SS Audacious (1913)
SS Audacious was the former Italian cargo ship Belvedere taken over by the United States during World War II and sunk as a blockship at Omaha Beach on 8 June 1944. Belvedere was built in Trieste and first operated as a passenger and cargo ship when the city and company were part of Austro-Hungarian Empire. After World War I the city and ship, converted to cargo in the early 1920s, became Italian. In 1941 Belvedere was in Philadelphia when foreign ships of Axis powers were interned and then seized. The ship was taken over for operation by the War Shipping Administration through agents until scuttled at Omaha Beach. Austro-Hungarian/Italian service Belvedere was built by Cantiere Navale Triestino in Trieste, then part of Austro-Hungarian Empire, to operate for l'Unione Austriaco di Nav. Soc. Anon (Unione Austriaca Company) from the port of Trieste. Belvedere was built specifically for migrant and cargo trade between the Adriatic and North or South America. The ship sailed on her maiden voyage 30 August 1913 to New York by way of Patras, Messina, Palermo, and Algiers. That service continued until World War I when the ship served as a barracks ship for arsenal workers in Pola. Belvedere