonnage= 28,124 [[Gross Register Tons|GRT]]
|Ship displacement=
|Ship length= {{convert|641|ft|m|2|abbr=on}}
|Ship beam= {{convert|82|ft|m|2|abbr=on}}
|Ship depth=
|Ship hold depth=
|Ship propulsion=*[[Steam turbine]]s
*oil{{Citation needed|date=November 2007}} 
|Ship sail plan=
|Ship complement=
|Ship armament=
|Ship speed=*{{convert|19|kn|mph km/h|lk=in}} cruising speed
*{{convert|21|kn|mph km/h|lk=in}} maximum
|Ship notes=
|Ship capacity=*623 (cabin class)
*308 (tourist class)
*122 (third class)
}}
|}
'''SS ''Champlain''''' was a cabin class [[ocean liner]] built in 1932 for the [[Compagnie Générale Transatlantique|French Line]] by Chantiers et Ateliers de Saint-Nazaire, Penhoët.  She was sunk by a mine off La Pallice, France,  in 1940—one of the earliest [[passenger ship]] losses of the [[World War II|Second World War]].

Although not as well remembered as her larger fleetmates, the ''Champlain'' was the first modern ocean liner and embodied many design features later incorporated into the French Line's [[SS Normandie|SS ''Normandie.'']]  Her interiors were designed by [[René Prou]] who decorated spaces on several earlier French Line ships, including the cabin [[Ship|motorship]] {{Interlanguage link multi|MS Lafayette (1930)|fr|3=Lafayette (paquebot)|lt=MS ''Lafayette''}}. When she made her début in June 1932, the ''Champlain'' was the largest, fastest, and most luxurious cabin class liner afloat.

At the outbreak of the Second World War, the ''Champlain'' was pressed into evacuee work, transporting [[refugee]]s from Europe to the safety of [[North America]]. This included many European [[Ashkenazi Jews|Jews]] escaping [[Nazism|Nazi]] [[German occupied Europe|Europe]]. [[Vladimir Nabokov]] and his family were passengers on the last voyage to New York in May 1940. It was on the return trip that the ''Champlain'' met her fate. On 17 June 1940, the liner struck a German air-laid mine while swinging at anchor in the waters off [[La Pallice]], France, near [[Île de Ré]], and quickly heeled over on her side.

A few days later the [[Kriegsmarine|German]] submarine ''[[German submarine U-65 (1940)|U-65]]'' fired a [[torpedo]] into the [[Hulk (ship type)|hulk]] –– possibly to finish her off, as much of the ship lay above water level. Many sources quote a wire service report from 1940 that as many as 300 people died but this is erroneous. Although there were many injuries there were only 11 or 12 fatalities. She was one of the largest ships sunk in [[World War II]]. Her wreck lay quite visible for over twenty years and was eventually scrapped in 1965.

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
*Picture History of The French Line, by William H. Miller
*Pictorial Encyclopedia of Ocean Liners, 1860–1994, by William H. Miller
* S.S. Champlain, French Line's "Dernier Cri" in Cabin Liners; by William Tilley
* Eye-witness Account of the sinking of Champlain by Chief Purser M.J Dusser; "A Propos Du ''Champlain''; "Transat" (French Line Publication) 1963. States the number of victims was eleven and that the number on board was 350 total, many of whom were members of the French Lines Technical Department.
* New York Herald Tribune; 7/3/40; (A German report stating that "a few members of the crew drowned, but that all passengers had been saved,")

{{French Line ships}}
{{June 1940 shipwrecks}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Champlain}}
[[Category:1931 ships]]
[[Category:Ocean liners]]
[[Category:Passenger ships of France]]
[[Category:Ships built in France]]
[[Category:Ships of the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique]]
[[Category:Ships sunk by mines]]
[[Category:Maritime incidents in June 1940]]
[[Category:World War II shipwrecks in the Atlantic Ocean]]

{{ship-stub}}

SS Champlain - Revision history

imported>Parsecboy: avoid redirect