The SS Gaetano Donizetti was an ex-Italian merchant motorship, captured by Nazi Germany for war use then destroyed by HMS Eclipse on 23 September 23, 1943 in the eastern Aegean Sea, taking to the bottom its munitions and killing 1,800 people on board: 1,576 Italian prisoners of war significantly overcrowded aboard, 220 German guards, and a small crew.
The Nazis deemed the Italians who chose not to fight further alongside them (the majority), not as prisoners of war, but as traitors to be sent to Germany.
The Italian motor vessel Gaetano Donizetti of 3428 tons, had been confiscated by the Germans to bring arms to Rhodes, where she arrived on 19 September.
Almost all sources agreed that Gaetano Donizetti sank with all hands, though there is an Italian report claiming that at least 32 survivors were rescued by a British destroyer.
[1] On February 12, 1944, another transport ship leaving Rhodes, the SS Oria, sank in a storm, causing the death of some 4,000 Italian prisoners of war.