Part 1: Coming to America
It is 6 November 1903, and the SS Vancouver is sailing across the Atlantic. It's travelling from Italy to the United States with over 2,000 Italian men, women, and children on board.
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| SS Vancouver |
In recent years, the number of Italians migrating to North America has increased dramatically. Since 1890, the SS Vancouver and hundreds of other ships have carried over 2 million Italian immigrants to the United States, making Italy the country that has sent the most immigrants to the US in the last decade.
The reasons for the mass exodus from Italy are complex, so each immigrant's story is unique. The majority of them, though, want to escape the unrest and poverty that have engulfed the Italian peninsula in recent decades. Poor Italians are selling everything they own to buy a one-way ticket to North America, thanks to rumours of American prosperity spread by American agents and returning immigrants.
On this transatlantic voyage, the SS Vancouver is transporting 2,000 Italian immigrants from Naples to Boston, and among them is a 21-tear-old named Carlo Pietro Giovanni Guglielmo Tebaldo Ponzi.
He is personable, wears high-end European fashion, and enjoys spending money. He has a small body, but his confidence, charm, and persuasiveness compensate for his lack of stature.
He is from Lugo, Italy, and he's travelling to America with only one mission: to get rich.
He recently dropped out of the University of Rome after which one of his uncles recommended he goes to America. "America's streets are paved with gold," his uncle told him. "All you have to do is bend down to collect it."
His uncle bought him the ticket on which he is travelling and gave him $200 to help him get started in his new country.
However, he blows up most of the money in lavish spending on the ship - gambling, picking restaurant tabs, and tipping waiters.
By the time the SS Vancouver docks at Boston harbour on 17 November 1903, he has only $2.50 in his pockets and plenty of dreams.
Fortunately, those dreams don't die.
