Travel Timeline
Named after a river in Texas, USA, she served as an onion carrier. During the two world wars, she also ferried troops and supplies, and was at one point the ‘Commodore Ship’ of a fleet of about twenty.
With her sale to Italian company Genaviter, she was extensively converted to become a passenger ship, and ferried migrants and pilgrims to and from Rome.
Under the ownership of Costa Lines, she had her steam engine replaced with a diesel engine, and was retrofitted to become the world’s first all-first-class cruise liner.
With sixty-three years of service behind her, she was once again retrofitted to become the world’s largest floating book exhibition. Under Operation Mobilization, she sailed the equivalent of sixteen times around the world, and received twenty-five million visitors on her decks.
