Amerigo Vespucci

Type

Bark

Period

20th Century

Nation

Italy

Overview: Amerigo Vespucci is a full-rigged sail training ship of the Italian Navy (Marina Militare), named after the explorer Amerigo Vespucci. She is the oldest active military vessel still in service with the Italian Navy and is widely regarded as one of the most beautiful tall ships afloat. Specifications: Built with a steel hull, she has an overall length of about 101 m (331 ft) including bowsprit, a beam of roughly 15.5-21 m, and a draught of about 7 m. She carries three masts (fore, main, mizzen) reaching 50-54 m, spreading around 24-26 sails (traditional canvas square sails, staysails, and jibs) totaling roughly 2,600-2,800 square meters, and is fitted with auxiliary diesel-electric propulsion in addition to sail. Her black hull with two white stripes and gunport-like decoration deliberately evokes an early-19th-century two-decker ship of the line, though she mounts only a pair of saluting guns rather than a real broadside. Service History: Designed by Lieutenant General Francesco Rotundi for the Regia Marina and built at the royal shipyard of Castellammare di Stabia, she was launched on 22 February 1931 and commissioned that June as the second of a two-ship class alongside her sister, Cristoforo Colombo. Amerigo Vespucci was the second ship of a class of two: the first one, Cristoforo Colombo, was surrendered to the Soviet Union after World War II, as war damages compensation. Since entering service she has conducted dozens of training cruises for Naval Academy cadets, including a round-the-world voyage in 2002/2003 and a further global "World Tour" from 2023 to 2025, and continues to serve as a floating ambassador for Italian naval tradition and culture. Notable Facts: A famous (if perhaps apocryphal) anecdote holds that in 1962 the crew of the aircraft carrier USS Independence, on sighting her, hailed her and then replied "You are the most beautiful ship in the world" after being told her identity. Her hull, though styled after an 18th/19th-century wooden warship, is actually riveted steel plate, a detail modelers should note since the ship's silhouette is deceptively "age of sail" despite being a 20th-century construction.