LAFAYETTE passenger vessel 1930

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aukepalmhof
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LAFAYETTE passenger vessel 1930

Post by aukepalmhof » Wed Jul 19, 2017 8:33 pm

Built as a passenger-cargo vessel under yard no J6 by Chantiers & Ateliers de St Nazaire (Penhoet), St Nazaire for Cie Generale Transatlantique, Le Havre.
09 May 1929 launched as the LAFAYETTE.
Tonnage 25,187 gross, 6,384 dwt, dim. 184.0 x 23.6 x 9.2m (draught, length bpp.175.9m.
Powered by four MAN diesel engines, 18,500 ihp, four shafts, speed 18 knots.
Passenger accommodation for 591 cabin, 334 tourists and 142 in 3rd class.
March 1930 completed, homeport Le Havre.

She was built for the service between France and New York. She was the first diesel powered liner for the company.
17 May 1930 she sailed from Le Havre for her maiden voyage via Plymouth to New York.
She makes also cruise voyages to Bermuda, Caribbean and Spitsbergen.
1932 She carried the French Olympic Team to the games in Los Angeles.

31 August 1936 in a position about 25 miles above Father Point in the St Lawrence River, Canada at about five o’clock in the morning during fog she collided with the Canadian steamer BENMAPLE in which the BENMAPLE sank with the loss of one man, Jack Dickey.
The LAFAYETTE was lightly damaged in the collision.

04 May 1938 when at dry-dock at Le Havre at about 09.00 am when an auxiliary boiler was fired up a fire started in the boiler room. Immediately the crew of the ship tried to extinguish the fire, firefighters from shore arrived but the fire spread to the passenger accommodation, where the fire was fuelled by all the woodwork in the cabins the fire could not more be extinguished. When at 11.00 pm a large flame appeared near the funnel and the fire became so intense that the firefighters had to evacuate the ship. Then many explosions occur and the ship was on fire from bow to stern. The firefighting vessels preventing the surrounding got on fire. The next morning the wreck was still smouldering.
06 May in the afternoon the fire is extinguished. 26 May she is towed to a dock and after inspection she was declared a total loss. One charred body was found in the ship which never was identified.
10 June 1938 she left under tow Le Havre for a shipbreaker in Rotterdam where she was scrapped.

France 2017 20gr letter sg?, scott?
Source: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lafayette_(paquebot) http://www.miramarshipindex.nz North Atlantic Seaway Vol 2 by N.R.P. Bonsor
Attachments
lafayette 2.jpg
2017 lafayette 3.jpg

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