De Grasse was one of the French Line's more mid-sized vessels, as a result possibly not as well-known as the Normandie or the Ile De France, but still a remarkable vessel nonetheless, having sailed for three owners under three different names, with varying color schemes and structural configurations.

She was born at the shipyard of Cammell Laird and Company of Birkenhead, a British firm.  The first keel plates were laid in March 1920.  Due to work stoppages and other delays, the launch didn't happen until February 1924.  By this time, it was decided to name her De Grasse (the original intended name was Suffren).  However, before her completion, more work stoppages occurred, and the incomplete De Grasse was towed to St. Nazaire, birthplace of many French ships, to have her fitting out completed.

In the late summer of 1924, she began her maiden voyage.  The New York Times had a field day with the De Grasse, writing:

"The New French Liner De Grasse arrived here on her maiden trip yesterday with 463 passengers, after having been forced to put back into Le Havre when two days out.  The ship, a 17,700-ton, oil-burning cabin class steamer, left Le Havre on 21 August.  Next day the shaft of one of the electric fans broke in the after boiler room.  There was no spare part onboard and the break was mended.  Then, during the night of the following day, the fan on the forward boiler room broke."

"Captain Jules Robert, who was formerly in command of La Bourdonnais, called a meeting of the officers and principals of the crew, and it was decided to turn back.  There was no immediate danger, according to Captain Robert.  The fans provide a draft for the combustion of the fuel oil.  With a broken fan, the ship might have proceeded at reduced speed.  The possibility to be considered was that a storm might beset the ship.  So when the passengers came on deck that day, the sea was the same and they did not know that they were heading for Le Havre until the stewards told them.  They felt the Captain had acted wisely.  The De Grasse returned to Le Havre on 24 August.  The broken fan was repaired, and she set forth on the 27th."

The De Grasse was above all a transatlantic liner, on the New York run.  However, she did do some cruising to the Caribbean during the winter.  Specifically, she went to the French islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique.

She made news again on November 10, 1929, when she caught a strong tide and hit the Pequonnock, a freighter.  The bow of the Pequonnock was smashed, and Pier 14 in New York was damaged, but De Grasse emerged unscathed.

In 1932, De Grasse was refitted, with accommodation for far less passengers than before.  Her tonnage was also relisted, with her tipping the scales (so to speak) at 18,435.  Now, she was running the cruise circuit more frequently.  After the Normandie appeared in 1935, she was laid up for a time.  A year (or so) later, she was rumored to be going to the Pacific, in order to sail to Tahiti, with stops at Australia, New Zealand, and the U.S. west coast.  However, this never happened.  Instead, on December 25, 1938, the following was reported:

"The De Grasse has been almost completely reconditioned for her series of West Indies cruises this winter and spring.  Among the improvements onboard are the installation of a swimming pool, a double-deck dining room, and a new sun deck.  Three of the cruises which the liner will make will be under the auspices of Simmons Tours: one for nime days (with fares from $100), one for ten days, and two for twelve days.  Havana, Nassau, Miami, Haiti, and Jamaica will be visited by the De Grasse."

However, a little more than nine months later, on October 16, 1939, with war brewing, the press was not nearly as cheerful:

"With a gun turret erected on her foredeck and 75-millimeter guns mounted fore and aft and manned by French naval crews, the French liner De Grasse slipped into New York harbor unexpectedly today, the first French Line passenger ship to reach here since the arrival of the Ile De France more than a month ago.  Like all ships of the belligerents, the De Grasse had crossed the Atlantic in complete secrecy, blacked out from stem to stern at night and not sending any messages by radio.  No announcement had been made of her sailing from Le Havre on 7 October or of her expected arrival here today.  According to some of the 281 passengers, the ship's officers must have enforced some of the strictest blackouts experienced yet on transatlantic vessels.  Portholes and windows were painted over, glass doors and skylights were taped, and so few lights were left on that it was difficult to read."

Upon arriving in New York, she was painted gray for war service, as shown in the picture at right.  The funnels of the Normandie can be seen in the background.  With the fitting out for war service complete, she returned to home waters, and quickly fell to the Nazis.  She was used by the Nazis as an accommodation ship.  She never left her moorings during the war years.  During the Nazis' retreat, she was sunk by a depth charge on August 30, 1944.

Exactly one year later ,the De Grasse rose from the bottom, and was towed to St. Nazaire to be refitted.  Two years later, she returned to service, and the New York Times had this to say:

"New York Harbor gave the French liner De Grasse a full dress reception when she arrived here yesterday (July 25, 1947) from Le Havre and Southampton.  She was the first vessel of the French Line to come here in peacetime style since almost eight years ago when her country went to war against Nazism.  Dressed brightly from stem to stern with signal flags, she received a raucous welcome as she moved up the bay from Quarantine to her North River pier.  As harbor craft whistled their greetings, two city fireboats sprayed their salutes.  Officials of the city and the French Government boarded he ship in the Narrows to pay their respects.  The De Grasse will balance the French Line's service for at least the rest of the year with the freighters Oregon, accommodating 75 passengers, and the Wisconsin, with 57 berths."

"With the tricolor of France billowing proudly from her aft mast, the De Grasse showed no signs of being a battered was casualty for more than a year.  She had been disabled by a depth charge from a German trawler in the Gironde estuary in August 1944.  She lay partly submerged for twelve months before she was towed to port for reconversion.  Her two sober vertical stacks yielded to a single one with a rakish slope.  After the ravages of silt and water had been overcome, French artisans modernized her interior and made her hull and superstructure gleam with bright paint.  It was a long and discouraging process.  A shortage of essential materials was the principal handicap.  The trials of renovation were forgotten yesterday, however, as champagne corks popped, and photographers' flash bulbs flared aboard the 23-year-old liner."

"Beneath her decks was a significant prize of war - a black Mercedes automobile with reinforced body and bullet-proof glass.  Once, it had been the property of Adolf Hitler.  The 3½-ton vehicle, now owned by the French Government, was bound for an exhibition in Toronto.  There was also a wistful note with the De Grasse's gay arrival.  Many of her crewmen had served aboard the Normandie when she was the unchallenged queen of the Atlantic.  She lay in the harbor yesterday as the De Grasse was being welcomed.  Now only a tragic metal hulk, the Normandie is undergoing the final stages of scrapping at her Port Newark pier."

For her first two seasons, she was almost fully booked.  She ran the French Line's luxury service alone, until the arrival of the Ile De France in 1949, and the Liberté (formerly North German Lloyd's Europa) in 1950.  In 1952, De Grasse permanently left the New York run in favor of the West Indies run, sailing from Le Havre to Southampton, with the Colombie of 1931.  However, the change was short-lived, as she was soon put up for sale, and was immediately sold...

The ownership of the De Grasse passed to the Canadian Pacific Line, who renamed her Empress of Australia.  She was painted in Canadian Pacific colors, with the Canadian Pacific house-flag on her funnel.  Canadian Pacific was desperately in need of new passenger tonnage, and they felt that the former De Grasse would serve the role nicely, considering that 1953 was a Coronation year in Britain, and the resulting large amount of passenger traffic to Britain to see Queen Elizabeth II crowned.  On top of that, they lost their Empress of Canada to a dockside fire in Liverpool in January of that year.

After three seasons on the Liverpool-to-Montreal circuit, she went up for sale.  Canadian Pacific ran an advertisement in various shipping publications of the time, which read:

"For sale: the passenger liner Empress of Australia (British flag).  About 19,379 tons gross, British built 1924, Bureau Veritas Special Survey March 1955 for 4 years.  Twin screw turbine machinery: oil fired boilers.  Speed about 16 knots.  Accommodation for 220 first class and 444 Tourist class passengers.  In service between UK and Canada.  Any enquiries to C W Kellock & Co Ltd, St. Mary Axe, London."

As with her passage from the French Line to the Canadian Pacific Line, she found a buyer quickly, and she started a career for her third owners...

Her third and final owner was the Grimaldi-Siosa Line, who worked the Caribbean migrant trade.  She was renamed the Venezuela, and worked the mid-Atlantic.  She would leave from Naples, and then travel to Genoa, Cannes, then Barcelona, then to Teneriffe in the Canary Islands.  After this, she crossed the Atlantic, stopping at Guadeloupe, Martinique, La Guaira, and Trinidad.

In 1960, the Venezuela was refitted, with a new flair bow fitted into place, increasing her length from 574 feet to 614 feet.  Her passenger capacity was also changed.

However, fate soon intervened.  The Venezuela may very well have sailed on for many years more, but on March 17, 1962, she was stranded on rocks near Cannes.  Her passengers and crew were taken ashore, and for a month, there she lay.  A month after the grounding, she was refloated, on April 16.  However, upon inspection, it was determined that the price of repairing her was costlier than was economically feasible.  As a result, she was sold to scrappers in August 1962, and made her final voyage to La Spezia, where she would be scrapped.  In the picture below, you can see the Venezuela at La Spezia, awaiting scrapping.

De Grasse Vital Statistics:

Gross tonnage: 17,707 (1924); 18,435 (1932); 19,379 (1953); 18,567 (1956); 18,769 (1960)

Length: 574 feet (1924); 614 feet (1960)

Width: 71 feet

Machinery: Steam turbines geared to twin screw

Service speed: 16 knots

Capacity: 399 Cabin, 1,712 Third (1924); 536 Cabin, 410 Third (1932); 500 Cabin, 470 Tourist (1947); 220 First, 444 Tourist (1953); 180 First, 500 Tourist, 800 Third (1960)

Built: Cammell Laird & Co., Birkenhead, England, 1924

Demise: Stranded at Cannes, March 17, 1962; later scrapped at La Spezia

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