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Paddy.
I saw the movie on BBC2. I don't know what ship was used but it looks very much like a a former US P2-class ship. They were built during the war and there were a whole heap of them in slightly different batches.
Terry Donegan
Fanatic
She carried a total of 1,308 passengers; 106 1st Class; 152 2nd Class; 230 3rd Class and 820 in steerage.
She was launched at Wallsend on 11th June 1929 and was completed only five months latter in December 1929. She was put into service on the Marseilles to Buenos Aires route of SGTM.
After the fall of France in 1940 she was laid up in Buenos Aires and remained there until 28th July 1943 when she was seized by the Argentine Government. They renamed her RIO JACHAL and placed her under the management of Flota Mercante del Estado. They employed her on several Buenos Aires to New Orleans voyages
After the war the vessel was returned to STGM in 1946 and reverted to her original name CAMPANA. She was returned to the South America service.
In 1951 she was chartered to the French Chargeurs Reunis and used on their Marseilles to the Far East service. Her passenger accommodation was altered to 105 1st Class; 96 2nd Class and 56 3rd Class.
In June 1955 she was sold to Sicula Oceanica of Palermo [GRIMALDI-SIOSA] and renamed IRPINIA. She underwent a refit and modernisation in a Genoa shipyard. She was fitted with a raked bow which increased her overall length to 536 feet and her gross tonnage to 12,279 tons. Her passenger accommodation became 187 1st Class and 1,034 in Tourist Class.
Sicula Oceanica put her into service on Genoa to Central America service, carrying mainly Italian migrants to Venezuela. But in 1959-50 she spent time on the Italy-Canada route.
By 1962 she was showing her age and again underwent an extensive rebuilding. This time at Adriatico’s Trieste yard. Her steam turbines were replaced by FIAT diesels of 16,000 BHP which increased her maximum speed to 20 knots. Passenger accommodation was again altered, this time to 209 1st Class and 972 in Tourist Class. The alterations increased the GRT to 13,204 tons.
Interestingly the two funnels were replaced by a single larger stack in the 1962 refit. So when “Voyage of the Dammed” was filmed one of the funnels must have been added for the film.
Sicula employed the IRPINIA on cruises as the Italy-Central America traffic fell. By 1970 she was used only for cruising. She was withdrawn in 1976 and made the film in Barcelona harbour.She was laid up for many years and was only finally scrapped at La Spezia in September 1983.
The film was heavily fictionalized, but watchable nonetheless. America's refusal to grant the Jews asylum after Cuba turned them down was one of the most shameful episodes in our history, IMO ranking right up there with the Southern police attacking civil-rights workers with fire hoses and dogs during the civil rights movements of the 50's and 60's.
In the reprint of VOYAGE OF THE DAMNED, the ST. LOUIS on the cover of the book is the aformentioned ship built in 1895, not the Hamburg-Amerika version.
[This message has been edited by Rex (edited 08-19-2000).]
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