{"id":13975,"date":"2014-09-27T10:45:47","date_gmt":"2014-09-27T08:45:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.area-arch.it\/the-history-of-great-italian-ships-2\/"},"modified":"2015-08-23T19:09:11","modified_gmt":"2015-08-23T17:09:11","slug":"the-history-of-great-italian-ships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.area-arch.it\/en\/the-history-of-great-italian-ships\/","title":{"rendered":"The history of great Italian ships"},"content":{"rendered":"

The history of our large ships began on the eve of World War I, when the leading Italian navigation companies decided to launch a program aimed at building ships capable of crossing the Atlantic and that would, in terms of size and speed, surpass all the ships that had preceded them: the transatlantic liners. The outbreak of the war put a stop to the hectic activities; but nevertheless the twins \u201cDuilio\u201d (1916) and \u201cGiulio Cesare\u201d (1920) of Navigazione Generale Italiana \u2013 presented with the title \u201cthe Age of the Colossuses\u201d in a brochure \u2013 and the twins \u201cConte Rosso\u201d (1922) and \u201cConte Verde\u201d (1923) of Lloyds Sabaudo \u2013 completed in spite of great difficulties after the war \u2013 turned out to be modern ships even if ten years had passed from their design to their actual construction. The two ships of the Sabaudo company, which vaunted unique interiors thanks to the furniture supplied by the Copped\u00e8 brothers of Florence, were inspired by the feats of Amadeus VI of Savoy, called the Red Count, and those of his son Amadeus VII, called the Green Count. Also the third Count, the \u201cBiancamano\u201d (1925), the first true Italian \u201cfloating city\u201d, rendered homage to Umberto I, count of Moriana, called Biancamano due to the whiteness of his hands. To avoid losing time and money the fourth count, the \u201cConte Grande\u201d (1928) had been built as a copy of the \u201cConte Biancamano\u201d, thus completing the fleet of the \u201cfour Counts\u201d. After the end of the war the \u201cN.G.I.\u201d launched its two new flagships of more than 30,000 tonnes, the \u201cRoma\u201d (1924) and the \u2019\u201dAugustus\u201d (1925), referred to as \u201cMasterpieces\u201d in the American brochure. Rendering another homage to \u2018Romanity\u201d, in 1924 N.G.I. ordered two new ships, baptizing them \u201cVirgilio\u201d (1925) and \u201cOrazio\u201d (1925); they became familiar to the Italian-American population of South America. Inspired by the modernizations introduced by N.G.I. and Lloyds Sabaudo, also Cosulich Line ordered the twin ships \u201cSaturnia\u201d (1927) and \u201cVulcania\u201d (1928) from its shipyards in Monfalcone; both vaunted slender, original lines and very lavish interiors. In 1927 Mussolini announced the construction of \u201ctwo ships the whole world was waiting for\u201d and shortly afterwards the companies N.G.I. and Lloyds Sabaudo presented their new flagships: the \u201cRex\u201d (1932) and the \u201cConte di Savoia\u201d (1932), the former still built according to the old canons of the palace\u2013ship, the latter an ambassador of modernity and the surpassing of traditional aesthetic canons. In 1932 Mussolini ordered the merger of the three leading navigation companies; the resulting passenger ship fleet was the largest that had ever sailed under the tricolour flag. In 1933 \u201cOceania\u201d and \u201cNeptunia\u201d, the most beautiful ships on the Atlantic route of South America and the last to be built before World War II, were added to the 35 ships of the \u2018Italia Flotte Riunite\u2019 or united Italian fleets.\u00a0In the years after the war, bombardments had deprived the prestigious pre\u2013war fleet of more than half of its ships. Determined to rebuild it, our national company Societ\u00e0 Italia di Navigazione, with headquarters in Piazza De Ferrari in Genoa, was soon to have what was once again defined as the world\u2019s most beautiful fleet. The \u201cAnsaldo\u201d shipyards in Genoa and the \u201cUnited Shipyards of the Adriatic\u201d of Trieste and Monfalcone were ready to catch up and to relaunch the ships that had been sunk during the conflict. In 1947, before ordering the building of new transatlantic liners, the Italian company succeeded in recovering the four ships of above 20,000 tonnes which the American government had seized as booty of war: the \u201cConte Grande\u201d, the \u201cConte Biancamano\u201d, the \u201cSaturnia\u201d and the \u201cVulcania\u201d.\u00a0Risen again from the ashes, the four ships were transformed and modernized, once more becoming luxurious, comfortable and fast transatlantic liners plying the routes to South America and New York. The first new ship built after the war was the turbine steamship \u201cGiulio Cesare\u201d (1951), followed by its twin \u201cAugustus\u201d (1951); both were to serve the routes to South America. To meet a rapidly growing demand for passenger transport, the first real transatlantic liner, the \u201cAnsaldo\u201d, was launched in 1951 to ply the route to New York; it was soon to be followed by its twin, the \u201cCristoforo Colombo\u201d (1954). Unfortunately, with the tragic sinking of the \u201cDoria\u201d in 1956, the Italian naval industry suffered a serious backlash, to which Italy sought to react with the construction of a new transatlantic liner in 1960, the \u201cLeonardo da Vinci\u201d. In the same year \u201cAlitalia\u201d opened its intercontinental service to New York with very modern DC\u20138\u2019s, causing a progressive and rapid decrease of transport by sea. The last two ships launched by the Italian company were the \u201cRaffaello\u201d (1962) and the \u201cMichelangelo\u201d (1963); immediately afterwards the slipways of the \u201cAnsaldo\u201d and the \u201cSan Marco Shipyards\u201d were demolished, and what used to be one of the most touching of sights was replaced by the hurried rite of launching in modern floating docks. The last Italian transatlantic liner, the \u201cEugenio C.\u201d saw the light of day in Monfalcone in 1968; it was built by the Compagnia Costa Armatori Spa (1968\u20131986), formerly the \u201cC\u201d Giacomo Costa fu Andrea line (1947\u20131968) of Genoa. In 1970, the I.R.I. (\u201cInstitute for Industrial Reconstruction\u201d), no longer knowing how to face the debts of the naval industry, decided to unrig the whole national passenger fleet. The first to be demolished was the \u201cGiulio Cesare\u201d, in 1973.\u00a0With the economic slump and in a climate of austerity all the transatlantic liners were unrigged, one after the other: some were taken apart and demolished, others sold to foreign governments, and some were transformed into cruise ships for trips to the Caribbean or the Philippines. Only the \u201cGuglielmo Marconi\u201d remained in Italy; sold to Costa Armatori in 1986 as part of a program aimed at reviving tourism in the Mediterranean, it was renamed \u201cCosta Riviera\u201d and became the first ship of Costa Crociere Spa (1986\u20131990).
\nAlready as of the Nineties orders for new ships grew rapidly; passenger transport by sea, that had seemed a thing of the past, became the latest fashion. To meet the extraordinary market demands Costa Crociere modernized and expanded its fleet: in 1986 the Fincantieri shipyard received the order for building the \u201cCosta Classica\u201d, which was launched in 1991, and in 1988 the Mariotti Shipyards of Genoa proceeded to turn the container ship \u201cAxel Johnson\u201d into the first ship of the Costa fleet belonging to a new generation, the \u201cCosta Marina\u201d (1990). In July of the following year Fincantieri received an order for the twin ship of the \u201cCosta Classica\u201d, the \u201cCosta Romantica\u201d (1993). In 1989 also the twin of \u201cCosta Marina\u201d, the \u201cCosta Allegra\u201d was born from the hull of the Annie Johnson; finally, in 1996 the \u201cCosta Victoria\u201d was launched.\u00a0The new popularity enjoyed by cruises, as reproposed by Italian companies as Costa Crociere or foreign ones as the P&O, had relaunched the \u201cinvitation to travel\u201d announced by Gi\u00f2 Ponti in the \u201cDomus\u201d magazine from 1929 to 1957. Thanks to the work of the architects Guido Canali, Pierluigi Cerri \u2013 in cooperation with Ivana Porfidi and the Swede Robert Tillberg \u2013 and Renzo Piano, the Nineties saw a reawakening of the interest in \u201cship design\u201d. Betting on an outstanding design, combined with distributive rationality, modular installation and a decisive prevalence of hoteling functions over nautical ones, the two naval companies succeeded in staging a revival of a felicitous moment in the history of the design of ship interiors, the one that had, in the years after 1930, been recognized as the world\u2019s best. The works of art installed on the Costa ships were perfectly integrated with the structure and the interior decoration; one of the artists present on board, Arnaldo Pomodoro, realized a large spherical sculpture in bronze for the Costa Classica. In 1990 Renzo Piano gave an unmistakable touch of class to the profile of the Crown Princes of P&O Cruises, designing the ship\u2019s profile and superstructure with the particular design of the frontal \u201ccrown\u201d of the panoramic upper deck, inspired by the profile of a dolphin. With the definitive takeover of Costa Crociere by the American \u201cCarnival Corporation\u201d group, in 1997, also the excellent design, the luxury and the works of art aboard the Costa ships have become only a memory. With the last generation of cruise ships, giants of more than 100,000 tonnes, the only large company which has resisted being incorporated by the great American groups, and which has maintained an all\u2013Italian design, is the MSC (Mediterranean Shipping Company S.A., born in 1987 from the ashes of the Lauro Fleet) which, thanks to the work of Giuseppe De Jorio, still allows us to enjoy the style, good taste and elegance of Italian design in the interiors of the new cruise ships.<\/p>\n