EL KANTARA

[shipstamps]

Built as a cargo-passenger vessel under yard No 119 by Messageries Maritimes, La Ciotat for Messageries Maritimes at Marseille.
09 April 1904 launched under the name El KANTARA.
Tonnage 6.888 gross, 4.427 net, dim. 447.2 (bpp) x 52.6 x 32.6ft.
Two triple expansion reciprocating steam-engines 545 nhp., twin screws, speed 13 knots.
Passenger accommodation for 94 passengers in two classes and 1200 troops.
March 1905 delivered to owners.

1919 Inauguration of the round the world service by Messageries Maritimes, by the El KANTARA, she was also the first French to pass the Panama Canal.
1922 Sold to Soc. Des Services Contractuels des Messageries Maritimes, Marseilles.
Later put in the service between Marseilles, Cristobal, Papeete, Port Villa and Noumea, her first sailing in this service was on 17 July 1923.
January 1927 sold to a local shipbreaker in Dunkerque, while laid up there, and she was scrapped there 2nd quarter 1927.

On Gibraltar 1931 1d/3d sg 110/113. 1938 1d/1½d sg 122b, 123 and 123b.
New Caledonia 1973 60f sg 516, scott C99.

Source: Register of Merchant Ships Completed in 1905. Historical Sketches of watercraft on Stamps, and some web-sites.

[aukepalmhof]

Phote of El KANTARA.
New Caledonia 2015 35f sg?, scott? http://www.shipstamps.co.uk/forum/viewt ... =2&t=14898

[FrenchShips]

French Polynesia Issued on 23 May 2023