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The Ill-fated Sister Ship:
The "Principessa Jolanda"
The Principessa Jolanda about to be launched
Principessa Jolanda - ship of ill omen
The Principessa Mafalda was one of a pair, the other ship being the Principessa Jolanda (named for King Umberto's other daughter) . If one wishes to search for technical explanations for the subsequent sad history of the Mafalda one need look no further than the Jolanda. This ship was built at the same yard. Upon its launch (22 September 1907), the ship went down the slipway and promptly capsized. Such was the state of the vessel, that it was not completed and was instead scrapped. One may well ask whether the structural problems of the Jolanda were also reflected in the Mafalda. Pre-dating the Titanic the ship may have suffered from some of the same design faults.
The sorry aftermath