MARECHAL JOFFRE passenger ship

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aukepalmhof
Posts: 7771
Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2009 1:28 am

MARECHAL JOFFRE passenger ship

Post by aukepalmhof » Sun Jul 16, 2017 9:32 pm

Built as a passenger-cargo vessel under yard no 156 by Soc. Provencale de Cnst. Nav. at La Ciotat, France for Soc. des Services Contratuels des Messageries Maritimes., Marseilles.
14 May 1931 launched as the MARECHAL JOFFRE one sister the JEAN LABORDE.
Tonnage 11,732 gross, dim. 150.9 x 19.50 x 12.34m. length bpp. 124.9
Passenger accommodation for ?
Powered by two 10-cyl. oil engines, manufactured by Schneider & Cie at Le Creuset, 1307 nhp, twin shafts, speed 17 knots.
February 1933 completed, homeport Marseilles.

She was built for the service between France and India Ocean and Far East.
03 March 1933 sailed on her maiden voyage from Marseilles in this service.
30 March 1939 in collision with the P&O steamer CANTON in Hong Kong but can be repaired in Hong Kong.
When World War II broke out she was at Saigon in April 1940, and she stayed there used in the regional services there of the company. Used in this services until 07 December 1941when after the attack on Pearl Harbour she was requisitioned in Manilla by the Free France Government.
Manned by Vichy French Forces after the fall of France in 1940, MARECHAL JOFFRE was in the Philippines when the United States entered World War II. She was taken over by a crew of downed US Navy fliers from Patrol Wing 10 and with the help of some of the French sailors who were not supportive of the Vichy government sailed on the 18th for Balikpapan, whence she proceeded to Australia, New Zealand, and the United States. She arrived at San Francisco with a cargo of wool and zircon sand on 19 April 1942.

US Navy use
The following day, she was taken over by the United States Maritime Commission and transferred to the Navy. Commissioned 27 April 1942 with Lieutenant Thomas G. Warfield in command, she was renamed ROCHAMBEAU and designated AP-63 on the 29th.
She was the only U.S. Naval vessel to be named for the French nobleman, Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau (1725–1807), who commanded the French troops in Washington's army during the American Revolutionary War
After conversion displacement 14,242 tons, with a crew of 381 officers and enlisted men. Armed with 1 single 5”/38 dual purpose gun mount, 4 – single 3 inch dual purpose gun mounts and 8 – 1.1”/75 caliber replaces with 8 – single 20mm gun mounts.

ROCHAMBEAU, converted for use as a casualty evacuation ship, departed Oakland, California on 20 October for her first operation, under the U.S. flag. With replacements and reinforcements for the Guadalcanal campaign embarked on her westward passage, she made Nouméa; disembarked her passengers; replaced them with casualties from hospitals there, at Suva, and at Bora Bora; and returned to San Francisco on 3 December. At the end of December, she sailed west again. Extending her range to New Zealand and Australia on that voyage, she limited her next run, 9 to 27 March, to New Caledonia and the New Hebrides. On that trip she carried Lieutenant (j.g.) John F. Kennedy to Espiritu Santo where he was transferred to LST-449 and taken to the Solomons. During May, ROCHAMBEAU remained in waters off California, then, on 5 June, resumed her passenger/casualty runs to the south and southwest Pacific. Continuing those runs well into 1944, she added ports in New Guinea to her stops in September 1943 and the central Solomons in the spring of 1944. On her last run, 16 November 1944 – 17 January 1945 she brought back casualties from hospitals on Eniwetok, Guam, and Kwajalein in the company of the USS BARROW and USS BOYD.
Decommissioning
On 9 February, ROCHAMBEAU headed for New York City. Arriving on the 25th, she was decommissioned and transferred to the U.S. Maritime Commission's War Shipping Administration (WSA) on 17 March. Her name was struck from the Naval Vessel Register at the end of the month. Then returned to French custody, she resumed the name MARECHAL JOFFRE and, operating for WSA, was used to transport American troops from Europe to the United States. She made three transatlantic round voyages during the second half of 1945.
She served as troopship for the French Army till March 1950, and after refurbishing at La Ciotat between March 1950 till September 1951, used first as a liner on the Indian Ocean, when the CHAMPOLLION was wrecked used in the Mediterranean line from 1953, then used in the Indian Ocean and Far East line; 03 February 1957 she got engine trouble and had to be towed to Dakar. Her last days she was used in the North Africa services and carried many troops from France to the trouble spots in North Africa.
15 January 1960 she arrived at Osaka. Japan and was scrapped there by Rinko Seitetsu.

France 2017 20gr letter, sg?, scott? The stamp shows her after she was built, while the photo shows her after her refurbishment in 1951.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Rochambeau_(AP-63) http://www.miramarshipindex.nz http://www.shipspotting.com/gallery/pho ... id=1385823
Attachments
marechal joffre.jpg
2017 marechal.jpg

D. v. Nieuwenhuijzen
Posts: 871
Joined: Fri Sep 24, 2010 7:46 pm

Re: MARECHAL JOFFRE passenger ship

Post by D. v. Nieuwenhuijzen » Fri Sep 29, 2017 6:50 pm

Passengers 1st class:138, 2nd class:92, 3rd class:76, steerage:592.
September 1951 after refit Gt:11,680, only 1 funnel, Passengers 1st class:129, 2nd class:130.
(Great Passenger Ships of the World 3)
Attachments
marechal joffre f.jpg
marechal joffre f 2.jpg

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