Cristoforo Colombo (ship, 1954)
Cristoforo Colombo - Cote d'Azur , May 1962
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The Cristoforo Colombo was a transatlantic passenger ship put into service in 1954 by the Italian shipping company Italia - Società di Navigazione ( Italian Line ). The Cristoforo Colombo was the largest ship in the Italian merchant navy when it was commissioned . She was the sister ship of the Andrea Doria , which sank in 1956 .
planning
The Second World War had devastating consequences for the Italian Line. Her two largest and most prestigious ships, the Rex (51,061 GRT, 1932) and the Conte di Savoia (48,502 GRT, 1932), were badly damaged and sunk in attacks. To compensate for these losses, new ships had to be built. The aim of the shipping company was to put passenger ships into service that were not quite as big as the Rex , but were still luxurious, comfortable and elegant. In addition, they should restore Italy's reputation in the area of transatlantic liner traffic. The first of these ships were the Giulio Cesare and her sister ship Augustus . During the construction of these new ships, however, plans were already being made for two new sister ships with a similar design, but which were to be larger and more comfortable.
The result of the planning were the two more than 29,000 GRT sister ships Andrea Doria (named after the general of the same name ) and Cristoforo Colombo (named after the discoverer Christopher Columbus ). They were built under construction numbers 918 and 1478 at the shipyard Cantieri Navali Ansaldo di Sestri Ponente in Genoa . As the first of the two ships, the Andrea Doria was laid down on February 9, 1950 . The keel laying of the Cristoforo Colombo followed on February 19, 1952. The launch of the Andrea Doria took place on June 16, 1951; that of the Cristoforo Colombo on May 10, 1953. The Cristoforo Colombo was slightly larger than the Andrea Doria , which made her the largest Italian passenger ship and the largest ship in the Italian merchant navy.
The two ships were planned as luxury steamer and were very exquisitely equipped. The facilities included a ballroom, lounge, music parlor and several swimming pools . The Cristoforo Colombo was 213.6 meters long, 27.4 meters wide and could hold 229 passengers in first class, 222 passengers in cabin class and 604 passengers in tourist class on ten decks . The crew consisted of 563 people. The test drives were carried out between June 6 and 10, 1954.
North Atlantic route
On July 15, 1954, the Cristoforo Colombo ran from Genoa on her maiden voyage to New York with stops in Naples , Cannes and Gibraltar . She was larger than the Andrea Doria and at the time the largest Italian merchant ship. After the sinking of her sister ship in 1956, she was initially alone on this route until the replacement for the Andrea Doria , the Leonardo da Vinci (33,340 GRT), was put into service in June 1960 . In spring 1964 the Cristoforo Colombo brought several valuable sculptures from the Vatican to the 1964 World's Fair in New York.
The Cristoforo Colombo and the Leonardo da Vinci were considered the flagships of Italy in the North Atlantic until the Michelangelo (45,911 GRT) and the Raffaello (45,933 GRT) were put into service in 1965 . Then the Cristoforo Colombo was put on the route from Trieste via Venice , Piraeus , Messina , Palermo and Naples to Halifax and New York. In 1966, her hull was painted completely white to match the more modern ships in the fleet, which had been given up on the combined black and white paint. In 1971 it collided with the Ana Mafalda in the fog in Lisbon and had to be sent to Trieste for repairs.
Last years
In 1973 the Cristoforo Colombo was withdrawn from the New York service and placed on the South America route, with stops in Naples, Cannes, Barcelona and Lisbon , calling at the South American cities of Rio de Janeiro , Santos , Montevideo and Buenos Aires . On this route, she was supposed to replace the Giulio Cesare , which was commissioned in 1951 and was withdrawn from service due to an oar damage.
In 1977 the ship was sold to the Venezuelan construction company CVG Siderurgica del Orinoco CA and used as a residential ship for construction workers in Puerto Ordaz . In 1981 it was sold to Taiwan for demolition . On July 24, 1983, she arrived in Kaohsiung , where on August 27, 1983, the demolition work by Yih Shen Steel Enterprise Co. Ltd. began.