The moustache of the “Reggio”

 

By

 

Roberto Copia

 

(AFS Member)

 

The ferry boat Reggio was the first so called “modern” ship of FS (Italian State Railways) fleet to sail the Straits of Messina waters.

 

Launched the 8 March, 1960 in the shipyards of Riva Trigoso (Italy), started her service the following month crossing the Straits between the two shores of Messina, on one side and  Villa San Giovanni and Reggio Calabria on the other for almost 25 years.

 

 

Her aesthetical and technical features made her immediately famous. She was, in fact, the highest-capacity ferry boat belonging to the state fleet, conceived for the transportation of motor vehicles too and fitted with elegant salons, large decks and passengers cabins.

 

The other important feature was the possibility to embark the trains either from bow and from stern, being equipped with doors (technically called sallets) at both ends, and this feature made the ship employable on the Sardinia route as well: Civitavecchia—Golfo Aranci, that had then been operative only for a few years.

 

 

Apart from the technical and operative features (of which it is possible to have info through specialized papers [1]), examining and confronting pictures and photo postcards that depict the ship at the beginning of her “career”, I have observed a singular feature, unknown to most.

 

It is the FS ornament which adorn the ship’s row.

 

When the ship arrived on the Straits waters, the Reggio showed on her bow sallet a red badge inside which it hosted a golden relief FS from which there spread, either side of it, two blue  “moustache” that enveloped the whole sallet, as showed in the picture on the right.

 

This other colour picture allow us to enjoy the FS badge features, described before.

 

At the moment of her launch, the bow sallet showed a very different ornament.

 

In fact, as showed in the bow picture below, recently sent to me by a now deceased FS seaman’s son, on the occasion of her launch, on the aforementioned bow sallet there stood out a “moustache” depicting the old FS pictogram, the one with the winged wheel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Given I had no doubt about the authenticity of the picture, I still wondered why the FS administration had decided to modify the original badge with the one previously described, between the ship’s launch and her arrival in the Straits waters. I solved the enigma as soon as I laid my hands on a copy of the French magazine La Vie du Rail, published in April 1960, which devoted its colour cover to the event.

 

 

 

 

The same magazine contained inside a short article devoted to the “Reggio” and sported, on the back cover, more ship’s colour pictures, thanks to which I could verify that the badge was golden with wings embellished by blue stripes.

 

Here they are for your pleasure.

 

It remains unknown why the original badge was replaced with the new one. The more acceptable hypothesis is that at the moment of the ship’s launch, the badge was not ready and they opted for the pictogram.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Who, among you all, my dear friend readers, knows more about this story?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More pictures of the “Reggio” in our Photogallery , clicking on the arrow.

 

 

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