#training ship

Tall Ship Elissa evening party during the annual Dickens on the Strand festival, Galveston, Texas, 2025, her jibboom is missing here because it was being replaced

The training ship docked at Riva San Biasio (Venice - Italy) on the 27th and can be visited until tomorrow, March 31, 2025. The Amerigo Vespucci is the oldest ship in the Italian Navy and carries a significant motto: "Not he who begins but he who perseveres", attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, which celebrates the value of determination. This majestic sailing ship is a point of reference for the training of Navy students and young people belonging to sailing associations. For over three decades it has been actively involved in environmental protection, collaborating with organizations such as UNICEF, WWF and Marevivo. Thanks to its international missions, it is considered a true itinerant embassy of Italy in the world. In recent days, the enormous sailing ship has been visited free of charge every day by a thousand people.

Eendracht

Italian Navy training ship Amerigo Vespucci

In 1925, the Regia Marina ordered two training ships to a design by General Lieutenant Francesco Rotundi of the Italian Navy Engineering Corps, inspired by the style of large late 18th century 74-cannon ships of the line (like the Neapolitan ship Monarca). The first, the Cristoforo Colombo, was put into service in 1928 and was used by the Italian Navy until 1943. After World War II, this ship was handed over to the USSR as part of the war reparations and was shortly afterwards decommissioned.

The second ship was the Amerigo Vespucci, built in 1930 at the (formerly Royal) Naval Shipyard of Castellammare di Stabia (Naples). She was launched on 22 February 1931, and put into service in July of that year.

The vessel is a full-rigged three-masted steel hull 82.4 m (270 ft) long, with an overall length of 101 m (331 ft) including the bowsprit and a maximum width of 15.5 m (51 ft). She has a draught of about 7 m (23 ft) and a displacement at full load of 4146 tons. Under auxiliary diesel-electric propulsion the Amerigo Vespucci can reach 10 knots (19 km/h) and has a range of 5450 nm at 6.5 knots.

The hull is painted black with two white stripes, harking back to the two gun decks of the ships her design is based on, but she carries only two 6pdr saluting guns in pivot mountings on the deck, forward of the mainmast. The deck planks are of teak wood and must be replaced every three years. Bow and stern are decorated with intricate ornaments; she has a life-size figurehead of Amerigo Vespucci. The stern gallery is accessible only through the Captain's saloon.

Other than during World War II, the Amerigo Vespucci has been continually active. Most of her training cruises are in European waters, but she has also sailed to North and South America, and navigated the Pacific. In 2002, she undertook a voyage around the world.

In 1960, Vespucci carried the Olympic torch from Piraeus to Syracuse for the Summer Olympics in Rome.

While sailing the Mediterranean Sea in 1962, the American aircraft carrier USS Independence flashed the Amerigo Vespucci with the light signal asking: "Who are you?" The full-rigged ship answered: "Training ship Amerigo Vespucci, Italian Navy." The Independence replied: "You are the most beautiful ship in the world." In 2022, the Amerigo Vespucci sailed by the American aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush, which saluted the ship and commented: "You are still, after 60 years, the most beautiful ship in the world."

On 9 January 2025, archbishop Santo Marcianò of the Military Ordinariate of Italy designated ship as a 2025 Jubilee church and site “for sacred pilgrimages and for pious visits among its missions at sea.”