The ship was originally thought to be sunk in a collision with a US merchant ship in 42, but recent evidence states that it was purposefully sunk by the Allies to prevent the French from turning it over to the Germans. It was part of the French fleet stationed at Martinique, and it was thought the French there were pro-Vichy. Pretty interesting, yet tragic.

It was laid down in the 1920's and completed about 1935. If I remember it was about 375'-0" long and displaced 4000 tons. After the fall of France in 1940 it arrived at a British port and we were anxious that it did not return to France and fall into the hands of the Germans. A British party boarded it to give the French an ultimatum when they opened fire on our sailors killing I think 2 of them with 1 French sailor killed. They decided to join us reluctantly but had a surly undisciplined crew, and we put on board 2 liaison naval personnel who had a rough time.

No one knew quite what to do with this monster and it was reported to have escorted a couple of Atlantic convoys although useless for this task. It was so unreliable that it spent most of its time in U.S. and Canadian shipyards being repaired. On its final voyage it was heading for the Panama Canal when it apparently collided with an American freighter and sank with all hands including our 2 naval men. A sad and sorry tale.