SS Conte di Savoia

Last updated
<<Conte Di Savoia>> durante le sue prove in mare.JPG
History
Flag of Italy (1861-1946).svg Kingdom of Italy
NameSS Conte di Savoia
Owner Italian Line
Port of registry Flag of Italy (1861-1946).svg Kingdom of Italy
Builder Cantieri Riuniti dell'Adriatico of Trieste, Italy
Launched28 October 1931
Christened Marie José of Belgium
Maiden voyage30 November 1932
FateScrapped in 1950
General characteristics
Type Ocean liner
Tonnage48,502 gross register tons
Length248.25 m (814.5 feet)
Beam29.28 m (96 feet)
Height35 m (114.8 feet)
Draught9.5 m (31.2 feet)
Installed powerSteam turbines
PropulsionQuadruple propellers
Speed27 knots (50 km/h; 31 mph)
Capacity
  • 2,200 total:
  • 500 first class
  • 366 second class
  • 412 tourist class
  • 922 third class
Crew786 total

SS Conte di Savoia ("Count of Savoy") was an Italian ocean liner built in 1932 at the Cantieri Riuniti dell'Adriatico, Trieste. [1]

Contents

Conte di Savoia was originally ordered for the Lloyd Sabaudo line; however, after a merger with the Navigazione Generale Italiana, the ship was completed for the newly formed Italia Flotte Riunite. [1] The new Italia Line also controlled Rex, a similar though slightly larger ship completed just two months before Conte di Savoia. The Conte di Savoia was more modern in decoration and appearance than Rex and was the first major liner fitted with gyroscopic stabilisers.

History

In November 1932, she made her maiden voyage to New York. [1] Unlike Rex, she never made a record transatlantic crossing, reaching a best speed of 27.5 knots (31.6 mph) in 1933. [1]

Conte di Savoia had one unusual feature designed to increase passenger numbers. Three huge anti-rolling gyroscopes were fitted low down in a forward hold. These rotated at high revolutions and were designed to mitigate rolling - a persistent problem on the rough North Atlantic crossing that affected all shipping lines. [2] In practice they reduced the rolling by slowing down the rolling period, but they also caused the vessel to "hang" annoyingly when the vessel was on the extreme limit of her rolls. For safety reasons the system was quickly abandoned on eastbound crossings where the prevailing weather produced following seas, although it was still used on westbound crossings. This was because with a following sea (and the deep slow rolls this generated) the vessel tended to 'hang' with the system turned on, and the inertia it generated made it harder for the vessel to right herself from heavy rolls. [2] None of this affected the operation of the shipping line's advertising department and the benefits of a "smooth crossing" were heavily promoted during the life of the ship.

In 1931, Italian architect, Melchiorre Bega was selected to design the interior lay-out and furnishings of the Conte di Savoia. [3] Bega, who was well-known for his innovative designs of stores, cafés and hotels, [4] created a modernist interior.

Conte di Savoia being scrapped, 1950 Demolizione del <<Conte Di Savoia>>.jpg
Conte di Savoia being scrapped, 1950

Conte di Savoia was requisitioned for war service in 1940, [5] and was sunk in 1943. The hulk was refloated in 1945 and later scrapped in 1950. [5] [6]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ocean liner</span> Ship designed to transport people from one seaport to another

An ocean liner is a type of passenger ship primarily used for transportation across seas or oceans. Ocean liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes. Only one ocean liner remains in service today.

SS <i>Rex</i> Italian ocean liner

SS Rex was an Italian ocean liner launched in 1931. She held the westbound Blue Riband between 1933 and 1935. Originally built for the Navigazione Generale Italiana (NGI) as SS Guglielmo Marconi, its state-ordered merger with the Lloyd Sabaudo line meant that the ship sailed for the newly created Italia Flotta Riunite.

SS <i>Cristoforo Colombo</i> Italian passenger ship

SS Cristoforo Colombo was an Italian ocean liner built in the 1950s, sister ship of the SS Andrea Doria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Funnel (ship)</span> Ship structure for expelling exhaust gases

A funnel is the smokestack or chimney on a ship used to expel boiler steam and smoke or engine exhaust. They are also commonly referred to as stacks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Swedish American Line</span> Defunct Swedish cargo and passenger shipping company (1915-84)

Swedish American Line was a Swedish passenger shipping line. It was founded in December 1914 under the name Rederiaktiebolaget Sverige-Nordamerika and began ocean liner service from Gothenburg to New York in 1915. In 1925 the company changed its name to Svenska Amerika Linien / Swedish American Line.

Italian Line and from 1992 Italia Line, whose official name was Italia di Navigazione S.p.A., was a passenger shipping line that operated regular transatlantic services between Italy and the United States, and Italy and South America. During the late 1960s the company turned to running cruises, and from 1981 it became a global freight operator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stabilizer (ship)</span> Ship component meant to reduce a ships roll

Ship stabilizers are fins or rotors mounted beneath the waterline and emerging laterally from the hull to reduce a ship's roll due to wind or waves. Active fins are controlled by a gyroscopic control system. When the gyroscope senses the ship roll, it changes the fins' angle of attack so that the forward motion of the ship exerts force to counteract the roll. Fixed fins and bilge keels do not move; they reduce roll by hydrodynamic drag exerted when the ship rolls. Stabilizers are mostly used on ocean-going ships.

Savoia may refer to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lloyd Triestino</span>

Lloyd Triestino was a major shipping company, created in 1919 when the city of Trieste became part of Italy in the settlement after the First World War. It ran passenger services on ocean liners around the world. Seriously harmed by Second World War, in which it lost 68 ships, it recovered to run passenger services with new ships on routes as far as Australia. In 2006, with the business by then mainly container freight, the company's name was changed to Italia Marittima.

SS <i>Raffaello</i> Italian ocean liner of the 1960s

SS Raffaello was an Italian ocean liner built in the early 1960s for Italian Line by the Cantieri Riuniti dell'Adriatico, Trieste. It was one of the last ships to be built primarily for liner service across the North Atlantic. Her sister ship was SS Michelangelo.

RMS <i>Empress of Japan</i> (1890)

RMS Empress of Japan, also known as the "Queen of the Pacific", was an ocean liner built in 1890–1891 by Naval Construction & Armaments Co, Barrow-in-Furness, England for Canadian Pacific Steamships (CP). This ship – the first of two CP vessels to be named Empress of Japan – regularly traversed the trans-Pacific route between the west coast of Canada and the Far East until 1922. During the First World War she served as armed merchant cruiser, becoming HMS Empress of Japan for the period that she was a commissioned ship of the Royal Navy.

Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino (STT) ("Technical Establishment of Trieste") was a private shipbuilding company based in Trieste from the mid-19th to early 20th century, and the most important naval shipbuilding firm of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anti-rolling gyro</span>

Ship stabilizing gyroscopes are a technology developed in the 19th century and early 20th century and used to stabilize roll motions in ocean-going ships. It lost favor in this application to hydrodynamic roll stabilizer fins because of reduced cost and weight. However, since the 1990s, there is renewed interest in the device for low-speed roll stabilization of vessels. Unlike traditional fins, the gyroscope does not rely on the forward speed of the ship to generate a roll stabilizing moment and therefore can stabilize motor yachts while at anchor. However, the latest generation of "zero speed" fins stabilizers can stabilize yachts while at anchor thanks to their eccentricity with respect of the shaft.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ship stability</span> Ship response to disturbance from an upright condition

Ship stability is an area of naval architecture and ship design that deals with how a ship behaves at sea, both in still water and in waves, whether intact or damaged. Stability calculations focus on centers of gravity, centers of buoyancy, the metacenters of vessels, and on how these interact.

SS <i>Leonardo da Vinci</i> (1958)

SS Leonardo da Vinci was an ocean liner built in 1960 by Ansaldo Shipyards, Italy for the Italian Line as a replacement for their SS Andrea Doria that had been lost in 1956. She was initially used in transatlantic service alongside SS Cristoforo Colombo, and primarily for cruising after the delivery of the new SS Michelangelo and SS Raffaello in 1965. In 1976 the Leonardo da Vinci became the last Italian Line passenger liner to be used in service across the North Atlantic. Between 1977 and 1978 she was used as a cruise ship by Italia Crociere but was laid up from 1978 onwards until 1982 when she was scrapped.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Navigazione Generale Italiana</span>

Navigazione Generale Italiana (NGI) was an Italian shipping company.

MS Augustus was a combined ocean liner and cruise ship built in 1926 for the Navigazione Generale Italiana (NGI). Augustus operated mostly on the Europe to South and North America routes, on the former being one of, if not the largest and fastest liner to sail on regular crossings.

MS <i>Augustus</i> (1950)

MS Augustus was a 27,090 GRT, luxury ocean liner built in 1950 for Italian Line. She was the sister ship to MS Giulio Cesare that was launched in the same year. These two ships were built to the same design, with similar specifications. After the Augustus was sold to Hong Kong, she sailed under five names. The ship was later sold to Manila Hotel and renamed MS Philippines, functioning as a static hotel. As reported by both Maritimematters, and maritime, the MS Philippines was sold for scrap in September 2011. As of December 2011, she was beached in Alang for scrapping.

MS <i>Giulio Cesare</i> Italian ocean liner (1950–1973)

MS Giulio Cesare was a luxurious ocean liner built for the Italian Line. She was a sister ship to MS Augustus which was launched in the same year. She was built for the South America service like her sister. These two ships' specification and design were very similar.

References

Footnotes

  1. 1 2 3 4 Dawson, p. 108
  2. 1 2 "Italian Liner To Defy The Waves" Popular Mechanics, April 1931
  3. Corradini, Nicola. "Melchiorre Bega - Architekt und Designer". ArchInform.net. archInform-Internationale Architektur-Datenbank. Retrieved 31 March 2019.
  4. Savorra, Massimiliano (October 2017). "Il lusso borghese negli anni '30. I negozi di Melchiorre Bega (Bourgeois Luxury in the 1930s - The shops of Melchiorre Bega". Casabella. 2017 (878): 26–34. Retrieved 31 March 2019.
  5. 1 2 Dawson, p. 245
  6. "Italian Line - SS Conte Di Savoia". ssmaritime.com. Retrieved 2023-04-26.

Bibliography