MS Saturnia

On 21 September 1927 Saturnia left Trieste on her maiden voyage to the River Plate port. On 1 February 1928, she left for her first North Atlantic crossing to New York.[1] On 16 February the ship arrived to be welcomed by harbor craft, the Mayor's Committee and celebrated by a luncheon.[9]

Saturnia among Italian troop ships passing through Suez Canal, Sept. 1935.

On 2 January 1932 Cosulich became part of the new line Italia Flotte Riunite but maintains its separate administrative office in Trieste. The ships assumed the new colors of Italia Flotte Riunite. On 8 May 1935 Saturnia was taken over to serve as a troop ship supporting the Abyssinian war. In December 1935 the ship's original engines are replaced by the builder with Sulzer diesels having a total of 41,000 b.h.p. for a top speed of 22 kn (25 mph; 41 km/h). During this period the baroque interior design was replaced by a more contemporary style including Art Déco and minimalism. Steerage was converted to make more comfortable third class and new tourist class accommodations with advertising targeting the U.S. public. The ship returned to regular service in August 1936. On 2 January 1937 Italia Flotte Riunite is assumed by Società Anonima di Navigazione Italia (Italian Line), Genoa with the Cosulich ships transferred and that company placed in liquidation.[1]

Saturnia engaged in routine commercial routes and cruises before and as tensions rise in Europe. In October 1939 the ship was stopped by the British off Gibraltar attempting to confiscate a cargo of copper and steel for Bohemia. The cargo was thrown overboard. In December a French submarine stopped the ship and took off seven German Jewish passengers. On 30 April 1940 the ship was adapted for a special voyage to Tripoli with arrival back at Syracuse, Sicily 10 June 1940 the day Italy entered the war.[1]

The ship was laid up at Genoa with one short voyage until February 1942 when modifications were made to meet an agreement with the International Red Cross for repatriation of Italian civilian colonist interned by the British in former Italian East African colonies. In accordance with the agreement and Red Cross requirements the modifications included painting the ships white, with red crosses on the sides and blue disks with white crosses on the funnel. The requirement also included bright illumination of the ship so that the emblems would be seen at night.[note 4] On 4 April 1942 Saturnia departed Trieste to join Vulcania two days later south of Majorca. The ships cleared Gibraltar on 8 April and arrived at São Vicente, Cape Verde for refueling on 12 April. With a stop at Port Elizabeth the ships reach Berbera in what was then British Somaliland on 5 May in the first of a series of voyages repatriating Italian civilians.[1]

Saturnia and Vulcania were joined by Giulio Cesare and Duilio for the second repatriation trip to East Africa leaving Genoa on 21 October 1942 and ending at Brindisi on 12 January 1943. The four ships made the thrird and last repatriation voyage departing Trieste on 22 May and ending at Taranto on 11 August 1943.[1]

Saturnia arrived in Trieste on 4 September 1943. After the armistice between the Allies and Italy on 13 October 1943 the ship is ordered to sail to Venice where cadets of the Naval Academy embarked.[note 5] At risk of seizure there by the Germans the ship sailed for Brindisi on 10 September arriving the next day.[1][7] During this period Saturnia was requisitioned by the Royal Italian Government.[10] At Brindisi, in an agreement with Italy and Admiral Cunningham of the Royal Navy, approved by General Eisenhower, Saturnia was delivered to the Allies for use by the United States. The ship left Taranto on 14 October and with stops at Malta and Algiers reached Gibraltar.[1][7] For safety the ship was to be taken out of the Mediterranean and the War Shipping Administration (WSA) accepted the ship for operation. Convoy records show Saturnia in Convoy MKF 25 leaving Algiers 27 October for the River Clyde in Scotland, arriving on 5 November.[11] The ship sailed to New York with an Italian crew where on 18 November 1943 Saturnia was delivered by the Italian Government to the War Shipping Administration (WSA).[7][12]

Simultaneously the ship was placed in operation under a WSA agent, American Export Lines, Inc., under a U.S. Army Transportation Corps Agreement (TCA) allocated to Army requirements.[12] Conversion of the ship to a troop ship was at New York and in March 1944 Saturnia began those duties with two voyages to England and a third to Cherbourg, France. The third voyage transported the 101st Infantry Regiment (A sub-division of the 26th Infantry Division) leaving New York on 27 August 1944 and arriving in Cherbourg on 7 Septemnber 1944. [13] On the return trip of third voyage Saturnia required minor repairs in England due to a collision returning to New York in October. The ship made one trip in November to Southampton then to Marseilles, France and Oran in December with return to New York just before Christmas Day where a conversion to a United States Army Hospital Ship (USAHS) was planned.[7]

USAHS Frances Y. Slanger docked at New York Harbor in 1945.

The ship was placed by WSA under bareboat charter to the United States Department of War for Army use as a hospital ship on 17 January 1945.[12] Army hospital ships were intended to clear helpless patients from overseas Army hospitals ashore and return them to the United States on Hague Convention protected ships. Ambulatory and other patients normally returned aboard troop transports on their return voyages. Unlike Navy hospital ships, equipped for immediate care of wounded, Army hospital ships focused on a maximum number of berths rather than clinical facilities.[14]

Conversion to the hospital ship, Frances Y. Slanger, was done at the Todd-Erie Basin yard in New York between January and June 1945. The ship was named after Frances Y. Slanger (1913-1944), an American field nurse who was killed in an artillery attack by the German Wehrmacht on 21 October 1944 in Elsenborn, Belgium. She was the first American nurse to die from enemy action in Europe during World War II.[7][15] The ship was, during service as a hospital ship, the largest and fastest of the Army hospital ships.[16] The ship left New York in July 1945 making four successive trips to Cherbourg to embark patients. In November the ship was sent to Bermuda to assist a vessel in distress.[7]

USAT Saturnia at Le Havre, France with "WACs", Air Force personnel, re-enlistees, and replacements, May 19, 1946.

On return to New York in December the ship was hastily modified by the Arthur Tickle Engineering Works to transport military dependents. The conversion was done from 24 January to 21 February 1946 with the name Saturnia restored. The ship was capable of transporting 1,131 women and 371 children and, operating as the United States Army Transport (USAT) Saturnia, began voyages between New York and Southampton.[7]

In November 1946 the ship was returned to Italy and renamed Saturnia again. It was completely overhauled and from then on could carry 240 passengers in first class, 270 in second class and 860 in tourist class. On 21 January 1947 she embarked on her first post-war voyage from Genoa via Naples to New York. Her last journey on this route began on 3 October 1955. On 2 November 1955 Saturnia returned to Trieste for the first time in twelve years and resumes, on 8 November, service from there to New York with port calls at Venice, Patras, Naples, Palermo, Gibraltar, Lisbon and Halifax.[1]

An estimated 265,000 immigrants arrived in Canada and the U.S. from Europe aboard the Saturnia between 1946 and 1965 with a majority arriving at Halifax or New York. Filmmaker Ferdinando Dell’Omo and partner Lilia Topouzova interviewed hundreds of Canadian-Italians who arrived by ship. They found many had arrived on Saturnia and found the story powerful enough to title a documentary film Sarurnia that was built around the ship and its immigrant passengers. A short version of the film aired on Canadian television stations in 2011 with a feature film released by Still Ocean Films Inc., Toronto, in 2012, premiering at the Moving Images Festival in Toronto.[17][18]

On 10 April 1965 the ship arrived at Trieste to be laid up. On 7 October 1965 she arrived in La Spezia, where she was broken up shortly afterwards.[1]