Page 236 - ΝΑΥΤΙΚΑ ΧΡΟΝΙΚΑ - ΟΚΤΩΒΡΙΟΣ 2024

MISSION TO GENOA

interactive in the museum, filled with historical
reconstructions, testimonials, and various inter-
active multimedia stations.
Following the city’s historical path, this part of
the museum features a partially reconstructed
Genoa at the turn of the century, allowing visitors
to re-live the footsteps of Italian emigrants arriving
in Genoa and waiting to board a ship bound for
the Americas. The exhibition showcases a recre-
ated cityscape with houses, workshops, hotels, a
school, and shipping company offices and agen-
cies. Immigrants would walk through the bustling
“caruggi” of Genoa, heading towards the port’s
customs offices and then to the harbour, where
large steam-powered ocean liners awaited to
transport them to the New World.
At this point, visitors can “embark” on the “Citta
di Torino” steamship, a recreation model that
includes the most characteristic parts of an ocean
liner – from the wooden embarkation ramp and
third-class accommodation to the upper decks
reserved for better-off passengers who could
afford a first- or second-class cabin, luxurious
Representation The second floor of the Galata Museo del Mare dining rooms, and the best amenities available.
of third-class reveals the transformations that Genoa experi- The interior of the ship has been accurately repro-
accomodation on a enced in the late 17th and 18th centuries, as it duced based on shipbuilding plans of the period,
transatlantc ocean
liner. recovered from a crisis, achieving financial and allowing the exhibition to immerse visitors in the
maritime rehabilitation. Already in decline, the lives of passengers onboard, the atmosphere, and
Genoese Republic finally fell following the direct the conditions they had to endure or comply with
intervention of Napoleon at the end of the 18th during their journey.
century. The following years were full of changes After “disembarking” from the “Citta di Torino”,
both for Genoa and maritime technology, with the visitors walk through halls presenting the lives of
famous ships-of-the-line making their emergence Italian immigrants arriving in “La Boca” in Buenos
and establishing themselves as the dominant Aires, the “fazendas” of Brazil, or “Ellis Island” in
force in the naval fleets. This area of the museum the US, the three major destinations for Italians
includes halls dedicated to storms & shipwrecks, at the time. It is worth noting the magnitude of
the nautical sciences, shipbuilding and the brig people emigrating from Italy to the New World. For
“Anna” – a protagonist of the museum’s second instance, between 1876 and 1914, approximately
floor. This vessel’s bridge has been installed at full 2 million Italians arrived in Argentina alone. For
scale, helping visitors discover how the ship was many of these people, Genoa would be the last
organised: from the captain’s cabin to the galley, they would see of Italy.
the hold and the crew's quarters, the “Anna” is Wanting to draw parallels with the modern era,
a prime example of a small-size vessel from the the museum's curators have included an exhibi-
Age of Sail. tion on contemporary emigration entitled “I am
The third floor of the museum is almost entirely Italian too”, showcasing among other themes the
dedicated to the Memory and Migration exhibi- main events that marked the history of emigration
tion, which follows the historical path of 29 million in Italy.
Italians who emigrated from their home country to Moving onwards, on the third floor of the museum,
places like Argentina, Brazil, and the United States the Galata Museo del Mare presents the so-called
during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Shipowner's Room, which chronicles the evolu-
During that period, Genoa established itself as the tion of commercial shipping, from traditional
main Italian port for embarkation to the Americas. wind-powered sailing ships to modern-era ship-
With hundreds of thousands of emigrants arriving, ping. With a special focus on Genoese shipown-
Genoa managed to solve its financial woes, and ing families, the Shipowner’s Room highlights
many Genoese shipowners made the transition the Genoese shipowning community’s journey
from sail to steam, enabling them to compete with through the challenges and losses of two world
foreign competition. This floor is perhaps the most wars, the economic crises of the Interwar period,

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