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SS Europa / SS Liberté
Sailing as the S.S. Liberté in the 1950's.
Career
Flags:	Germany 1930-1945 France 1950-1961
Owners:	Norddeutsche Lloyd (Europa) Compagnie Générale Transatlantique (Liberté)
Built:	Blohm & Voss shipyard, Hamburg, Germany
Launched:	August 1, 1928
Maiden voyage:	March 19, 1930
Fate:	Retired in 1961, scrapped in 1962.
General characteristics
Tonnage:	49,746 gross tons
Length:	936.7 ft (283.5 m)
Beam:	101.7 feet (31 m)
Power:	Four steam turbines generating 105,000 shp (78 MW)
Propulsion:	Quadruple screws
Speed:	27.5 knots
Passenger Capacity:	2,193; 860 first class, 500 second class, 305 tourist class, 617 third class
Crew:	965 total

The SS Europa (later SS Liberté) was one of a pair of fast ocean liners built in the late nineteen-twenties for the Norddeutsche Lloyd line (NDL) for the transatlantic passenger service. Her sister ship was the Bremen, and the two were very alike, though not identical (the Bremen was slightly larger, among other differences).

Europa and her sister were designed to have a cruising speed of 27.5 knots, allowing an Atlantic crossing time of 5 days. This speed enabled Norddeutsche Lloyd to run regular weekly crossings with two ships, a feat that normally required three.

The sisters were supposed to be completed at the same time, but the Europa suffered a serious fire during her fitting-out, and sank to the bottom. She was repaired and refloated, but the incident delayed her completion by several months.

During World War II she was in German hands and largely inactive. There were plans to use her as a transport in Operation Sealion, the intended invasion of Great Britain, and later conversion to an aircraft carrier. None of these plans came to pass, and in 1945, she was captured by the allies and used as a troopship. However, after it was discovered that the ship had infrastructural problems from years of neglect (defective wiring and hull cracks), she was pulled from this service.

After the war she was turned over to the French, who began to refit her for passenger service. In 1946 while being refitted, she snapped her moorings during a storm and ran into the wreck of the Paris and sank[1]. She was raised, and in 1950, made her maiden voyage under her new name, Liberté, to New York. She was laid up in 1961 and scrapped in 1962.

• List of aircraft carriers

• Ocean-Liners.com Europa page
• The Great Ocean Liners: Europa/Liberté
• Ocean Express: The story of the Bremen and Europa