MS Sobieski

MS Gruziya, former MS Sobieski in Helsinki
History
Name	Sobieski
Owner	Polish Ocean Lines
Operator	Gdynia America Line
Port of registry	1950–1975: Odessa, Soviet Union
Route	South America service
Builder	Swan, Hunter and Wigham Richardson, Wallsend.
Launched	25 August 1938
Completed	15 June 1939
Maiden voyage	15 June 1939
Out of service	1939 taken up as troopship
Identification	Call sign: UPOV IMO number: 5136866
Fate	1975 scrapped at La Spezia
Status	Scrapped
Notes	1947 returned to civilian service 1950 sold to Russia renamed Gruziya
General characteristics
Tonnage	11,030 BRT
Length	155.85 m (511 ft 4 in)
Beam	20.41 m (67 ft 0 in)
Draft	8.30 m (27 ft 3 in)
Installed power	Engines by J. G. Kincaid & Co, Greenock
Propulsion	Twin screw
Speed	17 knots
Capacity	44 first-class, 250 third-class and 850 emigrants
Notes

MS Sobieski was a Polish passenger ship built for the Polish Ocean Lines to replace the aging SS Kościuszko and SS Pulaski; a sister ship to the MS Chrobry. She was named in honour of the Polish king Jan III Sobieski.

The ship was used as a troopship in the Allied evacuation of western France in 1940 (Operation Ariel), the Battle of Dakar and the campaign in Madagascar. She was also used to transport the British 18th Division to the defence of Singapore.

At the end of the war she repatriated the remnants of that division's Cambridgeshire Regiment that had survived captivity at the hands of the Japanese in Malaya and Thailand. She also returned former Changi prisoners of war (POWs) from Singapore, sailing via Cape Town and docking at Southampton during a dockworkers' strike. Disgusted, dismayed ex-POWs had to unload their own baggage, such as it was.