MICHELANGELO: drama a sul dos Açores

Ao amanhecer de 16 de Abril de 1966 o paquete italiano MICHELANGELO entrou em Nova Iorque procedente do Mediterrâneo com a bandeira a meia haste e inúmeros vestígios de avarias ocasionadas por um golpe de mar extremamente violento que atingiu o navio na manhã de 12 de Abril, quando este navegava a sul dos Açores, rumo a Nova Iorque com 745 passageiros e 710 tripulantes a bordo.

Inaugurado um ano antes, em Abril de 1965, o MICHELANGELO e o seu irmão gémeo RAFFAELLO eram o orgulho da Marinha Mercante italiana, com 45 900 toneladas de arqueação bruta, capacidade para 1771 passageiros e 27 nós de velocidade de serviço. 

O Inverno de 1965/66 foi particularmente rigoroso no Atlântico Norte, cujos meses mais difíceis são habitualmente Março e Abril. O MICHELANGELO fazia a viagem 15,  iniciada em Génova a 7 de Abril, com um dia  de atraso devido ao mau tempo verificado durante a viagem anterior e fez as escalas habituais em Cannes 7-04 das 22h40 às 23h50) e Gibraltar (9-04 das 06h50 às 08h10), fazendo-se ao Atlântico, seguindo uma rota por sul da ilha de Santa Maria, para tentar fugir aos efeitos de um violentíssimo temporal. Durante a noite de 11 para 12 de Abril, vários navios nas proximidades do MICHELANGELO emitiram pedidos de socorro, tendo a Guarda Costeiro dos EUA pedido o auxílio do paquete italiano que foi desviado para norte da sua rota para tentar socorrer o navio libanês ROKOS, sendo depois anulado este pedido. Com mar de força 10, pelas 10h20, a proa do MICHELANGELO foi atingida por uma onde gigante que destruiu parcialmente a zona de proa e o casario do navio junto à ponte de comando que ficou alagada, com diversas janelas destruídas, etc...

Por baixo da ponte, as suites de luxo foram destruídas, pois o alumínio das anteparas não resistiu à força do mar. Em resultado, para além da destruição material, morreram 2 passageiros, 1 tripulante e registaram-se ainda 12 feridos graves. 

O MICHELANGELO foi reparado provisoriamente em Nova Iorque de onde largou a 20 de Abril, sendo depois reparado em Génova, com importante reforço estrutural e a substituição de alumínio por aço na zona de vante do casario, durante a reparação de Inverno no início de 1967, tendo-se seguido intervenção semelhante no RAFFAELLO.

Estas fotografias foram feitas pelo meu Amigo Bill Miller, de Nova Iorque, que se recorda da situação do MICHELANGELO nos termos seguintes: "memories of a Saturday in April 1966 when Italian Line's less-than-a-year-old MICHELANGELO arrived at Pier 90 with her forward superstructure gashed and mangled after sailing through an unusually ferocious Atlantic storm. We stared in curiosity - she looked "badly wounded" and, like bandages, those fore decks were draped in canvas tarps. Word along the waterfront was that the giant, 902-ft long liner would be moved over to Hoboken, to the Bethlehem Steel shipyard, for repairs. Instead, the shipyard's work boats, including a floating crane with tug, made temporary repairs at Pier 90. The Michelangelo later returned to Italy, to her builders at Genoa, for full repairs that included reinforcement of the 45,000-ton liner's superstructure. Similar changes were made to her twin sister Raffaello."

O MICHELANGELO e o seu gémeo RAFFAELLO só navegaram 10 anos, sendo retirados da carreira do Atlântico Norte e imobilizados em 1975 acabando vendidos ao Irão dois anos mais tarde, onde acabaram por ser destruídos. O MICHELANGELO foi desmantelado no Paquistão enquanto o RAFFAELLO está afundado no Golfo Pérsico, vitima da guerra entre o Irão e o Iraque. Mal empregados navios...

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 

Great liners of the 1960s...

Lloyd Triestino's magnificent liner GUGLIELMO MARCONI photographed arriving in Cape Town early in the morning, see a coal burning tug "smoking" on starboard. Built in 1960-1960 for the Europe to Australia service, the MARCONI used the Suez but had to divert to the Cape route after 1967 due to the Suez waterway closure. This hadded extra weeks on the liner voyages East and in the end led to an earlier demise for many ships. MARCONI had a final stint of liner service in the Brazil and River Plate service from January 1976 until June 1977 and laiter was rebuilt as the COSTA RIVIERA, but her original good looks were sploiled by then.

The MARCONI, her sister GALILEO and the sisters MICHELANGELO and RAFAELLO had their keels laid in the same day - 8 September 1960, and were some of the best passenger ships of the 20th century, but some say they were built too late and survived only thanks to the Italian tax payers until the 1970s. In fact they were constructed mostly to keep Italian yards in Genova and Trieste busy and give employment to Italian seafarers... Anyway it was a nice form of public spending, we still talk on those ships and the Italian maritime perfection.

Bill Miller says that some of the best passenger ships built in the 1960s were Italian:
"The ITALIAN SENSATION - The GUGLIELMO MARCONI (and her twin sister, GALILEO GALILEI), commissioned in 1963, was one of the great Italian liner "sensations" of the early '60s. It was a hugely significant era, begun with the very beautiful LEONARDO DA VINCI and concluding, in 1965-66, with the likes of the MICHELANGELO, RAFFAELLO, OCEANIC & EUGENIO"C"."

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

THREE LINERS - SIX FUNNELS...

The magnificent Italian Line sisters RAFFAELLO and MICHELANGELO photographed in the port of New York in 1965. The UNITED STATES can also be seen at her berth...

I remember seeing all those three ships in Lisbon in the late 1960s...

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

FERRARI of the SEAS

What a beauty, the Italian Line flagship MICHELANGELO (1965-1975), seen here underway racing towards New York... In true fact, she is not exactly New York bound yet, as this image was taken on her sea trials, note the A flag meaning (back in 1965) - ship undergoing sea trials...

One of a series of B&W photographs sent in 1977 by the Roma office of Finmare.

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

NEW YORK PASSENGER SHIPPING 1975

While looking into my old photographs I found that great image of passenger ships in New York. It was taken in June 1975 and sent by The Port Authority of NY & NJ from their old office at One Trade Center, New York. The address is no longer active. Neither are three of the six ships. From left to right, the Norwegian America Line SAGAFJORD is still sailing as the SAGA ROSE; the DORIC ex-SHALOM of Home Lines sunk on her way to under Pullmantur /RCCL ownership the breakers as the SUN. The Italian Line flagship MICHELANGELO was doing her very last voyages and was withdrawn that summer. After an obscure career at the Iranian Navy she was scrapped in Pakistan; the OCEANIC is still cruising under the same name, while the ROTTERDAM (1959) is being converted into an hotel ship in Germany. Her fleet mate STATENDAM was scrapped in Alang after many years of lay up and neglect in Greece...
Texto e imagens /Text and image copyright L.M.Correia collection. 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

CARNIVAL IN RIO MICHELANGELO CRUISE 1969

One of the best ways to experience the Rio de Janeiro Carnival must have been cruising on the magnificent MICHELANGELO...
Texto e imagens /Text and images L.M.Correia collection. 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

ITALIAN STYLE AT SEA

In 1965 the Italian Line introduced their final transatlantic superliners, the sisters MICHELANGELO (45.911 GRT / built 1965) and RAFFAELLO (45.933 GRT / built 1965) on the Genoa - New York express service.

Two handsome futuristic liners financed by the Italian taxpayers, built too late to be successful in the dwindling liner trades and too expensive to run on cruises, so their spectacular careers were short. By 1975 both sisters were laid up at La Spezia and nobody seemed to be interested in the twin flagships.

In the end both were sold in 1977 to the Iranian Navy and used as accommodation ships in the Persian Gulf... Later the MICHELANGELO was scrapped while the RAFFAELLO was sunk during the Iraq - Iran war.
Despite those sad events, the MICHELANGELO and RAFFAELLO were two of the greatest post-war passenger liners, with their unique modern latice funnels...

Text and images copyright L.M.Correia collection. For other posts and images, check our archive at the right column of the main page. Thanks for your visit and comments. Luís Miguel Correia