HISTORY - Italian TITANIC - The sinking of ss PRINCIPESSA MAFALDA

Despite rms TITANIC, ss PRINCIPESSA MAFALDA somehow has disappeared into the mists of time. Except for a small group of followers. This is mostly a reflection of the fact, that it was an Italian ship, carrying a complement that was almost exclusively Latino. The disaster of the MORRO CASTLE was a less significant event, and yet the amount of information and coverage, even today, is exponentially greater.

Earl of Cruise

by João Martins, editing by Earl of Cruise

The Italian "rms TITANIC", ss PRINCIPESSA MAFALDA - Source: Wikipedia

Despite the sinking of the ss ANDREADORIA 30 years later being much better known, the greatest tragedy in Italian shipping and largest ever in the Southern Hemisphere in peacetime was the sinking of the ss PRINCIPESSA MAFALDA in 1927. 

Builder	Cantiere Riva Trigoso, Riva Trigoso
No.	42
Launching	22. Oktober 1908
Commissioning	30. März 1909
	25. Oktober 1927 sunken
Length	147,9 m (Loa)
Width	16,9 m
Displacement	10.500 t
Meassuring	9.210 GT
Machine	Two triple-expansion steam engines
Power	10.000 PS (7.355 kW)
Speed	18 kn (33 km/h)
Propellers	2
Passengers	I. Klasse: 180 II. Klasse: 170 III. Klasse: 1100

If you checked an earlier post, you know she had a 18 year stable and uneventful career. By 1927, despite still being a comfortable ship, she had a reputation for "faded luxury".

The interior of ss PRINCIPESSA MAFALDA - own collection

On 11 October 1927 she departed Genoa for Buenos Aires on her 90th voyage, with stops at Barcelona, Cabo Verde, Rio de Janeiro, Santos and Montevideo. It was to be her last trip on this route before being reassigned to the shorter Genoa-Alexandria route.

She set sail with 52 first class, 95 second class and 821 third class passengers plus 287 crew on board. She also carried 300 tons of cargo, 600 bags of mail and 250,000 gold lire destined to the Argentinian government.

Deckplan of ss PRINCIPESSA MAFALDA - own collection

The ship left Barcelona almost a day late due to mechanical problems and it slowed to a complete stop several times on the high seas. Water in the bathrooms became intermittent and the refrigeration system failed, causing tons of food to spoil.

After a stop in Cabo Verde, resupplied with fresh food and partially repaired, she set sail again for the South Atlantic. By 23 October she had developed a noticeable list to port but by the 24th she was finally travelling at full steam off the coast of northern Brazil. Life aboard resumed more quietly.

On the balmy tropical afternoon of 25 October 1927, she was making top speed near the Abrolhos Islands, a collection of coral atolls off the coast of Brazil. In the boiler room, stokers were feeding the furnaces to try to make up for the time lost due to mechanical failures. The ship was far behind schedule.

Many passengers had retired to their cabins to rest after lunch while others in first class were idling in the public rooms. Shortly after 4 PM, she came into view of the British ship ss EMPIRE STAR. Both ships acknowledged each other with long horn blasts.

ss EMPIRE STAR - Source: Landesmuseum Kassel

Then, at around 17:15, the ship was rocked by several tremendous shudders. The chief engineer reported to the bridge that the starboard propeller shaft had fractured and went lose, travelled off its axis and cut a series of gashes in the hull.

Drawing, showcasing the fractured shaft and hull damage of ss PRINCIPESSA MAFALDA - own collection

Water immediately started to flow into the engine room. The watertight doors could not be fully closed and Captain Simon Guli sounded the alarm 20 minutes later. The wireless operator sent distress signals, which were picked up by the ss EMPIRE STAR, that quickly turned around and came to her rescue. The Dutch ss ALHENA arrived shortly afterwards.

ss ALHENA entering port with rescued passengers and crew of ss PRINCIPESSA MAFALDA - Source: Landesmuseum Kassel

The passengers came up from their cabins like a mob and even though the crew requested calm, panic and chaos broke lose when the call to go to the lifeboats was made. The first lifeboat left with only crew members on board, including the ship's purser.

Disembarking passengers and crew of ss PRINCIPESSA MAFALDA - Source: Wikipedia

Third class passengers surged to the boat stations and rummaged through first and second class, breaking into abandoned cabins and looting valuables. There were reports of knives being pulled and passengers being threatened to hand over their belongings.

Disembarking passengers and crew of ss PRINCIPESSA MAFALDA - Source: copy from a new paper of 1927

Not all lifeboats could be launched due to the list to port and several were rushed by angry crowds. The ship's officers had a hard time keeping order. Several first and second class passengers had guns and there were reports of shootings taking place.

Night started to fall and the sea was warm but choppy, with a stiff breeze blowing. Other rescue ships had arrived, like the ss Formosa and the ss MOSELLE. A few lifeboats shuttled passengers between the ss PRINCIPESSA MAFALDA and the ss ALHENA.

ss MOSELLE which rescued passengers and crew of ss PRINCIPESSA MAFALDA - Source: Landesmuseum Kassel

Some passengers still on the ship put on lifejackets and started to jump overboard, swimming to the rescue ships. However, many third class passengers were rural emigrants who had never been to sea and stood no chance in the water.

At 22:10, about 5 hours after the initial accident, the ss PRINCIPESSA MAFALDA started to list more dramatically and sinking faster by the stern. The bow rose out of the water, sending the remaining people on deck reeling towards the stern. Furniture was tumbling around amid the sound of glass breaking. There was an explosion deep in the ship and she went down in a big cloud of smoke.

The ss ALHENA picked up 450 survivors, the ss EMPIRE STAR took 200 survivors, the ss Formosa 120 people, the ss Baden 17 passengers and the ss ROSETTI 13 survivors. The ss Avelona Star also picked up people from the water.

The survivors were taken to the Brazilian mainland, namely to Rio de Janeiro, Salvador da Bahia and Pernambuco.

ss PRINCIPESSA MAFALDA survivors, First Class passengers - Source:

The sinking caused the death of 324 people. Among the victims were 27 first class, 37 second class and 228 third class passengers. There were also 32 crew members killed. More first class passengers died (51.8%) than steerage (27.8%). The captain was among the victims.

An investigation by the Italian Navy Board concluded that a joint in the propeller casing was to blame and all Italian-registered ships were fitted with devices meant to avoid such accidents. It was also determined that the six lifeboats placed on the stern could not be used effectivel.

Besides, at 18 years old, the ship was not particularly old but had been pushed to the limit mercilessly to keep the service going on the South America run against fierce competition. That could explain the many breakdowns.

The poor organisation of the rescue operation is also to blame.

The wreck of the ss PRINCIPESSA MAFALDA has never been located. 

ss PRINCIPESSA MAFALDA  was named after:

Principessa Mafalda Maria Elisabetta Anna Romana di Savoia, Principessa d'Italia, Poi d'Etiopia e Albania, (2. November 1902, Rome - 27. August 1944, Buchenwlad) was the second daughter of  Re d'Italia Victor Emmanuel III and his wife Elena of Montenegro. The future Re Umberto II of Italy was her younger brother.

H.R.H. PRINCIPESSA MAFALDA di Svoia, Landgräfin von Hessen-Kassel, with her children - Source: Wikipedia

In childhood she was close to her mother, from whom she inherited a love for music and the arts. During WWI, she accompanied her mother on her visits to Italian military hospitals.

On 23 September 1925, at Racconigi Castle, Mafalda married Prinz Philipp von Hessen, Landgraf von Hessen-Kassel and grandson of Kaiser der Deutschen Friederich III. Prince Philipp and his brother Christoph, were members of the NSdAP (Nazi) party.

Prinz Philipp's marriage to Principessa Mafalda put him in position to act as intermediary between the National Socialist government in Germany and the Fascist government in Italy. On the evening of the 26th March 1935 Principessa Mafalda was present at an informal diplomatic dinner given by Adolf Hitler in the Reich President's House in Berlin. She sat next to Anthony Eden.

However, during WWII, Adolf Hitler believed Principessa Mafalda was working against the war effort; he called her the "blackest carrion in the Italian royal house". So did Hitler's Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels, who called her "the worst bitch in the entire Italian royal house".

Early in September 1943, Principessa Mafalda travelled to Bulgaria to attend the funeral of her brother-in-law, Zar Boris III. While there, she was informed of Italy's surrender to the Allied Powers, that her husband was being held under house arrest in Bavaria, and that her children had been given sanctuary in the Vatican. The Gestapo ordered her arrest, and on 23 September she received a telephone call from Hauptsturmführer Karl Hass at the German High Command, who told her that he had an important message from her husband. On her arrival at the German embassy, Mafalda was arrested, ostensibly for subversive activities. Princess Mafalda was transported to München for questioning, then to Berlin, and finally to Buchenwald concentration camp.

On August 24th, 1944, the Allies bombed an ammunition factory inside Buchenwald. Some four hundred prisoners were killed and Princess Mafalda was seriously wounded: she had been housed in a unit adjacent to the bombed factory, and when the attack occurred she was buried up to her neck in debris and suffered severe burns to her arm. The conditions of the labour camp caused her arm to become infected, and the medical staff at the facility amputated it; she bled profusely during the operation and never regained consciousness. She died during the night of August 26-27th, 1944; her body was reburied after the war at Schloss Kronberg in Hessen.

Eugen Kogon, author of `The Theory and Practice of Hell – The German Concentration Camps and the System Behind Them´, 1950, page 131; adds more details of Principessa Mafalda's death - some of it in conflict with the previous account.

After the air raid of 24 August 1944, the princess was wounded in the arm and Dr. Schiedlausky, camp medical office, performed the arm amputation, but his patient did not survive due to loss of blood. Her naked body was dumped into the crematorium, where Father Joseph Thyl, dug it out of the body heap, covered her up, and arranged for speedy cremation. Thyl cut off a lock of the princess's hair, which was smuggled out of camp to be kept in Jena, until it could be sent on to her German relatives. Her death was not confirmed until after Germany's surrender to the Allies in 1945.

In 1997, the Italian government honored Principessa Mafalda with her image on a postal stamp.

Source: Wikipedia, edited by Earl of Cruise

 

ss PRICIPESSA JOLANDA, launched 1907, the sister vessel to ss PRICIPESSA MAFALDA, sank during the launching ceremony, not because of false stated "incompetence" of her builders, as read to often, but because the slip collapsed under her, while sliding in her element. Because of the list, the vessel capsized and sank.

ss PRINCIPESSA MAFALDA on the slips by Societa Esercizio Bacini Yard no 42 at Riva Trigoso