From 1927 onwards, the Gripsholm made transatlantic passenger crossings and regular recreational cruises. Gripsholm was one of the first ships to call at the Canadian Pier 21 immigration terminal in Halifax, Nova Scotia and made 101 trips with immigrants to Pier 21.
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 US and Canadian citizens to bring home to the USA 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 repatriates. Exchanges took place at neutral ports; at Lourenço 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.
Post-war service and renaming
The Swedish American Line sold Gripsholm to Norddeutscher Lloyd in 1954, who renamed her MS Berlin. As MS Berlin, the ship resumed Canadian immigration voyages to Pier 21 in Halifax, making 33 immigrant voyages before the ship was retired. An image of MS Berlin arriving at Pier 21 in 1957 became the centre image of the newly redesigned Canadian epassport in 2012. The ship was sold for scrap in 1966.
Anton Koschany, Canadian news producer, W5, immigrated to Canada as a child on the sailing of March 22, 1956 from Bremerhaven, in company of his mother and sister.
Exchange and repatriation ship
Joseph Alsop, not as a Naval Press Officer stranded in Hong Kong, but as a news reporter.
Gilberto Bosques, Mexican Consul General in Marseille, credited with issuing 40,000 visas to fleeing Spanish Republicans, Jews and other persecuted individuals in 1939-1943, on board the MS Gripsholm sailing from Lisbon March 6, 1944, after having been imprisoned at the Rheinhotel Dreesen in Bad Godesberg for one year.
Saburō Kurusu, Japanese peace envoy who was in the US when Pearl Harbor was attacked, was repatriated to Japan via Lourenço Marques in 1942.
Pedro Inzunza McKay, Mexican diplomat, native of Mocorito, Sinaloa, subsequently Mexico's ambassador in Cuba and Brazil, on board the MS Gripsholm, with his French wife Marie Louise, sailing from Lisbon March 6, 1944, after having been imprisoned at the Rheinhotel Dreesen in Bad Godesberg for one year.
Gregon A. Williams, Marine Corps Officer; Assistant Naval Attaché in Shanghai, was repatriated from Shanghai in 1942.
