SS Mexique

Mexique in or after 1928
History
France
Name	1914: Île de Cuba 1915: Lafayette 1928: Mexique
Namesake	1914: Cuba 1915: Marquis de Lafayette 1928: Mexico
Owner	Cie Générale Transatlantique
Operator	1915: Cie Gén Transatlantique 1917: French Navy 1919: Cie Gén Transatlantique 1939: French Navy
Port of registry	Saint-Nazaire
Route	1915: Bordeaux – New York 1920: Le Havre – New York 1928: France – Central America
Builder	Chantiers et Ateliers de Provence
Launched	27 May 1914
Completed	3 June 1915
In service	November 1915
Refit	1917, 1919, 1928
Identification	code letters OKYN (until 1933) call sign FNSS (1934 onward) pennant number X22 (1939–40)
Fate	Sunk by naval mine, 19 June 1940
General characteristics
Type	Ocean liner
Tonnage	12,220 GRT 6,087 NRT 5,195 DWT
Length	547.5 ft (166.9 m)
Beam	64.2 ft (19.6 m)
Depth	34.8 ft (10.6 m)
Decks	4
Propulsion	4 × screws: 2 × compound steam engines 2 × steam turbines
Speed	17 knots (31 km/h)
Capacity	as hospital ship: 1,400 beds
Sensors and processing systems	direction finding (by 1930) gyrocompass (by 1934)

SS Mexique was a French transatlantic ocean liner of the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique (CGT). She was launched in 1914 as Île de Cuba but when she was completed in 1915 she was renamed Lafayette.

Lafayette was a hospital ship in the latter part of the First World War and a troop ship in 1919.

In 1928 CGT had Lafayette refitted and renamed her Mexique. In 1939 Mexique was converted into an auxiliary cruiser. In 1940 a mine sank her at the mouth of the Gironde.

This was the second of three CGT liners called Lafayette. The first was an iron-hulled paddle steamer built in 1864 and sold for scrap in 1906. The third was a motor ship built in 1929 and destroyed by fire in Le Havre^[1] in 1938.^[2]