Bill Miller and COGEDAR LINE

Bill Miller's recolections about theItalian company COGEDAR LINE (Compagnia Genovesa di Armamento), of Genova: "Back in the 1960s, Italy's Cogedar Line was another well-known passenger ship line in Australia. They were very popular," noted Keith Hickey, an ocean liner expert & great sea traveller from Sydney. "They had three ships that I remember --- the Flaminia, Aurelia and Flavia. The Flaminia was the oldest and the most basic, but she was noted to have a friendly onboard atmosphere. Between her regular migrant & tourist trips to and from Europe, she was sometimes used, on charter, to carry Aussie troops. A friend, who was a soldier, sailed in her and in an 8-berth cabin. The slightly larger Aurelia was an improvement and, during my own visits, was always very, very clean. She had a single stack with what I felt were great funnel markings. The Flavia, which was rebuilt from the Media of Cunard, was the best, the most modern and comfortable, and very, very popular." 

The 10,400-ton, 1,124-passenger Aurelia -- a rebuilt German freighter dating from 1939 -- had a link to my own home waters. Beginning in 1960, she was chartered in summer to carry students & teachers on the North Atlantic from New York and usually over to Southampton & Le Havre. Her 8-9 night crossings were organized by the locally-based Council on Student Travel and the 487-ft long ship's affairs at New York were looked after by American Export Lines. Consequently, the white-hulled ship was sometimes berthed in Hoboken, at Export's Pier B, or more often at Pier 84 in Manhattan and so sometimes sitting in the towering shadows of the mighty Contitution & Independence.

In 1970, the Aurelia joined Chandris Cruises, became their Romanza and went on, in the 1990s, to have a starring role in the popular British crime series Rumpole of the Bailey. Myself, I did a 7-night trip on her in July 1990, sailing from Venice to Dubrovnik, Corfu, the Corinth Canal, Piraeus & several Aegean isles. 

Texto e imagens /Text and images copyright Bill Miller. 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