Amerigo
Vespucci

Designed by naval engineer Francesco Rotundi and inspired by the ships of the line of the late eighteenth century, the Amerigo Vespucci was launched in 1931 at the Castellammare di Stabia shipyard. Since then she has been the floating classroom of the Italian Naval Academy in Livorno, where every young officer receives the baptism of the sea under sail, learning wind, weather and seamanship the way sailors always have. She carries three masts and a bowsprit, with the mainmast rising 54 metres above the waterline. Her 26 canvas sails spread over roughly 2,650 square metres, worked through more than 30 kilometres of lines still handled by hand. Teak decks and a gilded bronze figurehead of the navigator she is named after complete a ship that is the oldest still in service with the Italian Navy. Her motto says it all: Non chi comincia ma quel che persevera. In 1962, the American aircraft carrier USS Independence crossed her path in the Mediterranean and signalled a question about her identity. When the answer came, the reply was simple: the most beautiful ship in the world.