Moby Lines

Moby S.p.A.
Industry Passenger transportation, Freight transportation
Founded 1959
Headquarters Milan, Italy
Area served
 Italy, France, Corsica, Sardinia
Key people
 Vincenzo Onorato, Chairman
Website www.moby.it
MS Moby Aki in Livorno, 2007.

Moby Lines (Moby Lines S.p.A.) is an Italian shipping company that operates ferries and cruiseferries between the Italian or French mainland and the islands of Elba, Sardinia and Corsica. The company was founded in 1959 under the name Navigazione Arcipelago Maddalenino (NAVARMA for short).

In 2006 Moby Lines purchased Lloyd Sardegna. The company is known for using Warner Bros. Looney Tunes characters as the external livery of its ships.

History

Moby Wonder in Livorno, 22 of February, 2011.

NAVARMA was founded in 1959 by Achille Onorato, and started traffic from Sardinia to the islands on coast of Sardinia with the small ferry M/S Maria Maddalena purchased from Denmark. In February 1966 NAVARMA purchased a second ferry, M/S Bonaficio, and started service between Sardinia and Corsica. The company slowly expanded, purchasing another ferry in 1967 and taking delivery of two newbuilds in 1974 and 1981. With the larger fleet, new routes to the Italian mainland were also introduced.

In 1982 the company acquired M/S Free Enterprise II from Townsend Thoresen, renamed her M/S Moby Blu and painted her in the "blue whale" livery that later came to characterise Moby Lines (the company name still remained NAVARMA at this point). The Moby Blu was over twice the size of NAVARMA's previously largest ship. By 1988 four additional larger ferries (all with Moby-prefixed names) had joined by NAVARMA fleet and additional routes to the Italian mainland were opened.

In 1991 one of the ferries of the fleet, the Moby Prince, was involved in the worst disaster in the Italian merchant navy since World War II.

During the early 1990s NAVARMA acquired further used ferries, which replaced the Moby ferries acquired in the 1980s. During the same time "Moby Lines" was adopted as the official company name. From 1996 onwards the company fleet has grown radically with addition of new, larger and faster tonnage, including the newbuilt fast cruiseferries Moby Wonder, Moby Freedom and Moby Aki. Around 2003 Moby Lines entered an agreement with Warner Bros. to paint their vessels in liveries featuring Looney Tunes characters. However, only the larger ships have such liveries, the company's smaller ships either have similar graphics not featuring the Looney Tunes characters, or simply the Moby Lines' whale logo.

Fleet

Current fleet

ShipFlagBuiltEntered serviceRouteGross tonnageLengthWidthPassengersVehiclesKnots
MS BastiaItaly19741974Santa Teresa di Gallura—Bonifacio1,936 GT75 m13 m40010018
MS GiragliaItaly19811981Piombino - Cavo (Elba)2,041 GT75 m13 m40010018
MS Moby AleItaly19691990Piombino—Portoferraio3,937 GT93 m16 m80016019.5
MS Moby VincentItaly19741990Livorno—Bastia12,108 GT120 m22 m1,60057017.5
MS Moby BabyItaly19661996Piombino—Portoferraio4,016 GT101 m18 m1,10010019
MS Moby LoveItaly19751998Piombino—Portoferraio4,649 GT115 m19 m1,20025021
MS Moby LallyItaly19742000Piombino—Portoferraio8,570 GT119 m19 m1,15030017.5
MS Moby DreaItaly19752003Livorno—Olbia
Olbia—Genoa		22,528 GT185 m27 m1,90050027
MS Moby OttaItaly19762006Genoa—Olbia22,528 GT185 m27 m1,90050027
MS Moby TommyItaly20022007Civitavecchia—Olbia28,915 GT212 m25 m2,2001,00030
MS Moby AkiItaly20052005Livorno—Olbia
Piombino—Olbia		36,284 GT175 m27 m2,20075029
MS Moby WonderItaly20012001Livorno—Olbia36,093 GT175 m27 m2,20075029
MS Moby CorseItaly19782010Genoa—Bastia19,321 GT152 m25 m1,20045021
MS Moby ZazàItaly19822015Nice—Bastia21,699 GT153.4 m24.24 m1,85032520
MS Moby DadaItaly19812016Nice—Bastia25,905 GT166.1 m28.5 m1,76030522

References

Further reading

  • Seville, Richard (2009). Mediterranean Ferries. Ramsey, Isle of Man: Ferry Publications. ISBN 9781871947984.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.