Italian Line

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The Italian Line or Italia 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, as well as Italy and South America. During the 1970s the company was also heavily involved in cruising, later it concentrated on freight traffic.

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[edit] History

SS Conte di Savoia, the first purpose-built ship of Italian Line
SS Conte di Savoia, the first purpose-built ship of Italian Line
SS Giulio Cesare, built in 1923, in Italian Line service 1932-1937
SS Giulio Cesare, built in 1923, in Italian Line service 1932-1937

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

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

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 SS Michelangelo and SS 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 passenger liner of the company to cross the Atlantic. The Michelangelo and Raffaello had already been withdrawn the previous year. The Leonardo da Vinci was used as a cruise ship in 1977-1978, but withdrawn due to high fuel costs. Between 1979 and 1980 the Italian Line operated two ex-Lloyd Triestino liners SS Galileo Galilei and SS Guglielmo Marconi as a cruise ships, but the venture proved unprofitable.

Discouraged by the lack of success, Italian Line decided to concentrate on freight traffic. Italian Line operated its principal container services between the Mediterranean, West Coast North America and Central and South America. It carried about 180,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) in 2001.

Formerly owned by the Italian government, Italian Line was privatized when sold to d'Amico in 1998. In August 2002 Italian Line was acquired by CP Ships. In July 2003 a new Company logo was designed with very careful changes keeping recognition of the old one. In 2005 the Italia Lines brand was replacecd by the CP Ships brand following CP's one brand strategy. CP Ships itself was bought out in late 2005 by TUI AG and merged in mid 2006 in the Hapag-Lloyd organization.

[edit] International identifiers

SCAC Code: ITAU
BIC Code (Container prefixes): ITAU

[edit] Vessels

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

[edit] Passenger ships

Built Name Tonnage Shipyard Operated/Comments
1917 SS Colombo 12003 gross register tons (GRT) Palmer S.& E. Co. Ld., Jarrow on Tyne 1932 - 1941. Refurbished in passenger vessel by Cantieri Baia Napoli. Self sinking at Massaua on April 3rd,1941.
1922 SS Giulio Cesare 21848 GRT Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson, Ltd, UK 1932-1937, transferred to Lloyd Triestino
1923 SS Conte Verde 18765 GRT William Beardmore & Co., Scotland 1932-1940
1923 SS Duilio 24281 GRT Ansaldo Shipyards, Italy 1932-1937, transferred to Lloyd Triestino, 1948 scrapped
1925 SS Conte Biancamano 24416 GRT William Beardmore & Co., Scotland 1932-1940, 1947-1960
1926 SS Roma 32583 GRT Ansaldo Shipyards, Italy 1932-1939
1926 MS Vulcania 23970 GRT Cantiere Navale Triestino, Italy 1932-1940, 1947-1965, sold to Siosa Lines
1927 MS Saturnia 23940 GRT Cantiere Navale Triestino, Italy 1932-1940, 1946-1965, 1965 scrapped
1927 SS Conte Grande 25661 GRT Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino, Italy 1932-1940, 1947-1961, Scrapped in 1961.
1927 SS Conte Rosso 18017 GRT William Beardmore & Co., Scotland 1932-1940, Torpedoed and sunk 24 May 1941
1928 MS Augustus 32650 GRT Ansaldo Shipyards, Italy 1932-1939, largest diesel-engined liner of her time
1932 SS Conte di Savoia 48502 GRT Cantieri Riuniti dell' Adriatico, Italy 1932-1940
1932 SS Rex 51062 GRT Ansaldo Shipyards, Italy 1932-1940, destroyed by Allied bombers in 1944
1932 MS Neptunia 19475 GRT Cantieri Riuniti dell' Adriatico, Italy 1937-1940, 1941 torpedoed and sunk
1932 MS Oceania 19507 GRT Cantieri Riuniti dell' Adriatico, Italy 1937-1940, 1941 torpedoed and sunk
1951 MS Giulio Cesare 27078 GRT Cantieri Riuniti dell' Adriatico, Italy 1951-1973, 1973 scrapped
1951 MS Augustus 27090 GRT Cantieri Riuniti dell' Adriatico, Italy 1952-1976
1951 SS Andrea Doria 29083 GRT Ansaldo Shipyards, Italy 1953-1956, Capsized and sank on July 25, 1956 after colliding with MS Stockholm (1948)
1953 SS Cristoforo Colombo 29191 GRT Ansaldo Shipyards, Italy 1954-1977, Scrapped 1982 in Kaohsiung, Taiwan
1960 SS Leonardo da Vinci 33340 GRT Ansaldo Shipyards, Italy 1960-1978, burned 1980, scrapped 1982
1963 SS Galileo Galilei 27888 GRT Cantieri Riuniti dell' Adriatico, Italy 1979, Sunk 21 May 1999
1963 SS Guglielmo Marconi 27905 GRT Cantieri Riuniti dell' Adriatico, Italy 1979-1980
1965 SS Michelangelo 45911 GRT Ansaldo Shipyards, Italy 1965-1975, Scrapped 1991
1965 SS Raffaello 45933 GRT Cantieri Riuniti dell' Adriatico, Italy 1965-1975, sunk 1983

[edit] Container ships

Built Name Tonnage Capacity Shipyard IMO number Call sign Flag Status/Comments
1985 Aquitania 17702 GRT 2077 TEU Stocznia Szczecinska S.A., Poland 8300975 HPUE Panama 1991 chartered, 1993 purchased from Cyprus
1989 Cristoforo Colombo 32630 GT 2232 TEU Fincantieri-Cantieri Navali Italiani S.p.A., Italy 8618449 ICYS Italy 2002 to CP Ships
1989 Amerigo Vespucci 32630 GT 2232 TEU Fincantieri-Cantieri Navali Italiani S.p.A., Italy 8618451 ICBA Italy 2002 to CP Ships
1991 S. Caboto 15783 GT 1068 TEU Fincantieri-Cantieri Navali Italiani S.p.A., Italy 8618413 ICMS Italy 2002 to CP Ships
1992 California 17123 GT 1210 TEU Naikai Zosen Corp., Japan 8901743 ICFC Italy 2002 to CP Ships
1994 Cielo del Cile 15778 GT 1512 TEU Thyssen Nordseewerke GmbH, Germany 9046253 ELVB3 Liberia 2002 to CP Ships
1997 Dollart Trader 16165 GT 1608 TEU MTW Schiffswerft GmbH, Germany 9162356 V2OD5 Antigua & Barbuda 2002 to CP Ships
1998 Cielo di San Francisco 25359 GT 2474 TEU Volkswerft Stralsund GmbH, Germany 9153408 DGZO Germany 2002 to CP Ships
1998 Cielo del Canada 25361 GT 2470 TEU Meeres-Technik-Wismar, Germany 9138290 V2PE2 Antigua & Barbuda 2002 to CP Ships
2000 Cielo del Caribe 13066 GT 1302 TEU Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft MbH & Co. KG, Germany 9202053 ELXN2 Liberia 2002 to CP Ships
2002 Cielo d'America 25580 GT 2462 TEU Thyssen Nordseewerke GmbH, Germany 9239733 ICCV Italy 2002 to CP Ships
2002 Cielo d'Europa 25535 GT 2462 TEU Thyssen Nordseewerke GmbH, Germany 9236664 ICCP Italy 2002 to CP Ships

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