Leonardo da Vinci (ship, 1960)
 the wreck of the Leonardo da Vinci in La Spezia, January 1982
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The Leonardo da Vinci was a transatlantic passenger steamer put into service in 1960 by the Italian shipping company Italia - Società di Navigazione ( Italian Line ). It was built to replace the Andrea Doria , which sank in 1956 , and represents a modernized and enlarged version of this ship. It remained in service until 1978 and was destroyed by fire in 1980.
prehistory
The Second World War had brought the Italia - Società di Navigazione the loss of its two largest and most prestigious ships, the Rex and the Conte di Savoia . All of the shipping company's ships that survived the war came from the 1920s and were out of date after the war. In order to keep up with the international transatlantic traffic again, the two new ships Andrea Doria (29,083 GRT) and Cristoforo Colombo (29,191 GRT) were built in the early 1950s . They should restore the good reputation of the Italian merchant navy . However, the shipping company received a heavy blow when the Andrea Doria sank in July 1956 after only three years of service after a ship collision off Nantucket and 46 people were killed.
The Cristoforo Colombo operated solely on the North Atlantic route. Immediately after the tragedy, the board of directors of the shipping company split into three groups: one group took care of maintaining operations, another followed the investigation that followed the accident and the third was concerned with planning a replacement for the lost ship. In order to save time, the construction plans of Andrea Doria were simply used as a template . However, the new building was designed to be a bit larger and provided with extended safety equipment and some innovations.
The ship
The result was the 33,340 GRT steam turbine ship Leonardo da Vinci , which was built by the Cantieri Navali Ansaldo di Sestri Ponente shipyard in Genoa . The Leonardo da Vinci was 233.9 meters long, 28.1 meters wide and had a maximum draft of 9.55 meters. She could carry 1326 passengers, 413 of them in first class, 342 in cabin class and 571 in tourist class. The ship was powered by four steam turbines from the shipyard, which together produced 38,792 hp (28,512 kW). The average cruising speed was 23 knots, the top speed 25.5 knots.
Since one had learned from the misfortune of Andrea Doria , the Leonardo da Vinci was provided with higher watertight bulkheads , and the engine room was divided into two compartments that could work independently and each acted on one of the two propellers . Furthermore, the ship boat cranes (had davits ), the lifeboats even with a list could expose of 25 degrees. The lifeboats were also motorized. The ship's amenities included heated swimming pools , air conditioning and private bathrooms in all First Class and Cabin Class cabins and 80% of the Tourist Class cabins. The lounges were furnished by well-known Italian architects, designers and painters, including Vincenzo Monaco, Amedeo Luccichenti, Gustavo Pulitzer, Emanuele Luzzati and Felice Casorati .
The Leonardo da Vinci proved as the Andrea Doria and Cristoforo Colombo as a relatively fragile in rough seas. Because of their size, this problem was even more pronounced. For this reason, 3000 tons of iron were distributed in her hull to make her more stable and seaworthy. This in turn came at the expense of top speed and fuel consumption increased dramatically.
Mission history
The Leonardo da Vinci was launched on December 7, 1958 and was christened by Carla Gronchi , wife of the incumbent Italian President Giovanni Gronchi . The ship was completed on March 19, 1960. His first mission was a cruise . On June 30, 1960, she ran from Genoa under the command of Captain Amando Pinelli on her maiden voyage to New York via Cannes and Naples . In New York, the ship received the customary festive reception given to every ship entering the city for the first time.
After the shipping company's two new flagships, the Michelangelo (45,911 GRT) and the Raffaello (45,933 GRT), were put into service in 1965 , the Leonardo da Vinci was withdrawn from the transatlantic route and used almost exclusively for cruises. She undertook these trips mainly to the Mediterranean , but also to the Caribbean as well as to South and North America . The majority of the tourist class cabins were judged to be too Spartan for cruises and most of the time were not allocated, which limited the profitability of the ship. In 1966 the hull, which had been black and white until then, was painted in the shipping company's new colors: completely white with a decorative green line. In February 1970 the Leonardo da Vinci undertook the longest cruise of her career, a 41-day cruise from the Mediterranean to Hawaii and back via the Panama Canal .
With increasing competition from commercial air traffic , the Italian Line decided in 1975 to decommission the Michelangelo and Raffaello after only ten years. The Leonardo da Vinci returned briefly to the North Atlantic route, but was also decommissioned and launched in June 1976. In the following year, the Leonardo da Vinci was reactivated again for the Italia Crociere, a subsidiary of the Italian Line with a focus on cruises, and put on the line from Miami to Nassau . However, it was too big and too expensive for this service and was finally withdrawn from circulation in September 1978.
The fire
After being taken out of service, the ship was laid up in La Spezia , where a fire broke out on board on July 4, 1980 , which lasted four days. The Leonardo da Vinci burned out completely and finally capsized . The burned-out hull was towed to the main port, erected again and sold for demolition for the comparatively low price of one million US dollars (the ship had been insured for 7 million US dollars). In May 1982 the Leonardo da Vinci was scrapped at the Cantieri Navali Lotti demolition yard in La Spezia.