Built under yard No. 690 as a passenger- cargo vessel by Bremer Vulkan: Vegesack, Germany for Cie Générale Transatlantique, France.
1929 Launched under the name WASHINGTON.
Tonnage 8.253 gross, 4.836 net, 10.215dwt, dim. 150.5 x 18.7m.
Powered by two diesel engines, 6.300hp, speed 14.5 knots.
Passenger accommodation for 37 first, 45 second, 37 third and 360 fourth-class passengers.
1929 Delivered to owners.
Générale Transatlantique opened a new cargo service in 1919 to the Pacific coast of North America via the Panama Canal, from 1929 this service was served by cargo- passengers vessels with a limited numbers of passengers. One of these vessels was the WASHINGTON.
1938 The WASHINGTON was swapped with the INDOCHINOIS of Messageries Maritimes, and ownership of the ship changed also to Messageries Maritimes. Renamed SAGITTAIRE.
April 1939 made her first sailing for her new owners in the service from France to Nouméa.
Oct 1942 laid up at the French Antilles till July 1943 then she was requisitioned by the Free French Government and used for war duties.
March 1946 returned to owners.
Again used for the service between France and Nouméa.
08 May 1946 arrived at Papeete, bringing home the survivors of the Tahitian and New Caledonian of the Pacific Battalion of the Free French Forces, after been away for 5 years and 9 days. On board were also a detachment of sailors, aviators and paratroopers as well as a number of gendarmes and public servants who came to take over positions that had remained vacant due to the war.
The battalion was formed with 300 Tahitian volunteers who joined the Free French Forces as soon as 09 September 1940. They sailed from Tahiti aboard the New Zealand passenger vessel MONOWAI to meet 300 of their New Caledonian comrades. The battalion of the Pacific was created in Nouméa on 5 May 1941 under the command of Major Félix Broche, who was the instigator thereof.
This elite unit of the Free French Forces became famous on the battlefields of Libya in 1942 (Bir Hakeim), El Alamein), Tunisia in 1943 (Cape Bon), Italy in 1944 (sector of Monte Cassino, Sienna, Rome) and France in 1944 (landing in Provence, the Rhone Valley, the Vosges, Belfort, etc.).
The harsh winter conditions of 1944-1945 were such that the command made the decision of withdrawing the Polynesian and Melanesian soldiers from the Eastern Front of France, to assign them to the guarding of military Government of Paris, under treat of an offensive led by General von Runsted in the Ardennes. They joined General Koening, their commander in the Battle of Bir Hakeim.
As the maritime links with France in the Pacific had been discontinued for the full duration of the war, the men of the battalion could not send home before the war ended, and the maritime link was reopened.
1954 Sold to Cie Maritime Asiatico-Panamense, Panama, renamed PACIFIC GLORY.
1956 Sold to Pacific Bulk carriers Inc., Panama, renamed OCEANIC RELIANCE.
1959 Broken up at Mihara, Japan, where she arrived 10 October 1959.
Also on French Polynesia 1996 100f sg 752.
Source. Watercraft Philately Vol 43 page 62. Register of Merchant ships completed in 1929. North Atlantic Seaways by N.R.P. Bonsor. Some web sites, and partly copied from: http://www.tahitiphilatelie.com/details ... =1996&id=8
http://www.tahitiphilatelie.pf/details_ ... 007&id=156