Sea stories
Rex, the only Italian Blue Riband
The only Italian ship ever to hold the Blue Riband. She took it from Bremen in August 1933 and lost it to Normandie two years later.
She was ordered by Navigazione Generale Italiana from Ansaldo at Sestri Ponente, in Genoa, and was to be called Guglielmo Marconi. Before she was finished the state merged the Italian lines into a single company, Italia, and she was launched as Rex on 1 August 1931, with King Victor Emmanuel III and Queen Elena present.
Her maiden voyage left Genoa in September 1932 and went wrong almost at once: a breakdown forced her to stop at Gibraltar for repairs. The record she had been built for came the following summer. In August 1933 she crossed westbound at an average of 28.92 knots and took the Blue Riband from Bremen. She is still the only Italian ship ever to have held it.
She ran with Conte di Savoia on the southern route to New York, sold as the Riviera afloat: a crossing by way of the Mediterranean sun, with open-air pools on deck. In June 1935 Normandie took the record from her.
Her voyages ended in the spring of 1940, when Italy went to war. Laid up in Genoa, then moved to Trieste, she was towed into the bay of Koper in September 1944 to keep her out of the air raids. On 8 September RAF aircraft attacked her with rockets; she burned and rolled over in shallow water. After the war the wreck lay in Yugoslav waters and was broken up where it lay.
In Fellini's Amarcord, in 1973, the people of Rimini row out at night in small boats to watch her pass.
The registry
Italia Flotte Riunite Ansaldo, Sestri Ponente Launched 1 August 1931 Blue Riband, August 1933 to June 1935 Lost in the bay of Koper, 8 September 1944 how long she was held at Gibraltar in 1932: two days or three, the sources differ [to be confirmed]
Sources
Secondary sources only, read against each other. Where they disagree the text leaves the detail out and the registry says so.
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