T/S Michelangelo
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T/S Michelangelo was an Italian ocean liner built in 1965 for Italian Line by Ansaldo Shipyards, Genoa. She was one of the last ships to be built primarily for liner service across the North Atlantic. Her sister ship was the T/S Raffaello.
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[edit] Design and Construction
Italian Line had begun planning new ships already in 1958. Originally they were to be only slightly larger than SS Leonardo da Vinci, which back then was still being built, but the jet aircraft had not had a notable effect on the Mediterranean area at the time and a pair of genuine superliners seemed like an attractive idea, not only from a commercial point of view but also from the point of view of providing jobs to sailors and shipyard workers. Hence it was decided that the new ships would be the largest to be built in Italy since the SS Rex in 1932.
It was decided that the ships would be true liners, their accommodations divided into three classes. For some reason it was also decided that the three bottom-most passenger decks would not have any portholes. It has been claimed that this made the ship's sleek hull shape, but that seems unlikely to be true as ships of similar lenght/width ratio have been built with windows along the entire hull. However, whatever the shortcomings in their initial design, the new sisters were very advanced on the technological side. The most striking feature in the ships were their Turin Polytechnic-designed funnels, which consisted of an intricate trellis-like pipework (instead of the traditional even surface) to allow wind pass through the funnel and a large smoke deflector fin on the top. Although much criticised, the funnel design proved to be highly effective in keeping smoke off the rear decks. The smoke deflectors became popular in ship design during the 1970's and 80's, whereas the idea of allowing wind to pass though the funnel was picked up again in the late 80's and is almost the norm in modern shipbuilding.
The interiors of the new ships were in the Art Deco style so often associated with liners. The Michelangelo's interiors were designed by naval architects Nino Zoncada, Vincenzo Monaco and Amedeo Luccichenti, who gave the ship a less adventurous, more traditional look than the designers of her sister Raffaello.
[edit] Service
After several delays the Michelangelo was finally ready for service in May 1965. She had performed her trials flawlessly, apart from some vibrations on the stern of the ship which have not been unusual on passenger ships. As a result of this the Michelangelo was drydocked in December 1965, and she received new propellers and some modifications were made to her transmission. As a result she clocked an impressive 31,59 knots during her post-refit trials, making her the fifth-fastest passenger ship in the world at the time.
In April 1966 Michelangelo was hit by an unusually large wave during a storm in the mid-Atlantic, which tore away the aluminium plating of the superstructure and swept two passengers into the sea. One crew member died a few hours later and over 50 people were injured. When repairs were carried out after the accident, the aluminium plating in the superstructure were replaced by steel plates. Similar reconstruction was carried out on the Raffaello and other contemporary ships such as T/S United States and T/S France.
During the following years passenger numbers in the Transatlantic trade were in steady decline due to competition from the air, and more and more ships were being withdrawn. The Michelangelo spent more and more time cruising to warmer waters, but as said she made a poor cruiseship with her windowless cabins and three-class layout. What she did have was large lido decks that were superior to even most purpose-built cruiseships of the time, but those were not enough to compensate for the ship's shortcomings, and Italian Line did not have enough funds to rebuild the ship to make her a more usable cruiser. Additionally she was considered to be too large to be a cruiseship by that time's standards.
[edit] Epilogue
Italy's flagship T/S Michelangelo made her last Atlantic crossing in July 1975. Afterwards she was laid up at La Spezia alongside her sister. Several buyers (including Knut Kloster of Norwegian Cruise Line) inspected the ships but did not wish to buy them due to the costs required to modernise them into cruiseship standards. There was one serious buyer, Home Lines, who wished to buy the ships and keep them under Italian flag for cruising in the Caribbean. Incredibly Italian Line refused to sell the sisters (reportedly because they felt keeping the Italian flag would have associated the "embarrassing money-losers" with them).
In 1976 a buyer was found that agreed to the terms Italian Line was asking. The Shah of Persia purchased the ships, to be used as barrack ships. The ships that had cost $45 million each, were now sold at the price of $2 million per ship. The Michelangelo ended up in Bandar Abbas where she was to spend the next fifteen years.
A small light shone for the ship in 1978 when plans were made to reconstruct her as the luxury cruiser Scià Reza il Grande. However, an expert team sent from italy to inspect the ship came to the conclusion she was too badly detoriated to make rebuilding a viable option. Similar plans were made again in 1983, but they too fell short. Finally in June 1991 an end was put to the Michelangelo's suffering when she was scrapped in Pakistan.
[edit] Specifications
- Tonnage: 45.911 gross tons
- Length: 275,81 meters
- Width: 31,05 meters
- Deep draught: 10,4 meters
- Service speed: 26.5 knots
- Passengers: 1775
- 1st Class: 535
- Cabin Class: 550
- Tourist Class: 690
- Crew: 725
- Sister ship: T/S Raffaello
