Cosulich Società Triestina di Navigazione was a shipping company whose headquarters were in Trieste.

Trieste at the end of the 19th century was the main port of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and The "Austro-American" shipping company was founded in the city in 1895 with the aim of establishing a sea link for the transportation of goods between Austria-Hungary and North America. The founders of the company were Gottfried Schenker and August Schenker-Angerer, shippers and founders of Schenker Spedition, and Englishman William Burell. Early on, the company purchased the first four ships in England with which it made its connections between Trieste and ports on the North American east coast.

In the same years, the Cosulich family, originally from Mali Lošinj, which had started its shipowning business as early as 1857, moved the company's headquarters to Trieste in 1890, boosting the expansion of its fleet.

Austrian Shipping Union

In 1902 William Burell withdrew from the company, selling his share to the Cosulich Brothers (Alberto and Callisto), and in 1903 the company took on the name "Vereinigte Österreichische Schiffahrtsgesellschaften der Austro-Americana und der Gebrüder Cosulich" or "Austrian Austro-American Shipping Union and the Cosulich Brothers."

In 1904 the company, whose headquarters was in a new building opposite the Post Office building, also inaugurated passenger traffic, consisting mostly of emigrants who decided to leave for the United States, and in order to provide lodging for the emigrants who flocked to Trieste while waiting to embark, the "Ospizio Marino" was purchased, which after some conversion work was adapted into an "Emigrant Boarding House." The building today is the headquarters of the Italo Svevo Comprehensive Institute (kindergarten, elementary and middle school).

From 1906 the company obtained permission from Italy to also transport Italian emigrants leaving from Naples and Palermo.

In 1907 the company activated maritime service to South America, and in the same year, planned and financed by the Cosulich family, a shipyard was established in Monfalcone to meet the needs of the shipping company, which, officially opened on April 3, 1908, took the name Cantiere Navale Triestino. Subsequently, after a period of difficult economic circumstances that in 1908 forced the company to return three ships chartered by the Austrian Lloyd and lay up other merchant ships, in 1910 the company was awarded the contract to transport mail on the North Atlantic Ocean|North and South Atlantic routes, and in the same period with financial support from the state the Trieste-Rio de Janeiro-Santos-Buenos Aires line was inaugurated.

From the factories of the Trieste Shipyard On September 9, 1912 the ship "Kaiser Franz Josef I" was launched, which became the flagship of the Austro-Hungarian Merchant Navy. At the beginning of 1914 with the purchase by Austrian banks of capital shares held by German Shipping Companies, the company remained completely in Austrian hands, but with the outbreak of World War I it was no longer possible to ply international routes.

In the 1920s the Company armed and launched its new cruising motor ships, the twin Saturnia (1927) and Vulcania (1928). This was probably the greatest effort put forth by the Cosulich Line. For although the two ships were traditionally styled interiors, with works by renowned artists, they brought many technical innovations and innovative solutions compared to competing shipping lines. After their first voyages, the ships had an adventurous history: converted into hospital ships for transporting wounded men they managed to escape the conflict, so much so that they could be used for passenger transport until after the war.

Cosulich Società Triestina di Navigazione

At the end of the conflict of the 31 steamships the company owned before the war, only ten remained, and with the handover of Trieste to Italy the company was totally taken over by the Cosulich family and from March 1919 assumed the name "Cosulich Società Triestina di Navigazione."

In 1932, together with Lloyd Sabaudo and Navigazione Generale Italiana the company formed Italia Flotte Riunite, which, controlled by the government, brought together under one flag the three main Italian shipping companies of the time. At this time, passenger lines were in operation linking Trieste with New York and South America, and freight was again transported to North Central and South America on the same routes previously served by the "Austro-Americana" company.

In 1936, under IRI, as part of a state project to reorganize and rationalize maritime services, Finmare Società Marittima Finanziaria was established with the task of