The 24,281 GRT steam turbine ship Duilio was built at Cantieri Navali Ansaldo di Sestri Ponente in Genoa . She was the sister ship of the Giulio Cesare (22,576 GRT), which was built by Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson in Wallsend , England . The construction of the two ships had been decided before the outbreak of the First World War . The war had brought the project to a standstill for the time being, so that both ships could only be put into service after the end of the war. The Duilio was laid down in 1914 and launched on January 9, 1916. It was not completed until 1923.
The Duilio was 193.7 meters long, 23.3 meters wide and had two chimneys, two masts and four propellers . It was powered by four steam turbines that developed 24,000 hp and allowed a speed of 19.5 knots. The hull of the Duilio was divided into 17 watertight compartments, which far exceeded the standard of at least 12 compartments set by the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea in 1914. As the first Italian steamship, she also had devices for damping the rolling movement . The passenger accommodation could accommodate 280 passengers in first class, 670 in second class and 600 in third class.
The Duilio left Naples on October 29, 1923 on her maiden voyage to New York . Her last crossing on this route began on July 24, 1928. Then she was used in the South America service and drove from Genoa to Buenos Aires . 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 merged and the Duilio came under new ownership. From 1933 the Duilio was used together with the Giulio Cesare in the South Africa service.
In 1933 she was chartered to Lloyd Triestino and sold to him in 1937. In 1940 the ship was launched . In 1942, the Duilio was temporarily chartered to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and then re-launched in San Sabba near Trieste . There it was sunk on July 10, 1944 in an Allied bombing raid. The wreck was lifted and scrapped in Trieste in 1948.
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