Timeline
- 1866
The Veneto becomes Italy
After decades under Austria, the area around Castelcucco and Monfumo is annexed to the Kingdom of Italy by plebiscite in October. The land stays the same; the taxes do not.
- 1902
The Prinetti Decree
Following reports on the coffee plantations, Italy suspends the licences of the companies that carried emigrants to Brazil free of charge. A passage paid for by a relative is still allowed.
- 190324 June
Rosa Forner is born
In Monfumo, daughter of Vincenzo Forner and Santa Pandolfo, in a household of ten children at the foot of Monte Grappa.
- 190722 September
The twin that capsized
The Principessa Jolanda, the Mafalda’s sister ship, heels over and sinks at her own launch in Riva Trigoso. No one dies. The second hull goes down the slipway the following year, without her funnels.
- 1908
The Principessa Mafalda
Launched by Lloyd Italiano and named after the second daughter of King Vittorio Emanuele III. In 1909 she begins the Genoa–Buenos Aires run, calling in Brazil.
- 1917
War on the Grappa
After Caporetto, the front comes to a halt on the massif visible from the windows of Castelcucco. Two of Rosa Forner’s brothers, Martino and Sante, are at war.
- 19263 December
Rosa Forner and Fausto Miotto
They marry in Castelcucco. Their son, Enrico, had been born on 10 October. Fausto leaves for Brazil ahead of them.
- 192711 October
Departure from Genoa
Rosa Forner, with one-year-old Enrico, and her sister Maria Luigia, with four children, board in third class. On board: 1,259 people.
- 192725 October
The shipwreck
Off the coast of Bahia, the propeller shaft breaks and water floods in through the stern. The ship sinks that same night. 314 people die.
- 192728 October
The Alhena in Rio
The Dutch freighter lands the survivors on Ilha das Flores. All seven members of this family are on the list, among the “spontaneous” immigrants, those who had paid their own way.
- 192731 October
The Hospedaria do Brás
After an overnight train on the Central do Brasil railway, the arrival in São Paulo. In the register “Livro 100”, page 290, the steamer column reads P. Mafalda.
- 19372 January
Mafalda is born
The seventh child of Rosa Forner and Fausto Miotto, in the interior of São Paulo. She is given the ship’s name. No one ever said why.
- 202725 October
The centenary
One hundred years since the shipwreck.