SS Francesco Crispi (1925)

Francesco Crispi was requisitioned by the Italian Royal Navy on 2 January 1941 and once again put to use as a troopship which she started in February 1941 when she departed Brindisi for Albania in convoy. Francesco Crispi always sailed in convoy for ports in Albania and Greece, including on 28 March 1942 when her convoy was attacked by British submarines, resulting in the loss of the troopship Galilea alongside nearly 1,000 of the men aboard her, yet the Francesco Crispi escaped unharmed. In June 1942, the ship was chosen as one of the troopship that would participate in the proposed Axis invasion of Malta, the invasion however never manifested and was called off on 5 January 1943. Instead the Francesco Crispi was utilized to ship Italian forces from Livorno to Corsica beginning in November 1942 to offset the Anglo-American landings in French North Africa. During her voyages to Corsica, the ship suffered multiple incidents such as an unsuccessfull aircraft attack on 8 January 1943, which saw two plane bombs explode in close proximity to Francesco Crispi but failed to damage her, and an attack from the British submarine Torbay on 27 February 1943, which fired four torpedos at Francesco Crispi but all missed their target. On 12 March 1943, the French submarine Casablanca fired four torpedoes at a convoy which included the Francesco Crispi, but all missed their targets again.^[3]

Francesco Crispi departed Livorno on a routine voyage to Bastia in convoy on 19 April 1943, when at 12.58 am, the convoy was spotted by the British submarine Saracen which proceeded to get into position to strike the Francesco Crispi and another merchant ship in the convoy. Saracen fired six torpedoes at the ships from a distance of 4,600 metres (15,091 ft 10 in) at 1.25 pm and three torpedoes struck the Francesco Crispi while the other torpedoes missed their target. The ship quickly started to sink by the stern as the troops aboard her took to the lifeboats or jumped overboard. Three lifeboats were successfully launched before the ship's bow rose vertically out of the water and sank beneath the waves only 16 minutes after the attack. The Italian destroyer Giuseppe La Masa, which had escorted Francesco Crispi before the attack, tried to sink the British submarine by the use of depth charges, but the submarine managed to escape unharmed. A vast rescue operation was launched by the Italian command following the sinking of Francesco Crispi and 676 men were rescued over the next four hours by many rescue ships which included the tugboats Turbine and Vulcano, the steamers Angela and Capitano Sauro, several fishing boats and a number of Italian Royal Navy vessels including those that were originally part of the initial convoy such as the Italian Armed Merchant Cruiser Caralis. Most of the survivors were landed at their original destination of Bastia and a total of 70 survivors were instead landed at Portoferraio, additionally 16 bodies were recovered at sea of which 13 were buried in Bastia. Additional areal searches were held by the use of aircraft but no more survivors were spotted, which led to a final death toll of about 800 men.^[4][5][3]

Francesco Crispi's wreck was discovered on 31 May 2015 at (42°45′N 9°42′E / 42.750°N 9.700°E / 42.750; 9.700). The wreck lies upright and partially buried in the muddy seabed in 507 metres (1,663 ft 5 in) of water. The ship remains mostly intact and is populated by large colonies of white corals. Following her discovery, a silver memorial plaque was left on the site to honour all the lives that were lost in the ship's sinking.^[3][2]