SS Pasteur was a turbine steam ship built for Compagnie de Navigation Sud-Atlantique. She later sailed as Bremen for Norddeutscher Lloyd. In the course of her career, she sailed for 41 years under four names and six countries' flags. In 1936 the French shipping company Compagnie de Navigation Sud-Atlantique planned to order a new ship to carry passengers and freight on their South Atlantic routes. Her main competition was the German liner Cap Arcona owned by the Hamburg Südamerikanische Dampfschifffahrts-Gesellschaft. Building began in 1938 at Chantiers de l'Atlantique, in Saint-Nazaire, France. On 15 February 1938, she was christened Pasteur after the scientist Louis Pasteur. A fire in March 1939 delayed her fitting out and she was not completed until August 1939, just before World War II broke out. Pasteur was 29,253 gross tons. She was 212.4 m long and 26.8 m wide. She had 11 decks and possessed extensive loading spaces. She was designed to carry 751 passengers. She could reach around 50,000 HP and speeds up to 26 Knots, but her usual service speed was around 22 knots, making her the third fastest ship of her time. Her draft was 9.3 m. She had four propellers.