The intention of this website is to fill an institutional gap: Italy had one of the largest and most highly-regarded ocean liner fleets in the World but it is virtually the only major shipping nation which does not have an archive or a museum at least partly devoted to it. On the contrary, it sometimes seems that many of the public institutions and other bodies are competing to obliterate the historical link between Italy and the sea, exception made for a few laudable cases which would deserve greater consideration and gratitude for their hard work. This website is an attempt to answer (within the limits imposed by the resources available to a group of aficionados) the numerous requests for information and images related to the Italian ocean liners, the country’s merchant marine and its shipbuilding industry; and, above all, to keep alive a beautiful page of history – recording the technology, the art, the architecture to which so many people have contributed: the people who planned those ships, designed, created, managed and steered them as well as those 18 million Italians who boarded them in the hope of finding a better future in a far country. In other countries – in Great Britain, France, Germany, Holland, the United States, for instance – there are organisations trying to preserve the history of their liners with the support of public institutions or private benefactors. They have archives and museums, can mount exhibitions and, event and can produce documentaries, etc. They bring knowledge to the public and safeguard the historical heritage of their merchant navies, at the same time involving new generations in keeping alive the history of their countries and the roots of their culture. It would be wonderful to see the day when in Italy and among the Italians there were those who knew and proudly safeguarded their own past, aware that it is one of the most important means of achieving a better future.

ItalianLiners.com

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