Ship MS AROSA SKY Naval Cover Unused Postcard GERMANY

Description: Ship MS AROSA SKY Naval Cover Unused Postcard GERMANYThis postcard is in good, but not perfect condition. Please look at the scan and make your own judgement. Member USCS #10385 (I also earned the stamp collecting merit badge as a boy!). Please contact me if you have specific cover needs. I have thousands for sale, including; navals (USS, USNS, USCGC, Coast Guard, ship, Maritime), military posts, event, APO, hotel, postal history, memoribilia, etc. I also offer approvals service with FREE SHIPPING to repeat USA customers.International postage is just $2 for all orders up to $20. However, orders greater than $20 require tracking which costs $15 through eBay standard shipping service.SS AIn December of 1938 the company Messageries Maritime, Marseille ordered a new addition to its fleet of passenger ships. Intended to carry passengers between France and French Indochina, the new vessel was designed to be luxurious and fast, with dimensions that would enable her to manoeuvre in the river port of Saigon. Her keel was laid on June 15, 1939 at the yards of Société Provencale de Construction Navale, La Ciotat situated in the south of France between Marseille and Toulon as hull No. 161.Construction was suspended due to the outbreak of the Second World War in September and did not resume until after the defeat of France in December of 1940. Although the newly installed Vichy government had suffered major naval losses and needed to re-establish its merchant fleet, construction progressed slowly, hindered according to some reports by resistance sabotage. Whatever the case, it was not until June 8, 1944 that the still unfinished hull was launched on the order of the German Kriegsmarine, as MARÉCHAL PÉTAIN in honour of the President of Vichy Government. Other sources say that she was launched on June 16, 1944 and then was towed to Port Bouc, where the Germans sank her in the canal de Caronte, in August 1944, during their retreat from the South of France.The sunken hull was subsequently renamed LA MARSEILLAISE, raised in May 1946 and towed to Toulon and later back to the yard at La Ciotat in 1946, where she was refitted as a cruise ship for Messageries Maritimes of Marseille. Completed in July 1949, after sea trials in the Mediterranean Sea, her first maiden voyage was from Marseille (18.08.1949) to Yokohama and her original capacity was 736 passengers, 344 1st class, 74 2nd class & 318 3rd class passengers. GRT: 17'321, NRT: 9500, DWT: 5536. Call sign: FNNW. On 02.03.1953 sailed from Yokohama and collided with the Norwegian freighter "Hermelin". Both ships sustained minor damages and continued her voyages. After the fall in 1954 of French Indochina, the ship was employed in the trade to Beirut & Alexandria and was a Hospital ship during the Suez crisis in 1956, and as well later used as a trooptransporter to Algeria. February 24th, 1957 she was sold to AROSA LINE Inc. of Panama, who renamed her AROSA SKY. She underwent a three month re-fit at Marseille and was transformed from a luxury liner to a more utilitarian vessel to accommodate 202, 1st class & 1030, 2nd class passengers. (Other sources say: 64 first class and 834 tourist class passengers). The open-air swimming pool was impractical in the colder Atlantic routes so an aft extension was added to the upper deck to shelter the pool verandas. Official No.: 3148MF. Call sign: HOSM.Left Marseille on 10th May 1957 for a cruise to Le Havre and Bremerhaven where she arrived on May 16. Under the command of Captain Clemens Broering she sailed the next day on her maiden trans-Atlantic voyage via Southampton and Halifax to New York. The passengers included a large number of immigrants as well as refugees from Hungary. The crossing was rough in heavy seas but the ship arrived safely in Halifax on May 24th and then continued on to New York where she arrived on May 26th. Ten round trip trans-Atlantic voyages were planned that year and during the winter months she was to be used for cruises from New York to the Caribbean. But once again things did not go according to plan. In 1957 her ownership changed to Compañia Internacional Transportadora S.A., Panama. In general passenger traffic in 1957-58 was below expectations. The year 1957 saw a pandemic of Asian flu which affected many travellers and on the night of August 15 the AROSA SKY arrived in New York under quarantine with some 200 flu cases among the passengers. During one trip from New York to Bremerhaven in late 1957 a passenger wrote that there were only 85 fellow passengers on board. On January 8, 1958, during one of the Caribbean cruises a serious fire broke out just as the ship was coming into Wilmington, North Carolina. Several First Class cabins were destroyed and the subsequent inquiry found evidence of poor sanitary conditions on board. Within two years the Arosa Line hit financial difficulties and their flag ship was sold in 1958 to Giacomo Costa fu Andrea, Genova, an Italian family firm, better known as the "Linea C". Arrived on November 8, 1958 at Genova, where she was renamed the BIANCA C., named after a daughter of her new owners. The Linea C had her refurbished by Cantieri Navali Riuniti del Tirreno, Genova and registered an increase of tonnage from 17'321 GT to 18'427 GT. Official No.: 3149. Call sign: ICRW.She then began the Naples-La Guaira (Venezuela) run on April 2, 1959, a voyage including stops in the Caribbean, Grenada being the last such on the return leg. On October 12th 1961 the BIANCA C. left Italy on her final voyage, ten days later she caught fire after an explosion in her boiler room; while anchored off the Capital of Grenada, St George's. The flames spread rapidly throughout the rear portion of the ship, fortunately 672 of the 673 people on board were saved by the prompt action of the crew and the additional help of numerous small boats launched from St. George's harbour, including several yachts. Unfortunately there was insufficient marine fire fighting equipment available to stem the blaze or rescue the body of the only person lost on board. However twelve badly burnt crewmembers were taken to the local hospital for treatment, only one whom died (Rodizza Napale).The British Frigate "HMS Londonderry" sailed from Puerto Rico on hearing the news to lend what assistance they could, arriving on the 24th of October they found a still burning ship and succeeded in severing the anchor chain and securing a towing line, in an attempt to beach the shallows on the other side of Point Saline, or to at least remove it from the local shipping lanes. As they were towing it, with considerable difficulty, and watched by a large percentage of the Grenadian population, the tow rope snapped because the rudders had jammed in the extreme heat caused by the fire and shortly thereafter she sank in 167 feet of water where she sits to this day.Her propellers where salvaged in the early seventies by a Trinidadian salvage company, the brass being sold on for scrap, otherwise they left her intact sitting upright on a nearly level sand bed. When she sank it appears that there was a major shift to starboard with all the upper decks and the bridge leading to starboard giving divers the feeling that they were diving on a leaning ship. Over the Christmas period of 1992, the rear third of the ship was torn off and fell to starboard, seriously increasing her rate of deterioration. Of the two top deck swimming pools one is the other side of the crack and unrecognisable as it has been twisted out of shape, the other is now being covered by the hull's side-plates which are collapsing fast. The pool that has collapsed contains a very large rubber buoy. No-one seems to know what use it originally had. There are tales that the BIANCA C. used to be much shallower and in the old days people were able to skin dive on her; this was supported by the supposition that the BIANCA C. had "Fallen down" the near by reef (Whibble Reef) which is only 50-60 feet deep. The legend seems unlikely, though, as an 18 thousand ton ship is unlikely to move a great deal. However in the last five years the interior of the ship has sunk some 20-30 feet in places and judging by the photographic evidence it is very likely that the smoke stack may have been fairly close to the surface when the BIANCA C. first sank. It would have been an ideal spot for skin diving, as visitors would have been able to make out some of the infrastructure from the surface. Nowadays nothing is visible until you are at least 30-40 ft below the surface save for the remaining mast, which appears as a large white patch from fairly close to the surface. Even this is beginning to lean to starboard and will undoubtedly not last much longer.

Price: 9.99 USD

Location: Weaverville, North Carolina

End Time: 2024-12-14T03:03:24.000Z

Shipping Cost: 1.5 USD