Italian Line and from 1992 Italia Line, whose official name was Italia di Navigazione S.p.A., was a passenger

shipping line A shipping line or shipping company is a company whose line of business is ownership and operation of ships. Shipping companies provide a method of distinguishing ships by different kinds of cargo: # Bulk cargo is a type of special cargo that i ...

that operated regular transatlantic services between

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

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 Cargo consists of bulk goods conveyed by water, air, or land. In economics, freight is cargo that is transported at a freight rate for commercial gain. ''Cargo'' was originally a shipload but now covers all types of freight, including tran ...

operator.

History

The company was founded in 1932 through a merger of the

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 ...

-based Navigazione Generale Italiana (NGI), the

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

-based Lloyd Sabaudo, and the

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 pr ...

-based

Cosulich STN The Cosulich Line, formally the Cosulich Societa Triestina di Navigazione, is a steamship line that was based in Trieste, Italy. The company had been founded in 1889 by Antonio F. Cosulich's son as a family business. In 1903 as Unione Austriaca d ...

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. ...

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 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 Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

and converted into

troopship A troopship (also troop ship or troop transport or trooper) is a ship used to carry soldiers, either in peacetime or wartime. Troopships were often drafted from commercial shipping fleets, and were unable land troops directly on shore, typicall ...

s; 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 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 An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to flight, fly by gaining support from the Atmosphere of Earth, air. It counters the force of gravity by using either Buoyancy, static lift or by using the Lift (force), dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in ...

passenger travel had yet to have a noticeable effect on ocean-going passenger numbers between the United States and 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 and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on ...

. 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 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

, 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 CP Ships was a large Canadian shipping company established in the 19th century. From the late 1880s until after World War II, the company was Canada's largest operator of Atlantic and Pacific steamships. Many immigrants travelled on CP ships f ...

, 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 Hapag-Lloyd AG is a German international shipping and container transportation company. Hapag-Lloyd was formed in 1970 through a merger of Hamburg-American Line (HAPAG) and North German Lloyd. History The company was formed on September 1, 1 ...

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 weig ...

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