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With Reuben Goossens
Maritime Historian,
Cruise‘n’Ship Reviewer & Author
Cie de Nav Fraissinet et Cyprien Fabre
MS General Mangin
Later: MS President, Eastern Queen, Hizbul Bahr & Shaheed Salahuddin
MS General Mangin seen as built
Postcard from the author’s private collection
Part One: The Company.
Cie de Nav Fraissinet was founded in January
1836 in Marseilles by Marc Fraissinet the son of
a Protestant merchant from Languedoc.
Following a historical tradition dating back to the revocation of the
“Edict of Nantes,” another member of the Fraissinet family founded
in the same time a company in Rotterdam
it is for that reason the company flag has the Dutch flag as its background.
In
1955, Fraissinet and Fabre (a company that was started in 1868 by the 30 year old
Cyprien Fabre) merged into Compagnie
de Navigation Fraissinet et Cyprien Fabre, but
the two companies kept sailing in their respective domain, western Africa for
Fraissinet and America
for Fabre.
Part
Two: MS General Mangin.
General Mangin was the first of two ships
ordered by Cie de Nav Fraissinet et Cyprien Fabre, Marseilles, the second being
the Jean Mermoz, which had a good and a long life,
and she is the subject on another page as she became a well known cruise ship
under three names, including Mermoz and later Serenade. She was eventually
broken up at Alang India
in 2009.
General
Mangin was built by Atelier et Chantiers de
St-Nazaire, Penhoët and launched on July 9, 1952. During her sea trials she
achieved 17.4 knots. She was completed in March 1953 and commenced on the Marseilles, France
to Point Noire,
Congo service.
She was joined in 1957 by her sister MS Jean Mermoz, which visited both
Brisbane and Sydney Australia as the cruise ship Mermoz on November 17 and 19
1985 respectively – see a photograph at the bottom of this page.
General Mangin was the first post
war built ship French mail liner to be built without any State aid, and she was
remarkably well appointed. Although a relatively small ship by today’s
standards, but as built she had three classes and special accommodations for
troops: 132 First Class, 125 Second Class, 101 Third Class, 500 troops, with a
crew of 168.
First
Class was located amidships on Promenade and upper decks, with a few more
cabins on Main Deck. The main First Class public rooms were on the aft section
of Promenade Deck with the forward section occupied by cabins including four
deluxe suites. First Class cabins were for one, twin bedded or three berths the
majority having private facilities. Second Class pubic rooms were all on Upper
deck below the Main mast. Their cabins were located on Main deck aft of the
First Class cabins and two Dinning Rooms and consisted of two and four berth
cabins. Both these classed has a pool. Third Class was located further aft with
cabins located lower down the ship in six berth cabins as well as in large
dormitories.
Part
Three: Nouvelle Cie de Paquebots.
In 1965 she was transferred to Nouvelle Cie de
Paquebots of Marseilles,
but she remained on the same service. Externally she was painted all white,
including her masts, with the new company’s traditional black funnel with
the white NCP logo and a black upper Main mast.
General Mangin seen in her new livery in December 1965
Photographer unknown – *Please see photo notes at bottom of page
MS General Mangin seen from the air
Postcard from the author’s private collection
Late in 1968 the French Government
announced that it would stop financially subsidising these liners as it had
done for all these years, as it had been doing for most French liners. Nouvelle
Cie de Paquebots therefore decided sell the older of the two ships and several
years later converted the Jean Mermoz into a cruise ship Mermoz.
General Mangin was
offered for sale in 1969 and the Greek Chandris Lines purchased her for
conversion into a cruise ship. However, very quickly Chandris decided against
this and resold her.
General Mangin Specifications:
Builder Atelier
et Chantiers de St-Nazaire, Penhoët
Yard: R14
Built for Cie
de Nav Fraissinet et Cyprien Fabre
Launched July
9, 1952
Completed March
1953
GRT 12,457 GRT
Length 161.8m
/ 531ft
Width 19.8m
/ 65ft
Draught 6.4m
/ 22.9ft
Propulsion B&W
type diesels 16,600 BHP
Screws Twin
Service speed 16
knots – 18.4 at trails
Passengers 132
First Class
125
Second Class
101
Third Class
500
Troops in special accommodations
Crew 168.
Fully
Air-Conditioned
Part Four: MS President.
General Mangin’s next owner was the
Philippine President Lines who would operate her between Manila
and Japan
and she was duly renamed MS President. She operated services
between the Philippines and Japan for
several years, but the service was not a great success, thus by 1972 she was
placed on the market once again.
Philippine President Lines - MS President
Image from the author’s collection
Part Five: The Australian Connection.
MS President was sold in March 1972 to Cia de Nav Abeto SA of Panama and was renamed Eastern
Queen. She made one return voyage from Singapore
to Fremantle Australia
in April, but upon her return she was given a refit to make her suitable as a
comfortable one class ship, accommodating 506 passengers, with an additional
156 in dormitories. When the refit had completed she was re-registered at
11,684 GRT.
MS Eastern Queen
Image from the author’s collection
Eastern Queen was placed on the Fremantle,
Indonesia Singapore service for the next few years under a charter agreement to
Fit Line. Sadly she encountered ongoing problems and several departures in
August 1972 had to be cancelled as she was suffering from a generator breakdown.
However in 1973 with
the superior ships operating in completion, she had not proven to be a great
success on this service, and thus the company decided to give her an extensive
overhaul early in 1973, and besides overhauling her machinery, her
accommodations were reduced to just 358 with all passengers now accommodated in
cabins. Upon departure, they felt she was a better ship!
MS Eastern Queen seen whilst on the Australian service
Postcard provided by 1973 passenger Mr. Roger Jackson who
sailed with his wife and two children from Singapore
to Perth
She departed Singapore on April 19 for
Fremantle, however whilst at sea she sadly suffered severe engine problems and
she had to limp to Fremantle, finally arriving there on April, 27. After
repairs she returned to service, but in May it was decided that her Australian
services would be terminated due to both her ongoing problems, and the superior
completion. There is no doubt, her breakdowns had not made her the greatest of
successes on this service and she finally departed Fremantle for the last time
on July 12, 1974.
Eastern Queen is seen here whilst in service between Singapore and Madras & the pilgrim trade
Postcard from the author’s private collection
From 1974 to 1977 the company placed her on
the Singapore to Madras service as well as
operating the seasonal Muslim pilgrim trade and chartered her out for various
services.
Hotel Ship in Jeddah.
Mr. David
Vaughan advised me that he and his company “As I managed Wallins Hong
Kong (who was hired to complete a major Saudi Arabian contract) I chartered the
Eastern Queen in 1976 for a year to serve as a hotel ship in Jeddah Saudi
Arabia to accommodate our 500 port workers who worked on our cargo ship loading
/ unloading contract there.
We sailed the
Eastern Queen from Hong Kong to Singapore
where supplies were loaded and then sailed to Penang
where we took on board our workers. We continued via Djibouti to Jeddah arriving in
December 1976.
The ship was
berthed stern to at the cement handling pier in the Port of Jeddah.
With some 500 port workers living on board life could be difficult considering
we only had water available for just one hour per day. This was due because of
the regional shortage, however we ate well and generally had a tolerable time
on board for she was a pleasant ship. My on board quarters was the owners
cabin, which despite its name was pretty small.
Whilst in
Jeddah, the Eastern Queen suffered a small fire up on boat deck where many of
the life jackets are stored. Gladly the fire did very little damage and it was
quickly put out. When our charter concluded she was returned to her owners in
but as arranged in Bangladesh.”
The author wishes
to thank David Vaughan for his input to the Eastern Queen’s history.
Sadly he advises me that he does not have any photographs of her stay whilst in
Jeddah.
Part Six: Her final years.
In September 1977 Eastern Queen was sold to the
Bangladeshi Shipping Corp and she was renamed Hizbul Bahr. She began services
from Dacca to Singapore with 930 passengers in
three classes, returning to the French days. In February 1980 she commenced a
new service to Dubai via Colombo
and Bombay
(Mumbai). During this time she was also used to transport troops. But in
December that year the Bangladesh Navy decided that she would better serve them
a stationary barracks at Chittagong
she was renamed Shaheed Salahuddin.
In
1985 it appeared that this fine ship that had covered a great deal of the
world would come to the end of it days, for the Shaheed Salahuddin was beached
and broken up that year at Chittagong after a thirty three year varied career.
From every angle she was a good looking French
passenger–cargo liner
Photographer unknown – *Please see photo notes at bottom of page
To my readers: I am looking for images of her
as the MS Hizbul Bahr and Shaheed Salahuddin. If you can help me with these I
will be grateful! Also, any photographs of your experiences on/with this ship
would be appreciated, especially images onboard, her interiors and those on
deck. See “Photographs” below for my email details.
Reuben Goossens.
Also read about her
Sister Ship, the: MV Jean Mermoz
**************************************************
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Commenced
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Photographs on ssmaritime and associate pages are by the author
or from the author’s private collection. In addition there are some images that have been
provided by Shipping Companies and private photographers or collectors. Credit
is given to all contributors. However, there are some photographs provided to
me without details regarding the photographer/owner concerned. I hereby invite
if owners of these images would be so kind to make them-selves known to me (my
email address may be found on www.ssmaritime.com
only), in order that due credit may be given. I know what it is like, I have
seen a multitude of my own photographs on other sites, yet these individuals
either refuse to provide credit or remove them when asked, knowing full well
that there is no legal comeback when it comes to the net. However, let us show
these charlatans up and do the right thing at all times and give credit where
credit is due!
This
notice covers all pages, although, and I have done my best to ensure that all
photographs are duly credited and that this notice is displaced on each page,
that is, when a page is updated!
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