mondomarine celebrates 100 years of cantieri navali campanella

MONDOMARINE CELEBRATES 100 YEARS OF CANTIERI NAVALI CAMPANELLA A century of constant activity in working and leisure vessel construction 1915 to 2015: these dates mark a century in business for Cantieri Navali Campanella, an enormously long period of constant activity in the shipbuilding sector, covering two World Wars and two international economic crises. The ongoing story of Campanella began back in 1915 in Savona, when the two Ascenso brothers founded Officine Riparazioni Industriali e Navali di Savona, a company engaged in ship repair, conversion and construction. Since the beginning, it made itself felt as one of the most important businesses active in Savona at the time, and with its workforce of more than 50 highly specialised personnel, it soon seized the various opportunities that presented themselves during the First World War and the two decades that followed. Between 1935 and 1940 the company also expanded its activities into rail transport and therefore enlarged its workshop premises with a new shed directly linked to the rail system of the port of Savona. In 1941, the company changed its name to Officine Costruzioni e Riparazioni Navali Campanella Ascenso SpA for commercial reasons. Tito Campanella, previously the owner of a similar company operating in the port of Genoa, was appointed Chairman of what had become a substantial company, and on his death his son Piero Campanella, an engineer, was appointed in his place. When the Second World War began, the company received numerous orders from the Italian Navy for the construction and conversion of certain types of warship, such as landing craft and transport ships. Immediately after the war, the company began to rebuild the shipyard’s facilities so that in subsequent years it was ready to participate actively in constructing the new Italian merchant fleet, receiving big orders including one for a series of tankers to provide a transport service between the mainland and Sardinia. However, due to the large size of these ships, the shipyard felt it needed to expand its production space and informed the Port Authority of Savona, which soon licensed it a suitable area in the northwest zone of the port where two staging areas and two sheds were built from scratch. During the 1950s, the shipyard carried out both complex repairs and conversions of damaged and recovered ships, and conversions of propulsion systems from steam boiler

SPECIAL

218

systems to diesel engine systems. The yard was notably involved in constructing cargo barges for the Argentinian Ministry of Public Works and also the “Monviso”, a floating crane for Fiat, as well as rebuilding the motorboat “Altino” for the Venice lagoon navigation authority, the ACNIL. This last marked the beginning of an unusual line of business for the shipyard, “naval surgery”, which would be repeated frequently in the years that followed. A classic example is that of a ship quite heavily damaged during the war and then recovered. The yard constructed a large new forward section for it that was welded to the remaining body of the ship, rechristened “Paraggi” after its “surgical” extension. In the same period, the shipyard lengthened and modified the fishing vessel “Spes Prima” but, even more importantly, it built both the 500-tonne tanker “Varigotti” and the 550-tonne motor vessel “Schedir” as well as two more 100-tonne barges. The 1960s began for the shipyard with the construction of the first tug boat built by the company, the “Giuseppe Ghezzani”, for delivery to the shipowner Ghezzani in Livorno. However, although repairs accounted for a substantial volume of work during the period, with many different jobs under way simultaneously both at the quayside and at sea, new builds and conversions remained the core business. The new builds included a succession of barges, pontoons, floating cranes, motor vessels and fishing vessels in large sizes, and even a motor yacht named “Oceanico”. Conversions included processes of various types including three tankers to be converted into cargo ships, in response to the requirements of a market that sought cargo ships for bulk transport at a time when tankers had become too small and therefore uneconomic. Meanwhile there was another change of name, when in 1963, after the retirement of Settimo Ascenso, the company took the name “Campanella Cantieri Navali S.p.A.”. The following year, the shipyard won contracts from the Italian Ministry of the Interior for the supply of various types of motor vessels as service boats in Italian ports. A contract from 1966 provided for the construction of three tug boats, commissioned by Rimorchiatori Riuniti di Genova, with a length of 29 metres and a cycloidal propeller system from the German firm Voith, which was unprecedented on the Italian market.


MONDOMARINE CELEBRATES 100 YEARS OF CANTIERI NAVALI CAMPANELLA The first of the three vessels was named “India” and entered into service in 1967 followed by sister ships “Istria” and “Panama” the following year. During this period, the shipyard won two important tenders with the Italian Ministry of Defence for the entire provision of six MTM class landing craft to the Italian Navy. In 1968, a contract was also placed by Armasarda di Cagliari, a local subsidiary of Rimorchiatori Riuniti di Genova, for the construction of an ocean tug and rescue boat, “Ciclone”, which would be launched two years later. At the same time, two working motor vessels were under construction for two different owners as well as seven firefighting motor vessels after a national tender was awarded to the shipyard in 1970. The 1970s were a time of expansion and modernisation of the facilities, which progressively expanded into the northeast zone of the port of Savona between 1971 to 1977 in an area licensed to the company by the Port Authority. Sheds and staging areas were built on the new site, covering 15,000 m2, equipped with more powerful cranes and bridge cranes, which meant that the shipyard was properly prepared for new challenges. However, this modernisation and expansion programme did not interfere with ship building and repair work, which continued at full speed throughout the decade, concentrating increasingly on specialist vessels like tug boats, firefighting vessels, support vessels, working boats, ferries and passenger ships, and merchant ships like tankers and cargo ships. The shipyard’s order book was always full. Another tender from Armasarda saw the shipyard building two more ocean rescue tug boats to support large oil tankers, the sister ships “Ariel” and “Espero”, which were delivered in 1972 and 1973 respectively. This period also saw the delivery of the “Marco Polo III”, a motor vessel for passenger transport with a capacity of 200, but most importantly the shipyard won a major contract to convert the motor vessel “Varangberg” from a bulk cargo ship to a tanker with the new name “Monte Carmelo” for a Savona-based owner. While this demanding conversion project was under way, the shipyard also obtained an order from Tripcovich in Trieste for a tug boat with a Voith cycloidal propeller system to serve both the port of Trieste and the port of Monfalcone. Two tenders in succession saw the Savona-based shipyard building a total of nine

222

firefighting motor vessels for nine Italian ports: Augusta, Ancona, Genoa, Livorno, Naples, Palermo, Ravenna, Savona and Venice. A standard series of three tug boats was built for two different owners: “Hercules” for Tripcovich in Trieste, and sister ships “Lombardia” and “Piemonte” for Carmelo Noli in Savona. A further conversion was also carried out for Tarros in La Spezia: a motor vessel for transporting logs from Scandinavia became a container ship with the new name “Vento di Ponente”, and set off on her maiden voyage between Italy and North Africa in spring 1976. In 1978, a subcontract came in from Cantieri Navali CNR in Genova, working on behalf of the Tirrenia-Toremar regional government company, for the construction of a 46-metre 400-passenger ferry as part of its fleet renewal programme. 1979 was the year of the conversion of the “Rubino” for the Savona-based navigation company Beta. This tanker was originally built in 1970 for transporting refined petroleum products but needed to be converted to transport speciality chemicals. Meanwhile for Somocar in Genoa, the bulk cargo carrier “Gungnir IV” was rechristened “Somocar Uno” after conversion into a barge for transporting coal. Just like the previous decade, the 1980s began for the shipyard with major modernisation work on the facilities and expansion of the available space, which was no longer sufficient to meet the new needs caused by the increasing size of the vessels the yard was working on. A huge technical structure designed and built inhouse by the shipyard was installed at the Levante staging area: a sliding platform on rollers with a bearing capacity of 1,500 tonnes, so that ships with a length of up to 75 metres and a beam of up to 15 metres could be moved and launched. The Solimano staging areas were also restructured, including the lifting equipment. In the absence of an adequate basin, which was completely non-existent at the port of Savona at the time, a suitable mooring area with a new mobile crane was set up along the sea embankment. These new infrastructural works by the shipyard immediately proved to be a trump card for tackling large, demanding builds such as the “transoceanic” order received from a consortium of Mexican owners for the construction of three ocean fishing vessels for tuna fishing, with lengths of 80 metres / 260 feet.


MONDOMARINE CELEBRATES 100 YEARS OF CANTIERI NAVALI CAMPANELLA In the same period, the shipyard also built a transport ship for speciality chemicals, again for the Beta shipping company in Savona. This was followed by more tug boats, such as “Norvegia”, with a length of 24 metres, which was commissioned by Rimorchiatori Riuniti di Genova both for coastal service and service within the Genoa port complex. However, the commercial strategy of the shipyard had undergone changes for some time, and from the mid 1970s onwards, the company’s main business progressively shifted from the working vessel sector to the leisure vessel sector. The first in the long line of motor yachts built by Campanella was the famous “Mohamedia”, built for Saudi Arabian magnate Adnan Khashoggi (later the owner of the legendary Nabila), which was recognised by Lloyd’s Register in 1975 for the quality of her construction and the innovative nature of the design. This motor yacht is still in operation today and her comely lines have sailed through entire decades, impervious to time and fashion alike. Over the years, the shipyard’s motor yacht production grew proportionally, until ownership of the facilities was taken over by Mondomarine, the brand representing the Shipbuilding Division created by Mondo, an international multi sector business. At the beginning of the 1990s, the shipyard took an important leap forward with its entry into the exclusive sector of 30 metre / 100 foot plus motor yachts – and this was a truly grand entrance, because the yard delivered “Antares”, a full 40 metres in length. This was the start of a long series of large motor yachts, in part the fruit of all the experience accumulated over the intervening period in fulfilling orders for additional work or complete construction of motor yachts from another historic Italian shipyard, Varazze-based Cantiere Baglietto. Campanella’s time under the Mondomarine flag is symbolised magnificently by a pair of extraordinary vessels: “Over the Rainbow” and “Tribù”. The first of these was a heartwarming restoration of a historic navetta or shuttle boat, which was skilfully carried out for her besotted owner, the late artist and designer Jean Michel Folon. The second vessel, meanwhile, was an outstanding new build for the fashion stylist family Benetton, incorporating cutting-edge environmentally friendly solutions which led to her being the first motor yacht to obtain RINA Green Star certification.

However, as always things changed again and shortly before the yard’s 100th birthday, Campanella underwent a further change of ownership when it was bought by Alessandro Falciai and Roberto Zambrini became the Mondomarine. Once again, though, we are sure that this is the beginning of another long journey into the next 100 years for this Italian shipyard that sculpts ships in steel and aluminium. Walter Douglass

225