Principessa Mafalda
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The Principessa Mafalda was seized in 1909 service passenger ship of the Italian shipping company Navigazione Generale Italiana , which for the passenger and mail service between Italy and South America was used. She was the largest civilian ship in Italy until then and remained the flagship of her shipping company until the even larger and more modern Giulio Cesare was put into service in 1923 .
On October 25, 1927, the ocean liner sank off the Brazilian coast after a part of the starboard shaft's casing came loose at the stern . Although rescue ships were on site almost immediately, 314 of the 1252 passengers and crew members were killed due to the great panic on board . It is the greatest civil tragedy in the history of Italian shipping . In terms of the death toll, the sinking of the Principessa Mafalda is also one of the greatest maritime disasters between the two world wars . It is therefore also called the "Italian Titanic ".
The ship
The Principessa Mafalda was laid down in 1907 for the Genoa- based steamship company Lloyd Italiano . The executive director and chairman of Lloyd Italiano, the influential banker and entrepreneur Erasmo Piaggio (1845–1932), commissioned the building. Piaggio was also managing director and owner of a shipyard in Riva Trigoso on the coast of Liguria , where the Principessa Mafalda was built. The steam engines of the Principessa Mafalda developed 10,000 hp and allowed a cruising speed of 18 knots. The ship had twin screws , two funnels and two masts . In addition to the standard equipment such as the dining room and smoking room, the first-class equipment included a large lounge (“Grand Hall”), a ballroom, a music room, a winter garden , a kindergarten and a veranda café. Two large promenade decks were also available to passengers .
The 9,210 GRT steamship was launched on October 22, 1908 and completed in March 1909. The modern and luxurious ocean liner was used for the transatlantic liner service from Italy to Latin America and served the Genoa – Buenos Aires route. The Principessa Mafalda and her sister ship , the Principessa Jolanda , were named after Mafalda and Jolanda of Savoy , the eldest daughters of Victor Emmanuel III. , the then King of Italy .
The Principessa Jolanda , adorned with colored pennants , went under when it was launched on September 22, 1907 in the Gulf of Genoa in the presence of representatives of the Italian Senate and the royal family. Because the ramp partially collapsed during the launch, the ship was listed to port, capsized and sank. It was scrapped and many of its components were reused. The maiden voyage of the Principessa Mafalda took place on March 30, 1909 ( Genoa - Barcelona - Rio de Janeiro - Santos - Montevideo - Buenos Aires ). From 1911, Lloyd Italiano was controlled by the Italian shipping company Navigazione Generale Italiana and finally incorporated in 1918.
Downfall
On Tuesday, October 11, 1927, the Principessa Mafalda ran with 971 passengers and 281 crew members under the command of Captain Simone Guli from Genoa to Buenos Aires with the usual stopovers. There were a total of 1252 people as well as 3000 tons of cargo and 600 to 700 mail bags on board. In addition to mostly Italians and South Americans, there were also numerous Syrians, Yugoslavs and Spaniards as well as a few Germans, Swiss and Austrians among the travelers. The cargo included 250,000 Italian pounds in gold , which the Italian government sent to the Central Bank of Argentina ( Banco Central de la República Argentina ). The crossing should take 14 days.
Almost from the start of the voyage it became clear that the ship was in poor condition. The stopover in Barcelona was left almost 24 hours late due to technical problems and the ship had to be stopped several times during the further course of the voyage, sometimes for several hours. The failure of the cooling systems caused large quantities of food to spoil, resulting in some cases of food poisoning among travelers. During the stopover in Cape Verde, Captain Guli telegraphed his shipping company and asked for a replacement ship. However, he was instructed to continue the journey to Rio and await further instructions. With fresh supplies, but only poorly repaired, the Principessa Mafalda set sail from Cape Verde into the open Atlantic on October 18.
A slight but noticeable was the first time on 23 October flip side to the port side registered. The passengers, who had previously received little explanation for the breakdowns, now feared that the ship was taking in water. Since the majority of the voyage had already been made by this point, life on board continued in a relatively orderly fashion: When the ship crossed the equator , an equator baptism with orchestral music and a large cake took place on deck . On October 24, the lagging behind schedule, Principessa Mafalda steamed down the northern Brazilian coast at full speed.
At around 5:15 p.m. on Tuesday, October 25, the steamer was about 80 nautical miles from Porto Seguro near the Abrolhos archipelago and was almost at the destination of the trip when suddenly a tremor went through the ship. The starboard shaft housing had come loose and water began to run into the ship's hull . The ship began to sink slowly, stern first. The on-board orchestra continued to play to prevent panic among the passengers. Captain Guli sounded the alarm and SOS at 17:35 . He gave the order to leave the ship. However, it was hardly possible for the crew to keep order on board. The Principessa Mafalda did not have enough space in the lifeboats for everyone on board , despite the regulations introduced in 1912 after the sinking of the Titanic . In addition, the bulkheads could not be closed properly. As the list increased, rumors spread among passengers that the boilers were about to explode . This resulted in great panic and a rush on the lifeboats, several of which became overcrowded and overturned.
At 10:10 p.m. the Principessa Mafalda finally went under. 314 people were killed, including 274 passengers (32 first class, 36 second class, 206 third class). Among the fatalities were the Argentine businessman and co-founder of Garovaglio y Zorraquin, Francisco Garovaglio, the German Fritz-Henning von Lücken (29), who gave his life preserver to a young girl, and the 28-year-old Wilhelmina "Mimi" Bucherer-Heeb, Daughter-in-law of the Swiss watch manufacturer Carl F. Bucherer , who carried many valuable watches and other jewelry with her. Among the crew members who did not survive the sinking were the captain Simone Guli, the ship's doctor Camilo Figarelli and the chief engineer Silvio Scarabichi.
Since the ship went down on a very busy shipping route, many ships were at the scene of the accident within a short time to save the survivors. The sinking of the Principessa Mafalda , with almost seven times as many deaths as the sinking of the Andrea Doria, is the greatest tragedy of civil Italian seafaring. The wreck of the luxury liner lies at a depth of around 1,400 meters and has not yet been found.
See also
Web links
- Technical and historical data and photos of the Principessa Mafalda in the Archivio Navi a Vapore
- Information about the shipping company Navigazione Generale Italiana
- The passenger list of the last trip
- Mimi Bucherer-Heeb, daughter-in-law and buyer of Carl F. Bucherer ( Memento from January 19, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )