Monday, May 11, 2015

by the Messageries Maritimes to Egypt, Syria and Lebanon, 1951


The Champollion was launched in 1924.

In 1946 she was used as an emigrant ship for Jews from Marseille to Palestine with nearly 1,000 passengers including more than 700 Jewish children. The next year the Champollion was used as a troop transport between Marseille and Indochina and continued being so used to 1950.

A rebuild in 1950-51 saw the removal of two of the hitherto three funnels. The Champollion foundered and broke in two on 22 December 1952 on the reefs of Khaldeh beach, south of Beirut. The accident was due to a navigational error; the watch officer having confused the newly installed airport lighthouse with that of Beirut. The disaster saw seventeen dead, drowned, killed or asphyxiated against the breakers in fuel oil. The ship was thus removed from service.

Length: 156.70 metres then 168.05 metres after 1934;
Breadth: 19.2 metres;
Propulsion: 2 triple expansion steam engines heated with oil, reinforced with two Maier Wach turbines after 1935.

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