- Moby Lines
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Moby S.p.A. 
Industry Passenger transportation, Freight transportation Founded 1959 Headquarters Milan, Italy Area served Italy, France, Corsica, Sardinia Key people Vincenzo Onorato, Chairman Website www.moby.it 
MS Moby Aki in Livorno, 2007.
Moby Lines (Moby Lines S.p.A.) is an Italian shipping company that operates ferries and cruiseferries between the Italian or French mainland and the islands of Elba, Sardinia and Corsica. The company was founded in 1959 under the name Navigazione Arcipelago Maddalenino (NAVARMA for short).
In 2006 Moby Lines purchased Lloyd Sardegna. The company is known for using Warner Bros. Looney Tunes characters as the external livery of its ships.
Contents
History
"Moby Wonder" in Livorno, 22 of February, 2011.NAVARMA was founded in 1959 by Achille Onorato, and started traffic from Sardinia to the islands on coast of Sardinia with the small ferry M/S Maria Maddalena purchased from Denmark. In February 1966 NAVARMA purchased a second ferry, M/S Bonaficio, and started service between Sardinia and Corsica. The company slowly expanded, purchasing another ferry in 1967 and taking delivery of two newbuilds in 1974 and 1981. With the larger fleet, new routes to the Italian mainland were also introduced.
In 1982 the company acquired M/S Free Enterprise II from Townsend Thoresen, renamed her M/S Moby Blu and painted her in the "blue whale" livery that later came to characterise Moby Lines (the company name still remained NAVARMA at this point). The Moby Blu was over twice the size of NAVARMA's previously largest ship. By 1988 four additional larger ferries (all with Moby-prefixed names) had joined by NAVARMA fleet and additional routes to the Italian mainland were opened.
During the early 1990s NAVARMA acquired further used ferries, which replaced the Moby ferries acquired ni the 1980s. During the same time "Moby Lines" was adopted as the official company name. From 1996 onwards the company fleet has grown radically with addition of new, larger and faster tonnage, including the newbuilt fast cruiseferries Moby Wonder, Moby Freedom and Moby Aki. Around 2003 Moby Lines entered an agreement with Warner Bros. to paint their vessels in liveries featuring Looney Tunes characters. However, only the larger ships have such liveries, the company's smaller ships either have similar graphics not featuring the Looney Tunes characters, or simply the Moby Lines' whale logo.
Fleet
Current fleet
Ship Type Built Entered service Route Tonnage1 Notes Ferry 1974 1974 Santa Teresa di Gallura—Bonifacio 498 GRT Piombino - Cavo (Elba Island) 2,041 GRT cruiseferry 2005 2005 Livorno—Olbia
Piombino—Olbia36,400 GT Piombino—Portoferraio 2,430 GRT ex-Mikkel Mols, ex-Teistin Civitavecchia—Olbia 19.321 GT ex-Dana Anglia, ex-Duke of Scandinavia, ex-Pont l´Abbe Porto Torres—Genova 21,545 GRT ex-Tor Britannia, ex-Scandinavian Star, ex-Prince of Scandinavia Bastia 36,100 GT Livorno—Olbia 21,545 GRT ex-Tor Scandinavia, ex-World Wide Expo, ex-Princess of Scandinavia MS Moby Tommy Fast cruiseferry 2002 2007 Piombino—Olbia
Livorno—Olbia28,007 GT ex-Ariadne Palace GT ex-Stena Normandica, ex-St Brendan Bastia 36,100 GT 1May be specified in gross tonnage (GT) or gross register tons (GRT). References
- Moby Lines at Simplon Postcards, retrieved 3. 7. 2007
External links
- Company website
- (Swedish) Moby Lines at Fakta om Fartyg
- MobyAki.it
Categories:- Ferry companies of Italy
- Companies established in 1959
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