Italian Line

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.

History

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 1950s 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 TEU|180,000|first=yes 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.

International identifiers

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

Vessels

Passenger ships

Container ships

* GRT = Gross Register Tonnage
* GT = Gross Tonnage

References

* [http://www.bic-code.org/ Bureau International des Containers] (Container prefix codes, now linking Italia Line units to Hapag-Lloyd due to the merger)
* CP Ships: Press release - [http://www.hapag-lloyd.com/en/pr/23778.html CP Ships Completes Acquisition of Italia Di Navigazione] , 06. August 2002
* CP Ships: Press release - [http://www.hapag-lloyd.com/en/pr/23790.html CP Ships Adopts a Single Brand] , 28. April 2005
* Italia Line: [http://www.italialine.com Official website] - page offline - please refer to [http://www.hapag-lloyd.com/en/company/about_us.html History of CP Ships]

External links

* [http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/lines/italia.htm The Ships List] (extensive list of ships operated by Italian Line)
* [http://www.timetableimages.com/maritime/images/italia.htm Maritime Timetable images] (Collection of old company brochures)
* [http://www.amazon.com/Picture-History-Italian-Line-1932-1977/dp/0486404897 The Picture History of the Italian Line, 1932-1977] (book on amazon.com)
* [http://www.lastoceanliners.com/cgi/lolline.pl?ITA The Last Ocean Liners] (trade routes and ships of the Italian Line in the 1950s, 60s and 70s)