All grown-ups, be they males or females, do know perfectly well that the Company was born on March 7th, 1959. Its long-cherished dream has always been to: make of its fleet an efficient tool that is well capable of giving further boost tot he economic development process in Tunisia.
First objective: to set up regular routes to-from Tunisia and its majors trade partners. Therefore, and at that time, all shifts were mainly centered around the city of Marseille, in the south, and the city of Rouan, in the north. Yet, quite soon, these shuttles have been further developed to reach the Benelux countries and Germany, as well as Italy and Spain, yiedign, by the same token, a wide variety of Tunisian foreign trade transactions overseas.
During the 70s, the TNC has multiplied its activities in terms of coastal oil trade, the carrying of crude oil, the carrying of chemical and food products, the transporting of passengers with the implementing of the “EL-HABOIB” car-ferry, which has been made operational in 1978, to and from Tunis-Marseille-Genoa. Therefore, and in addition tot he line cruisers, some more bulk-carrying vessels, such as “Moulares” and “S’hib”, built in 1976-1977 and “El Kef”, dating back to 1982, were also made operational.
Once the Mediterranean services offered by the NC have been made convertible and amenable to the roll-on-roll-off techniques, the COTUNAV has pledged to renew its fleet operating in the “North” region. As a result, it acquired the “El-Jem” and “Tozeur” vessels, in 1977, before receiving two more vessels in 1979: “Bizerte” and “Kairouan”. For the last years, and the heavy pressure exerted by the other ship-owners operating the world over to re-examine the state of many an obsolete vessel due tot he changing nature of the business world of navigation, the TNC has decided to progressively get rid of its old vessels and focus mainly on one activity: cruise liners.
Therefore, and as years have gone by, the CTN has managed to renew its overall Mediterranean fleet and operate two large-scale roll-on vessels with a total capacity of 18000 tons gross tonnage, namely “Ulysse” and “Salambo”. In June 1999, the new car-ferry “Carthage” has arrived at the port of la Goulette. With a total capacity of 2208 passengers and as many as 660 cars, this vessel has broken the news at time.
A very important detail: this most fashionable liner has taken over the name of the first liner ever to be operational under the Tunisian flag by the TNC, the “Carthage”. A story that tells a lot.
Détail croustillant: ce paquebot dernier cri a repris le nom du 1er navire de la Compagnie sous pavillon tunisien: le «Carthage». Tout un symbole...
