The Fleets

Florio Line / Società in Accomandita Piroscafi Postali-Ignazio & Vicenzo Florio

Vincenzo Florio founder of the Florio Line, was born at Bagnara, in Calabria, on 4 April 1799, a son of Paolo and Giuseppina Florio. Towards the end of the same year the Florio family and the family business also with Ignazio Florio the brother of Paolo moved from Bagnara to Palermo, where conditions proved to be much more satisfactory. The firm of Florio and Barbaro was formed in 1803 and operated a fleet of small sailing vessels within the Mediterranean. Paolo died in 1807 and his brother Ignazio took over the business, in 1818 Vincenzo Florio became a partner. Ignazio Florio a son of Vincenzo was born in 1839. By 1839, Vincenzo Florio was in control of the business and, in addition, was owner of a number of sailing ships. It was at this time that he acquired his first steamship, the 150 ton wooden paddle PALERMO, and in October 1841 started a passenger and cargo service between Palermo, Messina and Naples.

The business prospered and in October 1861, soon after Sicily was incorporated into the Kingdom of Italy, Florio founded the Societa in Accomandita Piroscafi Postali-Ignazio & Vicenzo Florio with a fleet of nine steamers. Upon Vincenzo Florio's death in 1866, Ignazio, became general manager. On 24 October 1876 the firm of I. & V. Florio bought 13 Steamers belonging to the Trinacria Steamship Company of Palermo, which had gone into liquidation. In February 1877 when Societa Peirano & Danovaro of Genoa lost the mail contract to a joint Florio-Rubattino bid ten other steamers were acquired from the Societa Peirano & Danovaro.

On 14 April 1876, the Italian Parliament approved a recommendation for the establishment of a direct passenger and cargo service to New York by I. & V. Florio and two experimental sailings of the Company ran to New York in 1877 were a direct result. One of the conditions of the agrement between the Company and the Italian Government in 1876 was that a fleet of new steamers would be built for the New York service.

On 2 April 1881 Ignazio Florio and Raffaele Rubattino sent a request to the Italian Government for their firms to be amalgamated. The Camera lei Deputati (the Lower House) sanctioned the request on 5 July 1881, as did the Senato (Upper House) on 12 July. The resulting Law was ratified by King Umberto I on 23 July 1881 and the Navigazione Generale Italiana (NGI) was registered at Genoa on 4 September 1881 with a capital of 100 million Lire, of which 35 million (£1,400,000) was paid up. The registration was backdated to 1 July 1881. The ARCHIMEDE was the last ship ordered by Florio and completed for NGI in 1882. At the time of the amalgamation, I.&.V Florio owned 43 steamers totalling 32,809 tons nett, while the Rubattino fleet consisted of 18 steamers of 26,918 tons nett.

Many thanks to Henk Jungerius and Ted Finch for their assistance in collecting this data. The following list was extracted from various sources. This is not an all inclusive list but should only be used as a guide. If you would like to know more about a vessel, visit the Ship Descriptions (onsite) or Immigrant Ship web site.

• Routes:
  • Catania- Palermo-Messina- New York
  • __________________________________
• Note:
  • NGI : Navigazione Generale Italiana
  • * : Paddlesteamer
  • + : New York sevice

Funnel: White with black top and two narrow black bands. Fleet:

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