SS Île de France was a French luxury ocean liner that plied the prestigious transatlantic route between Europe and New York from 1927 through to 1958.

She was built in Saint-Nazaire for the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique (or CGT, also known as the "French Line"), and named after the region around Paris known as "L'Ile de France".

Launched in 1926, she commenced her maiden voyage on June 22, 1927, as the first major ocean liner built after World War I, and the first ever to be decorated almost entirely in modern Art Deco style.

In 1956 she played a key role in rescuing passengers from the SS Andrea Doria after the latter ship's fatal collision with the MS Stockholm off Nantucket, Massachusetts.

Île de France was part of a four ship agreement between the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique (CGT) and the French government dating to November 1912.

In addition to the luxurious dining room, there was also a grand foyer that was open to four decks, a chapel in the neo-gothic style, a shooting gallery, an elaborate gymnasium, and even a merry-go-round for the younger passengers.

In 1936 it was immortalised in the song "A Fine Romance" performed by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in the film Swing Time with the lyric "You're just as hard to land as the Île de France".

[4] Even though Île de France was not the fastest vessel in the world, it briefly pioneered the quickest mail system between Europe and the United States.

The second was on September 1, 1939 when Nazi Germany invaded Poland which began World War II and ended civilian (as opposed to military) transatlantic traffic.

Île de France arrived in New York harbor on September 9 and, while she was crossing the Atlantic Ocean, 16 vessels were sunk by torpedoes, mines, or gunfire.

Since the French were not anxious to return the ship to its homeland,[citation needed] she was towed to Staten Island by ten tugs and was laid up after special dredging that cost $30,000.

Then during March 1940, commanded by the British Admiralty, to which it had been lent, the ship was loaded with 12,000 tons of war materials, submarine oil, tanks, shells, and several uncrated bombers that were stowed on the aft open decks.

In 1941 she returned to New York[7] and made several crossings from the northeast as a troop ship such as the one on February 14, 1944, sailing from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Greenock, Scotland, carrying among others the 814th Tank Destroyer Battalion.

[8][9] In October, 1942, Île de France tied up alongside the Charl Malan Quay in Port Elizabeth, South Africa.

[11] A small party of workmen then fitted the liner out as a floating prisoner of war camp, "with festoons of barbed wire sprouting from her decks and disfiguring her graceful lines" as the ship was prepared for the task of bringing POWs back from north Africa.

The outcome included the removal of its third "dummy" funnel and an upturn of the straight black hull to meet its upper forepeak, in keeping with the new style of the CGT's ships beginning with Normandie in 1935.

In 1949 Île de France was the setting for part of the first act of the Jules Styne Broadway musical Gentlemen Prefer Blondes starring Carol Channing.

On July 26, 1956, Île de France had a major role in the rescue operation after the collision of the passenger liners Andrea Doria and Stockholm off Nantucket.