SS Cristoforo Colombo

SS Cristoforo Colombo was an Italian ocean liner of the 1950s and sister ship of the SS Andrea Doria. After the war destroyed the Italian Line's Rex and Conte di Savoia, the company chose to build moderately sized, comfortable and stylish ships, and both liners were built at the Ansaldo shipyards in Genoa. Launched in May 1953, she made her maiden voyage in July 1954 and, slightly larger than her sister, was the biggest merchant ship in Italian service. In 1964 she carried Michelangelo's Pieta from the Vatican to the New York World's Fair, and on 30 March 1971 she was the last ship to land immigrants at Pier 21 in Halifax. Sold to Venezuela in 1977 as an accommodation ship, she was scrapped in 1983.