Sinking of Ville du Havre

Date: November 22, 1873 • Location: Paris, France

The French steamship Ville du Havre collided with a Scottish iron clipper in the North Atlantic and sank with the loss of 226 lives.

Ville du Havre was a French iron steamship that operated round trips between the northern coast of France and New York City. Launched in November 1865 under her original name of Napoléon III, she was converted from a paddle steamer to single propeller propulsion in 1871 and, in recognition of the recent defeat and removal from power of her imperial namesake, the Emperor Napoleon III, was renamed Ville du Havre. It was named after Le Havre, a major port city in the Normandy region of northern France.