Moby Lines


Moby Lines 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.
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 Moby Blu was over twice the size of NAVARMA's previously largest ship. By 1988 four additional larger ferries 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.
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.

Fleet

Current fleet

ShipFlagBuiltEntered serviceRouteGross tonnageLengthWidthPassengersVehiclesKnots
MS Bastia19741974Santa Teresa di Gallura—Bonifacio75 m13 m40010018
MS Giraglia19811981Piombino - Cavo 75 m13 m40010018
MS Moby Ale19691990Piombino—Portoferraio93 m16 m80016019.5
MS Moby Vincent19741990Livorno—Bastia120 m22 m1,60057017.5
MS Moby Love 219742000Piombino—Portoferraio119 m19 m1,15030017.5
MS Moby Drea19752003Livorno—Olbia
Olbia—Genoa		185 m27 m1,90050027
MS Moby Otta19762006Genoa—Olbia185 m27 m1,90050027
MS Moby Tommy20022007Civitavecchia—Olbia212 m25 m2,2001,00030
MS Moby Aki20052005Livorno—Olbia
Piombino—Olbia		175 m27 m2,20075029
MS Moby Wonder20012001Livorno—Olbia175 m27 m2,20075029
MS Moby Corse19782010Genoa—Bastia152 m25 m1,20045021
MS Moby Zazà19822015Nice—Bastia153.4 m24.24 m1,85032520
MS Moby Kiss19752016Livorno—Bastia115.35 m20.6 m1,60042018
MS Moby Dada19812016Nice—Bastia166.1 m28.5 m1,76030522
MS Princess Anastasia''19862017St Petersburg—Helsinki—Tallinn—Stockholm177.1 m28.4 m2,50058022