SS Citta Di Livorno
Vessel History
Citta Di Livorno was a 1929 built passenger cargo vessel. She was one of a class of sister vessels for an Italian company named "Florio Società Italiana di Navigazione".
A total of nine vessels were built in different Italian shipyards. They were all powered by Franco Tosi diesel engines and had a speed of about 12 knots. These vessels were built to carry 111 passengers in three classes as well as 450 temporary passengers, probably for short hops between Italian islands and coastal cities. One of the sisterships was named the Citta di Savona.
Soon the operation of these vessels switched to a new company named "Tirrenia di Navigazione". They operated without any problems up to World War II. During the war all but one of the vessels in the class were sunk. The Citta Di Livorno was sunk in 1942 by a submarine. Her sistership the Citta Di Savona was sunk on June 2, 1944 near the Greek Island Leros.
After the war the Citta Di Savona was raised and restored in 1950 and renamed the Citta Di Livorno. Citta Di Livorno continued to operate until 1970 at which time she was scrapped.
The model
Since both of the Citta Di Livorno were sisterships, it is not clear which of the two this model represents.
The model is all white, which gives her a rather romantic cruise ship appearance, yet all available photos of these vessels show them to have a dark hull, which actually gives them a sleeker appearance.
It appears that Henry Scheafer built this model from scratch, since drawings and historical photos of the vessel survive in Mr. Schaefer’s records.
The model was built to a scale of 1:100 and was completed in 2002.
