This ship has a rather singular history, as it operated on behalf of Austria-Hungary and Italy, had three names, performed four functions and even sank twice. In fact, it was built in Trieste between 1909 and 1911 for Österreichischer Lloyd (the Austrian-based Lloyds company) under the name Wien as a mixed steamer and was used on the express line between Trieste and Alexandria.
This ship has a rather singular history, as it operated on behalf of Austria-Hungary and Italy, had three names, performed four functions and even sank twice.
In fact, it was built in Trieste between 1909 and 1911 for Österreichischer Lloyd (the Austrian-based Lloyds company) under the name Wien as a mixed steamer and was used on the express line between Trieste and Alexandria.
During the Great War, it was requisitioned by the Austro-Hungarian Navy and used first as a hospital ship under the name "Spitalshiff VIII" and then as a barracks ship for the crews of German submarines based in Pula.
In the final stages of the conflict, on the night between 31st October and 1st November 1918, it sank along with the battleship Viribus Unitis during an attack led by a couple of Regia Marina officers with the assault craft S 2 nicknamed "Mignatta". The Wien later set sail once again and, with its Italian name changed to Vienna, it resumed operations on the same route as before the war and then on routes towards Asia. During the Ethiopian War, it was chartered by the Regia Marina (Italian Royal Navy) and converted into a ship to transport the sick so that it could also transport troops and material that could not otherwise be sent in a unit officially classified as a hospital ship. At the end of the conflict with Ethiopia, the Vienna was returned to the ship-owning company, which renamed it as the Po and employed it again on the trade routes, yet on 21 May 1940, as Italy was about to enter World War II on 10th June, it was requisitioned by the Italian Royal Navy in Naples and converted into a hospital ship with 600 beds.
On 10 July, the Po was registered in the cadre of the Naviglio Ausiliario dello Stato (State Auxiliary Navy) and was used to repatriate the wounded and sick from the Libyan and Greek-Albanian fronts, after Italy attacked Greece on 28th October 1940.
The British government decided to support the Greek government, and one of the measures taken was to transfer the Fairey "Swordfish" single-engine biplanes of the 815th Naval Air Squadron to Greek soil.
After a first attack against the Italian ships present in Vlorë on 13 March, the "Swordfish" repeated the action the following evening, during which they hit the Po with a torpedo, which, as was the practice when it stopped at night in a port, turned off the lights that served to identify it as a hospital ship.
It sank in less than four minutes, but the promptness of the rescue team limited the loss to around 20 people. Among the survivors was the nurse Edda Ciano Mussolini.
The Po has remained since then, in navigable trim, resting on a seabed approximately 35 meters deep, in a good state of preservation, with its upper structures only 12 meters below the surface of the sea.
Building site: Austrian Lloyd Arsenal, Trieste
Construction work start date: 25 November 1909
Launch date: 4 March 1911
Date of Commissioning: 28 August 1911
Date of Requisition: 21" May 1940
Transformation site: Cantieri Riuniti dell'Adriatico, Trieste
Start and End Dates of Transformation
Works: 28 May-10 July 1940
Sank on: 14 March 1941
Length: 138.36 meters
Width: 16.86 meters
Gross tonnage: 7,289.24 gross tons
Engine: 2 x four-cylinder, four-expansion reciprocating steam engines with eight boilers, rated at 1,210 hp, 2 propellers
Navigation speed: 17 knots Crew: a total of 240 people, including 7 volunteer nurses
No of Beds: 600.