Domenico Di Salvo arrived on Ellis Island on September 5, 1907. He had left on the 23 rd of August on the Koenig Albert steamer, which had  been used only for a few years on the profitable Genoa-Naples-New York route. When fully loaded, the fast transatlantic liner built in the shipyards of Szczecin, today in Poland, could carry 2175 passengers, 1800 of them in third class.

In November 1906, just 8 months before its courageous journey to the future, there had been a protest against overcrowding. Ten years later, it was to become a hospital ship of the Royal Italian Navy, after being requisitioned following Italy's entry into the First World War.