SS Minotaure was a steamer built for the British Royal Navy in 1918 and operated as a tender by the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique from 1929 to 1940; and from 1948 to 1958. Construction and early service She was built by Ferguson Brothers, Ltd. for the Royal Navy in 1918 and launched under the name Rollcall as one of six Resolve class salvage tugs built between 1917 and 1919. Rollcall was completed too late to see wartime service, and was soon sold off. In 1922, she was sold to the Alexandria Towing Co. and renamed Romsey. The tug was converted into a passenger tender, and a lounge was built on the upper deck. An enclosed bridge was constructed atop the upper deck and one of the twin funnels was removed. Romsey served in Southampton until 1920, when she was sold to the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique. A similar vessel of the same name replaced her in 1930. French Service In 1929 she was acquired by the French Line and based in Le Havre as a tender, under the name Minotaure. She joined the tenders Titan and Ursus, both of which Minotaure joined in assisting the launch of the Normandie in October 1932. In August of the same year the then Prime Minister, Édouard Herriot traveled aboard her, for which a grand piano was loaded aboard the tug. The largest tug belonging to the French Line, Minotaure often served the company's larger liners. In 1935, the tug traveled to Saint-Nazaire to escort the completed superliner Normandie back to Havre for the liner's maiden voyage. Albert Lebrun, president of France at the time sailed aboard the tug to inspect the brand-new Normandie in May of the same year. Minotaure participated in the rescue of several liners; including L'Atlantique in 1933 and Paris in 1939, both victims of the fires that so often ravaged French liners. Requisitioned by the French Navy at the start of the Second World War, the tender carried more than 500 troops when she departed Le Havre to assist the evacuation of the new battleship Jean-Bart on 11 June 1940. Joined by Titan and Ursus, the three tugs towed the incomplete battleship out of Saint-Nazaire on the night of the 18th. Minotaure departed St. Nazaire on the 19th for Bordeaux; arriving there on the 24th. Two months later she was seized by the Germans. Wartime service Renamed S142; she was used