Moby Lines (Moby Lines S.p.A.) is an Italian shipping company that operates ferries and cruiseferries between the Italian 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 Lloyd Sardegna. The company is known for using Warner Bros. Looney Tunes characters as the external livery of its ships.

History

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.

During the early 1990s NAVARMA acquired further used ferries, which replaced the Moby ferries acquired ni 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.

Fleet

Current fleet

Ship	Type	Built	Entered service	Route	Tonnage1	Notes
	Ferry	1974	1974	Santa Teresa di Gallura—Bonifacio
	Ferry	1981	1981	Santa Teresa di Gallura—Bonifacio
	Ferry	2004	2006	Piombino—Olbia		ex-Golfo degli Angeli
	Fast cruiseferry	2005	2005	Livorno—Olbia Piombino—Olbia
	Ferry	1966	1990	Piombino—Portoferraio		ex-Mikkel Mols, ex-Teistin
	Ferry	1969	1996	Piombino—Portoferraio		ex-Svea Drott, ex-Earl Godwin
	Fast cruiseferry	1975	2003	Livorno—Olbia Porto Torres—Genova		ex-Tor Britannia, ex-Scandinavian Star, ex-Prince of Scandinavia
	Cruiseferry	1976	1992	Civitavecchia—Olbia		ex-Manuel Soto
	Fast cruiseferry	2001	2001	Civitavecchia—Olbia Genoa—Olbia Genova-Bastia
	Ferry	1974	2000	Piombino—Portoferraio		ex-Kalle III, ex-The Viking, ex-Wasa Prince, ex-Peder Olsen
	Ferry	1975	1998	Piombino—Portoferraio		ex-Saint Eloi, ex-Channel Entente, ex-King Orry, ex-Moby Love 2
	Fast cruiseferry	1976	2006	Livorno—Olbia		ex-Tor Scandinavia, ex-World Wide Expo, ex-Princess of Scandinavia
	Fast cruiseferry	2002	2007	Piombino—Olbia Livorno—Olbia		ex-Ariadne Palace
	Ferry	1974	1990	Livorno—Bastia		ex-Stena Normandica
	Fast cruiseferry	2001	2001	Civitavecchia—Olbia Genoa—Olbia Genova-Bastia
1May be specified in gross tonnage (GT) or gross register tons (GRT).

References

• Moby Lines at Simplon Postcards, retrieved 3. 7. 2007

External links

• Company website
• Moby Lines at Fakta om Fartyg
• MobyAki.it