Italian auxiliary cruiser Ramb I

Ramb I was a banana boat, one of four refrigerated ships ordered in the late 1930s by the Italian Ministry of the Colonies to carry bananas from Mogadishu in Italian Somaliland to Naples, under the control of the Regia Azienda Monopolio delle Banane. Two of the four were built by CRDA at Monfalcone and two, including Ramb I, at the Ansaldo yards in Sestri Ponente, where she was built between October 1936 and December 1937 as hull number 308. She displaced 3,667 tons, carried about 2,400 tons of cargo and 12 passengers, and reached 18.5 knots on two nine-cylinder two-stroke FIAT diesel engines. Requisitioned at Massawa on 9 June 1940, she was armed with four 120 mm guns as an auxiliary cruiser but did little more than defend the port. Around 20 February 1941 she left for Japan with Ramb II and Eritrea, and the cruiser HMNZS Leander caught and sank her in the Indian Ocean.