SOBIESKI passenger vessel 1939.

[aukepalmhof]

Built as a passenger ship under yard No 1572 by Swan, Hunter & W. Richardson, Walker-on-Tyne for the Polish, Gdynia-America- Line.
25 August 1938 launched as the SOBIESKI, named after a former King of Poland John III Sobieski (1629-1696)
Tonnage 11,030 gross ton, 6,351 net. Dim. 155.8 x 20.5m.
Powered by two B&W diesel engines, manufactured by J.C. Kincaid & Co. Ltd. Greenock, 8,700 bhp., twin screws, speed 16 knots.
Passenger accommodation for 44 first class, 250 third, 860 steerage, crew 260.
May 1939 completed.

She was built for the Gdynia to New York service but before the war not used in this service.
15 June 1939 sailed for her maiden voyage from Gdynia for Brazil and Argentine.
September 1939 at the outbreak of war she was at Dakar.
October she was taken under Allied control and fitted out as a troopship.
She took part in the landings in Narvik, Madagaskar, Sicily, Salerno, North Africa and Normandy.
1946 She was handed back to the Gdynia-America Line.
Renovated at the Stocznia Polnocna yard in Gdansk, passenger accommodation altered to 70 first class, 270 cabin class and 600 tourist class.
14 May first voyage in the service between Genoa via Cannes to New York, she continued in this service and on her eastbound voyages made calls at Naples.
From May 1948 she made on her westbound voyages also calls at Halifax
February 1950 she made her last North Atlantic voyage from Naples, Genoa, Cannes, Halifax, New York, where after she returned via Cannes to Genoa and Naples.
.
March 1950 transferred to Sovtorgflot in the Soviet Union, renamed GRUZIYA and used in the Black Sea service from Odessa to Batum.
14 April 1975 under tow she arrived at La Spezia, Italy for demolition.

The warship on the foreground of the stamp is not identified, the sailing ship on the top left of the stamp is most probably the BOUNTY.

Pitcairn 2010 $1.80 sg?, sg?

South Atlantic Seaway and North Atlantic Seaway by N.R.P. Bonsor. Great Passengers Ships of the World, Volume 4 by Arnold Kludas. Lloyds Register.