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MS ''Batory'' was a Polish
ocean liner An ocean liner is a passenger ship primarily used as a form of transportation across seas or oceans. Ocean liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes (such as for pleasure cruises or as hospital ships). C ...
which was the flagship of
Gdynia-America Line ''Gdynia-America Shipping Lines S.A.'' (Gdynia America Line - GAL) was a Polish- Danish joint stock company based in Gdynia, established in 1930 under the name of the ''Polish Transatlantic Shipping Company Limited'' (PTTO) in order to mark the ...
, named after
Stefan Batory Stefan may refer to: * Stefan (given name) * Stefan (surname) * Ștefan, a Romanian given name and a surname * Štefan, a Slavic given name and surname * Stefan (footballer) (born 1988), Brazilian footballer * Stefan Heym, pseudonym of German writ ...
, the sixteenth-century
king of Poland Poland was ruled at various times either by dukes and princes (10th to 14th centuries) or by kings (11th to 18th centuries). During the latter period, a tradition of free election of monarchs made it a uniquely electable position in Europe (16t ...
. She was the sister ship of . After Allied wartime service, mainly under the UK Admiralty, she became in 1951 the flagship of the
Polish Ocean Lines Polish Ocean Lines (PLO, pl, Polskie Linie Oceaniczne) is a Polish commercial shipping company, with headquarters in Gdynia. The company was created in 1951 in a merger of three smaller shipping companies. Currently, PLO acts as a holding compan ...
and the Polish merchant fleet. She is often described as the "''Pride of the Polish Merchant Marine''". ''Batory'' along with her sister ''Piłsudski'' were the two most popular ocean liners of Poland.


History


Construction

Gdynia America Line (Gdynia–Ameryka Linie Żeglugowe, GAL), a Polish-Danish partnership based in
Gdynia Gdynia ( ; ; german: Gdingen (currently), (1939–1945); csb, Gdiniô, , , ) is a city in northern Poland and a seaport on the Baltic Sea coast. With a population of 243,918, it is the 12th-largest city in Poland and the second-largest in th ...
, was formed in 1934 as successor to ''Polskie Transatlantyckie Towarzystwo Okrętowe'' (PTTO), an enterprise originally dedicated to transporting Polish migrants to the
USA The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territor ...
. It changed its focus to leisure travel and for that purpose decided to commission a new vessel. ''Batory'' was built in 1934–5 at the
Cantieri Riuniti dell'Adriatico Cantieri Riuniti dell'Adriatico ("United Shipbuilders of the Adriatic") was an Italian manufacturer in the sea and air industry which was active from 1930 to 1966. This shipyard is now owned by Fincantieri. History In 1930, Stabilimento Tecnic ...
Monfalcone Monfalcone (; Bisiacco: ; fur, Monfalcon; sl, Tržič; archaic german: Falkenberg) is a town and ''comune'' of the province of Gorizia in Friuli Venezia Giulia, northern Italy, located on the Gulf of Trieste. Monfalcone means 'falcon mountain ...
shipyard in
Trieste Trieste ( , ; sl, Trst ; german: Triest ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital city, and largest city, of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, one of two autonomous regions which are not subdivided into pr ...
, Italy, under an arrangement where part of the commission was paid in shipments of coal from
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is divided into Voivodeships of Poland, sixteen voivodeships and is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union (EU), with over 38 mill ...
. She was among the best-known Polish ships of all time. She was launched on 3 July 1935. She was powered by two Sulzer diesel engines driving two screws giving a speed of . She began regular service in May 1936 on the
Gdynia Gdynia ( ; ; german: Gdingen (currently), (1939–1945); csb, Gdiniô, , , ) is a city in northern Poland and a seaport on the Baltic Sea coast. With a population of 243,918, it is the 12th-largest city in Poland and the second-largest in th ...
— New York run, and by 1939 had carried over 3,000 passengers.


World War II

Mobilized at the outbreak of
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
, she served as a
troop ship A troopship (also troop ship or troop transport or trooper) is a ship used to carry soldiers, either in peacetime or wartime. Troopships were often drafted from commercial shipping fleets, and were unable land troops directly on shore, typicall ...
and a
hospital ship A hospital ship is a ship designated for primary function as a floating medical treatment facility or hospital. Most are operated by the military forces (mostly navies) of various countries, as they are intended to be used in or near war zones. ...
by the Allied Navy for the rest of the war. In 1940 she, along with , transported allied troops to Norway. She was also one of the last ships to leave St Jean de Luz during the final evacuation of Polish troops from France. She was also used for secretly shipping many valuable Polish treasures to Canada for safekeeping. She participated in the evacuation of
Dunkirk Dunkirk (french: Dunkerque ; vls, label= French Flemish, Duunkerke; nl, Duinkerke(n) ; , ;) is a commune in the department of Nord in northern France.Greenock Greenock (; sco, Greenock; gd, Grianaig, ) is a town and administrative centre in the Inverclyde council area in Scotland, United Kingdom and a former burgh within the historic county of Renfrewshire, located in the west central Lowlands of ...
, Scotland to
Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...
, Canada for safekeeping. On 5 August 1940 she left Liverpool with convoy WS 2 (Winston's Specials) evacuating 477 children to Sydney, Australia, under the
Children's Overseas Reception Board The Children's Overseas Reception Board (CORB) was a British government sponsored organisation. The CORB evacuated 2,664 British children from England, so that they would escape the imminent threat of German invasion and the risk of enemy bomb ...
until the war was over. She sailed via Cape Town, India, Singapore to where she had carried 300 troops and Sydney. The journey had been a happy one, with so much music and laughter that the ''Batory'' was dubbed the ''"Singing Ship"'' and was the subject of a book of the same name. In April 1942 British writer
Roald Dahl Roald Dahl (13 September 1916 – 23 November 1990) was a British novelist, short-story writer, poet, screenwriter, and wartime fighter ace of Norwegian descent. His books have sold more than 250 million copies worldwide. Dahl has b ...
boarded the ''Batory'', bound for Halifax,
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...
. She was involved in the allied invasion of Oran, Algeria in 1942. That same year she took troops to India and took part in the occupation of
Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...
and southern France, where she was the flagship of General
Jean de Lattre de Tassigny Jean Joseph Marie Gabriel de Lattre de Tassigny (2 February 1889 – 11 January 1952) was a French général d'armée during World War II and the First Indochina War. He was posthumously elevated to the dignity of Marshal of France in 1952. As ...
, Commander-in-Chief of the
French Army The French Army, officially known as the Land Army (french: Armée de Terre, ), is the land-based and largest component of the French Armed Forces. It is responsible to the Government of France, along with the other components of the Armed Force ...
. She came under attack several times from the ground and the air, but managed to escape serious damage. Dubbed the ''Lucky Ship'' for her military career during World War II, she was a
sister ship A sister ship is a ship of the same class or of virtually identical design to another ship. Such vessels share a nearly identical hull and superstructure layout, similar size, and roughly comparable features and equipment. They often share a ...
to the less fortunate which sank in November 1939 off the east coast of Scotland.


Postwar career

Returned to post-war Poland in 1946, she resumed civilian service after a refit, transporting such eminent people as
Ryszard Kapuściński Ryszard Kapuściński (; 4 March 1932 – 23 January 2007) was a Polish journalist, photographer, poet and author. He received many awards and was considered a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Kapuściński's personal journals in bo ...
. From May 1949 through to January 1951, she was the subject of several political incidents in which American dockers and shipyard workers in the United States refused to unload her cargo, or to service the ship. After these incidents, she was withdrawn from the North Atlantic route, refurbished at
Hebburn Hebburn is a town in the metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear, England. It governed under the borough of South Tyneside; formerly governed under the county of Durham until 1974 with its own urban district from 1894 until 1974. It is on the sou ...
for service in the tropics, and sailed in August 1951 from Gdynia and
Southampton Southampton () is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire, S ...
to
Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the '' de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the sec ...
and
Karachi Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former ...
, via Gibraltar,
Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...
, Aden, and
Suez Suez ( ar, السويس '; ) is a seaport city (population of about 750,000 ) in north-eastern Egypt, located on the north coast of the Gulf of Suez (a branch of the Red Sea), near the southern terminus of the Suez Canal, having the same b ...
. In 1957, she returned to the North Atlantic run. She continued in service until 1969, when she was decommissioned and became a floating hotel in Gdynia. However, after about a year, she was sold back to Polish Ocean Lines, and from there she was sold for scrap to
Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...
. She left Gdynia on 31 March 1971 and arrived to the scrapyard on 26 May. On 2 June, the Polish flag was lowered and the scrapping process began. The ship had been scrapped completely by 1972. She was replaced by a larger vessel , which operated from April 1969 until 1988.


Gallery

File:MS Batory 1937.jpg, ''Batory'' in
Gdynia Gdynia ( ; ; german: Gdingen (currently), (1939–1945); csb, Gdiniô, , , ) is a city in northern Poland and a seaport on the Baltic Sea coast. With a population of 243,918, it is the 12th-largest city in Poland and the second-largest in th ...
, 1937 File:BatoryNewYork.jpg, ''Batory'' arriving in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...
File:Batory~1962.jpg, ''Batory'' in 1962 File:MS-Batory.jpg, Unloading in Gdynia wharf, 1960s File:Gdynia Muzeum Miasta (2007) 10.jpg, A scale model of ''Batory'' in
Gdynia Gdynia ( ; ; german: Gdingen (currently), (1939–1945); csb, Gdiniô, , , ) is a city in northern Poland and a seaport on the Baltic Sea coast. With a population of 243,918, it is the 12th-largest city in Poland and the second-largest in th ...
, 2007 File:Batory zespol pradotworczy.jpg, One of the engines of the ship, taken out before scrapping File:BatoryPostcard.jpg, ''Batory'' postcard File:Batory in 1965.jpg, ''Batory'' in 1965 File:Batory 1965 02.jpg, ''Batory'' in 1965


References

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Further reading

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External links


Peter Wieslaw Grajda: M/S BATORY, the Polish Ocean Liner - History & PhotographsA photo of MS Batory at Suez Canal Zone 1953
{{DEFAULTSORT:Batory Passenger ships of Poland Ocean liners Cruise ships Ships built in Monfalcone Ships built by Cantieri Riuniti dell'Adriatico 1935 ships Ships of the Gdynia-America Line