Details of Tribute model ships:
The
innovative moulding process we specify to manufacture the hull of these
display models enables us to include an incredible amount of intricate
detail. We have put particular focus on improving the accuracy/scaling
of the rigs and fittings such as anchors, cannons and longboats. They
come supplied completely assembled ready for display, and accompanied
by a history leaflet.
Original
specifications: - Training vessel, L/B/D 82.1m * 15.5m * 6.7m, Hull:
Steel, Complement: 450, Built: Royal Shipyard, Castellamare di Stabia,
Italy; 1930.
In the late
1920s, the Italian navy began construction of two ships for training
their officer cadets at Sea, Cristoforo Colombo and Amerigo Vespucci.
The design chosen was that of a seventy-four-gun frigate, though they
had steel hulls and carried double top gallants, auxiliary power, and
other modern devices.
Amerigo Vespucci was named for the
Florentine explorer for whom the sixteenth century German cartographer
Martin Waldseemuller, named the newly discovered land masses to the
West.
Her full lines are in sharp contrast to the majority of sail-training
vessels. A letter from a Norwegian submarine commander having
encountered the two sister ships reads as follows:
“On breaking surface, I took a quick look around and got a shock. I had
gone down in the 20th century and come up again in the 18th century,
for there stood in front of me, two majestic men-of –war, under a press
of canvas and sailing proudly.
Following the Second World War, her sister ship was acquired by the
Soviet Union. Amerigo Vespucci resumed her sail-training mission for the Italian Navy well into the 1990s.
Underhill, Sail Training and Cadet Ships.
