Kimon: Part 1
One of the beloved passenger ships in the 1930s was Kimon of the G. Potamianos Lines, one of six sibling Potamianos ships that were prominent in the 1930s. The ships were Kimon, Fokion, Petros (see http://www.nautilia.gr/forum/showthread.php?t=56951), Tassos (see http://www.nautilia.gr/forum/showthread.php?t=23166), Elvira (see http://www.nautilia.gr/forum/showthr...998#post178998) and Popi. In addition, we had Epirus.
Kimon was built by the Compagnie Francaise de Navigation et de Constructions Navales et Sarte Reunis in Nantes as Numidia in 1904. She was a wonderful ship much loved by all French who traveled to Corsica, Algieria and Tunis. Numidia had 1,284 tons, two funnels, 79.5 m length and 8.7 m width. Her service speed was an impressive 16 knots with a maximum of 18.2 knots. Her engines could produce 305 HP. But she could accommodate originally only 100 passengers in cabins.
A year after launching, she was transferred to Compagnie Mediterraneenne de Navigation. But the big move was in 1906 when Numidia joined the Compagnie Fraissinet. Under the new management she became a very popular ship. She was serving the Marseilles to Corsica route along with four other ships including Italia shown below that although not a sister ship had been built by the same company and was almost of the same size.
Italia and Numidia.jpg
In 1913 there were major changes and she received just one funnel instead of two. She was requisitioned by the French Navy on November 10, 1914. One of her first projects was to bring wheat to the Montenegrins who were fighting in the Balkan War. Subsequently, she was stuck in San Giovanni di Medua.. She was returned to her owners in 1918 and started doing various trans-mediterranean routes.
Here she is black, serving again Corsica.
Numidia 3.jpg
A very nice postcard of Numidia from the 1920s is preserved here
Numidia 1924.jpg
Various routes used by her are shown below
cnm3_800.jpg
(to be continued)