Roma. A New Beginning.

When it once carried desperately needed cargo into war zones, it now took passengers on Caribbean cruises.  In 1950, the Catholic Holy Year, pilgrims sailed onboard the ship to Italy.  It then carried new settlers from Europe to Australia but soon had to relinquish the unprofitable run.

    provided by www.ssmaritime.net

In 1951, The Roma was dealt with a heavy blow.  The Matsona Line, its owner was over US$3 million in debt and to solve the problem, decided to sell 15 of its old ships.  Roma was one of them, and seemed destined for the scrapyard.

The ship silently awaited its turn while many of its Spanish and Italian sisters were cut up and carted off in pieces.  But things  had a strange way of turning out.  Roma was saved in a nick of time by the Costa Line ( yes, the ill-fated Costa Concordia was from the same company ) which flew the Italian flag.

It was given a new 4,200 horsepower Fiat shaft diesel motor in place of its old triple-expansion steam engine, pushing the ship's speed up to 15 knots.  It also had a complete facelift and when Roma left the dock 18 months later, a new ship was born!

"While the MV Doulos was in Albany, Western Australia in 1991, I was invited by a wonderful old couple to their home for tea.  There were three of us from the ship that went.  The wife recalled how it was when she first arrived in Australia on the S.S Roma as a little girl with her parents travelling from Europe seeking a new life here.  And she got so excited to know that the MV Doulos was in port a 'second time' since the vessel came as the Roma.  She married her husband, who was a soldier in the Royal Marines Commando in Malaya during WWII."