entry Oct 2014
postcard
# 20 - I cheated by looking at the name
of the vessel (not visible on the front of the card).
There is a photo exhibit on the history of rail transport
currently running on the premises of the grand Pietrarsa railway museum
just outside of Naples. The display items are on loan from
the audio-visual archives of the Italian State Railway
Foundation. Part of the published text on the display
refers to the first train ferry in Italy; that is, a ship
designed to carry railway vehicles in roll-on/roll-off
fashion. That kind of train ferry has been around for
longer than I thought; a so-called "floating railway" went
into service in 1850, providing transportation of goods
wagons across the Firth of Forth in Scotland. The
published text for the Pietrarsa display makes reference
to the first such ferry in Italy; it provided service
across the straits of Messina between the Italian mainland
and Sicily. It was designed by Antonio Calabretta, a naval
engineer. Two ships were launched in 1896: the Scilla
and the Cariddi (Scylla and Charybdis, the two
points on opposite sides of the straits, named for
characters in Greek mythology; Scylla is on the mainland,
Charybdis on Sicily). They were both paddle steamers. They
went into regular commercial service in 1899, at first
transporting only goods and then in 1901, passengers as
well. The ships had identical specifications: 50.5m long;
one track that loaded five wagons; capable of 10.5 knots.
Since it seems they are never going to build that bridge
for cars over the straits, this is a still a good way to
get to Sicily. The latest train-ferry is the "Messina,"
built in 2013. The card? It is identified as the Scilla,
meaning that the card is obviously after 1896, but
probably not much, since I understand that the original
vessels were replaced after a few years by screw-propeller
vessels. (The older ships weren't necessarily
decommissioned, though. The Scilla was around long
enough to sink after hitting a mine in 1917 in WWI.)© 2002 - 2023