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| Industry | Shipping, transportation |
|---|---|
| Predecessor | I & V. Florio & Raffaele Rubattino |
| Founded | 1881 |
Area served | North & South Atlantic |
Navigazione Generale Italiana (NGI) was an Italian shipping company.
| | |
| Industry | Shipping, transportation |
|---|---|
| Predecessor | I & V. Florio & Raffaele Rubattino |
| Founded | 1881 |
Area served | North & South Atlantic |
Navigazione Generale Italiana (NGI) was an Italian shipping company.
The company formed in 1881 by the merger of I & V. Florio of Palermo and Raffaele Rubattino of Genoa. At the time of the merger, the two companies both operated extensively in the Mediterranean, with I & V Florio also operating routes to the United States and Canada, and Raffele Rubattino operating routes to India and the Far East through the Suez Canal.
The Florio Line brought 50 ships into the merger, while Rubattino contributed 40. [1] Following the merger, the new company not only maintained the existing service, it expanded by adding service to South America in 1884. To support the new routes, in 1885, NGI acquired competitors Società Italiana Trasporti Marittimi Raggio & Co. and Società Rocco Piaggio & Figli. [2]
Società Italiana di Transporti Marittimi Raggio & Co. [4] 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 and Buenos Aires through the Canary Islands, then later between Genoa, Naples, and Rio de la Plata. [5]
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. [6]
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, [7] 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 that later built the one-time Italian Blue Riband champion SS Rex and the ill-fated SS Andrea Doria.
The company's principal routes were those from Italy-US East Coast and Italy-Brazil/Argentina, both strongly underpinned economically by the emigrant trade.
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) 1927-46 and its sister ship the SS Roma, others included the SS Giulio Cesare 1922-44 and the SS Duilio 1923-43.
| Name | Shipyard | GRT | Length [m] | Passengers | Launch/ Enter Service | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SS Principessa Mafalda | Cantiere Navale di Riva Trigoso - | 9210 | 141 | 1530 | 22 October 1908 9 March 1909 | Sank off the coast of Brazil on 25 October 1927 with loss of over 300 lives |
| Principessa Jolanda | Cantiere Navale di Riva Trigoso - | 9210 | 141 | 1550 | 22 September 1907 | Capsized at launch. Scrapped at site. |
| Principe Umberto | Cantieri Navali del Tirreno Palermo No. 13 | 7838 | 145.1 | - | April 1909 | Troop transport during WW1, sunk by U-5, 8 June 1916 in the Adriatic with between 1,750 and 1,926 men lost. |
The Florio family is a prominent entrepreneurial Italian family who started many lucrative activities in Sicily involving the export of Sicilian products in the nineteenth century, in some ways redeeming Sicily from feudal immobility. The family extended its interests to shipping, shipbuilding, fisheries, mining, metallurgy and ceramics.
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.
Tirrenia is a privately-owned Italian shipping company contracted by the Ministry of Transportation to run ferry services between Italy's mainland and its major islands. It currently operates a fleet of seven vessels.
Ansaldo was one of Italy's oldest and most important engineering companies, existing for 140 years from 1853 to 1993.
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 to form the Italian Line.
The SSPrincipessa Jolanda was an Italian transatlantic ocean liner built by Cantiere Navale di Riva Trigoso for the Navigazione Generale Italiana (NGI) shipping company. Named after Princess Yolanda of Savoy, the eldest daughter of King Victor Emmanuel III, the ship was intended for the NGI's South American service. At 9,210 tons and 141 m (463 ft) in length, she was the largest passenger ship built in Italy up to that time. Constructed at a cost of 6 million lire to designs by Erasmo Piaggio, the Principessa Jolanda has also been called the first true Italian luxury liner. She was among the first transatlantic vessels fitted with Marconi Wireless telegraphy, electric lighting throughout and telephones in each cabin.
The Cosulich Line, formally the Cosulich Società 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 di Navigazione, more commonly called the Austro-American or Austro-Americana Line, when Trieste was under the rule of Austria-Hungary. After the first World War, the company became an Italian-based shipping company. In 1932 the company was forced to merge with the Lloyd Sabaudo and the Navigazione Generale Italiana, to form the Italian Line.
SS Taormina was a transatlantic ocean liner that was launched in Scotland in 1907 for an Italian shipping line. She was owned successively by Italia Società di Navigazione a Vapore, Lloyd Italiano and Navigazione Generale Italiana (NGI). Taormina was briefly chartered as a troop ship for the US Armed Forces in 1918. She was scrapped in 1929.
Società Anonima Navigazione Aerea was an Italian airline established 1925 in Genoa, concentrating on flying boat routes in the western Mediterranean area.
SM U-15 or U-XV was a U-10-class submarine or U-boat of the Austro-Hungarian Navy during World War I. U-15 was constructed in Germany and shipped by rail to Pola where she was assembled and launched in April 1915. She was commissioned in October 1915. U-15 was the most successful boat of the U-10 class, sinking six ships totaling 8,044 gross register tons (GRT) and 745 tons. The boat survived the war and was handed over to Italy as a war reparation and scrapped in 1920.
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 and fastest liner to sail on regular crossings.
Sparviero was an Italian aircraft carrier designed and built during World War II of the Regia Marina. She was originally the ocean liner MS Augustus built in 1926 for Navigazione Generale Italiana, but was transferred to the new Italian Line after the merger of Navigazione Generale Italiana with the Lloyd Sabaudo and the Cosulich Line. The conversion was started in 1942 originally under the name Falco but was never completed, and the ship was never delivered to the Regia Marina. She began to be scrapped in 1947, a process completed by 1951.
SS Duilio was the first Italian super ocean liner and one of the largest Italian merchant ships until 1925. She measured 24,281 gross register tons and was the sister of the SS Giulio Cesare, which was launched in 1921. She was constructed for the Italian shipping company “Navigazione Generale Italiana” based in Genoa and constructed by Ansaldo Shipyard owned by Sestri Ponente. She was sunk on 10 July 1944.
SSPrincipessa Mafalda was an Italian transatlantic ocean liner built for the Navigazione Generale Italiana (NGI) company. Named after Princess Mafalda of Savoy, second daughter of King Victor Emmanuel III, the ship was completed and entered NGI's South American service between Genoa and Buenos Aires in 1909. Her sister ship SS Principessa Jolanda sank immediately upon launching on 22 September 1907.
SS Verona was a transatlantic ocean liner that was built in Ireland in 1908 for an Italian shipping line. She was a troop ship in the Italo-Turkish War of 1911–12 and in the First World War in 1917–18. In 1918 a German submarine sank her in the Mediterranean with great loss of life.
SS Bosnia was an Italian cargo liner built in the 1890s that was shelled and sunk by a German submarine in the Mediterranean during World War I.
Raffaele Rubattino was an Italian entrepreneur and colonialist who started a shipping company that ran merchant ships on the routes to the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. He was also a founder of the Italian navy
Ignazio Florio Jr. was an Italian entrepreneur, heir of the rich Florio economic dynasty, one of the wealthiest Italian families during the late 19th century.
Ignazio Florio Sr. was an Italian entrepreneur and politician, member of the rich Florio economic dynasty, one of the wealthiest Italian families during the late 19th century.
MS Orazio was an Italian ocean liner of the interwar period, owned by Navigazione Generale Italiana and later the Italian Line. She was destroyed by a fire off Toulon in January 1940, with the loss of 108 lives; in terms of loss of life this is the fourth worst peacetime maritime disaster in Italian history, after those of Principessa Mafalda, Sirio, and Moby Prince. It was however quickly forgotten due to Italy entering World War II a few months later.
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