Capt. Federico Camia

[ZBay]

Does anyone know if they have sailed on ship under Capt. Federico Camia's command? If so, what ship, and when?

[Mark]

ZB,

 

You might help yourself if you either identify the cruisline that this guy works for or post it on the cruise line board that he works for. The name sounds Italian...did he work for Carnival or Home Lines?:cool:

[nauditor]

He was with V-Ships in the mid 80's (on the Ocean Spirit?), and I believe was still with them in '96 when they were crewing the Carousel (ex-Nordic Prince?)

 

Does anyone know if they have sailed on ship under Capt. Federico Camia's command? If so, what ship, and when?

[ZBay]

Thanks for your reply, Pete.

Federico is my "adopted" Godfather. I actually adopted him! My parents met him in 1948 when they were passengers on a freighter on which he was the 3rd mate. They became instant friends, and when the ship was in New York, Federico would visit them at their apartment. His career was long, and varied. In the early 60's he mastered a freighter that sailed from Marseilles down the west coast of Africa. One of the stops he would routinely make was to bring supplies to Dr. Albert Schweitzer at his hospital camp in Lambaréné, Gabon - then a province of French Equatorial Africa. On his last visit to the camp, he discovered that Dr. Schweitzer had died (Sept. 4, 1965) so he paid respects at the gravesite of the Dr, and his wife Helene, both of whom are buried on the grounds of the hospital.

 

After leaving the command of the freighter, he had jobs as captain of several different private yachts, mainly based in St. Thomas I think. He also became a port captain of the harbor in Saudi Arabia for a period of time. He worked for Sitmar out of Los Angeles, taking the Faisea, I believe, up to Alaska.

 

He was the master of Incres Line's Victoria for a while. He was the last of her captains under the Incres banner. In 1975 she was docked at the Brooklyn Navy Yards awaiting refurbishing by her new owner, Chandris. Federico flew back to his home in Genoa but, before he left, he gave instructions to allow my mother to board her at the Navy Yard and remove some of his personal belongings that he was unable to pack, as well as some light furniture from his cabin, that we still have to this day! My mother had an interesting adventure going inside the ship which had limited electric power and was taking on water. It was sad to see the ship in that condition, especially since she and my father and I had sailed on her in 1972.

 

At some point after that he signed on with V-Ships, based in Monte Carlo. He had several projects with them that were land based, they were of a consulting nature. He definitely missed the ocean. He eventually got back on board, and one of his first commands (if not his first) was on the Ocean Spirit, as you kindly mentioned. He was concerned for the overall success of this New Orleans based ship because he felt that the appeal of the ship was somewhat limited. It was mainly used by divers, and the ship had a dive platform at the stern, similar to RSSC's Paul Gauguin. Federico felt that it would be difficult for the ship to remain viable in a cruise market that was gravitating to larger and larger ships. And that was 1989! In 1990, the ship changed hands.

 

Through V-Ships, he became a relief captain for Regency Cruises. Often, when he had to visit the NYC office of Regency, he would visit us (my mother and my wife and I) at our homes on Long Island. In 1992 my wife and I sailed, under his command, on the Regent Sun. Surprisingly, even though I have taken 17+ cruises, it is the only time that I sailed with him. Needless to say, it was fabulous! On several occasions he would mention how he thought Regency was not particularly well managed, and he was right again. He was fortunate not to be onboard when they abruptly went out of business in 1995.

 

Believe it or not, I am a little sketchier on the more recent history. I do know that at about this time he became acquainted with the Albatross, owned by a German company, I think. He began to earnestly study German, his sixth language to be fluent in! He captained the ship often and was very well received by the and owners. He eventually "retired" in the late 90's, when certain health issues (and an accident on board) began to occur, but was asked by the cruise line to sail as their guest and act as a "good will ambassador" to the passengers. He did that on several occasions, often with his wife with him on all, or part, of the journey.

 

Federico died of a heart attack in June 2004 while on "holiday" with his wife in Spain. He was a you're-lucky-if-you-meet-one-person-like-this-in-your-lifetime kind of individual. I started this thread to see if there were people who remembered him on this board so that I could update them. He was the type of person that if you got to know him in any meaningful way, you did not forget him.

 

Some of what I have written is probably not completely accurate in terms of dates and sequences, but hopefully it does his life justice. He did write a book of memoirs, which we often encouraged him to do, but it is in Italian.

 

Thanks, Pete, for responding and for taking the time to read this!

 

Chris

[Ardroy]

Thank you Chris for your message about Captain Federico Camia. He most certainly was a "you're-lucky-if-you-meet-one-person-like-this-in-your-lifetime kind of man.I met him when I was a passenger abourd "Fairstar" in 1978. We corresponded for some time and then we lost each other. I have thought about him every day of my life since then and thought that while he walked upon the earth there was hope for the human race.I am devastated to learn of his death and feel that all the light in all the world has been extinguished.

[ZBay]

Hi. I'm not sure if Ardroy is a first or last name, or a nickname but, at any rate, I am glad that you enjoyed my post. How did you happen to find it, since it was written about 8 months ago? I see you joined Cruise Critic today, I guess so that you could respond to me. Welcome! I see that you are from Australia. Our daughter spent this past February to June studying at Curtin University in Perth. My wife and I went over to see her last April. She flew to Sydney and met us there. From there, the 3 of us went to Cairns and then on to the north and south island of New Zealand. We loved it over there and the people were, without exception, very nice.

You have a very high regard for Federico, I can see. When did you lose touch with him? Did my post tell you things that you didn't know? Do you remember how the two of you met?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

 

Chris

[Ardroy]

Hi Chris,

Thanks for responding. I typed in Federico's name in google and after pages of mathematics I finally found your post. There are lots of things I want to ask and tell but I am not sure a public space is the place to do it. Is there a way we can correspond by email?

Ciao. Ardroy. (Given name)

[roberto1966]

Does anyone know if they have sailed on ship under Capt. Federico Camia's command? If so, what ship, and when?

Hallo , Iam looking for Zbay...Chris...

My name is Roberto Camia and my father was Federico Camia , would you please write me?

Hope to hear from you ,

My e-mail is : robby.camia@libero.it

ciao

Roberto