ABSTRACT
On 21 October 1932, the Compagnie des Messageries Maritimes grandly announced in the press the maiden voyage of their new ocean liner Aramis , 2 whose reception rooms were decorated in the ‘Aegean’ style ( Figure 7.1 ). This was a prestigious project, the fi fth of the Compagnie’s nautonaphtes (petrol-run ships), 3 and this incredibly luxurious and pleasingly original ocean liner was one of the jewels of the French merchant fl eet in the immediate aftermath of the Roaring Twenties. Unfortunately, due to the events of World War II, the ship had only a brief career. 4 On 4 September 1939, it was sent to the shipyard at Saigon to be transformed into an auxiliary cruiser under the name of X1; for some time, it patrolled the waters between Hong Kong and Singapore, and later in the Gulf of Siam and the China Sea. But on 10 April 1942, the Aramis was requisitioned by the Japanese in Saigon and renamed TEIA MARU. It was used for transportation as part of an exchange of diplomats between Japan and the United States, and subsequently served to transport troops. Torpedoed and sunk on 18 August 1944 by the American submarine USS RASHER, it now lies at 18°18’ north and 120°13’ east, at the northwest point of the island of Luzon in the Philippines.
