Italian Line

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Italian Line, also known as the Società di navigazione Italia, was a passenger shipping line that operated regular transatlantic service between Italy and the United States.

The Società di navigazione Italia was started in 1932 as Italia Flotte Riunite (United Fleets Italy), when the Italian government encouraged the fusion of Genoa-based Navigazione Generale Italiana, Turin-based Lloyd Sabaudo, and Trieste-based Cosulich STN, which was previously an Austro-Hungaric company.

The new company acquired the Cosulich-owned SS Saturnia and SS Vulcania, the Lloyd Sabaudo-owned SS Conte Rosso, SS Conte Biancamano and SS Conte Grande and the NGI-owned SS Giulio Cesare, SS Roma and SS Augustus. The same year two previously commissioned ocean liners were launched: the SS Rex, who captured the Blue Riband in 1933, and the SS Conte di Savoia .

During World War II, the company lost many of its ships, including the SS Rex and the SS Conte di Savoia. Other vessels were captured by the United States and converted into troopships; four of them survived the war: the SS Conte Biancamano, the SS Conte Grande, the SS Saturnia and the SS Vulcania.

The service was resumed only in 1947, under the company's new name Società di navigazione Italia. In addition to the four vessels returned by United States, two new vessels, the SS Andrea Doria and the SS Cristoforo Colombo were commissioned in 1953 and 1954, respectively, to show the world that the country had recovered from the war and to re-establish the nation's pride. However the Andrea Doria sunk only three years after she was commissioned, in 1956. The company was swift to order a replacement for its sunken flagship, and the new SS Leonardo da Vinci was delivered in 1960. The ship was based on the same design as Andrea Doria, but technically improved and enlarged.

In the late 1950's the arrival of the jet aircraft had not yet had a notable effect on passenger numbers in the United States - Mediterranean traffic and the Italian Line decided to order another pair of new ships for the trade. Plans for these were already being made in 1958, but the construction took longer than expected and the ships weren't completeted until 1965, as TS Michelangelo and TS Raffaello. Unfortunately the ships were built too late to be truly profitable on the North Atlantic route. Although planned from the start for alternative cruising, the ships had several design features that made their use as cruise ships very difficult.

Italian Line kept operating the Transatlantic service despite huge losses until 1976, when the Leonardo da Vinci was the last Italian liner to cross the Atlantic. The Michelangelo and Raffaello had already been withdrawn the previous year. Discouraged by the lack of success, Italian Line decided to concentrate on freight traffic. In 2003 (?) Italian Line was merged into CP Ships.