History

"Every for himself!"

-The capitain to the passengers

The P/F Conte Rosso was built in Glasgow for the Italian company "Lloyd Sabaudo" and entered in service in 1922 carrying passengers between Italy and New York . She was the first new transatlantic liner built after the First World War and the largest Italian liner, infact, she was 179.30 meters long, 22.62 meters wide and 9.75 meters high. The interiors were designed by Adolfo and Gino Coppedè in Renaissance and Baroque style. In 1928, she was replaced on the New York route by the newer SS Conte Grande and began service between Italy and South America. She was acquired by the Italian Line in 1932 when it took over the Lloyd Sabaudo Line. In 1932, she began serving the Trieste-Bombay-Shanghai route. In 1933 were added many cabins and were changed the color of the funnels. She also served as an Italian troopship during the Ethiopian War in 1936. The ship was modernized in the same year by adding cabins, white hull color and three pools with many bars on the sun deck. The ship was very fast, infact she managed to reach 18 knots, but in 1936 the motors were upgraded and she managed to reach 20,05 knots!During the war she became a troopship and were added some weapons and were added more lifeboats. On May 24, 1941 she left Naples to Tripoli, she was in convoy with Victoria, Esperia and Marco Polo when, at 20.45 pm, she was hit by two torpedoes launched by the British submarine Upholder. We don't know much about the sinking, but we know that the Conte Rosso is sunk by the bow and after a few minutes he leaned on the starboard side and that while the stern was totally vertical the propellers were still spinning. We also know that the Conte Rosso sank in 10 minutes ,infact, the captain didn't have the time to organize the evacuation and he shouted from the speaker "EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF!".That night 1.297 people died, only 1527 were the survivors.