Durres for the second time welcomes with excitement the world's most beautiful sailing ship, the Amerigo Vespucci, the Italian Navy's training ship as part of the Mediterranean 2025 tour. In Durres the sailing ship had already been on October 17, 2022.
In the presence of theAmbassador of Italy in Albania Marco Alberti a welcoming ceremony welcoming the ship was held on Tuesday, the Commander , Captain Giuseppe Lai, and its crew.
Aboard ship Amerigo Vespucci boarded the Prime Minister of Albania Edi Rama and the Defense Ministers Guido Crosetto and Pirro Vengu .
On this occasion, the start of cooperation between Italy's Fincantieri and Albania's KAYO was signed. This is an industrial joint venture in the marine sector. A letter of intent was also signed for the transfer of the Libra ship, a patrol vessel of the Italian Navy, to the Albanian Navy.
Minister Crosetto gave Prime Minister Rama a basketball jersey with the name Rama and the number 402 which is the identifying number of the ship Libra, Rama jokingly commented, "Now I am officially a brother of Italy." In addition to the jersey, Crosetto also gave Rama a bottle of Barolo wine.
The Vespucci is 101 meters long. She has three vertical masts, foremast, mainmast and mizzen, all equipped with spars and square sails, plus the bowsprit projecting forward, in effect a fourth mast. It is equipped with trim sails: jibs, forward, between bowsprit and foremast; stays, between foremast and mainmast and mizzen; and mainsail, equipped with boom and peak, on the mizzen. The total sail area (24 sails) is about 2635 square meters. The sails are of olona canvas (hemp fabric) between 2 and 4 millimeters thick and are made by joining several strips (ferzi) by stitching.
The sails are maneuvered by means of cables (running or flying rigging) of different diameters, totaling about 36 km. They, too, have characteristic names, such as halyards (for raising the movable spars and trim sails), booms (for orienting the spars), sheets and tack (for securing the low angles of the square sails, downwind and upwind respectively), cheats (for gathering the sails on the spars), etc.. The running rigging is mostly made of manilla (vegetable fiber); exceptions are the sheets of the trevi, which are made of nylon to support the high strain. In addition to this, the sailing equipment includes about 400 wooden and 120 iron blocks.
The crew is composed of 264 military, including 15 Officers, 30 Petty Officers, 34 Sergeants and 185 Sub-Captains and Joint Chiefs, divided into the Operations, Marine, Detail/Arms, Naval/Electrical Engineering, Administrative/Logistics and Medical Services. During the Instructional Campaign, the crew is for all intents and purposes supplemented by Midshipmen (about 100 per year) and Naval Academy support personnel, thus reaching about 400.
The ship's motto is "Not the one who begins but the one who perseveres", awarded in 1978. Originally the motto was "For the Fatherland and for the King," formerly belonging to the previous Amerigo Vespucci, which was replaced a first time after World War II with "Steadfast in the fury of winds and events", finally with the current one.
Designed and launched at the royal shipyard in Castellammare di Stabia on February 22, 1931, in the presence of its godmother, Mrs. Elena Cerio it was delivered to the Regia Marina on May 26, 1931 and entered service as a school ship the following July 4, joining its sister ship Cristoforo Colombo and forming with it the "School Ship Division."
The Cristoforo Colombo had an unfortunate life. At the end of World War II on the basis of the Paris Agreements she was granted to the Soviet Union as compensation along with other Italian battleships. Renamed "Volga," she was converted into a coal and wood transport ship after the masts and flagpole were removed. A fire severely damaged her, and the Soviets, who considered her no longer usable, decided to dismantle her. Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIoQ1tisEoo&t=282s
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