Rex
1938
(Classic Ship Collection CSC-019VR)
- Type: Passenger
- Displacement: 51,062 tons
- Dimensions: 880 x 97 x 33 ft.
- Machinery: Parsons geared steam turbines, quadruple screw, 142,000 SHP = 28 knots
- Passengers: 2,258 (604 first class, 378 second class, 410 tourist class, 866 third class)
- Crew: 756
- Builder: Ansaldo Shipyards, Genoa, Italy, 1932
- Service: Laid down and launched for Navigazione Generale Italiana (NGI), but transferred before completion in 1932 to the newly consolidated Italia Line (Flotte Riunite Cosulich-Lloyd Saubado-NGI). Maiden voyage 27 Sep 1932, Genoa - Naples - Gibraltar - New York, did not go well, with mechanical difficulties making a three-day delay at Gibraltar, during which 700 passengers left the ship. However, in Aug 1933 she took the Blue Riband (from Europa) with a record passage Gibraltar - Ambrose Light: 3,181 nautical miles in 4 days, 13 hours, 58 minutes for an average speed of 28.92 knots, a full knot better than the previous record. She held the record into until 1935 (when she lost it to Normandie). Final sailing to New York 30 Apr 1940; departed on return to Genoa 11 May. Laid up at Pola. Set afire and sunk by Allied bombers near Trieste, 8 Sep 1944. Wreckage scrapped, 1947-58.
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