SS ''Roma'' was an

ocean liner An ocean liner is a passenger ship primarily used as a form of transportation across seas or oceans. Ocean liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes (such as for pleasure cruises or as hospital ships). C ...

built for the Italian shipping company Navigazione Generale Italiana of

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of t ...

Ansaldo shipyard Ansaldo was one of Italy's oldest and most important engineering companies, existing for 140 years from 1853 to 1993. From foundation to World War I The company was founded in 1853 as Gio. Ansaldo & C. S.A.S. by renowned players in the Genoe ...

Sestri Ponente Sestri Ponente is an industrial suburb of Genoa in northwest Italy. It is part of the Medio Ponente ''municipio'' of Genoa. Geography It is situated on the Ligurian Sea four miles to the west of the city, between Pegli and Cornigliano. Its p ...

. She was the sister ship to MS ''Augustus''. The ship was later transferred to the new

Italian 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 ...

after the merger of Navigazione Generale Italiana. When

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

broke out, she was acquired by the

Navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions. It include ...

for Conversion to aircraft carrier name Aquila. She was taken over by the German occupation forces in 1943 but was partially scuttled by Italians. She was raised and scrapped in 1951.

History

Ocean Liner Career

Following the end of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, many shipping companies were waiting to have enough money to build new liners. Navigazione Generale Italiana ordered two new 30,000 gross register tons transatlantic ocean liners from

. The first ship was launched in 1926 and christened ''Roma''. She had an entirely steel hull. Her interior was decorated in Baroque style. The ship was with signal code letters ICEV. Unlike ''Roma''s

sister ship A sister ship is a ship of the same class or of virtually identical design to another ship. Such vessels share a nearly identical hull and superstructure layout, similar size, and roughly comparable features and equipment. They often share a ...

, ''Roma'' was powered by eight turbines connected in couples to four shafts. Steam for the turbines was provided by 9 double-ended and 4 single-ended boilers; all in all, the ship was able to boast a maximum speed of . Some of the machinery was sourced from the canceled Italian Navy ''Cristoforo Columbo''.Ordovini, Petronio; et al., p. 332 ''Roma'' could carry 1700 passengers (375 first, 300 second, 300 intermediate, 700 third class). Her two funnels were repainted into the Italian Line's colors after her company merged with Lloyd Sabaudo and Cosulich Line to form the new

. In 1933 the intermediate class was replaced by the touristic one. The main deck was covered with

teak Teak (''Tectona grandis'') is a tropical hardwood tree species in the family Lamiaceae. It is a large, deciduous tree that occurs in mixed hardwood forests. ''Tectona grandis'' has small, fragrant white flowers arranged in dense clusters (panicl ...

. On 30 January 1932, ''Roma'' rammed the American ocean liner at

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, severely damaging ''President Roosevelt''. ''President Roosevelt'' was repaired and returned to service. The Roma will continue passenger service until 1939.

Conversion to aircraft carrier

When

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

broke out, she was laid up and later taken over by the Italian Navy. She was then refitted and transformed into an aircraft carrier named ''Aquila''. Her speed was increased to 30 knots after the refitting. She was taken over by the German occupation forces in 1943 but was partially scuttled by Italian

co-belligerent Co-belligerence is the waging of a war in cooperation against a common enemy with or without a formal treaty of military alliance. Generally, the term is used for cases where no alliance exists. Likewise, allies may not become co-belligerents in a ...

s two years later. After the end of the conflict, her wreckage was raised and towed to

La Spezia La Spezia (, or , ; in the local Spezzino dialect) is the capital city of the province of La Spezia and is located at the head of the Gulf of La Spezia in the southern part of the Liguria region of Italy. La Spezia is the second largest ci ...

, where she was scrapped in 1951–1952.

References

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Roma (1926) Passenger ships of Italy Ocean liners 1926 ships Ships built in Genoa Ships built by Gio. Ansaldo & C. Maritime incidents in 1932

History

Ocean Liner Career

Conversion to aircraft carrier

See also

References

Bibliography