HISTORY OF DELPHINIA SA CHUR & LUGANO

                      

Delphinia Società di Navigazione Marittima S.A. Chur was identical to the previously founded Lepontia Società di Navigazione Marittima S.A. Chur, and the shareholders were made up of the same people. The shares belonged to Annie and René Dollfuss, widow and son of the late Korpskommandant (army general) Ruggero Dollfuss (1848 to 1948) from Castagnola and Kiesen BE (between Bern and Thun) and Bernardo Caverzasio from Chiasso. The well-known Ticino native Dr Waldo Riva (1905 to 1987) served as President of the company. Dr Riva from Lugano was a lawyer, politician and senior army officer, as well as a member of the Board of Directors of the Banco di Roma per la Svizzera, Lugano. Ruggero Dollfuss and his father had made their money as entrepreneurs in the chemical industry, but Bernardo Caverzasio was also active in the same sector and founded the company ICR Industrie Chimiche Riunite S.A. Chiasso in 1929, which still exists today.

Delphinia S.A. awarded a construction contract for a tanker of 20,000 tonnes DWT to a shipyard in Monfalcone, Italy. The KTA (War Transport Office) in Bern welcomed this endeavour and wrote to the EPD (Federal Political Department) requesting that the ship be allowed to fly the Swiss flag whenever possible. The KTA's plan envisaged a fleet of three tankers with a capacity of 41,000 tonnes DWT. At that time, only the two older tankers NEUCHATEL and SAN MORITZ (together 23,500 tonnes DWT) were flying the Swiss flag.

Presumably, the same concerns that had already been raised with the LEPONTIA I came into play again, when it came to the issue of flag allocation, in particular the fact that there was no Swiss operating company and that operations would be completely dependent on and controlled from abroad. The management was again taken over by G.E.N. Gestione Esercizio Navigazione, Chiasso, a subsidiary of G.E.N. in Genoa *).

In the end, Swiss flag rights were not granted and the tanker BERNA was put into service under the flag of Panama. The composition of the share capital may also have played a role, but we have no reliable information on this.

In 1961, the shipping company sold the BERNA to Lunmar S.A. in Lugano, which continued to operate the ship until 1975. In any case, the company did not buy any more ships and presumably ceased its activities after the sale of the BERNA. Dr Waldo Riva again sat on the board of directors of Lunmar as chairman. It must be assumed that the operation by a Swiss company became too cumbersome and probably too expensive and the ship was transferred to the Panama company Lunmar, whereby the owners remained the same people.

Sources:

• Federal Archives, Bern
• Lloyd’s Publications
• Article from Malcolm Cranfield

 

*) G.E.N. Gestione Esercizio Navi, Genoa was part of the Vatican's corporate empire and was founded by the Vatican Bank in 1947. This shipping company, which operated many ships, was headed by Giulio Pacelli, a nephew of Pope Pius XII (1876 - 1958). A second company was G.E.N.S. Gestione Esercizio Navi Sicilia, based in Palermo. Giulio Pacelli also held an executive position at the Banco di Roma. Dr Waldo Riva, in turn, also served as Swiss governor of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, which is directly under the protection of the Vatican. It seems to us that Waldo Riva, who also played a role in other Ticino shipping companies, had used his connections to the Vatican.

SwissShips November 2023

Launching of the motortanker BERNA on July, 24th 1952 at Monfalcone