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Originally posted by Italianliners:
In this forum nobody never talk or mentioned the magnifics sisters Michelangelo and Raffaello, the more famous italian sistes are forgotten over here. These sister built for Italian Lines, entering in service in 1965, and in thhey had a sad history. They become giant white elephants because enter in service in the end of the transatlantic days. Michelangelo was the first followed by her youger sister Raffaello, with more than 300m, they was enourmous ships. The failure of Italian Line, let these sister in laid up, but nobody want to bought them, because they are very fast ships and the fuel consumption was huge, even that these ships was divided in three classes, a problem because the cost to refurbishment was very big. Costa and NCL, think to bought her in that years, but for this reason, didn't bought, and NCL bought SS France instead the sisters. The only company who offered to bought the ships was Home Lines, but for "pride" reasons, italians doesn't sell for they. In the end they was buyed to transform in acomadotion ships in Iraq, and few years laters in 80's, they was selled to be scrapped. Thats a sad history for the more famous sister of italian history. If someone have photos for sharing, please upload them.

Italianliners

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Thene the engine room was split this was the result off the Andrea Doria dissaster. This splitting result inn that each engine room was conected to 1 screw so both engine rooms must operate the same time to sail the ship. A result was that they where very costly to run.

It's sad those beautifull ended in such tragedy. A shame fore those who design theme and build theme. I believe iff they have looked to the market and the devolepment off the passenger trade, they would have never build ore where designed much better. It's a bloody shame i think.

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Originally posted by lasuvidaboy:
Times sure have changed, today's Panamax ships have roughly the same dimensions as the Italia twins, the difference of course is that these new cruise ships have superstructures built up from bow to stern and are twice the tonnage.

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The 1970s were a very difficult period for traditional shipping lines and the major cruise lines of today were in their infancy.

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Despite the design flaws, the MICHELANGELO and RAFFAELLO were wonderful ships, asthetically. I think much of these design flaws could have been altered while under contruction? IF NCL had bought one or both, it would be pity to see 2 decks of balconies on top (not that it was any better to have it done on the NORWAY instead)....

[ 02-20-2005: Message edited by: Keitaro ]

Altough the Italians were and still are very good in ship building, it seems that the ships for the state owned Italia all had technical problems. I heard that nearly all of them had problems with the stability causing costly alterations (adding concrete as ballast increasing fuel consumption), and also the redundancy of their machinery was not so good, leading to high mantainance costs, finally making it impossible to be used as cruise ship. Does anyone here know more about that? I would be interested to hear about details. (One usually is exposed to a lot of propaganda.)

http://www.faktaomfartyg.com/michelangelo_1965.htm

Sincerely René.

PS! "Raffaello" is on the side too.

http://www.faktaomfartyg.com/raffaello_1965.htm

[ 02-20-2005: Message edited by: rem-dk ]

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Originally posted by Italianliners:
In this forum nobody never talk or mentioned the magnifics sisters Michelangelo and Raffaello,......

If someone have photos for sharing, please upload them.

Italianliners

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Did you check out previous topics, we were posted the following topics with photos.

Michelangelo - Raffaello

MICHELANGELO /RAFFAELLO

michelangelo help

Raffaello Wreck

P.S. Leonard da Vinci and more italian ships.

[ 02-20-2005: Message edited by: Ocean Liners ]

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Originally posted by Keitaro:

Despite the design flaws, the MICHELANGELO and RAFFAELLO were wonderful ships, asthetically. I think much of these design flaws could have been altered while under contruction? IF NCL had bought one or both, it would be pity to see 2 decks of balconies on top (not that it was any better to have it done on the NORWAY instead)....

[ 02-20-2005: Message edited by: Keitaro ][/QB]

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Originally posted by lasuvidaboy:
They may have looked better than what happened to Norway after the two deck addition. Being much lower to begin with, one or two decks of verandahs could have worked. Of course, Verandah cabins were not common in the mid 1970s or mid 80s.

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Originally posted by Keitaro:
Thanks for the reply lasuvidaboy . Onno, do you mind doing a rendering of these sisters with NORWAY-style balcony decks ?

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