Service - Michelangelo

SS Michelangelo 1965-1991 Lenght 275.81 meters Beam 31.05 meters Deep draught 10.4 meters Tonnage 45 911 gross tons 24.572 net tons Service speed 26.5 knots Passengers 1 775 people (535 1st class, 550 cabin class, 690 3rd class) Crew 725 men

When deciding a name for the new ships, Italia line decided to follow a trend they had set by the Andrea Doria, Cristofo Colombo and Leonardo da Vinci. The ships were to be named after famous historical figures: the elder ship Michelangelo, after the renaissance artist who painted among other places the Sixtine Chapel in Vatican. The younger ship was named Raffaello, again after a famous renaissance painter. The task of building the Michelangelo fell on Ansaldo Shipyards, located in Genoa, whereas Raffaello was built at CR dell'Adriatico, located at Trieste. The construction took it's time, partially because of the changes made to the planned desings, and finally the Michelangelo was launched on 16. September 1962. A representative of the Roman Catholic Church was present at the launch and gave the ship the churchs official blessing, and on this occasion Guiseppe Zuccoli, the chairman of Italia Line stated that "The future of marine travel, allowing 8 days instead of 8 hours to cross the Atlantic, resides in the height of luxury and the height of quality." Michelangelo was fully completed in April 1965, and she was ready to proceed to her sea trials, which she performed flawlessly (unlike the QE2 did four years later). The ship had cost Italian Line $22 million, but at the time Italian Line considered this a worthy investment.

In May 12. 1965, the new pride of Italy started her maiden voyage from Genoa to New York with great celebrations. On her maiden voyage fher captain was Mario Crepaz. She performed her service perfectly, and withing two months she had a sister, the Raffaello. She gained popularity among the few passagers who chose to travel by sea with her great service that included for example 50 different types of pasta (how very Italian), and a stewart that attended only to the needs of the passengers pets. As a sign of people´s affection to her, she soon recieved the nickname 'Mic'. The only thing that bothered the Italian Beauty was vibrations of the stern that were very common in liners (HAPAG's blue riband winner Deutchland had such strong vibrations that she had to be withdrawn from transatlantic service). To cure the vibrations, the Michelangelo's propellers were changed during her first winter overhaul in early 1966. The new propellers did not only provide more stability to the ship,

Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci in Genoa harbour in 1965.

they also increased her speed: at her post-refit trials the ship clocked an impressive speed of 31.59 knots, which made her theoretically the fifth-fastest liner in existance (surpassed only by Queen Elizabeth, Queen Mary, United States and France). It also meant that she was now faster than her sister, who had been slightly faster before, thanks to her slightly different hull shape. The Michelangelo's service speed remained still at the more economical 26.5 knots, however. The Michelangelo did not serve only on the Genoa-New York route, they also served in the northern Southampton-New York route and made occasional cruises.

Allthough she had gone trough a succesfull overhaul in spring 1966, the year proved to be a dangerous one for the Michelangelo: on April 12 she was steaming towards New York when at 10:00 am she encountered some very bad weather. Waves 20 meters high hit the ship again and again. Captain Giuseppe Soletti (who made his last crossing as the captain of the Michelangelo!) gave instructions for all passengers to stay in their cabins, and ordered the ship to take a more southern route then usual, to avoid the center of the storm. There were many important people onboard the ship

A very nice colour picture of the Michelangelo, showing the red stripes at the top of the funnels.

on that crossing, including the German writer Gunter Graas and his wife, as well as admiral Giurati, the president of Italia Navigazione. The ship had never performed well during bad weather, and worse was to follow. The ship was hit by a very large wawe, that tore into the forward superstructure of the ship, tearing a great hole into it. Claudio Suttora, the 1st official of the ship at the time, tells about the accident:   "The waves got always more high and violent... and just at the end of one great pitch that wave come up in front of us. The ship, that until that moment could ascend the waves, threaded the prow into that insuperable and frightening wall of water... nobody of us realized what was for happen... that wave appeared ahead of us suddenly... luckily the impact wasn't so strong to damage also the rudder, so we was able to direct soon the ship against the sea."

One crewmember and two passengers were killed by the wawe, and more than fifty people were injured, ten of them gravely. Amongst the injured was Claudio Cosulich, the ship's vice captain, who was to become the last captian of the ship:   "When the wave arrived, I was not on the wheel bridge. One previously wave had uncovered one air intake so I took with me 4 voluntary crew members and we went to repair it, to avoid that water entered. We had just finished, we was descending one ladder under one deck... all us dropped ruinously... It was as fully take in one 305 mm cannon shot"   Soon after the incident the Michelangelo was rendezvouzed by a US military vessel, that pffered medical assistance. Soon after that the Michelangelo limped into New York. While there, temporary repains were made, and the damaged parts of the ship were covered with canvas. Upon arriving in Italy the ship was more properly repaired and strenghtened, and she was soon back in service. This was the only serious accident ever to take place on the Michelangelo, since her repair were very well done: she later survived a similar storm without any damage.

The wawe that damaged the Michelangelo's forward superstructure and killed three people.

As the years progressed, it was becoming more and more clear that the age of great liners was over, in the end of the 60's 96 percent of all transatlantic travelers did their crossings by air. Cunard Line withdrew both of their Queens in 1967 and 1968, respectively. In 1969 new jet-airliners Boeing 747 and the Concorde set into flight for the first time delivering the final blow for the liners. In the same year United States Lines withdrew their flagship United States from service partially because of strike by the crew. The relations between Michelangelo's owners and her crew did not allways go well either. Trade union rules dictated that a ship of Michelangelo's size needed a double crew, 720 on service and 720 on shore switching turn every two weeks. This meant that the ship, that

Michelangelo at the port of New York

usually carried only about 400 passengers when her full passenger capacity was 1775, had a crew of 1440. This of course made her running costs extreme, while less and less passengers chose to use her services. When Italian Line's directors tried to negotiate with the crews representatives on cutting down the number of the crew, the trade unions refused all action and instead demanded raisesto their wages, which meant that the Italian goverment had to subside the ships more to keep them running. It did not help the ship's situation that the crew often started lightning strikes for the silliest reasons: they even walked out once because the crew was served tap water instead of mineral water (the story does not tell weather this happened on the Michelangelo or the Raffaello). Italia line tried to compensate for their losses by cutting the cruising speed of the ship and other measures, but to no avail.   To compensate for their ever-groving losses, the Italian Line offered trips with special prices in the US at least in 1972. Stephen Owens recollects: "I had been scouting for opportunities to travel as a passenger on a "tramp steamer" when my dear mother, who lived in the Los Angeles area at the time, sent me a small clipping from the Los Angeles Times. The LA Times' late, great travel writer, Jerry Hulse, had a regular column every Sunday in the Travel Section of the newspaper in which he provided travel advice and tips on interesting travel deals. The article my mother sent me described an opportunity to travel on an Italian Lines ship from NYC to Europe in a so-called "Student Class" for the total cost of $150, which was an absolutely fabulous deal, even in 1972. I immediately made my plans. I saved all the money I made in my summer job at the cannery in Sunnyvale, California and flew to New York City in October. I will never forget being greeted warmly in Italian and English at the top of the gangway by the ship's officers as I entered the vessel.

"During the crossing, we encountered fairly heavy seas and many people became seasick. Naturally, many of us made the pilgimage to the bridge to view the ship's log and the entry for April 1966, when the ship took a monstrous wave that killed three people. We sailed from NYC to Algeciras, Spain (next to Gibraltor), where we arrived during the night and took on provisions. No one was allowed to leave the ship in Algeciras.  We then sailed on to Napoli, where we were allowed to leave the ship for about three hours ( I very nearly missed the ship, because I had walked so far into the city at night), then we sailed on to Cannes, France.

The Michelangelo at sea.

"This was just great for me, because there was a dock worker's strike going on in Genova (which was our next port of call) at that time, so the ship had to lay over for two or three extra days in Cannes. The Italian Line took great care of us! There was a shore boat that ferried us from ship to shore and from shore to ship every 1/2 hour. That meant that a poor student (such as I) could go ashore in Cannes (a very expensive town!), look all around, and then travel back to the "mother ship" for a snack, then go back into town, come back for lunch, go back, come back for dinner, erc. etc.! Finally, the strike ended and we sailed south to Genova. That was the last stop for those, like me, who had not paid the extra money to travel to the Eastern Italian ports, of which the last was Trieste.   "As you can imagine, the "student fare" that I got was a third class fare, and my small room was deep below the water line. Nevertheless, the food and the service we received was just fabulous! In keeping with the European tradition on transatlantic crossings, each passenger was assigned to a regular table for meals. I seem to remember that there were six of us at my table, all students--a Japanese concert pianist who had spent some time studying and performing in New York City; two Canadians who had not known each other previously and quarrelled with each other from time to time; the others I have now forgotten. Of course, we had specific crewmembers who were assigned to our table, and one often brought us special goodies to eat and expensive liquor to drink, that I have the impression was purloined from the 1st class dining room. At any rate, the food we were given was superb and plentiful. In fact, I remember that on the Michelangelo, there was always food being served: big breakfasts of anything you wanted; brunch; lunch; tea time; dinner; afterdinner snacks; and pizza at midnight. And so many activities on board as well! High quality, intelligent films; ticker tape running in the library, where you could go to read the latest news coming in directly from the wire services; dance lessons, and on and on."

However, not all people thought it was a good idea to pay even so little money for a pleasure trip to Europe. It was soon clear to allmost everyone that the atlantic market was simply too small to support the once so large fleet. By the end of 1973, only four ships carried passengers from Europe to the US: Queen Elizabeth 2, France, Michelangelo and Raffaello. All of the ships were kept alive by alternative cruising, but most importantly goverment subsidiaries. At this time the little money the Italian Twins made was made from the cruising. Things turned even worse when the oil crisis began in 1974. The price of an oil barrel rose from $35 to $95 dollars allmost overnight. Since the Michelangelo, like all other atlantic liners of the time, used oil as fuel, her running cost became enormous.

Michelangelo spent most of 1974 and 1975 cruising instead of Atlantic crossings, but cruising was not the ultimate cure for her: even though she had much deck space (an important feature for a cruiseship), she was considered too large for the cruise market. The irony is that in 1979 the biggest ship of the time, the France, was transformed into a cruiseship under the name Norway, and turned out very profitable. At modern times the Michelangelo's tonnage of 45 911 seems feeble small when compared to the 142 000 tons of the Royal Carribean Line's biggest ships. A much bigger problem was the fact that her acommodations were divided into three classes: first, cabin and tourist. This was unacceptable on the cruise market, which was much more democratic than the liners were. The 700-odd tourist class cabins were even considered "too spartan" by cruise passengers, and were not used on the Michelangelo's cruises. Italian Line tried many different kind of cruises for the ship, from ordinary Carribean cruises into special voyages to Rio de Janeiro or Nordkapp (North Cape). None of the tried routes proved succesfull, and in June 26, 1975 the Michelangelo set out on her last crossing from New York into Genoa.   The Michelangelo might not have been a profitable ship, but she was liked among the few people who traveled by liner: during her last crossing she

The damaged Michelangelo at port of New York in 1966, after a storm that killed three people onboard.

carried 1 202 passengers, probably her record in the 70's, all wanting to pay a final visit to her. By this time the goverment subsidiaries to her were 100 000 000 000 lire per day, or $700 per passenger. Her last voyage was short from brilliant or solemn. The ships libruary and laundry were closed during the entire crossing, the shops closed soon after leaving New York, the cigarettes and schnapps run out, the air conditioning was swithed off while in Mid-Atlantic, service was sloppy and souvenir hunter were "taking into custory" everything what not secured. Captain Claudio Consulich steered the ship into the port of Genoa one last time, and the succeshull docking was greeted by shouts "Bravo, Capitano!" both from the ship and the several thousand people standing on the pier. Before the passengers had a chance to leave the ship, the crew started taking down wall decorations and packing the cutlery and crockery. After 10 years of service, 121 crossings and 245 839 passengers, the flagship of Italy was laid up.

After spending a short time in Genoa, the Michelangelo was sent along with to La Spezia, to be laid up too near to an infamous scrapyard. There she met her sister for the last time. However, her destiny was not to be scrapped just yet. Several steamship lines eyed the sisters for purchase, but most deemed the ships too large, while others, like the Home Lines, got turned down by the Italia Line who did not wish to be associated with the embarrassing money-losers. The Home Lines would have wanted to keep the ships under Italian flag and use them with Italian crew for Carribbean cruises. Italian Lines' ansver was a firm "No." Finally, in 1976 a buyer emerged who would fulfill Italian Line's demands: the Shah of Persia wanted to buy the great ships and use them as barrack ships for army personnel and oil workers. In December 1976 a deal was struck, and the prides of Italy were sold for $2 million each. In July 1977

Michelangelo's First Class ballroom.

the Michelangelo set out on her last voyage under her own power to Bandas Abbas, a port in south-east Persia, where she was permanently moored. in the presence of the Shah she was now officially made a citizen of Persia, but fortunately she still retained her original name. During 1977 she was rebuilt to accommodate 1 800 personnel.   For 15 years the Michelangelo served a barrack ship. During this time she was neglected, rust covering her fine lines and rats inhabiting her once so gracious halls. Finally in 1991 the officials of Persia, now called Iran, decided that the ship was too old for any use, and she was towed into a Pakistani scrapyard, where specialists dismanteled the great ship. For several years, the street dealers of Karachi sold "memorablia" from the Michelangelo: kitchen equipment, water tabs and toilet bowls. Thus ended the life of greatest Italian liner ever.