m/s Batory Gdynia-America Line

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The motorship "Batory" was one of two diesel-powered ships completed in 1936 for the North Atlantic run of the Gdynia-America Line (Poland).
During WWII it served as a troop ship. Its twin (the "Pilsudski") was sunk while thus employed.
After the war it continued as the flagship of the PLO (Polskie Linie Oceaniczne).

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Builder: Cantieri Riuniti dell' Adriatico, Monfalcone, Italy.
Completed: April 1936
Gross tonnage: 14,287
Dimensions: 526 ft. by 71 ft. Depth 38ft.
Engines: Two nine-cylinder, two-stroke, single-acting Burmeister & Wain diesel.
Screws: Twin
Watertight bulkheads: Nine.
Decks: Five
Normal speed: 18 knots.
Passenger accommodation: 76 first and 740 tourist class. (Accommodations are combined into a single class of 800 when pleasure-cruising.)
Maiden voyage: Gdynia-Copenhagen-New York on May 18,1936.
Last voyage for Polish Ocean Lines: London-Gdynia on May 29, 1969.

Employed in the Gdynia-Copenhagen-Southampton-Halifax-New York services and cruising. The Halifax call being eliminated eastbound. Requisitioned by the allies in 1939 as a transport and did not resume scheduled sailings until May 1947 from Gdynia to New York as a tourist-class ship. Commenced her last voyage from New York to Southampton, Copenhagen and Gdynia in January 1951 after having been denied docking facilities at the port of New York on the stipulation that she came from behind the Iron Curtain. Refitted for a new service from Gdynia to Southampton, via Suez Canal, Bombay and Karachi in August 1, 951. The Batory operated in this service until 1956 when she was overhauled at Bremerhaven, Germany, and placed in the Gdynia - Copenhagen - Southampton - Montreal service on August 26, 1957, and to Halifax in winter. A call at Le Havre was inaugurated in 1961. Withdrawn from service on June 1, 1969, and sold to the Gdansk District Board for use as a floating hotel at Gdynia, Poland.

[It was retired and turned into a hotel in 1969 (at Gdynia), and finally scrapped in 1971.
Its replacement was a Dutch-built ship renamed as the "Stefan Batory."]

Sister ship: Pilsudski.

Source: Passenger Liners of the World Since 1893; USA 1979
Batory article by Nicholas T. Cairs

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Photographs from: Gdynia-America Line advertising; courtesy of Dr. Casimir Czarnecki

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click on thumbnail to see full-size picture

Tourist Class Reading Room	Tourist Class Smoking Room	American Bar	Advertisement from the 1960s
Sun Deck	First Class Dancing Lounge	Swimming Pool	"Lido" Bar
Tourist Class Dining Room	Hallway "A" Lounge	Tourist Class Dancing Lounge	Tourist Class Verandah
Tourist Class Smoking Room	Verandah Cafe	Deluxe Suite Interior	Deluxe Suite Interior
Tourist Class Black and White Bar	First Class Cabin	First Class Reading Room	Advertisement from 1947

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