Happy birthday to the "most beautiful ship in the world" which today celebrates ninety springs.
Built and set up in the Royal Shipyard of Castellammare di Stabia, the Amerigo Vespucci ship was launched on February 22, 1931, nine months after setting up the hull. A construction carried out in record time in relation to the tools used at the time, a clear example of the artistic and engineering excellence that has always distinguished the Italian shipbuilding industry.
Clear example of the seafaring virtues of the Armed Force, Ship Vespucci - currently the oldest operational unit in service - became a training ship from 6 June 1931, officially entering into action on 4 July of the same year, starting for its first training campaign in Northern Europe, under the command of vessel captain Augusto Radicati di Marmorito.
In ninety years of honorable career, Nave Vespucci - with its black and white hull, its pure gold ornaments, the wooden figurehead at the prow representing the explorer, the portholes that recall the nineteenth-century gun batteries - has sailed far and wide for all seven seas, training and training mainly the students of the 1st class of the Naval Academy of Livorno, at the end of the first year of the course.
The future officers of the Navy, in fact, have the honor and privilege of being able to learn the art of navigation in the training campaigns that see them engaged on board the Vespucci for three months, where they learn the basic rules of living at sea and the specific skills of the various sectors (seafaring, conduct of the unit, conduct of the engine and auxiliary systems, management of logistical, administrative and health problems).
"Not who begins but what perseveres" is the motto that has accompanied the crew in navigation since 1978, the true "driving force" of the Vespucci, made up of over 264 soldiers who, during the training campaign, reaches about 400 units.
Ambassador of Italy and Italianness, Nave Vespucci brings to the world the art, tradition, culture, naval genius that distinguish the country, becoming in 2007 also testimonial of UNICEF, in support of charitable initiatives for children's rights.
Greetings Vespucci Ship!
