The royal destroyer Vincenzo Gioberti, protagonist of over 200 war missions during the Second World War, was located near the island of Tino at a depth of about 600 meters by the engineer Guido Gay with the instruments he himself designed and installed on the catamaran Daedalus.
Sunk on 9 August 1943 while escorting the VIII Division to Genoa, the destroyer was hit by four torpedoes launched towards the 5 ships by an enemy submarine. The ship broke into two sections (final photo) which sank at a distance of tens of meters between them. The 171 survivors were recovered by some MAS and other units that left La Spezia.
The important research activity in the foreground which for some years has involved the Navy and the MiBACT is aimed at identifying and documenting the deep wrecks, as well as enriching the archaeological knowledge on boats and commercial traffic of ancient, medieval and modern and allows experimentation and development of new and innovative underwater investigation tools.
To the mission on the minesweeper Gaeta of the Navy participated technicians of the archeology superintendence of Liguria and the same discoverer Guido Gay, in order to acquire an accurate sonar survey and new images of the wreck of the destroyer.
The destroyer Gioberti was part of the 9 ^ Destroyer Squadron with the twins of the class "Poets" Alfieri, Oriani e Carducci. Built at the OTO shipyard in Livorno, it was launched in the 1936 and delivered to the Navy the following year.
During the conflict 1940-43 participated in 216 war missions, including 12 of search for the enemy, culminating in the battles of Punta Stilo, Capo Teulada, Gaudo and Matapan, First Sirte, Mid-June and Mid-August.
The 9 July 1940 damaged the British Cruiser with its cannon shot Neptune, information that until now had not yet been communicated.
He successfully escorted 60 convoys, and performed 31 missions of urgent troop and material transport, as well as counter-bombardment bombings, mines and antisom fighters. It has covered 74.071 miles in total.
106,7 meters long, it had an engine system consisting of 3 superheated steam boilers and 2 turbines that could propel the ship up to a maximum speed of 39 knots.
It had a crew of 173 men including officers, non-commissioned officers, graduates and commoners, and an armament of 4 120/50 mm guns, 2 heavy machine guns of 37/54 mm, 8 machine guns of 20/65 mm and 6 torpedo tubes of 533 mm , in addition to 2 bomb launchers.
