Giulio Cesare (ship, 1923)
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The Giulio Cesare (I) was a 1923 passenger steamer of the Italian shipping company Navigazione Generale Italiana , which was used for passenger and freight traffic from Italy to South America .
The ship
The 22,576 GRT steam turbine ship Giulio Cesare was built at Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson in Wallsend, England. She was the sister ship of the Duilio (24,281 GRT), which was built at Cantieri Navali Ansaldo di Sestri Ponente in Genoa . 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 completed after the end of the war and put into service in 1923.
The Giulio Cesare was 193.2 meters long, 23.2 meters wide and was equipped with two chimneys, two masts and four propellers . She was powered by four steam turbines from Wallsend Slipway & Engineering Company , which developed 3,620 hp and allowed a speed of 20 knots. The six double-ended boilers and four single-ended boilers were also built by Wallsend Slipway. She was a modern ship with a nightclub and bar on the upper deck, telephones, and modern communications equipment.
244 passengers in first class, 306 in second class and 1,800 in third class could be taken on board. The first-class luxury cabins had private bathrooms and showers and oak parquet floors . The first class space included a ballroom and a domed, two-story dining room. The first and second class rooms were located amidships, those of the third class in the aft area of the ship. The second and third class passengers shared a swimming pool . The second class has been described as being comparable to the first class on other ships.
The Giulio Cesare was launched on February 7, 1920, was completed in November 1921 and made her maiden voyage in 1923 . She was built for the route Genoa - Naples - South America, but also called at North American ports. The steamer was also used for cruises . Until 1925, the Giulio Cesare and the Duilio were the largest ships in the Italian merchant navy . 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 therefore merged and the Giulio Cesare came under new ownership.
In November 1933 the Giulio Cesare was modernized and then used in the Mediterranean - South Africa service. In 1935 she collided with the German steamship Barenfels in the port of Gibraltar . The responsibility of the accident was placed on the German ship, whose captain and crew were arrested. In 1942, the Giulio Cesare was temporarily chartered to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and launched in Trieste the following year . There she fell victim to an Allied air raid on September 11, 1944 and was badly damaged. The wreck was then scrapped.