SS "CONTE BIANCAMANO", Italy. Advertising postcard

SS CONTE BIANCAMANO
Flotte Riunite Consolich. Lloyd Sabaudo. Navigazione Generale.
Italy

Advertising postcard published by G.S., Genova.

Conte Biancamano was an Italian ocean liner built at the William Beardmore & Co shipyard in Dalmuir, near Glasgow (Scotland), by order of the Genoese shipping company Lloyd Sabaudo. She was launched on 23 April 1925 and made her maiden voyage from Genoa to New York on 20 November of the same year. She had a capacity of 180 first class passengers, 220 upper class, 200 second class, 390 economy class and 660 third class. In 1932 Lloyd Sabaudo, along with other shipping companies, was merged into Italia Navigazione and Conte Biancamano was assigned to direct routes to South America. In 1934 it was used for military purposes, transporting troops and war material on behalf of the Italian Navy in preparation for the Ethiopian War, and in 1936 it was chartered by the Lloyd Triestino Company, one of the companies of the group, which used it on direct routes to the Middle East. In December 1941, when Italy entered the war, the ship was seized in the port of Colón (Panama), and in 1942 it was requisitioned by the US Navy, converted into a warship in the Philadelphia shipyards and used as a troop transport ship under the name USS Hermitage. After the war it was used for the repatriation of thousands of American veterans, first from Europe and then from the Pacific. She was withdrawn from service on 20 August 1946 and returned to Italy in 1947. In 1948 she was refitted as a passenger ship at the Monfalcone shipyard and on 14 July 1949, under her original name, she resumed sailing on the Genoa-Buenos Aires line, which she continued until 21 March 1950, when she was transferred to the Genoa - Naples - Cannes - New York line. In 1956 she sailed on the Genoa-Caracas route, and on 26 March 1960 she embarked on her last voyage: Genoa - Naples - Barcelona - Lisbon - Halifax - New York. She was dismantled in La Spezia the following year.

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