“This is Uss Independence, identify yourself”.
“Here Amerigo Vespucci school ship of the Italian Navy”.
“You are the most beautiful ship in the world”.
This brief dialogue recorded in 1962 between the American aircraft carrier Independance and the Amerigo Vespucci describes well the consideration that the training ship of our Navy has in the world.
Three masts, twenty-six sails, a sail area of over 2000 square meters and a name that pays tribute to one of the most famous explorers and navigators. No, it is not a sailing ship of the pirate films to which we are accustomed but the ship Amerigo Vespucci, prestigious training ship of the Italian Navy dedicated to the training of the officer students of the Naval Academy.
Like the story of the great navigator from which it takes its name, the Amerigo Vespucci sails with outstretched sails, bursting, imposing, majestic. So, for ninety years, this sailing ship of the Italian Navy is an integral part of the training of the officer students of the Naval Academy and has now become a real symbol of the Italian nautical tradition. Its biennial cruise around the world allows the Navy cadets to live a unique experience.
The construction project of the Amerigo Vespucci dates back to 1925, when it was designed to replace the previous school ship, together with its twin Christopher Columbus, first sold to the USSR and then destroyed in a fire in 1963. The ship was officially launched in February 1931 in Castellammare di Stabia, where it was built.
The Amerigo Vespucci in numbers
We have already said that the masts of this ship are three, 54, 50 and 43 meters high, with a total of 26 sails in canvas, a very resistant natural raw fiber, and a sail area of over 2000 square meters. The length of the ship is 101 meters, the width of 15.56 and the draft – the part of the ship that ends underwater – is 7.3 meters.
The capacity of the ship is remarkable, it hosts in fact a fixed crew of 264 members, of which 15 officers, 64 non-commissioned officers and 185 sailors, but it can arrive also to the double boarding students volunteers and students of the Naval Academy.
History and traditions of Amerigo Vespucci
Launched in 1931, the ship Amerigo Vespucci is designed as a training ship. Until the end of the Second World War, it was alongside the ship Cristoforo Colombo, after which – from 1946 to 1952 – it remained the only sailing training ship of the Italian Navy. Later, she was joined by Ebe and later by Palinuro, another sailing ship, in 1955.
In the course of the years, the Amerigo Vespucci has also covered the role of ambassador of the nautical culture and the Italian art on the sea, navigating in the more important ports of the world. In fact, she was present in Athens for the opening of the 2004 Olympics and in Portsmouth for the commemoration of the Battle of Trafalgar in 2005.
The perseverance in keeping alive the oldest nautical traditions is also evident from the fact that the sails, as mentioned, are still in canvas, a fiber that generates a very resistant fabric and that is used in boating for centuries. But not only that, even the tops are still made of traditional material and the maneuvers are performed by hand, under order given by the commander through the boatswain.
“The most beautiful ship in the world”
To date, the Amerigo Vespucci is the oldest ship in the Navy still in service. But besides being among the oldest in the world, in 1962 it was defined by the American aircraft carrier USS Independence “the most beautiful ship in the world”, during their meeting in the Mediterranean Sea.
Because of its grandeur and majesty, the ship Amerigo Vespucci is one of the symbols of which our country is most proud. A symbol of elegance, power and a centuries-old nautical tradition to which Italy is greatly attached and of which it can be proud. Since 1978 the motto of the ship, which in a first version praised the King and the Homeland and later the fury of the winds, is “Not who begins, but what perseveres”.
Cover: the reformist