Tirrenia – Compagnia italiana di navigazione

All four companies were to be majority-owned by Finmare, a specially-formed company under the Istituto per la Ricostruzione Industriale (IRI).

Tirrenia Società Anonima di Navigazione was officially incorporated on 17 December 1936, in Naples, with a share capital of 150 million liras Alessandro Ciano was appointed president In early 1937 Tirrenia was assigned 53 ships from the fleets of the liquidated Tirrenia Flotte Riunite Florio - CITRA (30 ships), Società Adria di Navigazione (17 ships) and Società Sarda di Navigazione (6 ships); in addition to these, two steamships, Praga and Aventino, were purchased from Lloyd Triestino during 1937. On 15 November 1937, the former Adria unit named Boccaccio sank after an explosion, resulting in one death among the crew; Tirrenia replaced it with the steameship Makala, purchased from Compagnie Africaine de Navigation and renamed Giovanni Boccaccio. In 1938 four of the company's motor ships (Città of Savona, Città of Bastia, Città of Naples, and Olbia) were part of the convoy of 15 ships that transported Italian settlers to Libya.

The list of routes assigned to Tirrenia in 1936 was updated in 1938 and then again by Law No. 1002 on 10 June 1939, by which it was established that subsidies to the company would amount to 86 million liras annually, to be reduced to 83 million from 1 January 1941. In 1939, the Tirrenia, taking advantage of the incentives for new construction granted by the 1938 Benni Law, ordered a series of eleven freight motor boats (the Foscolo Class) to replace the now obsolete steamships inherited from the Adria and in service on the lines to Northern Europe.

Following Italy's entry into World War II in June 1940, the number of routes served was drastically reduced, while the faster and more modern ships were converted into auxiliary cruisers or used to transport troops and cargo. Only the Civitavecchia - Newfoundland (Olbia), Genoa - Livorno - Portoferraio - La Maddalena - Cagliari - Palermo, and Genoa - Livorno - Porto Torres lines remained active initially, in addition to local Sardinian connections. As the war progressed, Tirrenia lost more than 50 ships, almost its entire fleet, and consequently suspended most of its routes; in 1943, before the Armistice of Cassibile, connections to and from Sardinia were effectively discontinued. After 8 September, the motors Città of Alessandria and the Steamship Argentina, the only unharmed units in Tirrenia's hands at that time besides the small steamers Gallura, Capo Sandalo, Gennargentu, and the motor boats Carloforte, were requisitioned by the Allies.

The first resumption of services to Sardinia occurred in December 1944, when a fortnightly connection between Naples and Cagliari was activated with the steamer Abbazia, chartered by Adriatica. In April 1945 the line was extended to Palermo, reactivating the connections with Sicily, thanks to the entry into service of the steamer Campidoglio, also chartered by Adriatica, while in June the Civitavecchia-Olbia connection was reopened with the old freight steamer Langano (built-in 1894 and chartered by Costa); the latter unit was later replaced by the motor ship Patriota (chartered by Italia di Navigazione). In August passenger service was also restored on the latter line using the motors Lazzaro Mocenigo, with accommodations for 260 people. The capacity of the Mocenigo soon proved insufficient and the steamers Abbazia and Campidoglio were used instead, while the Naples-Cagliari-Palermo connection was provided by the steamer Toscana, chartered by Oriens. In April 1945, the management of the company was entrusted to a government commissioner, whose term of office ended, and in January 1946, lawyer Umberto Ricciuti was appointed president.

In the immediate aftermath of the war, Tirrenia continued the activity of restoring the connections interrupted by the conflict. To this end, the units gradually released by the Allies (the motor ships Città of Alessandria, Città of Tunisi, and the steamship Argentina) were put back into service, and the construction of the Giosuè Borsi, which had remained unfinished during the war, was completed. It also became necessary to salvage units sunk during the conflict and return them to seaworthiness: these operations were carried out between 1946 and 1947 for the steamships Ichnusa and Limbara and the motor ships Rossini, Città di Marsala, Alfredo Oriani and Verdi; the latter were renamed Città di Messina, Città di Trapani, Cagliari and Celio, respectively, after repairs. In 1947, under the Ship Sales Act of the United States of America, Tirrenia was able to take advantage of three Liberty-class cargo steamers, renamed Napoli (formerly Otto Mears), Firenze (formerly George T. Angel) and Milano (formerly M. Michael Edelstein), which were destined to transport coal from the United States to Italy; these were joined by another smaller cargo steamer, the Marechiaro (formerly Charles Hull).

In July 1948, the Lazzaro Mocenigo and the Ipparco Baccich, hitherto chartered by the Fiumana Company, were finally purchased, renamed Civitavecchia and Olbia, and employed on the Genoa-Olbia and Genoa-Porto Torres routes; the second line was later reinforced with a second ship, the steamer Torres. The last ship to be salvaged was the Città di Savona, sunk in February 1944 and salvaged by the Greek government, which rejoined the fleet in November 1949 under the name Città di Livorno. Also in 1949, the service of the Periplo Italico was restored, using three chartered ships for the purpose (the steamer Maria Carla and the motor ships Francesca and Anna Maria, the latter purchased and renamed the Città di Siracusa and Città di Catania in 1953).

1950s

In 1950, work continued to restore prewar services. The Civitavecchia - Cagliari connection was reopened, initially employing the motorship Celio (formerly Verdi), and the connections with Northern Europe, to which the two steamships Valgardena and Valtellina, chartered by Vivaldi & Giacobini and Ligure-Veneta di Navigazione, were assigned. At the end of the year, the Tirrenia had a fleet of 21 ships, with a total tonnage of 61,038 tons; 2,953 voyages had been made, carrying a total of 604,184 passengers and 242,486 tons of cargo. However, the ships in service were very uneven in age and characteristics, and there was a lack of units with sufficient capacity and speed to satisfactorily perform postal services. Noting the inadequacy of the ships in service in the face of the gradual increase in demand for transportation, five twin motor boats were ordered from the Castellammare di Stabia and Palermo shipyards in April, taking advantage of the benefits granted for new shipbuilding by the so-called "Saragat Law" of 1949. The five ships, capable of carrying 560 passengers each, were christened with the names of the Central-South regions (Sicily, Calabria, Sardinia, Lazio, and Campania Felix) and entered service between 1952 and 1953, being destined for the Naples - Palermo, Naples - Palermo - Tunis, Naples - Cagliari and Civitavecchia - Olbia lines. Also in 1952, the Città di Tunisi, which had undergone extensive refurbishment in the previous year (the main engines and generators were replaced, and the passenger and crew quarters were completely redone), re-entered service on the Naples - Palermo line.

Beginning in 1952, routes to Benghazi via the Città di Trapani were restored, while in January 1953 it was the turn of connections to Spain (Barcelona, Valencia) with the ships Città di Alessandria, Città di Messina and Celio. Beginning in 1953, the only Foscolo-class ships still in service for Tirrenia, Cagliari and Giosuè Borsi, which had been equipped with passenger accommodations in the immediate postwar period, were converted back to cargo ships and placed on the northern European links, for which they had been specially built in the 1940s. They were joined by two chartered motor boats, Vallisarco and Valdarno, which replaced the steamers Valgardena and Valtellina.

Between 1954 and 1955, Liberty-class ships, which had already been chartered to Lloyd Triestino in previous years, were sold to private shipowners. The previous year the Olbia (formerly Lazzaro Mocenigo) had been sold, while from 1955 the Civitavecchia was chartered to other shipowners; their places on the Genoa-Olbia-Porto Torres and Livorno-Bastia-Porto Torres lines were taken by the Città di Livorno and the Città di Alesandria, respectively.

Despite the coming online of the Regione class ships and the consequent reorganization of services, the growing demand for transportation to and from Sardinia made it necessary for other newly built ships to enter service. Thanks to the facilities provided by the "Tambroni Law" of 1954, the following year Tirrenia ordered three ships, two twins to be destined for the Civitavecchia - Olbia line and one, smaller, designed for the Genoa - Porto Torres. The three ships, christened Arborea, Caralis, and Torres, entered service on their respective routes in 1957.

Meanwhile, the 1937 agreement, which was to expire on 31 December 1956, was extended, initially until 30 June 1957, and later until 30 June 1962.

On 4 December 1957, the Città di Trapani, engaged on a link between Genoa, Cagliari, Palermo, and Tunisi that had been opened a few months earlier, ran aground off the port of Trapani. Four Tirrenia seamen and two embarked on the tug Pirano, engaged in the rescue, lost their lives in the accident; the ship, after lengthy salvage attempts, was declared lost in February 1958, making it the only unit lost by the company in the postwar period. To replace the wrecked unit, the motors Filippo Grimani was chartered and then, in January 1958, purchased by Adriatica, renamed the Città di Tripoli, and placed on the Livorno - Olbia - Porto Torres link.The Città di Alessandria was then in turn shifted onto the Libya links, while the steamer Argentina, employed for this purpose up to that time, was decommissioned.

Demand for transport to Sardinia continued to grow, and in March 1959 Tirrenia, again taking advantage of the benefits of the Tambroni Law, ordered a new pair of sister ships, the Città Class. A heavy strike by Finmare seamen occurred between May and June; to prevent Sardinia from becoming isolated, Sicily, Sardinia, and Lazio were requisitioned by the Ministry of Merchant Marine and directly armed with military crews.

1960s

The early 1960s saw a continuation of the strengthening of connections with Sardinia, whose tourist development was in its infancy. In 1960 the old steamer Argentina was sold for demolition and the Egyptian turboship Nefertiti was purchased, which was renamed Olbia and destined, starting the following year, to join the Torres on the Genoa-Porto Torres line, the frequency of which was increased to six runs per week. Then in 1962 the two sister ships of the Città class, Città di Napoli and Città di Nuoro, entered service on the Civitavecchia - Olbia.

Also in 1962, the steamship Belluno was purchased by Adriatica, which was assigned to the freight line of the Periplo Italico, with terminus stops in Trieste and Genoa, together with the steamship Marechiaro (initially a sister ship of the Belluno, before the latter was modified) and the motors Città di Catania.

In 1962 the convention with the Italian state was finally renewed, as mentioned expired on 31 December 1956, and extended thereafter for six months and then five years. The new convention, established by Law No. 600 2 June 1962, was ratified only in January 1965; it again lasted for twenty years and confirmed the lines already provided by the previous one, but changed the subsidy system: whereas previously the state had committed itself to replenishing the balance sheet of Tirrenia and the other Finmare companies every year, guaranteeing a profit equal to at least 4 percent of the share capital, from 1962 the subsidy had a fixed amount, which would be reviewed every two years. In January 1963, lawyer Bernardo Giannuzzi Savelli was appointed president of the company, who was succeeded, after his death the following year, by Dr. Salvatore Stara; general manager, since 1956, was Commander Giuseppe Pirandello.

Put into service in the previous decade ten new passenger ships intended for connections with the major islands and North Africa, in 1964 four small ferries were ordered from Navalmeccanica of Naples to operate local Sardinian connections, on which were in service outdated steamers built in the pre-war period (Capo Sandalo, Gallura and Luigi Rizzo). The four ferries (La Maddalena, Teulada, Arbatax, and Bonifacio) entered service in 1966, being placed on the Palau - La Maddalena, La Maddalena - Santa Teresa Gallura - Bonifacio, Carloforte - Calasetta and Carloforte - Portovesme connections.

The rapid process of motorization that took place in Italy caused a rapid growth in demand for vehicle transport by ship, to which Tirrenia initially responded in a very limited way. In the winter of 1963, the Adriatica's ferry Appia was chartered to make trial runs between Genoa and Porto Torres, an operation repeated in later years, while in 1965, conversion work was carried out on the Città di Alessandria, which obtained accessible garages with side doors. Beginning in 1965, the private companies Società Navi Traghetto and Società Traghetti Sardi put into service on the routes to Sicily and Sardinia five modern ro-ro ferries, which from the moment they entered service gained considerable traffic shares at the expense of the Tirrenia; the ships of the private shipowners were joined by the Ferrovie dello Stato ferries in service between Civitavecchia and Golfo Aranci, whose garages could also carry cars and trucks in addition to railroad cars. During the same period, connections to North Africa also saw a decline in the number of passengers carried due to competition from air services.

The state-owned company reacted by commissioning Italcantieri of Trieste to undertake a project to convert the Regione-class units into ro-ro ferries, which was implemented for four of the five ships in the class between 1967 and 1969. The converted units were gradually put into service on the Naples - Palermo - Tunisi, Naples - Cagliari - Civitavecchia, and Naples - Catania - Syracuse - Malta - Tripoli lines, while the other lines remained the preserve of conventional units. This plan also proved insufficient, and in March 1968 six ro-ro passenger ferries, the Poeta Class, of much larger size and capacity than the converted Regione class were ordered from Italcantieri. In September 1969, Commander Emanuele Cossetto was appointed chief executive officer and general manager.

1970s

In 1970, Tirrenia ships participated in the repatriation operations of some 20,000 Italians from Libya, following the decree of confiscation of their property issued by Muammar Gaddafi. Stefano Pugliese was appointed president of the company, replaced the following year by lawyer Pasquale Schiano.

The early 1970s saw a profound renewal of the fleet. On 8 July 1970, the Boccaccio, the first ship of the Poeta class, entered service on the Genoa - Porto Torres, followed in the following months by the sister ships Carducci, Pascoli, Leopardi, Petrarch, and Manzoni. The Poeta-class ships enabled Tirrenia to reverse the trend of previous years and regain market share at the expense of competitors, particularly the associated companies Società Navi Traghetto and Società Traghetti Sardi. In addition to the Poeta-class ships, a seventh ro-ro passenger ship, the ferry La Valletta, was acquired, intended for connections with Malta.

The entry into service of these new units and the evolution of maritime traffic led to the decommissioning of several traditional freight and passenger units in 1970-1972. In 1970 the Città di Tunisi and the Città di Livorno were stopped and sold for scrapping, while in March of the following year, the freight line Genoa-East coast of Sardinia-Sicily-Pantelleria was discontinued and the steamers Ichnusa and Campidano in service on it were sold for scrapping. Also in 1971, the motor ships Città di Alessandria and Città di Tripoli, the steamers Marechiaro and Belluno, and the turboship Olbia were decommissioned and sold for scrapping. Also laid up was the Caralis, which was later sold in 1973 In 1972 the connections with France and Spain were merged with the Periplo Italico and the motorships Celio and Città di Messina laid up and scrapped, while the Campania Felix was laid up in September. The following year the freight lines of the Periplo Italico and those to France and Spain were replaced by a new link Trieste - Bari - Catania - Naples - Genoa - Marseille - Barcelona - Algiers, on which the chartered ro-ro freighters Canguro Giallo and Canguro Biondo, renamed Staffetta Adriatica and Staffetta Tirrenica and later purchased, were put into service. The motor ships Città di Catania and Città di Siracusa were then scrapped.

At the foundation (1937)

The following are the routes assigned to the newly formed Tirrenia under the 1937 agreement:

In addition to the lines shown in the table, the following tourist routes were then planned:

Itinerary A (Periplo Italico)

Itinerary B (The Sun Cruise)

Itinerary C (Toward the South)

Itinerary D (Along the Palm Coast)

Itinerary E (The Cruise of the Three Seas)

Itinerary F (The Cruise of Libya)

Itinerary G (The Egypt Cruise)