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MS Gripsholm
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Two Swedish passenger vessels were named MS Gripsholm. The first was an ocean liner, while the second was a cruise ship
The first MS Gripsholm was the first motor ocean liner built for the trans-Atlantic trade.
She was built in 1925 at Newcastle for the Swedish America Line (SAL), and on 1 February 1927 made a first cruise, from Göteborg to the Mediterranean.
From 1942 to 1946, the United States Department of State chartered Gripsholm as an exchange and repatriation ship, carrying Japanese and German nationals to exchange points where she then picked up Americans to bring home. In this service she sailed under the auspices of the International Red Cross, with a Swedish captain and crew. The ship made 12 round trips, carrying a total of 27,712 reptriates. Exchanges took place at neutral ports; at Lourenco Marques in Mozambique or Mormugoa 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.
The Swedish American Line sold Gripsholm to Norddeutscher Lloyd in 1954, who renamed her to Berlin. The ship was sold for scrap in 1966.
A second MS Gripsholm, sometimes seen as Gripsholm (II), was built by Ansaldo in Genoa, Italy, launched 8 April 1956 and delivered to SAL in 1957.
In 1975 she was sold to the Karageorgis Lines, who named her Navarino and used her on Mediterranean routes until 1981, when she was damaged in a grounding off Patmos.
After some repair difficulties, in 1984 the vessel became the first ship of the newly-formed Regency Cruises, and was named Regent Sea. In 1995, Regency went bankrupt, and Regent Sea was auctioned off to United States American Cruise Line, who started on a conversion to a casino ship, but which was never completed due to bankruptcy of the new owner.
In early 2001 the ship was sold for scrap and began a journey under tow to breakers in India. A Swedish plan to turn her into a floating hotel in Stockholm ran into resistance from residents, and in the meantime (June) the ship was looted by pirates while at Dakar. On 12 July of the same year, the hulk sank in heavy seas off Algoa Bay in South Africa.