SS Winnipeg

SS Winnipeg in 1939
History
Name	1918–1930: SS Jacques Cartier 1930–1938: SS Winnipeg 1938–1941: Paimpol 1941: SS Winnipeg 1941–1942: SS Winnipeg II
Owner	1918–1938: Cie. Générale Transatlantique, Paris 1938–1941 Compagnie France-Navigation (C. F. N.), Le Havre 1941–1941 British Government 1941–1942 Canadian Pacific Steamships[1]
Port of registry	1918–1941: France 1941: United Kingdom 1941–1942: Canada
Builder	Ateliers & Chantiers de France, Dunkirk, France
Fate	Sunk by German submarine U-443 in the Atlantic Ocean 22 October 1942
General characteristics
Type	Passenger ship
Tonnage	9,807 GRT
Length	143.9 m (472.1 ft)
Beam	18.2 m (59.7 ft)
Propulsion	Two triple expansion engines
Speed	14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph)
Crew	114 officers & crew

SS Winnipeg was a French steamer notable for arriving at Valparaíso, Chile, on 3 September 1939, with 2,200 Spanish immigrants aboard. The refugees were fleeing Spain after Franco's victory in the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939). The Chilean President Pedro Aguirre Cerda had named the poet Pablo Neruda Special Consul in Paris for Immigration, and he was charged with what he called "the noblest mission I have ever undertaken": shipping the Spanish refugees, who had been housed by the French government in internment camps, to Chile.^[2]