The 761-foot-long liner, built at Genoa and finally completed in June 1960, was a stunning-looking ship. Her overall design was clearly a development of successive Italian liners, each of them very handsome and very contemporary. These began with the sisters AUGUSTUS and GIULIO CESARE of 1951-52, and then the larger, aforementioned DORIA and her sister, the CRISTOFORO COLOMBO, of 1953-54. But the  33,300-ton DA VINCI clearly included improvements as well, such as the aft cargo space on the earlier ships being used instead as a larger lido area, which included no less than six swimming pools - three for adults and three for kids. Mechanically, it was widely said that she was easily convertible from steam turbines to nuclear power. Internally, she had some splendid public rooms and far more private plumbing in her cabins, including as much as 80% in the otherwise usually austere tourist class  section. Overall, the DA VINCI could carry 1,326 passengers - 413 in first class, 342 in cabin and 571 in tourist. 1960 fares for her 8-9 day crossings from New York to Naples and Genoa ranged form $390 in first class to $235 in tourist.

But like most ships, the 23-knot DA VINCI did have her blemishes. "She had a stability problem," remembered Captain Narcisco Fossati, her onetime master, and who later served with Carnival Cruise Lines.

"We had to put 3,000 tons of iron in her double bottoms just to steady her. Thereafter, being heavier, she had a very high fuel consumption rate. She was always an expensive ship to operate and certainly far less profitable than her Italian Government sponsors would have liked."

In addition to her regular mid-Atlantic crossings, the DA VINCI also ran an annual 8-week wintertime Mediterranean-Black Sea cruise and later sailed to the Caribbean and South America. "We always seemed to have lots of celebrities aboard the DA VINCI," added Giancarlo Roccatagliata, a former maitre d'onboard. "On those big  Mediterranean cruises, we'd always have celebrities. On the regular crossings, I recall Paul Newman, Gore Vidal, Gloria Swanson, Zachary Scott, Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh. I especially remember Gloria Swanson bringing along lots of her own food and all of her own mineral water. We also had Elizabeth Taylor and Richard  Burton. He was great fun, but Miss Taylor wanted lots of privacy and even used the crew stairwells when going to and from the first class restaurant. I also remember Spencer Tracy, Charlton Heston, Prince Rainer and Princess Grace of Monaco, and lots  of Catholic hierarchy - the Cardinals and the Archbishops and their entourages."

The DA VINCI also endured her fair share of what Roccatagliata called "evil" North Atlantic weather. "The worst storm I ever remember lasted 3 days. Everyone just stayed on the lounge floors. We served them sandwiches and fruit. The ship was constantly rolling. We were only going 3 miles per hour, but we were really sort of drifting. Everyone was too frightened to get seasick!" Joined by the larger, splashier pair of MICHELANGELO and RAFFAELLO in 1965, the DA VINCI soon became a sort of second fiddle and soon fell on hard times. She began to lose money. In the end, by 1976, she closed  out the entire Italian Line transatlantic service altogether. A year later, in a bid largely to keep Italian seamen employed, she was used on the Miami-Nassau overnight run for the newly created Italian Line Cruises International, but was actually managed by the Costa Line. But the sparkle was long gone. One captain bitterly reported, "The DA VINCI still burned more fuel at dock than most ships do at sea."

Laid-up at La Spezia, near Genoa, in September 1977, she would never sail again. Expectedly, she was the subject of  enormous rumors. Would she be moored in the Thames as a casino or rebuilt as a luxury cruiseship charging as much as $200 a day? Nothing came to pass until July 4, 1980, when still laid-up, crew-less and stripped of her valuable art collection, she caught fire. It all started in the chapel and then spread and raged for four days. Thousands flocked to the shoreline and witnessed her fiery end. It all ended outside harbor waters where she was left half-submerged in forty feet of water with a sixty degree list. Her charred remains were cut-up two years later. What a very sad ending for the great LEONARDO DA VINCI.

The End

Reprinted from a past issue ofOcean & Cruise News.

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