Conte Rosso
 |
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
The Conte Rosso was a transatlantic passenger steamer from the Italian shipping company Lloyd Sabaudo , which was put into service in 1922 and was built for passenger and mail traffic from Italy to New York . She was one of the largest and most remarkable Italian luxury steamers of her time. On May 24, 1941 she was torpedoed and sunk in service as a troop transport east of Sicily by the British submarine HMS Upholder . 1291 Italian crew members and soldiers were killed.
The ship
The 18,017 GRT steam turbine ship Conte Rosso was built at the William Beardmore and Company shipyard in Dalmuir (Scotland) and was the largest ship built at this shipyard to date. The 173.80 meter long and 22.61 meter wide passenger ship had two funnels, two masts and two propellers and could reach a top speed of 18 knots. On board the luxury liner there was space for 208 passengers in the first, 268 in the second and in 1890 in the third class. Each of the cabins was equipped with hot and cold running water, fans and heaters. The ship was also equipped with a continuous double floor , motorized lifeboats and a radio system.
_-_panoramio.jpg){kind=spacer}
The Conte Rosso (in English "Red Count") was named after the Italian nobleman Amadeus VII from the 14th century, who was nicknamed Conte Rosso. She had a sister ship , the Conte Verde (18,765 GRT) put into service in 1923 , which was named after Amadeus VI. was named who was known as "Green Count". Both ships were among the first large transatlantic steamers to be built after the First World War . They also had an open-air restaurant for their passengers in the front area of the promenade deck , which was still very unusual at the time. The lounges were decorated by artists from Florence . This included a music salon and library. One of the innovations was a steam-powered laundry .
The Conte Rosso was launched on February 10, 1921 in Dalmuir. It got stuck on the ramp so that the launch could not be completed until two weeks later. On March 29, 1922, she sailed from Genoa on her maiden voyage via Naples and Montevideo to Buenos Aires . In the following years she commuted between Genoa and New York. In 1928 it was replaced by the new Conte Grande on the New York route and continued from Italy to South America . In 1932 the largest Italian shipping companies - the Navigazione Generale Italiana (head office in Genoa), the Cosulich Società Triestina di Navigazione (head office in Trieste) and Lloyd Sabaudo (head office in Turin) - were nationalized by Benito Mussolini and merged into the Società Italia Flotte Riuniti . The fleets of these shipping companies were therefore merged and the Conte Rosso came under new ownership.
In the same year she started a new service from Trieste via Bombay to Shanghai . From 1938 on, this route developed into one of the main escape routes for German and Austrian Jews to Shanghai , as no emigration visas were required there. During the Italo-Ethiopian War of 1935/36 the Conte Rosso served temporarily as an Italian troop transport . During this time, the Victoria (13,098 GRT) of Lloyd Triestino took over the route of the Conte Rosso .
Sinking
During the Second World War , the Conte Rosso was used again as a troop transport. On May 24, 1941 she was sunk 16 km east of the coast of Sicily on a trip from Naples to Tripoli by the British submarine HMS Upholder under the command of Lieutenant Commander David Wanklyn by two torpedoes . The Conte Rosso was at the time accompanied by torpedo boats , destroyers and battle cruisers . It sank in just ten minutes. Of the 2,729 Italian crew members and soldiers on board, 1,291 were killed, including 37 officers. Only 239 bodies were recovered. The ship sank at the position 36 ° 41 'North, 15 ° 42' East.
Web links
- Technical and historical data in the Clydebuilt Ships Database
- The sinking of the Conte Rosso in the wreck database
- Report on the new Conte Rosso ocean liner in the New York Times of January 12, 1922
- Report on the maiden voyage of the Conte Rosso in the New York Times on February 15, 1922
Individual evidence
- ^ Astrid Freyeisen: Shanghai and the politics of the Third Reich . Königshausen & Neumann, 2000, ISBN 978-3-8260-1690-5 , p. 398.
Footnotes
- ↑ The Upholder was sunk on April 14, 1942 by the Italian torpedo boat Pegasus .