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The North German Lloyd Line’s
Europa was launched a day earlier
than her near identical sister ship
Bremen. With the two ships
intended to enter service at the same
time, they had to be built at separate
yards, A. G. Weser of Bremen being the
builders of Bremen.
Europa’s fitting out was
nearing completion when she caught fire
at the Blohm & Voss shipyard March
25th 1929 and sunk at her berth. Although
initial assessments of the damage almost
led to Europa being declared a
total loss, an operation to repair her
was carried out that took almost a year
to complete.
Europa eventually entered
service in 1930 with the capacity to
carry 687 1st, 524 2nd and 813 3rd class
passengers. She set out on her maiden
voyage from Bremerhaven - New York March
19th. After traveling from Cherbourg -
Ambrose (East Coast of America) in 4
days, 17 hours and 6 minutes, she took
the Blue Riband from her sister ship
Bremen by increasing the average
speed from 27.83 to 27.91 knots.
Europa held the westbound record
until the Italian liner Rex took
that honor in 1933. Although attempts to
capture the eastbound record were made,
she failed to better
Bremen’s average of 28.51
knots.
At the outbreak of World War Two,
Europa was painted gray and moored
at Bremerhaven to serve as a command post
for the German Navy. She joined the other
German ships amassing at Hamburg in 1940
to be prepared for the invasion of
England. After Hitler called off the
invasion, Europa was returned to
the navy at Bremerhaven. This seemed to
be Hitler’s greatest miscalculation
during the conflict as instead of
invading an England unprepared for war,
he ordered the invasion of mighty Russia
instead. The advancing US Army reached
Bremerhaven in May 1945. With
Europa being undamaged, the
Americans seized her to be used as a
troopship. The end of the war a few weeks
later saw the reparations commission
awarded her to the French Line as
compensation for the loss of their liner
Normandie during the war. After US
forces had been returned to America,
Europa was transferred from New
York - Le Havre so the new owners could
assess her condition.
Following her funnels being painted in
the French Line’s colors and being
renamed Liberte, she was laid up
at Le Havre until arrangements could be
made for a refit to be carried out. A
violent storm in December 1948 tore
Liberte from her moorings and
threw her about until she hit the wreck
of the liner Paris and sunk in an
upright position, as seen above. By the
following spring, Liberte had been
salvaged and put into St Nazair to
undergo a $19 million refit. This work
took longer than expected as she
sustained further damage by fire during
the refit. Liberte was finally
returned to the Atlantic run five years
after being captured by American troops.
Her first voyage for the French Line from
Le Havre arrived at New York August 17th
1950. Liberte then joined the
Ile de France to provide a
two-ship service on that run. The French
Line took Ile de France out of
service in 1958 and took delivery of
their 66,348-ton France in 1961.
With the arrival of this new liner,
Liberte was taken out of service
later that year. Liberte completed
her final voyage to the scrap yard at La
Spezia/Italy January 30th 1962.
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