In June 1939 Flandre took to the Caribbean 310 Jews who had fled Nazi Germany, German-occupied Austria and occupied Czechoslovakia.

[1] On 3 August 1914 Germany declared war on France, and the next day the French Navy requisitioned Flandre to be an auxiliary ship.

On 6 August she was deployed in the western part of the English Channel to protect elements of the British Expeditionary Force crossing from Britain to France.

On 24 March she left St-Nazaire for the Mediterranean, where she supported the Armée d'Orient and the Royal Serbian Army.

She made voyages between Salonica in Greece and Toulon in France, with calls at Corfu, Bizerte in Tunisia and Bône in Algeria.

[5] On 20 May 1917 Flandre was in Milo in Sicily when the Portuguese passenger ship Madeira (formerly the Hamburg Südamerikanische liner Petropolis) collided with her.

[7] On 18 December 1918 Flandre was in Corfu when wind caused her to drag her anchor until she collided with the French cruiser Victor Hugo.

[11] In the 1933 season Flandre continued to sail between Le Havre and Cristóbal via Plymouth, Pointe-à-Pitre, Basse-Terre, Fort-de-France, Trinidad, La Guaira and Puerto Colombia, but with some changes to her route.

[12] On 6 May 1939 President Federico Laredo Brú decreed requiring each immigrant to deposit a $500 bond to be allowed to enter Cuba.

[14] On 16 May Flandre left St-Nazaire for the Caribbean carrying 539 passengers, including 310 Jewish refugees from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia.

[14] A brief Pathé News film from the time shows Flandre docked in Havana, with passengers on the ship talking to relatives on the quayside but being unable to disembark.

[14] On 1 June she reached Vera Cruz, where the Mexican government of President Lázaro Cárdenas refused to let 104 of them disembark.

[16][17] On her return voyage Flandre again called at Havana, where Cuban authorities again refused to let Jewish refugees disembark.

Jewish leaders asked the Cuban authorities to let Flandre stay in Havana long enough for them to raise funds for the refugees to enter the Dominican Republic.

[11][20] After France capitulated on 22 June, the German occupation authorities requisitioned Flandre at Le Verdon-sur-Mer to use as an auxiliary ship in Operation Sea Lion, the intended amphibious invasion of Britain.

[11] On 13 September 1940 she left Bordeaux as part of a convoy, but was grounded by a magnetic mine at the mouth of the Gironde estuary.