From the preface of Paolo Clerici: “From the unification of Italy to the present day, the Italian merchant navy played a key role in worldwide shipping, albeit with shipping fortunes. In particular, it survived two devastating world wars, but both times found the strength to begin again from scratch. However, like every story in Italy when economics, society and politics meet (and often clash), this was a complex and conflictual story, with important intuitions, serious errors of judgement, some lucky moments and not a few tragedies. […] Thus was born the idea of a work in three volumes, dedicated to the three great periods of seafaring, destinated to as wide an audience as possible. And what’s more: a work conceived in both Italian and English, since another characteristic of this story is the fact of being unknown to the historians of other countries.

With the volume that we are publishing today, dedicated to a crucial stage of an Italian seafaring that ranges from Unification to the First World War, we begin this new journey in the wake of the routes once mapped out by shipowners, masters and sailors: some well-known like Rubattino or Florio, others less known or even unheard of, but all worthy of being mentioned in this great adventure of Italians and the sea.”

Languages: English and Italian

Edition: 2019