The five-mast Tall Ship France II was originally constructed at the Gironde yards in Bordeaux in 1911. At the time, France had one of the largest tall ship fleets in the world, and the France II was the tallest. It was 150 m long, 17 m wide and had 6,350m of sails. On a calm sea on July 11, 1922, the great ship ran aground at the Ouano reefs in New Caledonia. She would remain a familiar silhouette for the next twenty years to those passionate about the sea. In 1944, American bombers destroyed the wreck signaling the death of the greatest tall ship ever built.