Original name:

MS Gripsholm - The first Atlantic motor liner

Shipyard:

Armstrong, Whitworth & Co, Newcastle, U.K.

Year:

1925

Tons:

18,8152

No of passengers:

1643

Delivered to SAL:

1925

Sold:

1954

Sold to:

Norddeutscher Lloyd

Renamed:

Berlin

Today:

Scrapped in 1966

The Gripsholm of 1925 was the first transatlantic motorship. The original machinery remained in the ship throughout her life.

The Gripsholm made the first cruise in Swedish American Line's history, from Göteborg to the Mediterranean on February 1, 1927. During her service with SAL she carried a total of 321,213 transatlantic passengers and 23,551 cruise pasengers.

During World War 2, the Drottningholm and the Gripsholm were used as repatriation ships and made 33 voyages to exchange prisoners of war, diplomats, women and children, between the warring nations.

Read about the Exchange and Repatriation Voyages during WWII.

This photo is taken before or after WW2. The word Diplomat has been removed.
The Curt Dawe collection.

Pictures from a Gripsholm cruise poster from 1928

Read about a Christmas on board the Gripsholm in 1929

Photos fom a Baltic Cruise in August 1932

Photos from a South America Cruise in 1938

See photos from the bridge.

Read about the Gripsholm as the Berlin from 1954.

New York City welcoming the Gripsholm.

On the bridge of the Gripsholm of 1925

See more photos from the bridge.

Frank Scherer in Hamburg has added the following
information concerning the three photos below:

The first two pictures were made prior to the refit at Howaldtswerke yard in
Kiel/Germany 1949/50, while the last one shows Gripsholm after this refit
with broader funnels to be recognized by eliminating the dubble bunk life boats
on the after deck of Promenade (A) Deck with just 2 boats on each side.

1945

From Bombay

Heather Waters Bedford of Canada has contributed six pages of her father's autobiography, describing the family's voyage from Bombay in August 1945.

"My Dad was Moir A J Waters, my Mum was Margaret Waters, my brother JIm was age 4 and me 4 months old, when I boarded the ship and 5 months when I reached New York

Dad was in Bombay for four weeks before my mother, brother and I joined him. Those pages are interesting, how Dad went frequently to the American Express office hoping to get passage home, but I am sending you just the actual trip...

My parents, brother and I left Bombay India in the first part of July 1945 and sailed to New York City landing there Aug 3, 1945. My Dad has written details of our voyage in an autobiography and I could find the exact date.

(According to my notes, the ship left Bombay on June 21, 1945. LH)

My parents were United Church of Canada missionaries and had been in India since February of 1940. My brother was born there in 1941 and I was born Feb 28th, 1945.  During the first part of the journey there was lifeboat drill daily and my mother was to bring a life jacket for me - a four moth old - and use it as a floating devise if the ship went down. We were some time before we were out into the Atlantic and they stopped worrying about sunken mines. Such trying times. My Dad was Moir A J Waters, my Mum, Margaret Waters, my brother JIm age 4 and me 4 months old when I boarded the ship and 5 months when I reached New York. I admire all my parents did to get us to Canada - we arrived by train into Toronto Ontario Aug 4th."

Read the intriguing story from Mr Waters' autobiography here.

My memories of the trip are a bit hazy, but I remember being excited about
my first ocean voyage.
Vernon T. Hands
New York

John Borrego of Guthrie, Oklahoma has sent us the following information about his parents, who crossed the Atlantic in November, 1945:

"My parents met aboard the Gripsholm in November of 1945, as they traveled to Italy to take up posts in the US Embassy in Rome. My father, Edward C. Borrego, had served in the Mediterranean theater with AFHQ Petroleum Section, and was "lent" by his employers, the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, to the State Department to serve as Petroleum Attache in the Rome embassy. My mother, Maryanne Mohrbacher, had worked in Washington for the State Department, and was eagerly looking forward to her first foreign posting in Rome. Among the other passengers was Episcopal Bishop John Larned, who was going to Europe to re-establish American Episcopal congregations.  He later officiated at their wedding at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Rome."

1946

After the war, in 1946, eight ocean liners served in the Atlantic. Among these were the Drottningholm, the Gripsholm, the Norwegian American Lines' Stavangerfjord, and on October 16, the Queen Elizabeth sailed from Southampton on her maiden voyage, after having served in the war as a troop transport ship.

in 1946, Gripsholm sailed from the USA to Europe, carrying several hundred deportees from American prisons to Naples and Greece. These passengers carried plenty of cash, and organized gambling on board, resulting in knife fights after accusations of cheating.