CAVOUR

In the early hours of December 11, 1917, with the First World War underway, the Italian ocean liner Cavour, which had left Genoa two days earlier bound for Buenos Aires, had a violent collision with the "Cabrera", one of the ships of the accompanying surveillance to protect it from attack by enemy ships. It seems that darkness was added to the prevailing strong winds as the reason for the accident, since as a safety rule to avoid being detected by the submarines they had their lights off. The impact affects the Cavour with a large leak in the engine room that is fatal. The 300 people on board were rescued, but the ship finally sank four miles off the coast of Ametlla de Mar (Tarragona). The wreck is located on a sand and mud bottom 52 meters deep with the hull split into two pieces, since its holds were dynamited by the navy in an unsuccessful attempt to avoid the intense looting to which it was subjected.

Various sources