MS Augustus

Societe Italia di Navigazione (from 1932)

The Augustus was an Italian passenger ship.

History

End of 1927, the Augustus and her sister ship Roma was provided by the Italian shipping company Navigazione Generale Italia in service. You should compete with the ships owned by Savoy Loyd on the route Genoa - South America. Both ships were very luxurious and very fast for their time. Unlike on the Roma, where there was only the conventional three classes, we had set up on the Augustus a fourth class. Here are the prices were extremely low.

In an arrangement of Benito Mussolini in 1932 the shipping companies were merged. The new owners of Augustus was now called " Società di Navigazione fleet Riunite ". 1933 graduated from the Augustus a trip around the world in 129 days. She drove here from New York City, by the Mediterranean, the Suez Canal, India, Japan back to New York City.

From the second half of the 1930s the ship obsolete rapidly.

After an overhaul in Genoa Augustus was drafted in 1941 by the Italian Navy to be converted into an aircraft carrier. It should be just a simple conversion to a flush deck carrier, not to be compared with the total conversion of the sister ship Roma in the aircraft carrier Aquila. So that should now receive Sparviero named ship as flush deck carrier no "island" - building on the carrier deck with all command functions for ship and aircraft. In September 1942, work began in Genoa. Also for this support, such as for the Aquila, German aircraft carrier technology was purchased by the Italians. Until the German occupation of Italy in September 1943, only the structures of the passenger ship were removed.

The Sparviero was sunk on 5 October 1944 by the German troops in Genoa as a block ship, to reduce the harbor entrance width, and thus served to improve military control of the port access. 1946, the wreck was raised and scrapped in 1947.