Tirrenia di Navigazione was an Italian state-owned shipping company.
History It was established in 1936 as part of a program of reorganization and rationalization of Italian state-subsidized maritime services, with capital majority subscribed by the state-owned . The company, which merged the fleets of the liquidated Tirrenia Flotte Riunite Florio - CITRA, Società Adria di Navigazione, and Società Sarda di Navigazione (a total of 53 ships), was assigned cargo and passenger connections in the Tyrrhenian Sea, the western Mediterranean and to Northern Europe.History, Tirrenia.it
The almost destruction of the fleet during World War II forced a difficult job of restoring the connections, especially to the Italian islands, which also saw the recovery of several boats sunk during the conflict. In the 1960s and 1970s, following the mass deployment of motorized vehicles, the fleet was substantially renewed by eliminating scheduled cargo and passenger ships in favor of ro-ro ships.
Following the privatization of Lloyd Triestino and Italia di Navigazione in 1998 and the merger of Adriatica di Navigazione into Tirrenia itself in 2004, it remained the last state-owned Finmare company. On 19 July 2012, following a troubled privatization process that began in 2008, it was acquired by Compagnia Italiana di Navigazione.
1930s and 1940s
With the Royal Decree-Laws No. 2081 and 2082 of 7 December 1936, the Italian government reorganized the shipping lines, which was defined as being of "preeminent national interest." They were divided into four sectors, each assigned for 20 years from 1 January 1937, to a specially established shipping company. The deadline for the pre-existing conventions was moved to 31 December 1936; the companies that performed the convention services were put into liquidation and their fleets merged with those of the new companies. The resulting arrangement was as follows:
The freight and passenger lines to the Americas were assigned to the Italia Società Anonima di Navigazione. Freight and passenger lines to Africa beyond the Suez Canal and Gibraltar, Asia, and Australia were assigned to the Lloyd Triestino Società Anonima di Navigazione. The cargo and passenger lines of the Tyrrhenian Sea, for Libya, the Western Mediterranean, the so-called "Periplo Italico" and Northern Europe were assigned to Tirrenia Società Anonima di Navigazione. The Adriatic and Eastern Mediterranean freight and passenger lines were assigned to the .
All four companies were to be majority-owned by , 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 lirasOther sources give 18 or 19 December as the date of the company's incorporation 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 ) 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, , and the steamship Argentina) were put back into service, and the construction of the , 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 and Limbara and the motor ships Rossini, Città di Marsala, 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 , 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 (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 (, , , Lazio, and ) 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 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 , , and , 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.