S.S. Gera

The S.S. Gera was launched on November 8th, 1890. She was built by Fairfield Company of Glasgow for the North German Lloyd and made her maiden voyage from Bremen to Baltimore April 2nd 1891. From 1891 to 1907 it continued to make voyages from Bremen or Hamburg to Suez, Australia, the Far East, South America, New York, Baltimore, Genoa, and Naples. In 1908, she was sold to the Italian company Lloyd del Pacifico and renamed S.S. Valparaiso. On the 14th of October 1917, the ship was torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine off the cost of Libya.

• Length: 126.50 m (415 ft)
• Beam: 14.63 m (48 ft)
• Propulsion: one funnel, two masts, single screw
• Speed: 13 knots (14-15 Mph)
• Capacity: 5,005 tons
• Occupancy: 49 1st class, 38 2nd class, and 1,901 3rd class passengers

Leonardo Desiderio (Born: 1878) was aboard this ship while traveling to America for the first time in May of 1906. He was visiting a brother-in-law in Summit, New Jersey.