cargo ship MARTINIèRE

Compagnie Générale Transatlantique, 1937 - 1939

History

Cargo liner built in 1911 under the name of ARMANISTAN for F.C. Strick & Co., Anglo-Algerian S.S. Company of London, acquired in 1913 by Hamburg Amerika Line for her service of West Africa under the name of DUALA. On 9 June 1919 allotted to France by way of war compensations and alloted by Ministry of Colonies to Compagnie Nantaise de Navigation à Vapeur who ensures by contract since 1891 the transport of the convicts to different convict jails. Transformed into a floating jail, brought into service in 1922 under the name of MARTINIERE for the transport of convicts from La Rochelle until 1933 then of La Pallice towards Guyana, with sometimes a call in Algiers, at a rate of two annual travels. In 1931 accomplishes a travel in Saïgon to transport 550 convicts from the Cape Saint Jacques and island of Poulo Condor towards Guyana. Crew made up of 51 crew members, 56 personal warders and penitentiary supervisors for 600 to 800 transported convicts. Acquired by Compagnie Générale Transatlantique in July 1937, and repainted in white, she continues to carry out the connection with Guyana until 1938. Resold in July 1939 to the French Navy, transformed into floating pontoon in Lorient where she sunk in June 1940 during a British bombardment. Transformed into anti aircraft battery by Germans, then recovered in 1945 by the French Navy, and without use until her demolition in Saint Nazaire in 1955.