Österreichischer Lloyd
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- This article covers the former Austrian, major mediterranean shipping company founded in 1833. For the current, unrelated, Cypriotic company founded in 1991 or 1951, see Austrian Lloyd Ship Management
Österreichischer Lloyd (en: Austrian Lloyd) was a major Austrian shipping company founded in 1833, based in Trieste. As a result of World War I the company was transferred into Italian hands. Since 2006, the company operates as part of Italia Marittima.
[edit] History
In 1833, seven insurance companies of Trieste decided to form the Austrian Lloyd Trieste along the lines of Lloyd's of London. Within a short period of its formation, the administration applied to Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria for the privilege of steam navigation with the Levant. On April 20, 1836, the steam-navigation department was introduced and during its second meeting on August 2 of the same year, the department decided to build six steamships. For this reason, 1836 is considered the year the company was founded.
The year 1844 saw another leap in the company's growth when it acquired First Danubian Steam Navigation Company's line via Constantinople to Smyrna along with all its equipment. A year later, Austrian Lloyd was declared the property of the postal service of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy.
At the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, Austrian Lloyd was present with its steamships Pluto, Vulcan, and America. Soon after the opening of the Suez Canal, the company launched its Trieste-Bombay line and established a weekly service between Trieste and Port Said. With the opening of the Bombay line, the company acquired an international dimension which was further reinforced by the extension of the line to Colombo in autumn 1879 and early in 1880 to Singapore and Hong Kong. The line to Alexandria, which was modernized in 1894 by the introduction of four new express steamers, and the line to Bombay proved to be the most profitable passenger lines in the company's history.
The company started conducting pleasure cruises in 1907 and today the remaining cruise ship in the fleet, Orient Queen, is the only Lebanese-owned ship in the world.
The speed of shipping with the Levant increased and the passages to Calcutta were increased from nine to twelve. As a result, the company transferred the headquarters of the administration from Trieste to Vienna where, on May 25, 1907, the first general assembly of Vienna took place. The last expansion in the company's lines took place in 1912 with the Trieste-Shanghai express line.
After World War I, the company's operations continued from the port of Trieste under the name Lloyd Triestino, which officially changed to Italia Marittima on March 1, 2006.
