The Spanish shipping company Pinillos, Izquierdo & Cia ordered a merchant ship called Manila from Charles Connell & Company in Glasgow , which was launched on July 5, 1895. In July 1898 she was bought by the Scottish shipping company Donaldson Line and renamed Salacia . Before it was sold, it made three calls to the Canadian port of Québec and four times from Saint John . From 1911 it operated for the German shipping company M. Jebsen in Hamburg under the same name. As early as 1913 it was acquired by Tito Campanella in Genoa and renamed Quarto .
After the outbreak of World War I , Italy planned to build an aircraft mother ship. For this reason, the Quarto was bought on February 6, 1915 and had it converted in the naval arsenal in La Spezia . On October 6, 1915, the Europa was put into service. The ship had a hangar at the stern and at the bow each for 4 seaplanes of the type FBA type A and lifting devices to lower the aircraft into the water and take them back on board. They also had facilities for supplying submarines.
The base of Europa was Vlora . Here she was mostly moored with other auxiliary ships, as the simple port was poorly equipped to supply the naval units. From Vlora and Brindisi an attempt was made to keep the Austro-Hungarian fleet stationed in Kotor under control. In the naval battle in the Strait of Otranto on May 15, 1917, aircraft from Europa were involved. They started at 5:00 a.m. and discovered the Austro-Hungarian ships. At 7:00 am they returned and were refueled and bombed and bombed the SMS Helgoland . However, the bombs missed their target and only minor damage was done to the rudder.
The Europa seaplanes completed missions in 1884 - 1500 of them were used for reconnaissance. As early as 1920, the ship was broken up at the instigation of General Giulio Douhet , because the handling of the seaplanes had not proven itself.
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