MS Sobieski
MS Sobieski was a Polish passenger ship launched in 1939. It was constructed for the South American service of the Gdynia-America Line – GAL to replace the aging SS Kościuszko and SS Pulaski. She was named in honour of the Polish king Jan III Sobieski. Sobieski was to be a sister ship to the MS Chrobry.[2]
 HMS Sobieski in wartime service | |
| History | |
|---|---|
| Name | Sobieski |
| Owner | Gdynia-America Line – GAL |
| Port of registry | 1950–1975: Odessa,  Soviet Union |
| Route | South America service |
| Builder | Swan, Hunter and Wigham Richardson, Wallsend. |
| Launched | 25 August 1938 |
| Completed | 15 June 1939 |
| Maiden voyage | 15 June 1939 |
| Out of service | 1939 taken up as troopship |
| Identification |
|
| Fate | 1975 scrapped at La Spezia |
| Notes |
|
| General characteristics | |
| Tonnage | 11,030 GRT |
| Length | 155.85 m (511 ft 4 in) |
| Beam | 20.41 m (67 ft 0 in) |
| Draft | 8.30 m (27 ft 3 in) |
| Installed power | Engines by J. G. Kincaid & Co, Greenock |
| Propulsion |
|
| Speed | 17 knots (31 km/h) |
| Capacity | 44 first-class, 250 third-class and 850 emigrants |
| Notes | [1] |
Maiden Voyage
Sobieski only managed one journey before the war, arriving in Buenos Aires on the 10th of July 1939.[3]
Wartime Service
The ship was used as a troopship in the Allied evacuation of western France in 1940 (Operation Aerial), where she was one of the last ships to leave St Jean de Luz during the final evacuation of Polish troops from France, and in the Battle of Dakar. During Operation Streamline Jane, the invasion of Madagascar, in May, 1942, Sobieski was the flag ship.[4]
She was also used to transport the British 18th Division to the defence of Singapore.
Post-War
At the end of the war she repatriated the remnants of that division's Cambridgeshire Regiment that had survived captivity at the hands of the Japanese in Malaya and Thailand. She also returned former Changi prisoners of war (POWs) from Singapore, sailing via Cape Town and docking at Liverpool during a dockworkers' strike. Disgusted, dismayed ex-POWs had to unload their own baggage, such as it was.
Between 1947-1950, Sobieski sailed on the Genoa – Halifax – New York route, under the Polish flag.[5]
The vessel was sold to Russia in 1950 and renamed Gruziya and scrapped in Italy in 1975.
Pictures
Duke of Wellington's Regiment aboard Sobieski on route to Norway, 20 April 1940
Gruziya, the former Sobieski, in Helsinki
References
- "Ship Descriptions - S". Archived from the original on 9 June 2010. Retrieved 19 December 2010.
- "Swan, Hunter and Wigham Richardson". Gracesguide.co.uk. Retrieved 10 July 2015.
- "Passenger list for MS Chrobry". Retrieved 14 September 2020.
- "The History Of The Gdynia America Shipping Lines Co. Ltd". Retrieved 11 September 2020.
- "Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21". Retrieved 16 September 2020.
