Anne’s Travel Journal:

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February 4, 1939, on Board the Conte di Savoia

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We got up about 7 a.m., still unable to realize that we were diving off the deep end that day, starting on our big adventure.  We got a thrill when we saw our beautiful big ship in the dock at 52nd Street.  The Aquitania was right alongside, and a little further east the Normandie was docked.  There was a lot of excitement at the dock, but we got on with very little red tape.  They took our tickets and passports, and we were taken to our nice little cabin, # 132 on A Deck.  It’s about the same size as our stateroom on the Empress of Britain with a very nice bath and plenty of room for trunks and luggage.  We got located and went up on deck to look around.  We got our steamer chairs and made reservations in the dining room, took some pictures [see above], and at about 11:30 a.m., we sailed out of the Harbor.  A tug boat pulled us out of the dock and then we turned around and sailed east alongside of old New York and its famous skyline.  We took a few pictures - tried to get the Goddess of Liberty but failed!  We had a nice lunch, but didn’t dress for dinner the first night and went to bed early – tired and happy.

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And so...the Stillmans set off on their grand adventure on the cruise ship, SS Conte di Savoia of the newly formed Italian line,  Italia Flotte Riunite  (United Fleets Italy). Conte di Savoia was launched in 1931.  She was originally built for the Italian shipping company, Lloyd Sabuado, and was intended to vie for passengers and fame against competitor Navigazione Generale Italiana's luxury liner, SS Guglielmo Marconi (later called SS Rex), also launched in 1931. However, Mussolini forced the merger of Lloyd Sabuado and Navigazione Generale Italiana into the Italia Flotte Riunite in January of 1932.  With the merger, instead of competing against each other, the two ships were used to provide an alternating service between Italy and America.  Conte di Savoia was deemed the lovelier of the pair and was more elegant in its design. The liner weighed 48,502 tons, and was 814 feet long and 96 feet wide.  She had turbine engines with four propellers and ran at 27 knots.  She could carry 2,200 passengers (500 first class, 366 second class, 412 tourist class, 922 third class) and 786 crew.  

 

Conte di Savoia made her maiden voyage to New York in November, 1932.  During the crossing, an outlet valve jammed and blew a large hole below the waterline.  Water began pouring into the ship at an alarming rate!  However, the crew managed to plug the hole with cement, and Conte di Savoia finished the voyage.  The ship did not have any further trouble with leaking!

 

Conte di Savoia had a unique feature, which was heavily advertised by Italia Flotte Riunite in an effort to increase passenger numbers.  Two huge gyroscopes were fitted low down in a forward hold. These rotated at high revolutions and were designed to minimize rolling during the rough North Atlantic crossing.  The ship's motto was: “La nave che non rolla” (The ship which does not roll). The gyroscopes were not entirely successful, as will be seen in a future excerpt from Anne's journal.

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Anne was pleased with the first class cabin assigned to the Stillmans on Conte di Savoia.  She compares it to their stateroom on the Empress of Britannia, the ship on which the Stillmans sailed to the Orient in 1936. Anne describes their cabin in the journal she kept of that trip:  We have a grand stateroom- two large portholes and quite spacious with all kinds of drawers and cupboards to stack things away.  The Conte di Savoia cabin would have also been spacious and quite luxurious.  The ship was known for its glamorous décor.

 

When Anne and Paul arrived at their cabin on Conte di Savoia, they found several telegrams.  It was the custom of the day to send bon voyage telegrams to friends and relations in care of their cruise liners.  Anne saved these in her scrapbook:

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Here are the photographs Anne took as the ship sailed out of the New York harbor.  

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Compare them to a modern photograph - can you find the same buildings Anne and Paul saw?

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See the next page (use the drop-down menu under 3, above, to navigate) for Anne's descriptions of shipboard life...

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