It is a Dark destiny, both for this ship, and for the eponymous Italian princess, one sinking in 1927, making 314 victims, the other, dying in 1944 in the concentration camp of Buchenwald.
The steam liner "Principessa Mafalda", flying the Italian flag, bears the name of one of the girls of the Italian king Victor-Emmanuel III. In 1925, Mafalda marries the German nobleman Philip of Hesse-Cassel, a leading member of the Nazi Party. The couple falls into disgrace with Hitler at the fall of Mussolini. Mafalda is interned into the concentration camp of Buchenwald where she dies on August 27th, 1944, victim of a bombing by the Allies.
The liner enters into service in 1909. In 1914 she travels between Genes and New York. She is repeatedly inspected by the French navy in 1915. Approximately fifteen prisoners of Ile Longue, either passengers or crew members were arrested on board.
Departing from Genoa on October 11th, 1927, with 1259 people on board, she navigates off the Brazilian coast, when on the 25th, one of its propellers breaks, creating an important leak. The ship sinks five hours later. The wreck costs the life of 314 persons.