Albania (ship, 1921)
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
The Albania (II) was an ocean liner put into service in 1921 by the British shipping company Cunard Line , which was used in passenger and mail traffic from Great Britain to the USA and Canada . In 1930 the ship was sold to Italy and sunk by a British air torpedo in 1941.
The ship
The 12,767 GRT, steel-built steam turbine ship Albania was built at Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company in Greenock, Scotland , and was launched on April 17, 1920. She was the first ship that Cunard had built after the end of the First World War . The 164.28 meter long and 19.50 meter wide passenger and cargo ship had a chimney, four masts and a single propeller and was powered by Brown-Curtis steam turbines, which developed a shaft power of 6800 hp (5071 kW) and the ship could accelerate to 13 knots.
The Albania , the second Cunard ship with this name, was built for passenger and cargo traffic from England to North America and set sail on January 19, 1921 under the command of Captain Brown on her maiden voyage from Liverpool to New York . Immediately afterwards, the ship started regular service to New York and Halifax . On April 20, 1922, she was placed on the Liverpool - Quebec - Montreal route. Later that year she switched to the Liverpool – Boston – New York route.
On August 27, 1925, was Albania in London via Southampton and Cherbourg to New York. This was her last trip for the Cunard Line. With the commissioning of the three new ships RMS Aurania (III), RMS Ascania (II) and RMS Alaunia (II) on the Canada route in 1924 and 1925, the Albania was no longer required for this service. Therefore it was launched in 1925.
Under the Italian flag
In 1930 the Italian shipping company Navigazione Libera Triestina (NLT), based in Trieste, bought the ship and renamed it California . The steamer was henceforth used with space for 130 first class passengers and 30 second class passengers in the liner service from Trieste to Seattle . On December 11, 1930, the California left for her first voyage for the new owners. After the beginning of the Abyssinian War in 1935, the Italian government acquired the ship and had it converted into a hospital ship. From December 1935, it took on this new role.
In 1937 the ship was transferred to the nationalized shipping company Lloyd Triestino . After Italy entered the Second World War in May 1940, the ship was again used as a hospital ship. On August 11, 1941, the California was hit in the port of Syracuse (Sicily) by an air torpedo from a Fairey Swordfish of the 830th Naval Air Squadron stationed in Malta and sank. A man came to us life. The ship was then lifted and scrapped.