Cruising The Past Cruise News Rare candid moment of Greta Garbo’s departure from Sweden in 1929 aboard the Swedish American Line’s MS GRIPSHOLM. Greta Garbo made her first voyage to the USA on the Drottningholm in 1925. The video of her departure from Gothenburg in this clip, after a brief visit to Sweden.
For the following information we wish to thank Lars Hemingstam and his excellent website on the Swedish American Line – click here to visit.
Greta Garbo (18 September 1905 – 15 April 1990) was a Swedish actress during Hollywood’s silent film period and part of its Golden Age.
Regarded as one of the greatest and most inscrutable movie stars ever produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and the Hollywood studio system.
Garbo received a 1954 Honorary Academy Award “for her unforgettable screen performances.”
In 1999 was ranked as the fifth greatest female star of all time by the American Film Institute.
Greta Garbo & the famous director Maurice Stiller on board the “S.S. Drottningholm” in 1925 en route to the United States
Very rare footage of the MS GRIPSHOLM in the 1920s – presented by Swedish TV – more of Garbo.
The MS GRIPSHOLM – Greta Garbo sailed aboard this great ship in 1929.
MS Gripsholm was an ocean liner, built in 1925 by Armstrong, Whirthworth & Company in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England for the Swedish American Line for use in transatlantic traffic from Gothenburg to New York.
From 1927 onwards she was used as a cruise ship alongside transatlantic crossings. Swedish American Line was one of the finest steamship companies operating.
From 1942 to 1946, the United States Department of State chartered Gripsholm as an exchange and repatriation ship, carrying Japanese and German nationals to exchange points where she then picked up Americans and Canadians (and British married to Americans or Canadians) to bring home to America and Canada. In this service she sailed under the auspices of the International Red Cross, with a Swedish captain and crew.
The ship made 12 round trips, carrying a total of 27,712 reptriates.
Exchanges took place at neutral ports; at Lourenco Marques in Mozambique or Mormugoa in Portuguese India with the Japanese, and Stockholm or Lisbon with the Germans.
After the war, Gripsholm was used to deport inmates of US prisons to Italy and Greece. The Swedish American Line sold Gripsholm to Norddeutscher Lloyd in 1954, who renamed her to MS Berlin. The ship was sold for scrap in 1966.
The MS Drottningholm – Greta Garbo sailed aboard this SAL ship on her first visit to America in 1925.
