Service - Raffaello

SS Raffaello 1965-1983 Lenght 276.2 meters Beam 30.3 meters Deep draught 10.4 meters Tonnage 45 933 tons Service speed 26.5 knots Passengers 1 775 people Crew 720 men

When launched from Cantieri Riuniti dell'Adriatico shipyards in March 24, 1963, the second ship of Italia Line's new duo was given the name Raffaello, after the famous renaissance artist Raphael. Both ships had a relief of their namesake artists in their first class lounge. The Raffaello was never during her career as celebrated as her sister, and generally her life proved to be much more uneventful.

In July 1965 she was finally completed, and as a final rehearsal to her maiden voyage, whe made a Mediterranean cruise starting tenth of the same month. In July 25 she left Genoa for New York for the first time on the route that was intended to be her main playing field. The Raffaello (or Raf, as she was nicknamed) provided perfect service from the very beginning, with her luxurious and very Italian restaurants, her six swimming pools, and generally by being one of the most beautiful ships both on the inside and the outside to ever serve on any route. Originally she was also faster than her sister, probably owing to her slightly longer and narrower hull. However, when the Michelangelo's propellers were changed during her first winter overhaul in fall 1965 she overtook her sister on that front. The reason for changing the propellers had been strong vibrations to her stern at high speeds. The Raffaello did not suffer as much from the problem, however.   The Raffaello, like any ship, suffered a few accidents during her career as well. In October 31, 1965 while she was en route to Gibraltar, she suffered a major engine room fire that luckily claimed no lives but forced the ship to limp back into Genoa with only one propeller. The ship quickly recovered from this accident and was soon back in service. In 1966 she he forward superstructure was stenghtened because the Michelangelo had been badly damaged in a storm outside American coast. The accident had claimed three lives onbourds the ship, and Italian Line wisely decided not to take any chances.

Even though the Raffaello was slightly bigger then her sister (22 tons to be exact), the Michelangelo was always the main ship of the Italia Lines, and Raffaello simply her little sister. So when the transatlantic liners started losing more and more of their passengers to the jet airplane, the Raffaello was the one who was sent to gather alternative income from cruises while the Michelangelo remained on the Atlantic route. The times when the ships were simultaneusly traveling on the transatlantic route were very exciting for the passengers, however: the two beuties would pass each other on the sea, both traveling at approximately 25 knots, thus passing each other with combined speed of 50 knots. The ships would blow their horns, passengers would fire flares, fly balloons and wave ferouciously to the other ship. The ships were ordered to pass each other as

Raffaello sets course for Europe.

near as it was safely possible to get the most from such occasions.   The Raffaello was theoretically well designed for use as a cruise ship: the was very much an "outdoors" ship, with lots of deck space, several swimming pools and an outside appearance of pure beauty. However, her passenger acommodations were even on cruises, divided

Michelangelo or Raffaello pictured from her sister's rear deck.

into different classes. This resulted in the complete desertation of the tourist class cabins during cruises, for they were considered too small and austere by the demanding cruise passengers. Generally a cruise ship had only one class, the first class, and cruise passengers who werewere very much used to democracy did not look well upon the "old-fashioned" ship. In the 1960's and 70's the ideal cruise ship was also very small, with gross tonnage of approximately 30 000 tons at most. These two things combined made the large 45 000 ton Raffaello a very unfavoured cruise ship.   Being considered too large did not stop the Raffaello from making a vide variety of cruises: in addition to making the usual Caribbean cruises, she allso sailed to the Black Sea, Israel, Rio de Janeiro and even to Nordkapp (North Cape) to witness the midnight sun. However, none of these choises proved very profitable to the company.   Soon after the Raffaello had entered service it became clear that the liners had lost the battle for the North Atlantic: by 1969 only 4% of the people crossing the big pond chose to do so by air, traveling in 8 hours instead of 8 days. One by one the legendary liners were taken off service, the Queen Mary in 1967, Queen Elizabeth in 1968 and the speed-champion United States in 1969. However, ever-groving subsidiaries from the goverment kept the Raffaello and her sister sailing for several years.

In May 1970 Raffaello was once again involved in an accident when she accidentally collided with the Norwegian tanker Cuyahoga in Algeciras Bay, on the southern coast of Spain. Luckily there were no casualties, but Raffaello's crossing was canceled and her bow needed to be repaired at Gibraltar. After ship accident she suffered no more major accident during her career. During the same year the Raffaello made naval history for the only time in her life. Even though the Royal Carribeean lines claims that their Voyager Of The Seas was the first ship to have an on-board ice rink, this is not true. In 1970 the Raffaello's theatre was converted into an ice rink, and an American family was contracted to perform ice skating shows to the passengers.

Raffaello's First class ballroom.

The Raffaello probably didn't earn a single lire to Italian Liners during her career, nor did her sister. As the ships became more and more unprofitable, a problem arose with the crew: according to trade union regulations, a ship of Raffaello's size needed a double-up crew, 720 onboard and 720 on land, rotating in service on the ship. Thus the ship that usually carried only about 400 passengers on a crossing had a total crew of 1440. When the trade union realised their jobs were under threat because of the jet airliner, they decided to fight for their income. Lightning strikes, lasting for 24 to 48 hours, became regular on the White Elephants. Often the reason for a strike was ridiculous to say at least, like once when the crew of one of the ships walked out because they were not served mineral water.   When the company tried to compensate for the ever-groving losses, they entered negotiations with the trade union about cutting the crew on both of the ships. The unionist would not hear it, instead they demanded a rise to their wages. Italia Line was forced to cut down the cruise speed of the ships to somehow controll their expenses. By 1974, only four transatlantic liners remained in service: Cunard Line's Queen Elizabeth 2, French Line's France, and the Michelangelo and Raffaello. In 1973 the oil crises had struck, and fuel expanses of the liners had raised to 217% of what they used to be. This turned the unprofitable ships even more into the red: in fall 1974 the France was laid up. Both the Michelangelo and the Raffaello spent allmost the entire year cruising, but as noted before, they were not amongst the most popular cruiseships.

Italian newspapers started demanding reasons for why the taxpayer's money was spent on the "floating memorials of a bygone era," and proclaimed that the ships should be sunk, not subsidied. The Italian goverment relised that they simply could not keep paying Italian Lines 100 000 million lires a day to keep the ships running, and in spring 1975 the goverment informed Italian line that their ships wouldn't recieve any more goverment support.   This meant the death of the Italian Sisters. In April 21, 1975 the Raffaello left New Your for the last time, without any major ceremonies. Upon arriving in Genoa she was laid up. In June 6th she was moved to La Spezia, the location of an infamous Italian scrapyard. There she was joined by her sister a month later.   However, in the midst of all this, one brighter thing happened for the Raffaello as well. Partially as an attempt by the Italian Line to revive the ships, the film "My Love Help Me" (in Italian "Amore mio aiutami")

The Raffaello sets out on her last commercial voyage.

featuring the italian actor Alberto Sordi was shot onboard the Raffaello (before she was laid up, that is). The film was later represented for the first time onboard the Michelangelo, by Alberto Sordi. However, as sadi before this did not stop the Italian Line to take the ships out of service.   Luckily the fate of Raffaello was not to be scrapped at La Spezia. In 1976 several companies eyed the siters for possible purchase, but only one serious offer was made: the American Home Lines wanted to buy the sisters, retain their Italian crews and use them for Caribbean cruises. To Home Lines' amazement, the Italian Line declined. If they were to sell the ships, they wanted them to be in a use where no one could associte them with their former money-losers. So the Raffaello and her sister continued their stay in La Spezia until another buyer emerged. In fall of 1976 the Shah of Persia made an offer on the sisters. He wanted to buy them for use as permanently moored barrack ships on southern coast of Persia. Italia Line saw no obstacles, and sold the ships that had originally cost $45 million, for the ridiculous price of $2 million. In spring 1977 the Raffaello left on her final journey aroung the Arabian peninsula into the remote port of Bûshehr (Bushire) in southwest Persia. There she was modified to accommodate 1 800 military personnel.   In the late 1970's the Shah was overthrown and Parsia became the Islamese Republic of Iran. During the Iranese rule the ship was neglected, and she layed idly at her pier in Bûshehr, scorched by the sun as an empire of rats. The would probably have laid there until she would have been sold for scrap, but in 1983, during the Iraq/Iran war, Iraqi bombers hit her and she partially sank in the harbour waters. Not long after a tug accidentally rammed her, finishing off the job the Iraqi had begun. The Raffaello lays on the spot where she sank, and no breaking up of the shipwreck has ever commerced.   The Michelangelo survived use as barracks until 1991 when she was sold rto Pakistani scrappers. By 1992 all that remained of the beatiful Italian Twins were toilet seats sold on the market of Karachi.