A tragedy for the French Line occurred on Jan. 8, 1971 when the Antilles grounded on an uncharted reef off
Mustique Island, Grenadine Islands in the Caribbean. She was a 600' long twin screw liner registered at
19,828 tons. She was built in 1953 at Brest and had served the French Line on the LeHavre, Southampton, West Indies route, later she was also used for cruises out of San Juan during the off season.
Her final trip started from San Juan, Puerto Rico, but at 5pm on Jan. 8 she ran aground on an uncharted reef
half a mile off Mustique. The reef breached the hull at the fuel tanks which started a fire. Fuel poured out of the
ship into the water and flooded the engine room. Soon explosions in the engine room doomed the ship as the
firefighting crew could not bring the flames under control. At 5:22pm Captain Kerverdo sent out a distress call
which was received at Barbados, soon several small ships were dispatched to the scene.
On board the Antilles, which was burning out of control, the captain knew he could not wait for the rescuers and
ordered the boats to be lowered. There were 691 people on board including 340 passengers. The evacuation
of the burning ship must have been quite orderly and quick, she was empty of all people in less than an hour.
Not one person was lost, a tribute to the captain and crew.
The rescue ships soon arrived, picked up the survivors and left the Antilles to her fate. She continued to burn
until the next day when she finally capsized. On Jan. 18 the wreck broke in two and she was scrapped on site.
The passengers got an upgrade for a short time when they were picked up from Mustique by the Queen Elizabeth
II and taken to Barbados.
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