View source for SS Winnipeg

{{Short description|French steamer notable for carrying refugees from the Spanish Civil War}}
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|Ship image=Winnipeg (barco) DIG-00005.jpg
|Ship caption=SS ''Winnipeg'' in 1939
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|Ship name=*1918–1930: SS ''Jacques Cartier''
*1930–1938: SS ''Winnipeg''
*1938–1941: ''Paimpol''
*1941: SS ''Winnipeg''
*1941–1942:  SS ''Winnipeg II''
|Ship owner=*1918–1938: {{flagicon|France}} [[Compagnie Générale Transatlantique|Cie. Générale Transatlantique]], [[Paris]]
*1938–1941 {{flagicon|France}} Compagnie France-Navigation (C. F. N.), [[Le Havre]]
*1941–1941 {{flagicon|UK|civil}} British Government
*1941–1942 {{flagicon|Canada|1921}} [[Canadian Pacific Steamships]]<ref name=wreck>[http://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?17212 SS Winnipeg 11 (+1942)] wrecksite.eu</ref>
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|Ship registry=*1918–1941: France
*1941: United Kingdom
*1941–1942: Canada
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|Ship fate=Sunk by {{GS|U-443}} in the Atlantic Ocean 22 October 1942
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|Ship type= [[Passenger ship]]
|Ship tonnage= {{GRT|9,807}}
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|Ship length= {{convert|143.9|m|ft|abbr=on|1}}
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|Ship propulsion=Two [[triple expansion]] engines
|Ship speed= {{convert|14|kn|lk=in}} 
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|Ship crew=114 officers & crew
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'''SS ''Winnipeg''''' was a French [[steamboat|steamer]] notable for arriving at [[Valparaíso]], [[Chile]], on 3 September 1939, with 2,200 [[Spanish people|Spanish]] [[immigrants]] aboard. The refugees were fleeing Spain after [[Francisco Franco|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 [[Concentration camps in France|internment camps]], to Chile.<ref>[http://www.nuestro.cl/notas/rescate/winnipeg1.htm ''Winnipeg, el poema que cruzó el Atlántico''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928024420/http://www.nuestro.cl/notas/rescate/winnipeg1.htm |date=2007-09-28 }} {{in lang|es}}</ref>

== History ==
After the end of the [[Spanish Civil War]], [[Pablo Neruda]] noticed that many [[Second Spanish Republic|Spanish Republicans]] had fled in exile to France where they were detained in squalid camps in miserable conditions. The poet, who was then living in Chile, decided to organize their travel to Chile. He first worked as Chilean consul in Spain, before being named consul in [[Paris]].

The ship was an old French [[cargo ship]] which ordinarily could not take more than 250 persons,<ref>[http://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?17212 SS Winnipeg]</ref> but it was adapted so it could carry the 2,200 refugees. Neruda actively worked in this endeavour, reuniting  families separated by the war. Beside the assistance of his friends artists and writers, he was helped by his wife {{Interlanguage link multi|Delia del Carril|es}}.

On the night when ''Winnipeg'' set sail, on 4 August 1939, in the port of Trompeloup - [[Pauillac]], Pablo Neruda wrote:

{{blockquote|''Que la crítica borre toda mi poesía, si le parece''.
''Pero este poema, que hoy recuerdo, no podrá borrarlo nadie''.}}

{{blockquote|The critics may erase all of my poetry, if they want.
But this poem, that today I remember, nobody will be able to erase.}}

''Winnipeg'' arrived at the port of [[Valparaíso]] on 3 September 1939. On the following day, the Spanish Republicans were officially received by the Chilean authorities. Some of them had already landed, a few days before, in the port of [[Arica]], in northern Chile. In a gesture of gratitude, the refugees attached to the ship's mast a large canvas with the face of the Chilean president painted on it.

Most of the immigrants who landed in Chile stayed there. Among them were the historian Leopoldo Castedo, the [[typography|typographer]] [[Mauricio Amster Cats|Mauricio Amster]] and the painters Roser Bru and José Balmes.<ref>[[Spanish language|Spanish]]: "''Nunca jamás, ni siquiera al final de mi vida voy a hacer lo suficiente por agradecer el hecho de estar en este país y de ser ciudadano chileno, gracias justamente a Pablo Neruda. Como alguien dijo alguna vez 'las deudas de amor no se terminan de pagar nunca' y esta es una gran deuda que yo tengo con él todavía".'' See [http://www.uchile.cl/acerca/rectoria/noticias/14julio2004neruda.html ''Noticias de la  rectoría de la Universidad de Chile''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071102065351/http://www.uchile.cl/acerca/rectoria/noticias/14julio2004neruda.html |date=2007-11-02 }} {{in lang|es}}</ref> [[Victor Pey]], who boarded the ship after being a prisoner of war in France, became one of the closest advisors to [[Salvador Allende]].<ref name="mostrador">{{cite news |title=Adiós a un histórico en un día emblemático: a los 103 años fallece Víctor Pey, dueño de El Clarín |url=http://www.elmostrador.cl/noticias/pais/2018/10/05/adios-a-un-historico-a-los-103-anos-fallece-victor-pey-dueno-de-el-clarin/ |accessdate=9 October 2018 |work=El Mostrador |date=5 October 2018}}</ref>

SS ''Winnipeg'' remained under French flag after the [[Battle of France|fall of France]] in 1940 and sailed under orders of the [[Vichy France|Vichy government]]. She was captured on 26 May 1941 by the [[Netherlands|Dutch]] [[sloop-of-war|sloop]] {{HNLMS|Van Kinsbergen|1939|6}} in the [[Caribbean Sea]] and confiscated by the British government. She was eventually purchased by a [[Canada|Canadian]] company, [[Canadian Pacific Steamships]], some months later and renamed ''Winnipeg II''.<ref name=wreck/> She was [[torpedo]]ed and sunk by the {{GS|U-443}} on 22 October 1942 while en route from [[Liverpool]] to [[Saint John, New Brunswick]]. All people on board were rescued by the Canadian [[Flower-class corvette|corvette]] {{HMCS|Morden}}.<ref>[http://www.uboat.net/allies/merchants/ships/2285.html Winnipeg II: British Steam passenger ship] Uboat.net</ref>

==See also==
* [[Demographics of Chile]]
* [[Presidential Republic Era]] (1924–1973)

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://www.nuestro.cl/biblioteca/textos/winnipeg.htm ''Neruda habla sobre el Winnipeg''] {{in lang|es}}
* [http://www.andalucia.cc/winnipeg/ ''Los andaluces, Neruda y el Winnipeg''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070922081004/http://www.andalucia.cc/winnipeg/ |date=2007-09-22 }} {{in lang|es}}
* [http://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?17212 SS Winnipeg II (+1942)]
* [http://www.memoriachilena.cl/archivos2/pdfs/MC0001872.pdf A partial list of passengers aboard the Winnipeg]

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{{May 1941 shipwrecks}}
{{October 1942 shipwrecks}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Winnipeg, SS}}
[[Category:Spanish Civil War]]
[[Category:1939 in Chile]]
[[Category:1939 in Spain]]
[[Category:1918 ships]]
[[Category:Ships built in France]]
[[Category:Ships of France]]
[[Category:Steamships of Canada]]
[[Category:Ships sunk by German submarines in World War II]]
[[Category:World War II shipwrecks in the Atlantic Ocean]]
[[Category:Maritime incidents in May 1941]]
[[Category:Maritime incidents in October 1942]]
[[Category:Ships of the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique]]
[[Category:Spanish emigrants to Chile]]
[[Category:Chile–Spain relations]]