MS Sobieski
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2013}}
| {{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image | Ship image = HMS Sobieski FL8900.jpg | Ship caption = HMS Sobieski in wartime service }} {{Infobox ship career | Hide header = | Ship name = Sobieski | Ship owner = Gdynia-America Line – GAL | Ship operator = | Ship registry = 1950–1975: Odessa, {{flag|Soviet Union}} | Ship route = South America service | Ship ordered = | Ship builder = Swan, Hunter and Wigham Richardson, Wallsend. | Ship original cost = | Ship yard number = | Ship way number = | Ship laid down = | Ship launched = 25 August 1938 | Ship completed = 15 June 1939 | Ship christened = | Ship acquired = | Ship maiden voyage = 15 June 1939 | Ship in service = | Ship out of service = 1939 taken up as troopship | Ship identification =*Call sign: UPOV
| Ship fate = 1975 scrapped at La Spezia | Ship notes = *1947 returned to civilian service
}} {{Infobox ship characteristics | Hide header = | Header caption = | Ship class = | Ship tonnage = {{GRT|11030}} | Ship displacement = | Ship length ={{convert|155.85|m|ftin|abbr=on}} | Ship beam ={{convert|20.41|m|ftin|abbr=on}} | Ship height = | Ship draft ={{convert|8.30|m|ftin|abbr=on}} | Ship depth = | Ship decks = | Ship deck clearance = | Ship ramps = | Ship ice class = | Ship sail plan = | Ship power = Engines by J. G. Kincaid & Co, Greenock | Ship propulsion = *2 × screws | Ship speed = {{convert|17|kn|km/h}} | Ship capacity = 44 first-class, 250 third-class and 850 emigrants | Ship crew = }} |
MS Sobieski was a Polish passenger ship launched in 1939. It was constructed for the South American service of the Gdynia-America Line – GAL to replace the aging {{SS|Kościuszko}} and {{SS|Pulaski}}. She was named in honour of the Polish king Jan III Sobieski. Sobieski was to be a sister ship to the {{MS|Chrobry}}.{{cite web|url=http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/wiki/Swan,_Hunter_and_Wigham_Richardson|title=Swan, Hunter and Wigham Richardson|work=Gracesguide.co.uk|accessdate=2015-07-10}}
Maiden voyage
Sobieski only managed one journey before the war, arriving in Buenos Aires on the 10th of July 1939.{{cite web|title=Passenger list for MS Chrobry|url=https://www.hebrewsurnames.com/arrival_SOBIESKI_1939-07-10|access-date=14 September 2020}}
Wartime service
The ship was used as a troopship in the Allied evacuation of western France in 1940 (Operation Aerial), where she was one of the last ships to leave St Jean de Luz during the final evacuation of Polish troops from France, and in the Battle of Dakar. During Operation Streamline Jane, the invasion of Madagascar, in May, 1942, Sobieski was the flag ship.{{cite web|title=The History Of The Gdynia America Shipping Lines Co. Ltd.|url=http://www.maritimehistoryofthegreatlakes.ca/documents/scanner/03/02/default.asp?ID=c007|access-date=11 September 2020}}
She was also used to transport the British 18th Division to the defence of Singapore.
Post-war
At the end of the war she repatriated the remnants of that division's Cambridgeshire Regiment that had survived captivity at the hands of the Japanese in Malaya and Thailand. She also returned former Changi prisoners of war (POWs) from Singapore, sailing via Cape Town and docking at Liverpool during a dockworkers' strike. Disgusted, dismayed ex-POWs had to unload their own baggage, such as it was.
Between 1947-1950, Sobieski sailed on the Genoa – Halifax – New York route, under the Polish flag.{{cite web |title=Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 |url=https://pier21.ca/content/sobieski-8 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200917004029/https://pier21.ca/content/sobieski-8 |archive-date=2020-09-17 |access-date=16 September 2020 |website=pier21.ca}}
The vessel was sold to Russia in 1950 and renamed Gruziya and scrapped in Italy in 1975.
Pictures
Men of the 1-6th Duke of Wellington's Regiment chat to naval officers on board the Polish steamer SOBIESKI on their way to Norway, 20 April 1940. N27.jpg|Duke of Wellington's Regiment aboard Sobieski on route to Norway, 20 April 1940
Gruzja ship 1962.jpg|Gruziya, the former Sobieski, in Helsinki
References
{{Reflist}}
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{{Gdynia America Line}}
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Category:Passenger ships of Poland
Category:Ships built on the River Tyne
Category:Ships built by Swan Hunter
Category:World War II merchant ships of Poland
Category:Passenger ships of the Soviet Union
Category:Ships of Black Sea Shipping Company
Category:Ships of the Gdynia-America Line
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