Captain Ambrogio Muscatelli

Ambrogio Muscatelli, who has died aged 83, was a shipping manager who helped to establish one of Glasgow's major shipping management businesses in the 1970s.

Born in Mola di Bari, in Puglia, southern Italy, his father was a manual labourer who had spent most of his working life in the United States. The young Muscatelli attended nautical college until 1947 and gained admission to university but was unable to continue his studies because of his parents' modest means.

At a time of high unemployment in post-war Italy, he needed to move away from home to work and joined the Italian merchant navy, eventually as a deck cadet and an apprentice. Soon after, he was employed by Frank L Bradshaw's shipping agency, which was founded in the immediate post-war period by the former RAF officer in Genoa. The agency supplied the personnel function for ship owners who were assigned fleet of Liberty ships and T2 tankers from allied forces surplus shipping.

Mr Muscatelli had a glittering career, rising rapidly through the ranks, and becoming a ship's master at the unusually young age of 28 and commanded a variety of ships for the Norwegian-owned Naess Shipping Group. His engineering and design knowledge also caught the eye of his employers, and he was tasked by his company with the supervision of a number of ship re-fittings and building projects in Germany, Japan and Italy.

In 1965 he took over as master of the 71,000 ton Naess Norseman, Naess Group's first oil/bulk/ore carrier, a highly innovative design of ship, built in the AG Weser shipyards in Bremen, Germany.

This new ship design allowed much greater efficiency in optimising the time spent at sea by vessels in loaded conditions. Given his technical expertise he was promoted to his first management position in 1966, in Naess Shipping Company's Amsterdam office.

Mr Muscatelli's links with Scotland date to 1972-1973, where thanks to regional incentives, the company moved its location from the Netherlands to Glasgow. Glasgow was to prove an ideal location for a new venture. These were turbulent times for shipping, given the first oil crisis, and the company also underwent major change, as Zapata Naess was acquired by P&O and Palmerston Holdings.

As vice-president (operations) for the new company, now known as Anglo Nordic, Mr Muscatelli led the Glasgow operations ably through the 1970s, bringing much-needed employment to Glasgow and developing Anglo Nordic during difficult economic times. During this period the company also supervised the building of some of the last great ships on the Clyde, including the 260,000 tons supertanker Naess Scotsman (later Nordic Clansman), where the stern and bow sections were launched separately in 1973-1974.

During his career, Mr Muscatelli developed a close friendship with Thoralf M Karlsen, who in the 1960s was chief naval architecture for the Naess Shipping Company in New York, and subsequently headed up Anglo Nordic in the UK.

In 1982 Mr Karlsen led a management buy-out of Anglo Nordic with Mr Muscatelli, which led to the formation of Norbulk Shipping, with Mr Muscatelli as managing director of the Glasgow office. He was proud of his role in setting up the Glasgow office, and throughout his time in Glasgow was a staunch defender of the need to keep the company based in Scotland, which had become his adopted home. Since the 1980s Norbulk Shipping has expanded its foreign operations but still retains the Glasgow office today.

Mr Muscatelli retired in 1985 and divided his time between the UK and his native Mola di Bari. In his retirement he pursued his many interests, not least devoting time to look after the smallholding which his parents had left him. He was proud of his rural roots and dedicated himself to this task with the same energy he pursued his professional life.

In his retirement he also served as a local councillor in Mola di Bari for the Italian Liberal Party between 1990-1992 as part of a centre-left coalition, briefly holding the finance and resources portfolio, and also standing unsuccessfully in the 1992 Italian parliamentary elections. Although by his own admission he did not enjoy direct involvement in politics, he had a deep desire to be involved in policy debates in civic society.

He was always at hand to offer advice on economic and financial matters to officials and politicians and served on the audit board of the local council.

He died in Bari after a long illness, and is survived by his wife Rosellina, his two sons, Anton and Alex, and his daughter, Annalisa. Mr Muscatelli was devoted to his family and often said to friends that a major source of pride was in having seen his children gain the educational opportunities which he never had, especially a university education. His son Anton is the current principal of the University of Glasgow.