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HISTORY
The SS Rex was an Italian
ocean liner launched in 1931. It held the westbound Blue Riband
between 1933 and 1935. Originally built for the Navigazione
Generale Italiana (NGI) as the SS Guglielmo Marconi, its
state-ordered merger with the Lloyd Sabaudo line meant that the
ship sailed for the newly created Italia Flotta Riunite (Italian
Line). On May 12, 1938, in a demonstration of U.S. air power,
three YB-17 bombers of the U.S. Army Air Corps intercepted the
Rex 620 nautical miles (1,100 km) at sea in a highly publicized
event.
The Rex operated transatlantic crossings from Italy with its
running mate, the Conte di Savoia. On 8 September 1944, off
Koper, Rex was hit by 123 rockets launched by RAF aircraft,
caught fire from stem to stern. She burned for four days, then
rolled onto the port side, and sank in shallow water. The ship
was broken up at the site beginning in 1947.
History
Following North German Lloyd's successful capture of the Blue
Riband with its Bremen and Europa duo of ocean liners, the Rex
was intended to be Italy's effort to do the same. Amid great
competition from other steamship companies, the Italian Line
carried out a very attractive and enthusiastic publicity
campaign for its two largest liners, the Rex and the Conte di
Savoia.
Both ships were dubbed "The Riviera afloat". To carry the theme
even further, sand was scattered in the outdoor swimming pools,
creating a beach-like effect highlighted by multicolored
umbrellas. Both ships were decorated in a classical style while
the norm of the time was the Art Deco or the so-called "Liner
Style" that had been premiered on board the French Line’s Ile de
France in 1927. The ship’s exterior design had followed the
trend set by Germany’s Bremen and Europa. The Rex sported a long
hull with a moderately raked bow, two working funnels, but still
featured the old-type overhanging counter stern found on such
liners as the Olympic and Aquitania.
The first of this pair to be completed was, appropriately, the
largest and fastest. It was christened the Rex in August 1,
1931, in the presence of King Victor Emmanuel III and Queen
Elena. In its goal of a record-breaking maiden voyage, its first
run was a dismal failure. It sailed from Genoa in September,
1932, after a send off from Premier Benito Mussolini, with a
passenger list of international celebrities. While approaching
Gibraltar, serious mechanical difficulties arose. Repairs took
three days. Half its passengers requested to leave, preferring
to reach Germany's coasts and take the Europa; arriving in New
York they found the Rex already into the dock. Lengthy repairs
were required in New York before returning to Europe.
In August 1933, the Rex fulfilled the promises of its designers
and captured the Blue Riband on its westbound crossing with a
time of four days and thirteen hours, with an average speed of
28.92 knots. This record would last until 1935 when it was
captured by the French Line's Normandie.
World War II
Following the outbreak of war, both the Rex and Conte di Savoia
continued regular sailings to the Mediterranean as if totally
unaffected by events in Northern Europe. In the end, Italian
liners proved to be among the final ships trading on a
commercial basis. Their sailings ceased in the spring of 1940
and they were returned to Italian ports for safekeeping, with
Rex laid up at Genoa, but after a city bombing, the Italian Line
decided to move it to Trieste. To prevent German forces from
using the liner to blockade the harbor entrance, the Rex was
moved near Pola coast, where it lay for some time.
On September 8, 1944, she was attacked by 12 Royal Air Force
Beaufighters of 272 Squadron at Capodistria Bay south of
Trieste. She was left listing and on-fire after being struck by
59 rockets and numerous cannon-shells. A second attack, later
that day, by 12 more Beaufighters of RAF 39 Squadron and South
African Air Force 16 Squadron resulted in her turning over and
sinking in shallow water.
Post-war
In 1946, officials of the Italian steamship line proposed to
salvage Rex and recommission it. However the liner had been sunk
in a portion of the harbor allocated to Yugoslavia, whose
government blocked any recovery. The remains of Rex - about one
third of the ship, including double bottom, boilers, and engines
- are located off the Slovenian coast in the Gulf of Koper. The
rest was scavenged for scrap iron in the 1950s by the local
government; it was said that the ship was the largest Slovenian
"iron mine" at the time. Since 1954, after the formal annexation
of Zone B of the Free Territory of Trieste to Yugoslavia, an
anchor claimed to be from the Rex has been on display in
Congress Square of the Slovenian capital Ljubljana to symbolize
the defeat of Fascist expansionism. Though claimed to be from
the liner, this anchor is not of the dreadnaught style that Rex
had.
The victory of the SS Rex heralded a peak in Italy’s cultural
emergence; a lasting source of inspiration and national pride.
In 1963 Peroni Nastro Azzurro was named for the "Blue Ribbon"
which the Rex won (nastro azzurro means "blue ribbon" in
Italian.)
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