The campaign of the XNUMXth year of Vespucci (# Vespucci85), set sail starting from La Spezia on April 27, and heading towards Cagliari where it docked last weekend, thus welcoming thousands of visitors on board and a special meeting, which made us take a dip in the history of this sailing ship.
On the first of May, in fact, on the training ship of the Navy, as an unexpected guest, a sailor who was part of the crew of the ship school was 'embarked'. Christopher Columbus (in the photo in b / w right), twin of Vespucci. Born in Cagliari in 1928, Mr. Francesco Cocco was welcomed by the crew like all visitors and once set foot for the first time in many years on the Vespucci, showed the crew a black and white photograph and began to dig into his memories.
"During my military service I was a helmsman on board the Cristoforo Colombo, the sister ship and three years older than the Vespucci. I embarked in January 1947 and took part in what were the last voyages of the Columbus before it was ceded to the former Soviet Union (USSR) following the 'Paris Peace Treaty' and transferred to the port of Odessa in the Black Sea. The ship remained moored for a long time in the port of Taranto where the crew began to unload the materials that were not to be sold to the USSR".
Continuing in his story, Mr. Cocco remembered when "while sailing from Gallipoli to Taranto we found ourselves in complete absence of wind, so as to make the commander decide to put overboard four fences (rowing boats where official pupils train with the oar, used as lifeboats), tying them with peaks to the bow of the Columbus. So by force of arms we pulled the ship into an area where the wind finally allowed us to open the sails".
Cocco also mentioned the "healthy student spirit and competition that existed among the crews of the Columbo and Vespucci, also born from the fact that the Columbo he was three years older and "our ship was the fastest, capable of reaching 12-13 knots of speed. I was assigned to the mast and worked among the sails of the highest masts".
After greeting the commander of the Vespucci, captain of vessel Curzio Pacifici, Cocco let his gaze get lost upwards, among the masts and yards of the ship, to try to give voice to a day full of emotions for him: "Today for me it is a particular day, which takes me back in time to almost seventy, when I climbed with agility on the tree of the Columbus, and from the flagpoles I saw the ship at the bottom slip through the waves of the sea".
The school ship Christopher Columbus on 9 February 1949 it left the port of Taranto and reached Augusta where on 12 February it was disarmed, lowering the flag of the Navy and hoisting that of the Merchant Navy awaiting delivery to the USSR. After a few days the Columbo he left Sicily headed for the Black Sea under the command of the frigate captain Serafino Rittore. On 2 March 49 he arrived in Odessa and shortly afterwards he was given the name of Danube, Danube.
Il Vespucci meanwhile, having left Cagliari, it heads for Bari, where it will dock on 7 May.
