Lives of the liners: Msc & cruising
by Published on 3rd July 2017 09:26 AM
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May 31stManhattan: Italian-owned but Swiss-headquartered Mediterranean ShippingCo, best known as MSC, is a powerhouse, no a steam roller, in worldwideshipping. After acquiring aged, second hand freighters back in the '70s,they sensibly re-adapted and went headfirst into full containershipping. It all worked -- good, intuitive management plus low,competitive rates. Today, MSC owns over 400 container ships, someat the top carrying as many as 19,000 containers, and overall rank as the 2ndlargest container line in the world (only Denmark's Maersk Line isbigger).
But back in 1990s, MSC also invested in cruising -- then mostly in theMediterranean -- with several older, smallish ships. Well, more success,then great success, then huge success -- today, MSC Cruises owns 13modern cruise liners, some in the 200,000-ton, 5,000-passengerrange. And this cruise arm has expanded beyond the Med to worldwideservices -- departing from the likes of Copenhagen, Rio, Cape Town, Dubai andShanghai.
Today,it was a sort of close-up of MSC. On the 37th floor of a midtownskyscraper, I gave a talk on the general history of Mediterranean passengerships, but mostly Italian liners -- starting from the '30s glamor of the Rex& Conte di Savoia to the '50s post-war renaissance and modernity of thelikes of Giulio Cesare, Andrea Doria & Ausonia. I thenwent onward, flashing photos on a $10,000 ultra-tech screen (it seemed youcould almost touch the ships), to the '60s boom era of the Leonardo daVinci, Guglielmo Marconi, Michelangelo, Oceanic, Eugenio C andothers. By conclusion, it was the current age of mega-ships, thosetowering, amenity-stacked Italian sea-going resorts, flying the house flags ofCosta and MSC.
We sat,to a buffet lunch, in a huge boardroom: a cherry wood table the length ofChile, a huge model of an MSC containership off to the side and, in the shadowsof the Empire State Building (just three blocks away), panoramic windows thatfaced as far south as the Verrazano Bridge. The room was full,standing room only, as largely young, very bright, mostly Italians paid raptand courteous attention. A Q&A followed.
Afinishing touch: Before leaving, we had a visit to Captain NickArena's huge, corner office. He worked (for almost thirty years)for the bygone Italian Line -- and in the glory days of the Augustus, DaVinci & Michelangelo. He well remembers the great and granddays of film stars and royalty traveling to and from Italy (and, with a stop atCannes, the French Riviera), summer tourists, the armies of Catholic priestsand nuns, and the immigrants, bound for new lives in the USA and in SouthAmerica. While palatial and spaciously comfortable, the Captain's officeis also his personal museum of, as it called them, "those great ships ofso many glorious memories". Shelves and walls were neatly stacked: A model of the Michelangelo, a Bill Muller painting of the Rex,lots of certificates and commemoratives and commendations and, of course, thepersonal photos: Pope John Paul II, Sophia Loren, the president ofItaly.
Ourvisit, sponsored by the Propeller Club, also had the air of excitement. There was a hint of news, perhaps big news, coming. Well, by thetime, I returned home to New Jersey, MSC had announced a $10 billion stack oforders for no less than 7 more cruise ships, all to be built in France and atleast two of which will hit the 200,000-ton mark and carry nearly 6,900passengers, the highest capacities yet.
Yes, avery interesting day in the offices of one of the world's biggest and busiestshipowners. And yes, there's lots more to come from MSC.
Photos: Memory lane mostly --Italian Line's Augustus, Leonardo da Vinci & the sisters Michelangelo& Raffaello; last is the new, innovative MSC Seaside,to be introduced next December
; and the upcoming MSC World Class.
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