SS ''Milazzo'' was an Italian bulk carrier built in 1916 and sunk during World War I. When she entered service, ''Milazzo'' was reported as the largest collier and also the largest

cargo ship A cargo ship or freighter is a merchant ship that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's seas and oceans each year, handling the bulk of international trade. Cargo ships are usu ...

in the world. She was designed with a unique railcar and elevator system that helped to automate the discharge of cargo. was her sister ship. ''Milazzo'', built for and operated by Navigazione Generale Italiana, sailed to

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

on her maiden voyage in June 1916. In October, on her second eastbound voyage, the ship put in at the Azores with three of her cargo holds ablaze; her New York agent attributed the fires to sabotage. On 29 August 1917, ''Milazzo'' was sunk by the

Austro-Hungarian Navy The Austro-Hungarian Navy or Imperial and Royal War Navy (german: kaiserliche und königliche Kriegsmarine, in short ''k.u.k. Kriegsmarine'', hu, Császári és Királyi Haditengerészet) was the naval force of Austria-Hungary. Ships of the A ...

submarine under the command of

Georg Ritter von Trapp Georg Ludwig Ritter von Trapp (4 April 1880 – 30 May 1947) was an officer in the Austro-Hungarian Navy who later became the patriarch of the Trapp Family Singers. Trapp was the most successful Austro-Hungarian submarine commander of World Wa ...

, later more notable as the patriarch of the family featured in '' The Sound of Music''.

Design and construction

''Milazzo'' was designed by Emilio Menada, a noted inventor of transporting machinery. In a 1916 feature on the ship, '' Popular Science Monthly'' reported that there was "nothing romantic" about the "brutally practical" design of the ship, which the magazine called an "engine-driven hull and a mass of elevators and chutes". The ship was long ( between perpendiculars), was

abeam This glossary of nautical terms is an alphabetical listing of terms and expressions connected with ships, shipping, seamanship and navigation on water (mostly though not necessarily on the sea). Some remain current, while many date from the 17th t ...

, and had a draft of when loaded. ''Milazzo'' had a and displaced . As designed, ''Milazzo'' could carry up to of bulk coal or other cargo. Additional longitudinal compartments provided the ability to carry up to of bulk oil. SS Milazzo cutaway illustration

''Milazzo'' featured eight watertight bulkheads that divided her into nine separate compartments: eight deep cargo holds and one compartment amidships for the ship's single

quadruple-expansion steam engine A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be tra ...

. In addition, saltwater

ballast tank A ballast tank is a compartment within a boat, ship or other floating structure that holds water, which is used as ballast to provide hydrostatic stability for a vessel, to reduce or control buoyancy, as in a submarine, to correct trim or list, ...

s were located In the bow and the

stern The stern is the back or aft-most part of a ship or boat, technically defined as the area built up over the sternpost, extending upwards from the counter rail to the taffrail. The stern lies opposite the bow, the foremost part of a ship. Ori ...

of ''Milazzo''. The ship's engine generated and moved the ship at an average speed of . The ship's engine was originally installed on board passenger liner " Principessa Jolanda" which had capsized at launch in 1907 and had to be scrapped. The cargo handling on ''Milazzo'' was intended to be automated and featured a railcar and elevator system. Two longitudinal compartments between the bottom of the cargo holds and the

hull Hull may refer to: Structures * Chassis, of an armored fighting vehicle * Fuselage, of an aircraft * Hull (botany), the outer covering of seeds * Hull (watercraft), the body or frame of a ship * Submarine hull Mathematics * Affine hull, in affi ...

each contained twin rail lines spanning the length of the cargo carrying spaces. Extending from the bottom of the hull to above the ship's funnel were twenty elevator and crane combinations. To unload the ship, the onboard railcars were positioned under doors in each cargo hold which, filled the cars with the coal. The rail cars were then positioned in the elevators, raised to the top, and had their loads dumped into chutes that then discharged the coal from the ship. The ship could discharge all 14,000 long tons of her cargo in 48 hours. ''Milazzo'' was built by the Fiat-San Giorgio shipyard in Muggiano and completed in June 1916.

Service career

''Milazzo'' departed from Genoa on her maiden voyage in early June. After calling at Naples, she departed there in ballast on 11 June for New York City. After losing a blade from her propeller in calm seas on 25 June—attributed by ''Milazzo''s master to vibrations of the empty ship—she arrived at New York on 1 July. After an uneventful roundtrip to Genoa, ''Milazzo'' departed from New York on 24 September to begin her second eastbound crossing of the Atlantic. At Gravesend Bay, ''Milazzo'' stopped and took on of high explosives to supplement her cargo of steel, silk, and sugar. She also carried 1.6 million pounds (730,000 kg) of copper. On 4 October, '' The New York Times'' reported that ''Milazzo'' had put in at

Fayal Faial Island (), also known in English as Fayal, is a Portuguese island of the Central Group (Portuguese: ''Grupo Central'') of the Azores. The Capelinhos Volcano, the westernmost point of the island, may be considered the westernmost point of E ...

in the Azores with three cargo holds on fire. The newspaper printed speculation from William Hartfield, the agent for the ship, that incendiary bombs hidden in the bags of sugar were the cause of the fire. By 1 November (when she was reported as departing Tarzal), ''Milazzo'' had resumed service. In August 1917, ''Milazzo'' was sailing from Karachi to Malta. On 29 August, when she was east of her destination, she was torpedoed by the submarine of the

and sank at . ''U-14'' was under the command of ''

Linienschiffsleutnant is a German language variant of the naval officer rank ship-of-the-line lieutenant. The rank is used by the Belgian Navy and formerly the Austro-Hungarian Navy. Austro-Hungary (; hu, Sorhajóhadnagy) was an officer rank in the Austro-Hu ...

, a well-known submarine commander,Georg Ritter von Trapp was already known by name in American newspapers after he sank the French armored cruiser in April 1915 while in command of . See: Also see: later famous as the patriarch of the family featured in the musical '' The Sound of Music''. ''Milazzo'' sank with no reported casualties, after a little more than one year of service.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Milazzo Ships built in Italy Merchant ships of Italy World War I merchant ships of Italy Ships sunk by Austro-Hungarian submarines 1916 ships World War I shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea