"Ile de France" was the first merchant ship in the world to facilitate the delivery of international mail by carrying a small seaplane on her boat deck and also boasted a stock ticker amongst her many luxuries as a lure for the wealthy investors in that era before the Wall Street crash. Built at St. Nazaire in 1926, she was registered at 44,356 tons gross and measured 793 feet in length with a 92 foot beam. Fast, though never a record breaker, she operated from 1927 until July 1940 when she was seized by Great Britain on arrival at Singapore. Managed by Cunard, she ran as a troopship until 1945 thereafter transported displaced persons home and finally reverted to her owners in 1947. Extensively refitted over two years she returned to service in July 1949 for a further ten years during which she assisted at the famous sinking of the "Andrea Doria" in 1956 and saved over 700 people. Outdated by the late 1950's she was sold in 1959 and dismantled later that year; just prior to being broken up however, she was leased to play the doomed liner "Claridon" in a disaster movie entitled The Last Voyage and at the climax of which she sank. Subsequently raised at M.G.M.'s expense, she was then towed to Japan where she was scrapped.