The Suez Canal and the Italian Sailing Fleet: Expectations, Problems and Alternative Routes (1869–1914)

Abstract

Before the opening of the Suez Canal, a great deal of enthusiasm sparked within Italian society, involving in particular maritime and commercial operators, who saw the cutting of the isthmus as an opportunity to regain a fundamental role in the global economy and trade. Expected growth in trade and communication would have affected both domestic production and shipping, due to the exceptionally favourable position of the Italian ports along the new route connecting Europe with the Indian Ocean. However, these optimistic expectations faced a more difficult reality: while responding to the needs of steamships, the geographical nature of the Suez Canal was not suitable to sailing vessels. Sea currents and winds hindered their navigation, pushing sailing vessels to resort to tugboats. This structural feature affected Italian shipping more than other European countries: the transition from sail to steam was far to be accomplished, due to the existence of several structural constraints (e.g. the lack of natural resources), along with the presence of still-profitable opportunities.

This chapter aims to explore these opportunities and the alternative routes sailed long after the inauguration of the Suez Canal. The Italian sailing ships established themselves in complementary routes: several went to Southeast Asian main ports (Singapore, Rangoon, Penang and Moulmein) to load cargoes in low-nominal-value goods, such as timber, rice and coal, and persisted to sail along the former Cape route. These ships established a multilateral trade, involving Cape Town and the American coasts, being able not only to survive but even to grow and flourish in the international shipping business. The reconstruction of these activities draws largely upon unpublished archival sources. On the one hand, logbooks provide single-case studies; on the other, the consular records about the arrivals in the ports of Cape Town and Saint Helena allow us to reconstruct a partial, but wide, picture of the Italian shipping movement through the Cape. They shed new light on a little known but important phase in the history of Italian shipping and of shipping networks worldwide.