EXTRA01-2014 "BATORY"

MS Batory is a Polish passenger ship, a transatlantic liner, which was launched at an Italian shipyard Cantieri Riuniti dell 'Adriatico in Monfalcone in July 1935, and entered service in the Polish Navy in April 1936. At the time of launching, MS Batory had a gross displacement of approx. 14,300 tons, and its total length was 160.4 meters and a width of 21.6 meters. The maximum speed was up to 19-20 knots. MS Batory was designed and launched in connection with the change in the business assumptions of Polish shipping lines PTTO, which in the second half of the 1930s decided to change the nature of their North American voyages from transporting emigrants to transporting tourists. Moreover, the ships serving this line (eg SS Kościuszko) were more and more worn-out and obsolete. In 1932, a decision was made to build two new units (MS Batory and the twin MS Piłsudski), and the Italian shipyard was commissioned to build Cantieri Riuniti dell 'Adriatico. MS Batory, after being commissioned into service, was one of the most luxurious and most modern passenger ships in the Polish Navy, and the interior design of the cabins and spaces was supervised by eminent Polish artists of that time. In the period 1936-1939, MS Batory served in the North American direction on the Gdynia-New York line. At the outbreak of World War II, the ship was in the North Atlantic, and from December 5, 1939, it was under the command of the Royal Navy. The ship was quickly armed and adapted to perform the role of a military transport. In the course of the war, he participated, for example, in the evacuation of the Allied forces from France in June 1940, the landing of the Allied forces in North Africa in 1942-1943 or the participation in the landing of Free French troops in southern France in August 1944. MS Batory was also often involved in shifting forces and resources from North America to Great Britain. The unit successfully survived the war and in 1946 it was transferred to Antwerp, where its civil character was restored. From 1951, it became the property of the Polish Ocean Lines, in which it served as a passenger ship until 1969.