Nave Aretusa, coastal hydrographic unit of the Italian Navy, on November 2 continued the investigation of the submerged wreck north of Vieste, already started by the Viareggio minesweeper.
The wreck, similar in shape and size to the destroyer Turbine of the Regia Marina, is part of the historical memory of our country and is an extraordinary symbol of the Italian military valor demonstrated during the First World War.
That of the Turbine represents one of the most beautiful pages of heroism of the Navy: the destroyer Turbine of the Regia Marina (Nembo class, 1902) was in fact sunk by Austrian naval units during the First World War, in the night between 23 and 24 May of 1915, while he opposed, under the command of the lieutenant captain Luigi Bianchi, the cannonade of the city of Barletta, protecting its inhabitants.
Severely stricken at the stern, by heroic deed of her crew, she sank with the tricolor unfolded, leaving only a few survivors on the water. It was our first naval loss in the Great War.
In Il Giornale d'Italia, Virginio Gayda (1) wrote:
"When hostilities opened, 24.5.1915, the destroyer was on a cruise in the Lower Adriatic. Attacked by a cruiser and four enemy destroyers, he accepted the battle alone, fighting four full hours from the 3.10 to the 7.00.
But soon his inferiority was highlighted before the five enemy units of a more modern type and greater tonnage. Struck in several vital parts, the Italian ship remained immobilized continuing to defend itself with the cannon. The ammunition exhausted, with almost half the crew dead or wounded, the Commander, also wounded, ordered that the kingstons be opened and the sinking hastened, and so the small Italian ship fought and died".
Its wreck, comparable to a shrine and covered by a column of over 100 meters of water, is one of the symbols of the sacrifice of the sailors that 100 years ago served the homeland in the Adriatic.
The research activity of this historic and symbolic ship is part of the project "The great war through the search for wrecks", a collaboration agreement between the Navy and the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism (MIBACT) , born with the aim of remembering and enhancing naval operations in Italian waters during the Great War, starting from an in-depth research in the historical archives of the Navy.
Nave Aretusa, after a first calculation of the propagation speed of the acoustic wave in the water column near the wreck, carried out the survey thanks to the use of the multibeam, a latest generation multi-beam sounder.
Thanks to the high accuracy of the positioning systems and instrumentation, it was possible to obtain the images showing the ship lying on the bottom.
