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Ship History: GLORIA SWANSON aboard the SS PARIS in 1924 ..

​ Almost seventy years ago, in the fall of 1946, the liner Europa, one of the great Nazi German flagships of the 1930s, was given to the French as reparations. The 50,000-ton Europa, the third largest liner afloat by the end of the Second World War (only the Cunard Queens were larger), was seized by the invading American forces at Bremerhaven just as the Nazi regime collapsed in May 1945.

The 936-ft long Europa was in a shabby, rusted state. She had not been used since September 1939, but was briefly considered as a giant troop landing ship (with her near sister Bremen for the planned Nazi invasion of Britain (Operation Sea Lion) in the spring of 1940​. In 1945-46, the Americans reactivated her, carrying returning soldiers to New York as the USS Europa. There were serious thoughts to later restoring her as a Yankee luxury ship, to be used by the United States Lines on the North Atlantic run.

But the Europa had a problem that seriously worried US authorities, namely the Coast Guard. She was having lots of fires, small ones but sometimes as many as six a day. The Nazi military, it seems, had removed her fine wiring and fittings and replaced them with inferior ones as the war regressed. So, the Americans lost interest in the 23-knot, quadruple screw liner -- she was quickly handed over to the UN Reparations Committee and given to the French as compensation for the loss of the great Normandie (by fire at New York, in February 1942).
The Europa seemed unlucky, however. After finally reaching Le Havre and in preparation for major repairs and refitting (at St Nazaire), a huge Atlantic gale swept across the port in December 1946. The Europa, now renamed Liberte, was yanked from her moorings, was sent straight into the lingering wreck of the French liner Paris (which burned and capsized at its pier in Le Havre back in April 1939, but which was never removed owing to the war and French occupation by the Germans). The huge Liberte was in serious trouble -- she was badly holed, began to flood and all but sank. She did, however, list very seriously until tugs came to the rescue.
The ship settled upright on the mud until later pumped out, patched and towed away.​


Everything was postponed for the Liberte. She was not in French Line luxury service for another four years, until the summer of 1950.