MARIUS CHAMBON

[davidships]

The 1905-built tug MARIUS CHAMBON was apparently requisitioned by the Marine Nationale on 29/8/1939 at Marseille and on 9/12/1939 sailed from Marseille for Beirut

From two interesting threads on the Old Forum, we know that in 1941 the tug took refuge at Iskenderun in then-neutral Turkey in July 1941 just before the end of the Allied invasion of Syria and Lebanon (Operation Exporter).
http://www.warsailors.com/forum/archive ... 45300.html
http://www.warsailors.com/forum/archive ... 65336.html

I am therefore intrigued the attached little photo, more-or-less clearly labelled "Baie de Karagatch, Turquie, Janvier 1940" and claimed to be of MARIUS CHAMBON. This certainly looks like that tug, after the two thin funnels she was built with were replaced by a single conventional one, probably in the 1920s, if not before. The location is not so simple as there are many places of that name in Turkey, now spelled "Karaağaç", and two candidates in particular:
- Karaağaç Bay, ironically now a Turkish naval base (but only since the 1980s) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aksaz_Naval_Base
- Karaağaç, now effectively a suburb of Iskenderun, though I do not think that the background matches - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karaa%C4%9Fa%C3%A7,_Hatay

So why would MARIUS CHAMBON have been in a remote Turkish bay in January 1940?

[Capu Rossu]

Hello David,

In the work of the Historical Service of the French Navy "Le Théâtre Méditerranéen - Tome I du 2 Septembre 1939 au 25 juin 1940", the Marius Chambon and Marseillais 3 tugs, both required, the Mare water tank and various barges towed by Navy tugs Laborieux, Cépet, Rhinocéros, Goliath, Samson et Cotentin sailed from Toulon on December 9, 1939 with the 52nd Minsweepers Section (AD 291 Avocette, ADE 292 Massalia et AD 293 Jean Mic). After a stopover in Corsica (bad weather conditions) the group joined Bizerte.
Reinforced by the auxiliary minelayer X 35 Finistère, the group set sail again on January 1, 1940 and arrived in Beirut on January 24.
During the crossing, he stopped at Malta, Argostoli, Corinth, Kalamaki, Piraeus and Karagatch.

Regards
Alain

[davidships]

Merci, Alain.
That seems to make sense

DAvid