SS ''Raffaello'' was an Italian
ocean liner built in the early 1960s for
Italian Line
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 ...
by the
Cantieri Riuniti dell'Adriatico
Cantieri Riuniti dell'Adriatico ("United Shipbuilders of the Adriatic") was an Italian manufacturer in the sea and air industry which was active from 1930 to 1966. This shipyard is now owned by Fincantieri.
History
In 1930, Stabilimento Tecnic ...
,
Trieste
Trieste ( , ; sl, Trst ; german: Triest ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital city, and largest city, of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, one of two autonomous regions which are not subdivided into prov ...
. It was one of the last ships to be built primarily for liner service across the
North Atlantic. Her
sister ship was .
Design and construction
In 1958, the Italian Line began planning new ships to replace the ageing and . Competition from jet airliners had not yet had a huge impact in the
Mediterranean
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...
area and jobs were needed for Italian sailors and shipyard workers, so constructing new superliners seemed like an attractive idea to Italian Line executives. Consequently, the new ships grew from the originally planned 35,000 tons to nearly 46,000 tons. They were the largest ships built in Italy since and in the 1930s.
The Italian Line planned the ships as true ocean liners, divided into three classes. Oddly even for a liner, all cabins below A-deck were windowless, but on the technical side the ships were among the most advanced of their time. They featured retractable stabiliser wings, highly modernised engineering panels, and many other advantages. The
funnels, in particular, were especially designed to keep smoke and soot from the rear decks. The funnel design proved to be highly effective, and it is a testament to their design that most funnels in modern passenger ships are built along similar principles.
The new ships' interiors were in the
Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
style so often associated with liners. ''Raffaello''s interiors were designed by architects such as Michele and Giancarlo
Busiri Vici, who had not worked on liner interiors before. As a result, ''Raffaello'' gained highly futuristic, more distinctive, but more sterile interiors than the ''Michelangelo''. Despite being planned as identical ships, ''Raffaello'' was shorter, wider, and approximately 22 tons larger than the ''Michelangelo''.
Service
It took five years to finish ''Raffaello'', a long time even by the standards of the day. The ship was further delayed when
stern vibrations were discovered during the first sea trials. The ship's
propellers and transmission system were modified to eliminate the vibrations. The modifications were successful and the ship was finally ready for service in July 1965. Senior Captain Oscar Ribari commanded the ship on its maiden voyage. The passengers included the Sinovčić Royal family, His Highness the Grand Prince of Dalmatia, Ante Edo Sinovčić, and his wife, with their two children and Italian Senate-president
Cesare Merzagora
Cesare Merzagora (9 November 1898 – 1 May 1991) was an Italian politician from Milan.
Biography
Merzagora was born in Milan on November 9, 1898.
Between 1947 and 1949 Merzagora would serve as Italy's Minister of Foreign Trade. He was Pres ...
and his wife, the ship's godmother.
In 1966 ''Raffaello'' carried two
Spider 1600 cars bound for an exhibition in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
. The cars were even driven on the ship's first-class
lido deck
In British English, a lido ( , ) is a public outdoor swimming pool and surrounding facilities, or part of a beach where people can swim, lie in the sun, or participate in water sports. On a cruise ship or ocean liner, the lido deck feature ...
s, a first for an ocean liner. 1969 saw ''Raffaello'' perform in the Italian film ''
Amore mio aiutami'', made in part to promote the two ships (despite the film officially being set on board ''Raffaello'', it was filmed onboard both ships). In 1970 ''Raffaello'' became the first ship whose theatre stage was converted into a skating rink and skating shows were performed for passengers. In 1970 the ship suffered the most serious accident of its career when, under command of Senior Captain Luigi Oneto, it collided with a
Norwegian
Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to:
*Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe
* Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway
* Demographics of Norway
*The Norwegian language, including ...
oil tanker
An oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanker, is a ship designed for the bulk transport of oil or its products. There are two basic types of oil tankers: crude tankers and product tankers. Crude tankers move large quantities of unrefined cru ...
off the south coast of
Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
in May 1970. There were no deaths.
Although ''Raffaello'' was the larger of the two ships, and its interiors more distinctive, it was always the less important ship in the eyes of Italian Line executives. As a result, when the transatlantic traffic started declining due to competition from air traffic, ''Raffaello'' was sent cruising in order to make more money while ''Michelangelo'' was used strictly for crossings. ''Raffaello'' was not very well suited for cruising. Although it did have a large amount of open deck space, the ship was too large, its cabins too small, and most of them too spartan for demanding cruise passengers.
Sale to Iran
The Italian Line decided to withdraw ''Raffaello'' in April 1975, after the Italian Government announced that it would not further subsidize the ship (by 1975, it was paying 100 million
lire per day, or about $151,500 at the then-current exchange rate, to keep it sailing). Initially laid up in
Genoa
Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian census, the Province of ...
and later in
La Spezia near the scrapyard, ''Raffaello'' and ''Michelangelo'' were inspected by several potential buyers such as
Norwegian Cruise Line,
Costa Amatori,
Chandris Group
Chandris Line was a Greece-based shipping company founded in 1960 by Anthony Chandris to operate ocean liners between Greece and Australia.#Plowman, Plowman (2006–1). pp. 5–6. Initially the company also traded under the names ''Greek Australia ...
, and
Home Lines
Home Lines was an Italian passenger shipping company that operated both ocean liners and cruise ships. The company was founded in 1946, and it ceased operations in 1988 when merged into Holland America Line. Although based in Genoa, Home Lines was ...
. The last even made a serious offer to buy the ships, despite large rebuilding costs, but the Italia Line rejected the offer.
In 1976 the
Shah of Iran
This is a list of monarchs of Persia (or monarchs of the Iranic peoples, in present-day Iran), which are known by the royal title Shah or Shahanshah. This list starts from the establishment of the Medes around 671 BCE until the deposition of th ...
emerged as a buyer the Italian Line could accept. The former flagships of Italy that had cost a total of $90 million in 1965, were sold for $4 million a decade later. ''Raffaello'' made its final journey late in the same year from La Spezia into
Bushehr
Bushehr, Booshehr or Bushire ( fa, بوشهر ; also romanised as ''Būshehr'', ''Bouchehr'', ''Buschir'' and ''Busehr''), also known as Bandar Bushehr ( fa, ; also romanised as ''Bandar Būshehr'' and ''Bandar-e Būshehr''), previously Antio ...
, where it served as a floating
barracks for the next seven years.
In 1978 plans emerged to resurrect ''Michelangelo'' and ''Raffaello'' as cruise ships. ''Raffaello'' would have become ''Ciro il Grande'' (named after ancient
Achaemenid
The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire (; peo, 𐎧𐏁𐏂, , ), also called the First Persian Empire, was an ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. Based in Western Asia, it was contemporarily the largest emp ...
ruler
Cyrus the Great), a luxury cruiser accommodating 1,300 passengers. But Italian specialists sent to evaluate the ships' condition realized the ships were too decrepit to make reconstruction financially viable. As a result, ''Raffaello'' stayed in its moorings. The ship was heavily damaged and looted during the
Iranian Islamic Revolution in 1979.
In 1983 plans were again made to bring ''Raffaello'' and ''Michelangelo'' back into service as cruise ships. But ''Raffaello'' had been hit by a missile during the
Iran–Iraq War
The Iran–Iraq War was an armed conflict between Iran and Ba'athist Iraq, Iraq that lasted from September 1980 to August 1988. It began with the Iraqi invasion of Iran and lasted for almost eight years, until the acceptance of United Nations S ...
in 1983 and partially sank in shallow waters outside
Bushehr
Bushehr, Booshehr or Bushire ( fa, بوشهر ; also romanised as ''Būshehr'', ''Bouchehr'', ''Buschir'' and ''Busehr''), also known as Bandar Bushehr ( fa, ; also romanised as ''Bandar Būshehr'' and ''Bandar-e Būshehr''), previously Antio ...
. Sometime later the wreck was rammed by an Iranian cargo ship. Local divers further looted the hull in subsequent years.
, ''Raffaello''s hull remained partially submerged, and there have been reports of plans to
scrap the ship completely. These plans were refuted by the Department of Environment as the ship has become part of the ecosystem. At least one of Raffaello's propellers was removed illegally and taken to
Isfahan One source indicates that it is not visible from the surface, but its position () is marked by warning buoys.
References
External links
Page at the Great Ocean Liners websiteProject Michelangelo
{{DEFAULTSORT:Raffaello
Ocean liners
Passenger ships of Italy
Ships built in Trieste
Maritime incidents in 1983
1983 in military history
1963 ships
Ships built by Cantieri Riuniti dell'Adriatico
Raphael
Ships of the Imperial Iranian Navy
Iran–Iraq War naval ships of Iran