on the NUMBER_TOKENth of november NUMBER_TOKEN the italian cruise ship akili laro met an abrupt and tragic fate with almost a thousand people on board with a deadly fire out of control and the vessel drifting over a hundred miles away from the coast a hastily cobbled together rescue effort was put into effect and miraculously saved nearly everyone on board but it wasn't smooth sailing up to this point either as akililaro had a very troubled past and really had seen it all through her decades of service so join me as i discover not only the history of this astonishing liner but what actually happened that fateful night digitally reconstruct the sinking and talk to a very special person who was on board the ship and helped save hundreds of lives this is the story of the achilles laro special videos like this have been made possible by my supporters on patreon go to URL_TOKEN bsf to support the channel and get exclusive perks it all began in a shipyard in the southern netherlands it was NUMBER_TOKEN and a brand new liner was being constructed called the wilhelm rice named after the grandson of the shipping line rotterdam sir lloyd's founder the construction however was delayed indefinitely due to bombing raids from world war ii shockingly though the vessel came out of the war rather unscathed because of this construction was able to resume following the war and the william rise sailed out for her maiden voyage on december NUMBER_TOKENth NUMBER_TOKEN. coming in at NUMBER_TOKEN feet long and NUMBER_TOKEN feet wide the vessel was decently sized at NUMBER_TOKEN NUMBER_TOKEN tons really though it was her design that was so notable with the sleek low profile smokestacks and her extremely innovative lower deck aluminum lifeboats this was a design that would be later adopted by pretty much all modern day cruise ships and the william rise was one of if not the first liner to feature this lower lifeboat design the vessel became popular for its transport routes through indonesia and was later put on the transatlantic route from new york and canada her owner and operator royal rotterdam sir lloyd signed a deal with the netherlands lined in NUMBER_TOKEN creating a joint venture between the two companies with plans for using the william rise for both transport and pleasure cruising so she was sent to amsterdam and refitted into a cruise ship along with the necessary additions of the time like air conditioning and underwater stabilizers now dropping the four class distinctions the vessel set off for service between australia and new zealand just five years later though these new cruises and routes proved to be not as favorable with the sudden rise and popularity of air travel so the lines had put the william rise up for sale a year later in NUMBER_TOKEN she was purchased by a company called flota laro lines the william rise was renamed to the akili laro appropriately after the owner of that company with this new purchase the owners brought the laro into drydock and embarked on an extensive rebuild gutting large sections of the ship and modernizing many of the mechanical systems and even sections of the superstructure this wasn't without issue however as the ship suffered an explosion and caught fire in august of NUMBER_TOKEN. while this delayed the original launch date the new and improved aquililaro set sail once again from australia in NUMBER_TOKEN. laro
START_SELFPROMO_TOKEN special videos like this have been made possible by my supporters on patreon go to URL_TOKEN bsf to support the channel and get exclusive perks it END_SELFPROMO_TOKEN