Société nationale d'Affrètement

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Société nationale d'Affrètement
legal form
founding 1916
resolution 1963
Reason for dissolution Sold to Société Anonyme de Gérance et d'Armement
Seat Paris
Branch shipping

The Société nationale d'Affrètement was a French shipping company based in Paris , which existed from 1916 to 1963. The main task of the shipping company was the transport of coal for the parent company , the railway company Compagnie des chemins de fer de Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée ( Compagnie Paris-Lyon-Méditerranée or PLM for short ).

history

Prehistory and foundation

During the First World War , the Compagnie Paris-Lyon-Méditerranée looked for ways of securing its needs for coal from Great Britain reliably and independently of the threat from German warships, mines or requisitions of shipping space by Allied governments. To this end, it acquired a fleet of its own coal transporters in 1916 and 1917. She founded her own shipping company, the Société nationale d'Affrètement (SNA), for the newly acquired ships . The ships were given the abbreviation PLM and a consecutive number. The home port of the ships was Rouen .

Years of construction in the First World War

ORP Warta , the former PLM 5

In the middle of World War I it was difficult to find suitable ships at all: the shipyards were full and sales restrictions were in place in Great Britain. She was only able to acquire one ship in there, which was named Marseille . It was only in the United States that she found more ships, as the ship market there was a little more relaxed than in Europe.

She found what she was looking for at the Great Lake Engineering Works shipyard in Ecorse / Michigan , where she bought five ships in a roundabout way. They were first registered with the Oriental Navigation Corporation in New York under the Uruguayan flag in order to circumvent possible export restrictions. In the shipping press of the time it was reported openly that this company only served as a buyer for the French customer. In France, the shipping company registered its ships as PLM 1 to PLM 5 . The shipping company bought another five ships in different countries. The later PLM 6 she acquired in Japan , PLM 7 was an older Greek tramp ship , PLM 8 came from the United States, PLM 9 and PLM 10 were again older British tramp ships. All were larger than the first five acquisitions.

During the war, ships loaded British coal in the ports of south Wales or the northeast coast, sometimes from Dunkirk, and transported it to Marseille . The shipping company was the first ship to lose PLM 1 in November 1916 , which was lost, the Marseille was lost in March 1917, PLM 3 sank in November 1917 after a collision and PLM 4 was torpedoed and sank in December 1917. PLM 8 stranded after the end of the war in December 1918.

Development between the wars

The parent company, Compagnie Paris-Lyon-Méditerranée, was so convinced of the fact that coal was transported by its own ships that it continued to operate and even expand its fleet after the war. As the first new acquisition she acquired the later Gap , of which, besides some technical information, almost only the date of the stranding in 1928 is known. SNA ordered two series of 14 new ships from the Smiths Dock Company and Sir Raylton Dixon and Company shipyards , which successively replaced the older ships and were called "les grands PLMs" due to their size. Numbers 11, 18 and 19 were not assigned.

The ships continued to load coal in Welsh and English ports, as well as in Dunkirk and coal from Germany in Rotterdam. The long journey from these ports was now only economical if the ships also carried freight north. After unloading the coal in Port-de-Bouc near Marseille , the ships loaded freight - including rail wagons as deck load for PLM routes in Algeria - to North Africa and loaded bauxite there for Northern Europe. The freighters operated this route until after the beginning of the Second World War .

Daughter of the SNCF

On August 31, 1937, the French government had nationalized the loss-making private railway companies Est , Nord , PLM and PO-Midi (created through the merger of PO and Midi ) as well as the state-owned companies État (including Ouest ) and AL and became the SNCF united. This also took over the shipping companies of the railway companies, including the Société nationale d'Affrètement . The SNCF thus became one of the largest shipping companies in France. She continued the coal transport with the 14 ships of this shipping company and the ships of the other shipping companies. At the same time, it can be seen from the shipping company lists at this time that the SNA continued to manage "its" ships - in parallel with those of the SNCF.

Around the time of the merger to form SNCF, the Société nationale d'Affrètement must have acquired additional ships, which were now given the abbreviation SNA of the shipping company and a consecutive number. From this point on, the history of the shipping company and the ships becomes incomplete. It is only certain that at the beginning of the Second World War the ships SNA 1 , SNA 7 , SNA 8 , SNA 9 and SNA 10 were still in service with the shipping company. There is a need for clarification about the time of acquisition of these ships, the ships SNA 2 to SNA 6 not mentioned, and other ships with different names.

Second World War

During the Second World War, the shipping company's first ships went under from February 1940: PLM 15 was torpedoed by U 37 and PLM 25 ran into a British mine. After the capitulation of France, the British government commandeered the ships PLM 14 , PLM 17 , PLM 22 and PLM 27 lying in their ports . In 1941 and 1942 there were also PLM 13 and PLM 21 from Vichy France , which were also subordinated to the Ministry of War Transport . Of these six ships, PLM 22 and PLM 27 were sunk by German submarines. The German occupying power in France, in turn, took over the ships PLM 12 , PLM 16 , PLM 20 , PLM 23 , PLM 24 and PLM 26 that remained in French ports . All six freighters were sunk or destroyed by the Allies.

Other ships of the shipping company with different names ( Alençon , St. Marin , Ste. Germaine , St. Julienne and probably others) were owned by the shipping company at the beginning of the Second World War. With the exception of the ships mentioned, however, no further statements can be made.

Development after the Second World War

After the war, the British government returned the remaining ships PLM 13 , PLM 14 and PLM 17 to the French government, as did the two ships SNA 8 and SNA 10 . The SNA took over the management of the cargo ships again for the SNCF, but they did not stay with the shipping company for long. PLM 17 was sold first in 1950 , followed a year later by PLM 13 and PLM 14 . There is a lack of information about new ship purchases.

Despite the sales, the shipping company is said to have had four ships in 1957 and eight ships in 1960. The data on these ships are very limited. When the SNCF sold the Société nationale d'Affrètement in 1963, eight ships were still in their service. The shipping company was bought by Société Anonyme de Gérance et d'Armement (SAGA), a company that was founded in 1919 by Rothschild Bank to manage state-owned ships and which also withdrew from shipping in 1982.

Ships of the shipping company (selection)

Due to the uncertain delivery, only those ships are listed whose assignment to the shipping company has been confirmed.

Surname Construction year shipyard measurement period of service Notes, whereabouts
Marseille 1887 Workman, Clark , Belfast 3450 t 1916-1917 Built in 1887 for JP Corry & Co. as the Star of Victoria , 1912 Frigiada , 1915 Moinho Fluminense and 1916 Marseille for the SNA. It is unclear whether it was torpedoed in 1917 or sunk after a collision off the Île d'Yeu on March 20, 1917.
PLM 1 1912 Great Lake Engineering Works , Ecorse / Michigan 2549 GRT 1916-1917 ex American Edison Light , missing in November 1916.
PLM 2 1911 Great Lake Engineering Works, Ecorse / Michigan 2294 GRT 1916-1925 ex American Penobscot , sold in 1925, sunk October 20, 1956.
PLM 3 1911 Great Lake Engineering Works, Ecorse / Michigan 2294 GRT 1916-1917 ex American FJ Lisman , sunk November 19, 1917 after collision.
PLM 4 1916 Great Lake Engineering Works, Ecorse / Michigan 2640 GRT 1916-1917 ex American ME Harper torpedoed and sunk by UC 71 on December 27, 1917 .
PLM 5 1916 Great Lake Engineering Works, Ecorse / Michigan 2820 GRT 1916-1924 1924 Transporter Warta of the Polish Navy, then a civilian cargo ship. From 1935 Hungarian Turul , flagged to Panama in 1940, broken up in 1954.
PLM 6 1916 Osaka Iron Works 3244 GRT 1917-1921 ex Japanese Kifunezan Maru , sold to Great Britain in 1921 ( Bedeburn , Aikleaf ), broken up in 1936.
PLM 7 1908 Central Marine Engineering Works 3,189 GRT 1917-1922 ex Greek Fameliaris and Ambatielos , 1922 sold as Parthenon , sunk by U 442 and / or U 522 on November 3, 1942 .
PLM 8 1915 New York Shipbuilding 3289 GRT 1917-1922 ex American Virginia , stranded September 26, 1922.
PLM 9 1896 Swan Hunter 3011 GRT 1917-1918 ex British Saint Mary and Benrath , ex Greek Andreas Gerakis , stranded December 4, 1918.
PLM 10 1898 William Gray & Company 3107 GRT 1917-1928 ex British Easingwold , 1928 Egyptian Angele Mabro , missing in July 1940 on her way from Bilbao to Cardiff.
PLM 12 1920 Smiths Dock Company 3442 GRT 1921-1943 In 1943 it was taken over by the German Reich as Paula and assigned to the Mediterranean shipping company . Sunk on 17th September 1943 by British destroyers Eclipse and Faulknor .
PLM 13 1920 Smiths Dock Company 3442 GRT 1921-1941, 1946-1951 Taken over by the Ministry of War Transport in 1941 , returned to SNCF in 1945/46 , sold in 1951 and broken up in 1961.
PLM 14 1921 Smiths Dock Company 3442 GRT 1921-1940, 1946-1951 Taken over by the Ministry of War Transport in 1940 , returned to SNCF in 1945/46, sold in 1951 and broken up in 1959.
PLM 15 1921 Smiths Dock Company 4016 GRT 1921-1940 sunk by U 37 on February 18, 1940 .
PLM 16 1921 Smiths Dock Company 4005 GRT 1921-1942 Taken over as Elbe by the Mediterranean shipping company on December 18, 1942 , then used as Peter . Sunk by British submarine vampires on 23rd September 1944 .
PLM 17 1921 Smiths Dock Company 4008 GRT 1922-1940, 1946-1950 Taken over by the Ministry of War Transport in 1940 , returned to SNCF in 1945/46, sold in 1950, scrapped in 1961.
PLM 20 1920 Sir Raylton Dixon and Company 4865 GRT 1920-1942 Sunk off Tunisia by the British submarine Unbeaten on March 1, 1942 .
PLM 21 1920 Sir Raylton Dixon and Company 5529 GRT 1921-1942 Taken over by the Allies in Algeria on November 11, 1942, sunk after being grounded on December 3, 1944.
PLM 22 1920 Sir Raylton Dixon and Company 5529 GRT 1921-1940 Taken over by the Ministry of War Transport on July 24, 1940, sunk by U 123 on June 27 .
PLM 23 1920 Sir Raylton Dixon and Company 5529 GRT 1921-1940 Taken over by the Unterweser Reederei on August 4, 1940 and assigned to the Seelöwe company . Sunk off Scharhörn on December 29, 1940 .
PLM 24 1921 Sir Raylton Dixon and Company 5461 GRT 1921-1942 Assigned to the Mediterranean shipping company as Perigord on December 17, 1942 , sunk in the Aegean Sea after being hit by a mine on September 7, 1943 .
PLM 25 1921 Sir Raylton Dixon and Company 5461 GRT 1922-1940 Sank February 27, 1940 after being hit by a mine.
PLM 26 1921 Sir Raylton Dixon and Company 5461 GRT 1922-1940 Taken over on 4th August 1940 as Ostfriesland for the Seelöwe company, sunk in Hamburg by air raid on May 12, 1941, lifted, sunk again in Wilhelmshaven after air raid on March 30, 1945, lifted in 1946, broken up in 1947.
PLM 27 1922 Sir Raylton Dixon and Company 5461 GRT 1922-1940 Taken over by the Ministry of War Transport on July 17, 1940, sunk by U 518 on November 2, 1942 .
Gap 1920 Osbourne, Graham & Co., Sunderland 2200 GRT 1920-1928 In February 1928 loss due to stranding.
SNA 1 1922 Osbourne, Graham & Co., Sunderland 2679 GRT ? –1940 in night 3./4. Sunk in March 1940 after colliding with British freighter Thurston .
SNA 7 1922 Osbourne, Graham & Co., Sunderland 2679 GRT ? –1941 In Vichy France on June 26th 1940, sank after being hit by a mine on April 27th, 1940.
SNA 8 1930 Smiths Dock Company 2569 GRT ? - 1940, 1946–1960? Taken over from the Ministry of War Transport on July 17, 1940, returned in 1946, broken up in 1960.
SNA 9 1927 John Crown & Sons , Sunderland 2719 GRT 1936-1942 Taken over by the German Reich on December 10th and assigned to the Mediterranean shipping company, renamed Sonja on September 6th, 1943 and transferred to Schwarzmeer-Schiffahrts-GmbH , sunk by the British submarine Surf on December 9th, 1943 off Lemnos .
SNA 10 1920 Ateliers & Chantiers de la Loire, Nantes 2921 GRT 1937-1940, 1946-1951 1920 Louis Nail of the French government, 1922 Lapeyrade of the Compagnie Industrielle Maritime, 1923 to Compagnie Navale Industrielle, 1937 SNA 10 , 17 July 1940 taken over by the Ministry of War Transport, 1945 return, 1951 Leognan of the Société Navale Bordelaise, broken up in 1958.
Alencon 1919 Great Lake Engineering Works, Ashtabula / Ohio 2327 GRT 1940-1940, 1946-1947 ex Brookings , ex Cowiche , purchased in 1940, interned in Oakland / California after the armistice of June 1940 , confiscated in 1942, returned in 1946 and launched in 1947.
St. Marin 1919 GM Standifer Construction, Vancouver 6716 GRT 1941-1942 June 1940 in Dakar by franz. Confiscated by authorities, handed over to the SNA in 1941, extradited to Italy in 1942 and underway as Catania , damaged by bombs in 1943, later blown up.
Ste. Germaine 1919 Bergens M. V, Bergen 1620 GRT 1941-1942 June 1940 in Dakar by franz. Confiscated by authorities, taken over by the German Reich in 1942, sunk in the Black Sea in 1944 as Helga .
St. Julienne 1920 Osbourne, Graham & Co., Sunderland 2127 GRT 1941-1942 June 1940 in Casablanca by franz. Authorities confiscated and hung up, handed over to the SNA in 1941, taken over as Oria by the Mediterranean shipping company Reich in 1942 , stranded in the Aegean Sea in February 1944.

literature

  • Roy Fenton: The PLM Colliers 1 to 10 , In: Ships in Focus . Record 17, London 2001, ISBN 1-901703-14-2 , pp. 10-15.
  • Roy Fenton: The PLM Colliers 12 to 27 , In: Ships in Focus . Record 18, London 2001, ISBN 1-901703-15-0 , pp. 66-73.
  • Gilles Barnichon / Stéphane Zunquin: La flotte SNCF et les car-ferries français , Éditions Marcel-Didier Vrac (MDV), Le Touvet 2001, ISBN 2-35261-012-5 .
  • Reinhart Schmelzkopf: The French merchant fleet in World War II (VI) - III. The ships - list A , In: Strandgut. Materials on the history of shipping, Volume 67 , Cuxhaven 2008, pp. 125–154.
  • Reinhart Schmelzkopf: The French merchant fleet in World War II (VII) - The ships (Rabelais - Ville d'Alger) , In: Strandgut. Materials on the history of shipping, Volume 68 , Cuxhaven 2009, pp. 115–148.
  • Reinhart Schmelzkopf: The French merchant fleet in World War II (VIII) - III. The ships - List A (Ville d'Amiens - Zweena) - List B (Alencon - Vichy) - List C (Amiral Pierre - St. Albert) , In: Strandgut. Materials on the history of shipping, Volume 69 , Cuxhaven 2009, pp. 107–142.
  • Reinhart Schmelzkopf: The French merchant fleet in World War II (IX) - III. The ships - List C (St. André - Tropique) - List D (Alphée - Var) , In: Strandgut. Materials on the history of shipping, Volume 70 , Cuxhaven 2010, pp. 97–150.
  • Reinhart Schmelzkopf: Foreign ships in German hands 1939–1945. Strandgut-Verlag, Cuxhaven 2004, DNB 972151001 .

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ a b Fenton: Ships in Focus 17, p. 10f.
  2. ↑ Barnichon / Zunquin, p. 9.
  3. ↑ a b c Navires du PLM: Société Nationale d'Affrètement (SNA) at wikiplm.railsdautrefois.fr .
  4. ↑ a b Fenton: Ships in Focus 18, p. 66f.
  5. ↑ Barnichon / Zunquin, p. 7.
  6. ↑ a b c d e Schmelzkopf, Strandgut 68, p. 134ff.
  7. ^ Société Nationale d'Affrètement (Shipping company, France) at Flags of the World .
  8. ↑ PLM-4 - Cargo charbonnier - Société nationale d'Affrètement at Forum Pages 14-18 .
  9. ^ Fenton: Ships in Focus 17, p. 11.
  10. ↑ a b c Fenton: Ships in Focus 17, p. 12.
  11. ↑ a b c d Fenton: Ships in Focus 17, p. 14.
  12. ^ Fenton: Ships in Focus 17, p. 15.
  13. ↑ a b c Fenton: Ships in Focus 18, p. 68.
  14. ^ Fenton: Ships in Focus 18, p. 69.
  15. ↑ a b Fenton: Ships in Focus 18, p. 70.
  16. ↑ a b c Fenton: Ships in Focus 18, p. 71.
  17. ↑ a b Fenton: Ships in Focus 18, p. 72.
  18. ↑ a b c Fenton: Ships in Focus 18, p. 73.
  19. ↑ a b Yvon Perchoc: Les Français Navires avant 1970 .
  20. ↑ Schmelzkopf: Stranger Ships, p. 229.
  21. ↑ Schmelzkopf: Strandgut 68, p. 136.
  22. ↑ Schmelzkopf: Strandgut 69, p. 116.
  23. ↑ Schmelzkopf: Strandgut 70, p. 105.
  24. ↑ Schmelzkopf: Stranger Ships, p. 7.
  25. ↑ Schmelzkopf: Strandgut 70, p. 110.
  26. ↑ Schmelzkopf: Stranger Ships, p. 101.
  27. ↑ Schmelzkopf: Strandgut 70, p. 111.
  28. ↑ Schmelzkopf: Stranger Ships, p. 183.