Balbo's North Atlantic Flight in 1933 
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Ship Alice

From "La Centuria Alata" by Italo Balbo:

"Alice came to St. Stephen's in February: What is Alice?" And a white, lean and sturdy yacht that was already in Bolama in the previous Cruise. it was used for Mediterranean cruises: later he had served as an auxiliary for the airline between Rome and Egypt, managed by SANA, for Tobruk airport. In the last cruise, Alice had been chartered by the Ministry: but it seemed convenient buy it: in fact, the company has sold it to us in exchange for an airplane adding 300,000 lire.As the ships are depreciated! The Alice weighs a thousand tons and can very well cross the Atlantic, in fact the Ministry of the Air supplies and services on the North American coast: it will wait for our arrival in Cartwright where it will also work as a hotel for the crews of the transvolted, which could hardly find accommodation in the small of the Labrador.

To command the Alice was the brother of Longo, a valiant maritime captain, attached to us for family ties and instinctive sympathy: he is also an official of the Air Force. Captain Longo has formed his crew embarking on our men and giving preference to the sailors of Porto Santo Stefano who have been in contact with Orbetello's aviators for years. So even on the Alice a family air is breathed: the aviators, in the aftermath of the first rough Atlantic labor, will have the feeling of being in their own home. In Porto Santo Stefano Alice did some radiogoniometric exercises: she moved to the Tuscan Archipelago, matching with the apparatus: she served, among other things, to test how much the «terrestrials» became «marine»: the test was soon made and consisted of resistance to seasickness! All the pupils of the School of Orbetello embarked in turn: in February the Tyrrhenian is usually in a bad mood and Alice has sailed with the sea askew: so much the worse for those who are not used to it ...

Finally Alice starts March 20th. Along with all the material destined for the American bases of the Cruise, the dean of aviation journalists, Adone Nosari, embarks. Although little hair adorns its ancient Roman head, and these are gray in addition, Adonis maintains the romantic temperament of early youth. Under the guise of the brilliant chroiniqueur hides a lion-hunter's soul. The trip on the Alice is really comfortable and elegant and all wish propitious the sea to the veteran of air services. This does not prevent Adone from climbing the ladder on board with the passage of those facing the columns of Hercules for the first time. I think that in the heart of every Italian a little Christopher Columbus sleeps. "