ITALIAN CAPTAIN - by William H Miller

The World Ocean & Cruise
Liner Society
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ITALIAN CAPTAIN
By William H. Miller

When Claudio Ciappina was a boy, his home city of Genoa was the biggest and richest port in all of the Mediterranean. Then, there might be as many as 100 ships at berth as well as another 30 or 40 waiting at anchor. There were the big liners that crossed to New York and to South America and Australia, and dozens and dozens of conventional freighters. Cranes busily attended to these ships, tugs were kept on endless assignment and the sounds of whistles often continued well into the night. But when I met Captain Ciappina, as he is today, it was in a setting far from Genoa harbor. His ship, the yacht-like RENAISSANCE III, was anchored off idyllic Bitter End on Virgin Gorda. The other passengers had already begun to go ashore to a private beach area on a tender or on Zodiacs. Soon, the Captain himself would join them.

A true Genoese seaman, Captain Ciappina followed his ancestors into a career at sea. His grandfather served on sailing ships to Argentina and his father on cargo vessels to East Africa. The young Claudio's first assignment, in 1971, was as a cadet on two of Italy's largest liners of the time, the 27,000-ton sister ships GUGLIELMO MARCONI and GALILEO GALILEI. They were owned by Lloyd Triestino of Trieste. "They were nice, big, very fast steamers," recalled the Captain. "We sailed out to Australia via the Suez Canal with about 300 first class passengers and about 1,400 immigrants every trip."

Later, the Captain sailed aboard almost every kind of vessel except oil tankers. He served on cargo ships, container ships, a ferry to Sardinia, a bulk carrier, car carrier, chemical carrier and even a cruiseship, the CORINTO, that sailed from Venice to the Greek isles. He joined Renaissance Cruises in May 1991, and has since been posted to their 4,500-ton, 100-passenger RENAISSANCE III.

Presently dividing her time between summers in the Mediterranean and the remainder in the Caribbean (based out of Antigua), the Captain took the ship on Renaissance's inaugural Canada/New England cruises in the summer of 1991. He recalled, "These voyages, 7 days from Gloucester to Quebec City and then 7 days in reverse, were experimental. But they proved so successful they will be repeated this summer as well."

Following those first New England cruises, the Captain took the RENAISSANCE III on a "showcase" voyage. "Last October, we visited Boston, New York, Savannah, Palm Beach, Port Everglades and finally Miami. Altogether 6,000 agents, guests and friends visited the ship. At New York, we even ran five-hour evening cruises along the Hudson River as far as the George Washington Bridge and then south to the Verazzano Bridge. It was the first time a Renaissance vessel was at New York (there are 7 other similar ships) and we used the World Yacht berth at West 20th Street."

Extremely popular with his crew, Captain Ciappina seems to have adjusted very well to the life-style of a luxury cruiseship. As our interview ended, he had decided to personally run a Zodiac to shore to join several passengers in a volleyball game.

The End

Reprinted from a past issue ofOcean & Cruise News.

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