Italian Line and from 1992 Italia Line, whose official name was Italia di Navigazione S.p.A., was a passenger shipping line that operated regular transatlantic services between Italy and the United States, and Italy and South America. During the late 1960s the company turned to running cruises, and from 1981 it became a global freight operator.

History

The company was founded in 1932 through a merger of the Genoa-based Navigazione Generale Italiana (NGI), the Turin-based

Lloyd Sabaudo The Lloyd Sabaudo was a Shipping transport line formed in Turin in 1906. It began passenger service in 1907, expanding to link Italy to ports in Asia as well as North and South America. In 1932 it merged with several other Italian shipping lines ...

, and the Trieste-based Cosulich STN lines, encouraged by the Italian government. The new company acquired the Cosulich-owned ships and , the Lloyd Sabaudo-owned , and and the NGI-owned , , and . The same year two previously ordered

ocean liner An ocean liner is a passenger ship primarily used as a form of transportation across seas or oceans. Ocean liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes (such as for pleasure cruises or as hospital ships). Ca ...

s were delivered to the company: , that won the

Blue Riband The Blue Riband () is an unofficial accolade given to the passenger liner crossing the Atlantic Ocean in regular service with the record highest average speed. The term was borrowed from horse racing and was not widely used until after 1910. T ...

in 1933, and . In World War II the company lost many ships, including ''Rex'' and ''Conte di Savoia''. Others were captured by the United States and converted into troopships; four of them survived the war: ''Conte Biancamano'', ''Conte Grande'', ''Saturnia'', and ''Vulcania''. Commercial service was resumed in 1947 under the company's new name ''Società di navigazione Italia''. In addition to the four vessels returned to the company by the United States, two new vessels, and were commissioned in 1953 and 1954. In 1956, ''Andrea Doria'', the company's three-year-old flagship collided with the

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

ship ''Stockholm'' near

Nantucket Nantucket () is an island about south from Cape Cod. Together with the small islands of Tuckernuck and Muskeget, it constitutes the Town and County of Nantucket, a combined county/town government that is part of the U.S. state of Massachuse ...

and sank, with passenger deaths estimated at 46 or 55. The company replaced ''Andrea Doria'' with , which went into service in 1960. This ship was based on the same design as ''Andrea Doria'', but was larger, and featured technical innovations. In the late 1950s aircraft passenger travel had yet to have a noticeable effect on ocean-going passenger numbers between the United States and the Mediterranean. The Italian Line, therefore, ordered two new ships: and . Building the ships took longer than expected, and they were not delivered until 1965. Being late into service, they were unable to compete profitably on the North Atlantic route. Although planned for cruising as an alternative, the ships had several design flaws that made their use as cruise ships problematic. Despite huge financial loss, the Italian Line operated the transatlantic route until 1976, after which the ''Leonardo da Vinci'' was withdrawn from service; the ''Michelangelo'' and ''Raffaello'' had been sold the previous year. The ''Cristopher Columbo'' was also withdrawn from service at this time. The ''Leonardo da Vinci'' became a cruise ship in 1977–78, after which it was withdrawn due to high fuel costs. In 1979 and 1980 the company operated two ex-

Lloyd Triestino Lloyd Triestino was a major shipping company, created in 1919 when the city of Trieste became part of Italy in the settlement after the First World War. It ran passenger services on ocean liners around the world. Seriously harmed by Second World W ...

liners, and , as cruise ships, but this again proved unprofitable. Because of the unprofitability of the cruise business, the Italian Line turned to freight shipping. It operated its principal container services between the Mediterranean, the west coast of North America, and Central and South America, carrying about of freight in 2001. Previously owned by the Italian government, the company was privatized in 1998 when sold to ''d'Amico Società di Navigazione''. In August 2002, it was acquired by CP Ships, and in 2005 the ''Italian Line'' name ceased to exist following CP's one-brand strategy. CP Ships itself was bought-out in late 2005 by TUI AG, and merged with Hapag-Lloyd in mid-2006.

International identifiers

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

Ships

Passenger ships

Container ships

* GRT = gross register tonnage * GT =

gross tonnage Gross tonnage (GT, G.T. or gt) is a nonlinear measure of a ship's overall internal volume. Gross tonnage is different from gross register tonnage. Neither gross tonnage nor gross register tonnage should be confused with measures of mass or weigh ...

References

External links

* – fleet list * – images of company brochures * – trade routes and ships of the Italian Line in the 1950s, 60s and 70s {{Authority control Transport companies established in 1932 Italian companies established in 1932 Defunct shipping companies Defunct transport companies of Italy Defunct cruise lines Transatlantic shipping companies Shipping companies of Italy Italian brands Transport companies disestablished in 2002 Italian companies disestablished in 2002