Patria was launched on 11 November 1913[2][3] and entered Fabre Line service on 15[2] or 16[3] April 1914.
The New York Times reported that a German submarine attacked her on 1 March 1916 off the coast of Tunis.[6] There is no naval record of such an attack, so it is not clear what incident may have taken place. However, the captain of the ship at the time, Pierre Deschelles, stated in an affidavit that while he didn't see the German submarine, members of the crew and many passengers did.
On 19 January 1932, Fabre Line leased Patria for eight years to Messageries Maritimes,[3] who placed her in service between the Levant and the south of France.[2] Later that year, off the Ionian island of Zakynthos, Patria rescued three survivors from the sinking of a Greek vessel, the Tinios Stavtos.[3] A Greek merchant ship, SS Heron, rescued 25 survivors from the same incident.[3] In 1934 Patria grounded on a bank while entering the Port of Alexandria in Egypt. In February 1939 Patria served as a hospital ship in the Spanish Civil War.[2]
On 1 January 1940, Fabre Line sold Patria to Messageries Maritimes.[3] On 6 June 1940 she entered the Port of Haifa after sailing from Beirut.[3] On 10 June Italy declared war on France and the UK. Any Allied ship passing Italy to reach France would now be in danger of attack, so Patria remained in port in Haifa.[3]
On 22 June 1940, France surrendered to Germany, and on 25 June the British Mandatory Palestine authorities barred Patria from leaving Haifa.[3] The British authorities seized Patria on 15 August and placed her under the management of the British-India Steam Navigation Co.[3] She was assigned to be a troop ship, authorised to carry 1,800 troops (excluding the crew).[8] She still had only enough lifeboats for the original 805 passengers and crew, so these were supplemented with liferafts.[8]
Despite her new designation Patria remained laid up in Haifa until the beginning of November 1940.[3] In that month the Royal Navy intercepted three chartered ships; the SS Pacific, SS Milos and SS Atlantic, that were carrying Jewish refugees from German-occupied Europe to Palestine. The refugees lacked permits to enter Palestine so the British authorities ordered their deportation to British Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. Refugees from Pacific and Milos had been put aboard Patria, and embarkation of refugees from Atlantic had begun, when on 25 November a bomb planted by a Haganah agent, intending to disable the ship to prevent deportation by the British, blew a hole in the side of Patria's hull.[9] She listed to that side and sank in 16 minutes,[10] settling on the harbour bed with part of her hull and superstructure above water.
By the time of the attack almost 1,800 refugees had been embarked aboard Patria, along with a crew of 130 and numerous British guards. The majority of those aboard were rescued but 172 were injured and between 260 and 300 were killed. The majority of victims were Jewish refugees but about 50 were crew and British guards; 209 bodies were recovered and buried in Haifa.[11]
Patria remained a wreck in Haifa port until 1952, when she was scrapped.[2][3]
^ abRamona, Philippe. "Le Providence". L'Encyclopedie des Messageries Maritimes (in French). Philippe Ramona.
^ abPitot, Geneviève (2000). The Mauritian Shekel: The Story of Jewish Detainees in Mauritius, 1940–1945. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 83. ISBN0-7425-0855-2.
^Penkower, Monty Noam (2002). Decision on Palestine Deferred: America, Britain and Wartime Diplomacy. London: Routledge. pp. 55–59. ISBN0-7146-5268-7.
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