In 1935 she was bought by Flotte Riunite Cosulich-Lloyd-Sabaudo Navigazione Generale, who renamed her Calabria.

[1] In 1935 NDL sold Werra, Coblenz and Saarbrücken to Flotte Riunite Cosulich-Lloyd-Sabaudo which renamed them Calabria, Sicilia and Toscana and registered them in Genoa.

[5] Calabria's crew and supernumaries included also four Hong Kong Chinese crewmen[11][12][13][14] and one Danish merchant officer.

[14] Calabria left Freetown in Sierra Leone with convoy SLS-56 headed to the UK but fell behind.

[5] On the evening of Sunday 8 December German Type IX submarine U-103, commanded by Viktor Schütze, torpedoed her in the Western Approaches about 295 nautical miles (546 km) west of Slyne Head in County Galway, Ireland.

The oldest man aboard was Calabria's chief cook, Santan Martins, who was 79 years old.

[18] Her Indian seamen and supernumaries are commemorated in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission monuments at Chittagong and Mumbai.

[18] In 1940 after the British seized Calabria a small bronze ship's bell was removed from her.