Another controversial example, still regarding a Chargeurs Réunis-owned vessels, the refrigerated passenger-cargo ship Forbin.
A basic timeline of her eventful career is available
here. This is an excerpt:
Quote:
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The mixed passenger-cargo ship Forbin is launched in 1922 by the shipbuilding company Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée in Graville, Le Havre; in March 1923 she enters service with the steamship company Chargeurs Réunis, Le Havre; on 14 November 1939 she is requisitioned [by the French Government]; in May 1940 she moves from Dunkirk to Le Havre; due to the bombardments in Le Havre, on 11 June 1940 she leaves for Bordeaux; on the eve of the Armistice of 22 June 1940 she evacuates Bordeaux with 500 passengers, mostly Polish and Czech citizens, and she sets course for Gibraltar for continuing her war service on the English side; on July 7th she arrives in Liverpool where she in one of the first merchant ships joining the FNFL [Free French Naval Forces]. On July 17th she is seized by the British; she is placed under the control of the Ministry of War Transport and managed by Bibby Line with a FNFL crew.
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The following picture is provided together with the above information:
Unlike the caption, I believe the picture to portray the Forbin in her pre-war paint scheme. As a vessel under direct control of MoWT and crewed by the FNFL, I doubt she would have retained her old colors, but the again, who knows? The ensign wore by the vessel could help clearing up this doubt, but unfortunately the picture resolution is too poor to discerne the presence or absence of the Cross of Lorraine on the French Flag flown at ship's stern
