Navigazione Generale Italiana (NGI) was an Italian shipping company.

History

The company formed in 1881 by the merger of '' I & V. Florio'' of

Palermo Palermo ( ; ; , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The ...

and '' Raffaele Rubattino'' of

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

. At the time of the merger, the two companies both operated extensively 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 east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

, with I & V Florio also operating routes to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

, and Raffele Rubattino operating routes to

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

and the

Far East The Far East is the geographical region that encompasses the easternmost portion of the Asian continent, including North Asia, North, East Asia, East and Southeast Asia. South Asia is sometimes also included in the definition of the term. In mod ...

through the

Suez Canal The Suez Canal (; , ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, Indo-Mediterranean, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia (and by extension, the Sinai Peninsula from the rest ...

The Florio Line brought 50 ships into the merger, while Rubattino contributed 40.American Trade With Italy; A New Steam-Ship Line Started To Foster It

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

, June 19, 1881, Page 8 Following the merger, the new company not only maintained the existing service, it expanded by adding service to

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

in 1884. To support the new routes, in 1885, NGI acquired competitors ''Società Italiana Trasporti Marittimi Raggio & Co.'' and ''Società Rocco Piaggio & Figli''. House flag of the Italian General Navigation

House flag of the Italian General Navigation

1890-01-23-La-Veloce-navigazione-italiana

''Società Italiana di Transporti Marittimi Raggio & Co.'' was founded in Genoa in 1882 by Carlo, Edilio and Armando Raggio to transport passengers and freight between Italy and South America; ''Società Rocco Piaggio & Figli'' was formed in Genoa in 1870 and operated routes to

Montevideo Montevideo (, ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2023 census, the city proper has a population of 1,302,954 (about 37.2% of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...

and

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

through the

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; ) or Canaries are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean and the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, Autonomous Community of Spain. They are located in the northwest of Africa, with the closest point to the cont ...

, then later between Genoa,

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

, and

Rio de la Plata Rio or Río is the Portuguese and Spanish word for "river". The word also exists in Italian, but is largely obsolete and used in a poetical or literary context to mean "stream". Rio, RIO or Río may also refer to: Places United States * Rio, Fl ...

. In 1901, the company further expanded by acquiring the assets of ''La Veloce'', a shipping company formed in 1884 which was liquidated in 1924 following its acquisition by ''Navigazione Generale Italiana''. 1906 brought another expansion with the acquisition of ''Italia Società di Navigazione a Vapore'', a shipping company founded in Genoa in 1899. On June 13, 1910, the ''Società Nazionale dei Servizi Marittimi'' acquired the NGI's Mediterranean routes allowing NGI to focus on the trans-Atlantic operations with 19 remaining vessels. Also in 1910, NGI acquired ''Lloyd Italiano'',Lloyd Italiano
a shipping company started in Genoa in 1904 by Erasmo Piaggio who was pursuing links with North and South America. In 1932, NGI merged with Lloyd Sabaudo and Cosulich Line to form the

Italian Line Known as Italian Line and from 1992 Italia Line, whose official name was Italia di Navigazione Società per Azioni, S.p.A., was a passenger shipping line that operated regular transatlantic crossing, transatlantic services between Italy and the ...

that later built the one-time Italian Blue Riband champion and the ill-fated .

Routes

The company's principal routes were those from Italy-US East Coast and Italy-Brazil/Argentina, both strongly underpinned economically by the emigrant trade.

Fleet

Over the decades of its existence the company had quite an extensive fleet. Amongst these were a group of ships named after the Italian royal family and other aristocrats and figures of Roman history. Amongst the largest of these was the

MS Augustus (1926) MS ''Augustus'' was a combined ocean liner and cruise ship built in 1926 for the Navigazione Generale Italiana (NGI). ''Augustus'' operated mostly on the Europe to South and North America routes, on the former being one of, if not the largest an ...

1927-46 and its sister ship the SS Roma, others included the SS Giulio Cesare 1922-44 and the SS Duilio 1923-43.

Ships of the Navigazione Generale Italiana

Pictures

SS Principessa Jolanda launch.jpg, Launch of Principessa Jolanda Principessa Mafalda.jpg, The Principessa Mafalda Duilio-4.jpg, SS Duilio Nave Regina Margherita.png, The Regina Margherita

References

External links

Italian Steamship Lines History and Ephemera Including NGI
GG Archives {{Authority control Shipping companies of Italy Italian companies established in 1881 Florio family