EUGENIO COSTA leaving Lisbon 16 July 1991

As built in 1966, the Costa Line flagship EUGENIO C was one of the best passenger ships built in the 1960s and the final greta Italian passenger liner. I was lucky to have been able to see and photograph the EUGINIO countless times over the years including several times in her later livery as the London registered EDINBURGH CASTLE. 

In this photograph, taken on 16 July 1991, the EUGENIO COSTA ex EUGENIO C is departing from Lisbon at 18h00  after a full day call on one of the many cruises she and ACHILLE LAURO operated to Lisbon during that summer following trouble in the Eastern Mediterranean. She was getting close to the end of her career under Costa, only 5 more years to go, but she looked magnificent in her classic elegance and inner beauty.

See more images of EUGENIO C and the Costa liners and cruise ships past and present here...

Texto e imagens /Text and images copyright L.M.Correia. Favor não piratear. Respeite o meu trabalho / No piracy, please. For other posts and images, check our archive at the right column of the main page. Click on the photos to see them enlarged. Thanks for your visit and comments. Luís Miguel Correia

The magnificent EUGENIO C

The magnificent EUGENIO C of 1966 photographed in Lisbon in 1980 on a transatlantic voyage from Argentina and Brazil to the Mediterranean.

By then EUGENIO C was already a popular cruise ship, but still doing several liner voyages just like to old white steamers not rolling but more appropriately racing down to Rio as she used to cross between Lisbon and Rio de Janeiro at 27 knots...

Texto e imagens /Text and images copyright L.M.Correia. Favor não piratear. Respeite o meu trabalho / No piracy, please. For other posts and images, check our archive at the right column of the main page. Click on the photos to see them enlarged. Thanks for your visit and comments. Luís Miguel Correia

GRANDE BARCO ENCARNADO II

Paquete THE BIG RED BOAT II, cujo nome traduzido para português é nada mais nada menos que O GRANDE BARCO ENCARNADO II, um nome herético para designar um dos mais importantes navios de passageiros da década de 1960 do século XX, o famoso EUGENIO C de 1966.

O EUGENIO C foi o mais importante navio da companhia Costa, que iniciou a actividade no transporte marítimo de passageiros a seguir à Segunda Guerra Mundial, com navios velhos reconstruídos, de que se destacaram os paquetes ANNA C, ANDREA C e FRANCA C. A frota foi sendo aumentada com unidades em segunda mão e com dois navios novos: o FEDERICO C de 1958 e o EUGENIO C. Este último, com o abate dos grandes navios do Grupo Finmare, passou a ser o navio-almirante da frota mercante da Itália e depois de muitos anos a fazer a linha Mediterrâneo - Brasil  Argentina (com escalas regulares no Tejo), continuou em actividade como paquete de cruzeiros até Novembro de 1996.
Adquirido em Dezembro do ano seguinte pela Lowland Line, foi registado em Londres com o nome EDINBURGH CASTLE e fretado à companhia Direct Cruises. Pequenos incidentes conhecidos como "problemas de dentição" associados à sua entrada em serviço com bandeira inglesa exageradamente ampliados e explorados por uma imprensa sensacionalista e irresponsável levaram à imobilização do navio em 1999 em Southampton e à falência do armador. No ano 2000 foi fretado à Premier Cruises, passando a chamar-se THE BIG RED BOAT II, datando a fotografia dessa época, quando fez a viagem posicional de Southampton para as Bahamas onde foi pintado de vermelho. A carreira ao serviço da Premier foi curta devido à falência deste armador em Setembro de 2000. O navio permaneceu imobilizado nas Bahamas até 2005, quando foi vendido para sucata e desmantelado na India. Após deixar a frota da Costa em 1996 perdeu a sua boa estrela. Outros textos e fotografias deste paquete aqui...

Texto e imagens /Text and images copyright L.M.Correia. For other posts and images, check our archive at the right column of the main page. Click on the photos to see them enlarged. Thanks for your visit and comments. Luís Miguel Correia

Bela proa

A proa mais elegante dos grandes paquetes da década de 1960. O EUGENIO C era incomparável na sua elegância de linhas e na frequência com que passava pelo Tejo regularmente nas suas carreiras regulares entre Génova e Buenos Aires a partir de 1966.
Merecia um fim mais digno, pois após ser retirado do serviço pela Costa em 1996 perdeu a estrela da sorte que o caracterizou nos primeiros 30 anos de serviço activo. Foi um dos mais belos paquetes de Lisboa e, a par do CAP ARCONA, do ANDES e do VERA CRUZ, um dos melhores concebidos para o Atlântico Sul.
Texto e imagens /Text and images copyright L.M.Correia. For other posts and images, check our archive at the right column of the main page. Click on the photos to see them enlarged. Thanks for your visit and comments. Luís Miguel Correia

EUGENIO C of 1966

Another piece of Costa memorabilia from my collection showing the EUGENIO C, Costa flagship a from 1966 on until the 1980s...
Texto e imagens /Text and images copyright L.M.Correia. For other posts and images, check our archive at the right column of the main page. Click on the photos to see them enlarged. Thanks for your visit and comments. Luís Miguel Correia

COSTA CRUISES 1983

The world of cruising has changed a lot in the last 30 years. In 1983 the largest cruising fleet in the world was the COSTA CROCIERE fleet of 10 passenger liners and cruise ships.
The flagship was the magnificent EUGENIO C of 1966 and the fleet included several Greek ships under charter. Now COSTA is a totally different company, having lost its independence to the Carnival Group.
The fleet is the largest in Europe and most ships are brand new and European-styled versions of Carnival prototypes.
I do like the modern white giants but must say I really miss the older ladies.
Another significant change: the company no longer offers such interesting long cruises as those listed above for EUGENIO C and COLUMBUS C.
Last but not the least, of the 10 ships operated by COSTA in 1983, four still survive in operation: DANAE, DAPHNE, ITALIA and WORLD RENAISSANCE.

Texto e imagens /Text and images copyright L.M.Correia. For other posts and images, check our archive at the right column of the main page. Click on the photos to see them enlarged. Thanks for your visit and comments. Luís Miguel Correia

TWO MORE VIEWS OF EUGENIO C

The EUGENIO C arriving Lisbon from Brazil in the late seventies, still in original colours and a few years later with new colours... Just another two of countless photos I did of the EUGENIO C over the years...
Texto e imagens /Text and images copyright L.M.Correia. For other posts and images, check our archive at the right column of the main page. Click on the photos to see them enlarged. Thanks for your visit and comments. Luís Miguel Correia

PERFECT FUNNELS: EUGENIO C of 1966

Just perfect, the twin funnels of the LINEA "C" flagship EUGENIO C of 1966, one of the most beautiful ships ever built in the Adriatic yards...
Texto e imagens /Text and images copyright L.M.Correia. For other posts and images, check our archive at the right column of the main page. Click on the photos to see them enlarged. Thanks for your visit and comments. Luís Miguel Correia

EUGENIO COSTA IN LISBON 1987 and 1988

The two images were taken in Lisbon, the first in March 1987 and the second exactly one year later, in March 1988. Note how to downgrade the perfect looks of a passenger liner. Just replace a beautiful swimming pool by an enclosed public room... Any way the EUGENIO was always beautiful...

Texto e imagens /Text and images copyright L.M.Correia. For other posts and images, check our archive at the right column of the main page. Click on the photos to see them enlarged. Thanks for your visit and comments. Luís Miguel Correia

EUGENIO COSTA IN LISBON

Like CANBERRA (previous post), the EUGENIO C was also a firm favorite among the passenger liners visiting Lisbon in the sixties and seventies when I started shipping photography.
Introduced in September 1966 on the Mediterranean - Lisbon - Brazil - Plata service, she was the largest post war South Atlantic liners.
Texto e imagens /Text and images copyright L.M.Correia. For other posts and images, check our archive at the right column of the main page. Click on the photos to see them enlarged. Thanks for your visit and comments. Luís Miguel Correia

LISBON LINERS AUGUST 1971

The Italian liners EUGENIO C and GALILEO GALILEI in Lisbon in the early seventies

The 43 ships listed below made 81 calls to Lisbon in August 1971, 35 years ago. Many of the calls were cruises, but there were still many ships operating liner voyages to South America or África, and there were also the Portuguese troopers.

ALFREDO DA SILVA, AMÉLIA DE MELLO, ANCERVILLE, ANGOLA, ANGRA DO HEROISMO, ARGENTINA STAR, ARGONAUT, AUGUSTUS, BRASIL STAR, CABO SAN ROQUE, CANBERRA, CHUSAN, CRISTOFORO COLOMBO, EAGLE, ELLINIS, EUGENIO C, FAIRSKY, FEDERICO C, FUNCHAL, GALILEO GALILEI, GIULIO CESARE, INFANTE DOM HENRIQUE, LEONARDO DA VINCI, MANUEL ALFREDO, MICHELANGELO, MOÇAMBIQUE, MONTSERRAT, NEVASA, NILI, NORTHERN STAR, ORCADES, ORIANA, PASTEUR, PÁTRIA, PRINCIPE PERFEITO, REINA DEL MAR, RITA MARIA, SANTA MARIA, SOUTHERN CROSS, UGANDA, UIGE, URUGUAY STAR, VERA CRUZ.

Looking at the EUGENIO C at the time, she docked in Lisbon 3 times: on 1st August, (18h00 to 24h00) from Genoa to Rio de Janeiro, by 21st August she was back (12h00 /22h00) on her way to the Med, only to return to Lisbon once more on 27th August (18h00 / 24h00) for another fast crossing to Rio.

Concerning the Portuguese ships, the PRINCIPE PERFEITO arrived on 14th August from her classic August cruise to the Med, while the AMÉLIA DE MELLO completed her final voyage from Angola and Cape Verde. Words and copyright photos by L. M. Correia - 2006