SS Principe Umberto
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}} {{Infobox ship image | Ship image = | Ship caption = Principe Umberto }} {{Infobox ship career | Hide header = | Ship name = SS Principe Umberto | Ship namesake = Prince Umberto | Ship owner = Navigazione Generale Italiana | Ship flag = {{shipboxflag|Kingdom of Italy|civil}} | Ship operator = | Ship registry = Genoa{{cite web | url =http://www.miramarshipindex.org.nz/ship/list?search_op=OR&IDNo=6129698 | title = Principe Umberto | work = Miramar Ship Index | publisher = R.B.Haworth | accessdate = 10 December 2008 }} | Ship route = | Ship ordered = | Ship awarded = | Ship builder = Cantieri Navali del Tirreno, Palermo | Ship original cost = | Ship way number = | Ship laid down = | Ship launched = | Ship sponsor = | Ship christened = | Ship acquired = | Ship commissioned = | Ship recommissioned = | Ship decommissioned = | Ship maiden voyage = | Ship in service = | Ship out of service = | Ship renamed = | Ship reclassified = | Ship refit = | Ship struck = | Ship reinstated = | Ship homeport = | Ship fate = Sunk by {{SMS|U-5|Austria-Hungary|2|sub=y}}, 8 June 1916 | Ship notes = | Ship badge = }} {{Infobox ship characteristics | Hide header = | Header caption = | Ship class = | Ship type = | Ship tonnage = {{GRT|7,838}} | Ship length = {{convert|145.1|m|ftin|abbr=on}} (pp) | Ship beam = {{convert|16.3|m|ftin|abbr=on}} | Ship height = | Ship draft = | Ship depth = | Ship hold depth = | Ship propulsion = 2 × quadruple expansion steam engines | Ship speed = {{convert|16|knots|km/h}} | Ship troops = | Ship crew = | Ship armament = | Ship notes = }} |
SS Principe Umberto was an Italian passenger and refrigerated cargo ship built in 1908 for Navigazione Generale Italiana. During World War I, Principe Umberto served as an armed merchant cruiser.
While transporting troops in the Adriatic in June 1916, the ship was sunk by Austro-Hungarian U-boat {{SMS|U-5|Austria-Hungary|2|sub=y}} with the loss of 1,926 men. It was the worst naval disaster of World War I in terms of human lives lost.
Career
Principe Umberto was built in 1908 by the Cantieri Navali del Tirrenoenglish: United Tyrrhenian Shipyards in Palermo for the Navigazione Generale Italiana a company that sailed to Mediterranean and Black Sea ports, as well as passenger service to North and South America.{{cite web |title = Navigazione Generale Italiana |url = http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/lines/ngi.html |publisher = TheShipsList.com |date = 26 November 2007 |access-date = 10 December 2008 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090122233553/http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/lines/ngi.html |archive-date = 22 January 2009 }}
She was {{convert|145.1|m|ftin|sp=us}} long (pp) with a beam of {{convert|16.3|m|ftin|sp=us}}. She was powered by two quadruple expansion steam engines that moved her at up to {{convert|16|knots|km/h}}.
Principe Umberto{{'}}s routes and early activities are not known, but during World War I, the ship was employed as an armed merchant cruiser to transport men and materiel in support of Italy.Sieche, p. 22.
On 8 June 1916, Principe Umberto and another transport, the Ravenna, were carrying the 55th Infantry Regiment (col. Ernesto Piano) back from Albania to Italy, under the escort of the Italian scout cruiser Libia and four Regia Marina destroyers.Rider, p. 459. The Austro-Hungarian U-boat {{SMS|U-5|Austria-Hungary|2|sub=y}}, under the command of Friedrich Schlosser, launched a torpedo attack that successfully hit the Italian ship.{{cite web |last = Helgason |first = Guðmundur |title = Ships hit during WWI: Principe Umberto |url = http://uboat.net/wwi/ships_hit/4928.html |work = U-Boat War in World War I |publisher = Uboat.net |date = |accessdate = 10 December 2008 }} Principe Umberto went down quickly with the loss of 1,926 menFranco Favre, La marina nella Grande Guerra. Le operazioni navali, aeree, subacquee e terrestri in Adriatico, p. 145 (1,750 according to other sources).
The wreck was discovered in May 2022 off the coast of Albania near Cape of Gjuhez using an underwater robot by the Swiss-Italian engineer Guido Gay.{{Cite web |title=Von Österreich versenktes Kriegsschiff entdeckt |url=https://orf.at/stories/3271577/ |date=2022-06-16 |access-date=2022-06-16 |website=news.ORF.at |language=de}}
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
Bibliography
{{Refbegin}}
- {{cite book | editor-last = Rider | editor-first = Fremont | title = Information Annual 1916: A Continuous Cyclopedia and Digest of Current Events | location = New York | publisher = Cumulative Digest Corporation | year = 1917 | oclc = 67878688 }}
- {{cite book | last = Sieche | first = Erwin F. | chapter = Austro-Hungarian Submarines | title = Warship, Volume 2 | publisher = Naval Institute Press | year = 1980 | isbn = 978-0-87021-976-4 | oclc = 233144055 }}
{{Refend}}
{{coord missing|Adriatic Sea}}
{{June 1916 shipwrecks}}
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Category:World War I passenger ships of Italy
Category:World War I naval ships of Italy
Category:World War I shipwrecks in the Adriatic Sea
Category:Ships sunk by Austro-Hungarian submarines
Category:Maritime incidents in 1916
Category:Ships built in Palermo
Category:Ships built by Cantieri Navali del Tirreno e Riuniti