Moby Lines

Moby S.p.A.
Industry	Passenger transportation, Freight transportation
Founded	1959
Headquarters	Milan, Italy
Area served	Italy, France, Corsica, Sardinia
Key people	Vincenzo Onorato, Chairman
Subsidiaries	St. Peter Line; Tirrenia; Toremar
Website	www.moby.it

MS Moby Aki in Livorno, 2007.

Moby Lines (Moby Lines S.p.A.) is an Italian shipping company that operates ferries and cruiseferries between the Italian or French mainland and the islands of Elba, Sardinia and Corsica. The company was founded in 1959 under the name Navigazione Arcipelago Maddalenino (NAVARMA for short).

In 2006 Moby Lines purchased . The company is known for using Warner Bros. Looney Tunes characters as the external livery of its ships. Notable events include the Moby Prince disaster in 1991, which resulted in the death of 140 people.

History[]

Moby Wonder in Livorno, 22 of February, 2011.

NAVARMA was founded in 1959 by Achille Onorato, and started traffic from Sardinia to the islands on coast of Sardinia with the small ferry M/S Maria Maddalena purchased from Denmark. In February 1966 NAVARMA purchased a second ferry, M/S Bonaficio, and started service between Sardinia and Corsica. The company slowly expanded, purchasing another ferry in 1967 and taking delivery of two newbuilds in 1974 and 1981. With the larger fleet, new routes to the Italian mainland were also introduced.

In 1982 the company acquired M/S Free Enterprise II from Townsend Thoresen, renamed her M/S Moby Blu and painted her in the "blue whale" livery that later came to characterise Moby Lines (the company name still remained NAVARMA at this point). The Moby Blu was over twice the size of NAVARMA's previously largest ship. By 1988 four additional larger ferries (all with Moby-prefixed names) had joined by NAVARMA fleet and additional routes to the Italian mainland were opened.

In 1991 one of the ferries of the fleet, the Moby Prince, was involved in the worst disaster in the Italian merchant navy since World War II. This resulted in 140 deaths.

During the early 1990s NAVARMA acquired further used ferries, which replaced the Moby ferries acquired in the 1980s. During the same time "Moby Lines" was adopted as the official company name. From 1996 onwards the company fleet has grown radically with addition of new, larger and faster tonnage, including the newbuilt fast cruiseferries Moby Wonder, Moby Freedom and Moby Aki. Around 2003 Moby Lines entered an agreement with Warner Bros. to paint their vessels in liveries featuring Looney Tunes characters. However, only the larger ships have such liveries, the company's smaller ships either have similar graphics not featuring the Looney Tunes characters, or simply the Moby Lines' whale logo.

In 2020, in a departure away from Moby Lines' signature business model of acquiring vintage tonnage for its routes, it was announced that steel cutting has started for Moby Lines' two newbuild vessels on order from the Guangzhou Shipyard. These newbuilds will be 238 metres (784 feet) long and roughly 69,500 GT, and specifically designed for the 7-9 hour Livorno-Olbia ferry crossing. These newbuild twins are earmarked to replace the Moby Aki and Moby Wonder in 2022.^[1]^[2]

Fleet[]

Current fleet[]

Ship	Built	Entered service	Route	Gross tonnage	Length	Width	Passengers	Vehicles	Knots
MS Bastia	1974	1974	Piombino—Portoferraio	1,936 GT	75 m	13 m	400	100	18
MS Giraglia	1981	1981	Santa Teresa di Gallura—Bonifacio	2,041 GT	75 m	13 m	400	100	18
MS Moby Niki	1974	2016	Piombino—Portoferraio	9,089 GT	118,7 m	18,5 m	1,440	373	18
MS Moby Dada	1981	2016	Civitavecchia—Arbatax Civitavecchia—Cagliari	25,905 GT	166.1 m	28.5 m	1,760	305	22
MS Moby Tommy	2002	2007	Livorno—Olbia	28,915 GT	212 m	25 m	2,200	1,000	30
MS Moby Aki	2005	2005	Livorno—Olbia	36,284 GT	175 m	27 m	2,200	750	29
MS Moby Wonder	2001	2001	Livorno—Olbia	36,093 GT	175 m	27 m	2,200	750	29
MS Moby Ale	1969	1990	Laid up in Naples	3,937 GT	93 m	16 m	800	160	19.5
MS Moby Vincent	1974	1990	Laid up in Livorno	12,108 GT	120 m	22 m	1,600	570	17.5
MS Moby Baby Two	1974	2000	Laid up in Piombino	8,570 GT	118,6 m	18,5 m	1,150	300	17.5
MS Moby Drea	1975	2003	Laid up in Genoa	22,528 GT	185 m	27 m	1,900	500	27
MS Moby Otta	1976	2006	Laid up in Civitavecchia	22,528 GT	185 m	27 m	1,900	500	27
MS Moby Zazà	1982	2015	Laid up in Livorno	21,699 GT	153.4 m	24.24 m	1,850	325	20
MS Moby Kiss	1975	2016	Laid up in Livorno	11,977 GT	115.35 m	20.6 m	1,600	420	18
MS Moby Corse	1978	2010	Chartered to Tirrenia	19,321 GT	152 m	25 m	1,200	450	21