Remember it was August 29, 1953, three days after my birthday. I was three years old. There were 205 passengers. We were going to visit mom’s family in Sicily. Mom was so beautiful. You lucky dog:) We sailed out of New York, Halifax, Lisbon, Gibraltar, Barcelona, Palermo, Cannes, and Genoa.
We were wearing those funny party hats when the photo was taken. It was built for the Cosulich Line and transferred to Italian Line in 1935 when it absorbed Cosulich Line. On May 8, 1935, she was used as troop transport for the Italian Government to east Africa (Eritrea). She was chartered to the International Red Cross for evacuation voyages from East Africa in 1942. She was taken over by the US Government and used as Francis Y. Slanger, a hospital ship. She was returned to Italian Line in late 1946 where her original name was restored. She returned to transatlantic sailing until 1965, when she was withdrawn from service. On October 7, 1965 she arrived at La Spezia, Italy to be scrapped and in 1966, she was scrapped by Terrestre Maritma.
