How about this great series of images showing one of the last precious Ticonderoga-class cruisers in service, USS Gettysburg (CG 64), alongside the “most beautiful ship in the world,”Amerigo Vespucci, in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility.
U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND AREA OF RESPONSIBILITY (Feb. 3, 2025) The Italian training ship Amerigo Vespucci sails in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility. (Official U.S. Navy photo)
U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND AREA OF RESPONSIBILITY (Feb. 3, 2025) The Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Gettysburg (CG 64), left, sails next to the Italian training ship Amerigo Vespucci, right, in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility. (Official U.S. Navy photo)
U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND AREA OF RESPONSIBILITY (Feb. 3, 2025) The Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Gettysburg (CG 64), left, sails next to the Italian training ship Amerigo Vespucci, right, in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility. (Official U.S. Navy photo)
U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND AREA OF RESPONSIBILITY (Feb. 3, 2025) The Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Gettysburg (CG 64), right, sails next to the Italian training ship Amerigo Vespucci, left, in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility. (Official U.S. Navy photo)
As noted by Commander, Naval Surface Force Atlantic:
This meeting at sea represents more than just two ships crossing paths—it symbolizes strengthened alliances, shared commitment to maritime security, and the importance of interoperability between partner nations. As global threats evolve, maintaining strong international partnerships is key to deterring aggression and safeguarding international commerce. By sailing together, Gettysburg and Amerigo Vespucci embody the spirit of unity and cooperation that strengthens collective maritime defense and ensures a free and open maritime domain.
The cruiser was scheduled to retire next year, a move the Navy recently extended to 2029, after which only Vespucci will endure on the seas.
U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND AREA OF RESPONSIBILITY (Feb. 3, 2025) The Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Gettysburg (CG 64), right, breaks away from the Italian training ship Amerigo Vespucci, left, in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility. (Official U.S. Navy photo)
Vespucci left Italy on 1 July 2023 on a 46,000-mile, 20-month world tour that saw her round the Cape for the first time, and conducted 35 port visits in 30 countries on five continents.
While Rim of the Pacific Exercise (RIMPAC) ’24 off Hawaii — the world’s largest international maritime warfare exercise– just wrapped up its 29th outing since it was established in 1971, one that included 29 nations, 40 surface ships, three submarines, 14 national land forces, more than 150 aircraft, and 25,000 personnel– there was also another large exercise going on at the same time in the Pacific that gets very little attention.
And it included an Italian carrier task force, something never before seen in those waters.
Going back to 1981, the Royal Australian Air Force-led Exercise Pitch Black 24 has grown increasingly over the past four decades.
This year’s event was the biggest ever, including 20 participating nations and over 140 aircraft from around the globe. While typically shore-based, with aircraft from the U.S. (F-22s), Singapore, Indonesia, India, Japan, Britain, France, Germany, South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Spain, Brunei, New Zealand, and Canada flying in, the Italians showed up with a carrier task force, 31st Grupponavale, centered around the 27,000-ton aircraft carrier Cavour (C550).
Cavour’s embarked air group blended six F-35B STOVL Lightnings and another six legacy AV-8B/TAV-8B Harrier II Plus aircraft of GRUPAER (Gruppo Supporto Aerei Imbarcati della Marina Militare) Lupi, as well as EH101 and SH90 helicopters. She has hangar and deck space for 20~ aircraft, so this is about right.
It is nice to see AV-8Bs still making it happen
Cavour was escorted by the 7,000-ton Bergamini-class ASW FREMM frigate Alpino (F-594).
Cavour and Alpino called at Darwin, a historic first.
Cavour at Darwin during Pitch Black 2024. RAAF LACW Annika Smith
The Italian Navy frigate Alpino F-594 arrived at the Kuru Wharf at HMAS Coonawarra in Darwin, Northern Territory, ahead of Exercise Pitch Black 24. RAAF LAC Kurt Lewis
In all, Cavour’s group chalked up 70 flight hours and 20 missions during Pitch Black, including refueling and air-to-air interaction with aircraft belonging to nine of the 20 participating nations.
This led to some great formation shots with Cavour and Alpino underway in the Coral Sea and an RAAF E-7A Wedgetail, F-18F Super Hornet and EA-18G Growler; Italian Harrier and F-35B; Indian Su-30MKI, Philippine FA-50PH, Luftwaffe Typhoon, and JASDF F-2As overhead. If you told a circa 1942 USN vet this would happen one day they would surely scratch their head.
A Royal Australian Air Force E-7A Wedgetail leads a formation of aircraft past the Italian Navy aircraft carrier ITS Cavour during Exercise Pitch Black 2024. RAAF photo Corporal Sam Miller
RAAF photo Corporal Sam Miller
A Royal Australian Air Force E-7A Wedgetail leads a formation of aircraft during Exercise Pitch Black 2024. RAAF photo Corporal Sam Miller
RAAF photo Corporal Sam Miller
RAAF photo Corporal Sam Miller
The Most Beautiful Ship in the World
Meanwhile, another of Cavour’s escorts on her 2024 Pacific cruise, the 5,800-ton Thaon di Revel-class offshore patrol vessel ITS Montecuccoli (P432), was detached to participate in RIMPAC and met up at sea with the “most beautiful ship in the world,” the Italian navy’s historic nave scuola (training ship) Amerigo Vespucci (A5312) which was inbound for Honolulu from Los Angeles on her own independent cruise.
This led to some amazing shots of the two in a series PASSEX maneuvers.
Built at the Royal Shipyard of Castellammare di Stabia and running some 329 feet in length over the bowsprit, Vespucci’s main mast towers 177 feet into the air and, when fully rigged, she carries up to 26 canvas sails.
Vespucci recently celebrated her 90th birthday and set sail last July on a 20-month, 40,000-mile world cruise that will see the Italian ship dock at 31 ports in 28 nations, visiting five continents.
Her crew and cadets made sure to pay respect and honors to USS Arizona during their visit to Pearl.
Last week, the “most beautiful ship in the world,” the Italian navy’s historic nave scuola (training ship) Amerigo Vespucci (A5312), performed one of the most traditional of nautical tasks for a tall ship, passing Cape Horn.
Somehow, in her long and varied career that has chalked up hundreds of thousands of miles underway, it was the first time the vessel cleared the Drake Passage.
Built at the Royal Shipyard of Castellammare di Stabia and running some 329 feet in length over the bowsprit, Vespucci’s main mast towers 177 feet into the air and, when fully rigged, she carries up to 26 canvas sails.
She recently celebrated her 90th birthday and set sail last July on a 20-month, 40,000-mile world cruise that will see the Italian ship dock at over 31 ports in 28 nations, visiting 5 continents.
Italian Navy F-35Bs and AV-8B Pluses fly in formation over Amerigo Vespucci as she departs from Genoa, on July 1, 2023, for her 2023-25 World Tour
But how do the Italian navy cadets stuck behind at the Accademia navale di Livorno train for the next few years while the old girl is away? Well, the academy has long maintained a 1:1 scale model of her fore and main masts on its quarterdeck, of course, just to keep those landlocked mids up to speed.
As we covered in a past Warship Wednesday on the Italian Navy’s historic nave scuola (training ship) Amerigo Vespucci (A5312), according to legend, while sailing in the Med in the 1960s, the 80,000-ton Forrestal-class supercarrier USS Independence, on a deployment with the Sixth Fleet duty in support of President John F. Kennedy’s firm stand on the newly-established Berlin Wall, came across a strange tall ship at sea.
The carrier flashed the vessel, Vespucci, with the light signal asking, “Who are you?” The answer, “Training ship Amerigo Vespucci, Italian Navy,” came back. Independence was said to have replied, “You are the most beautiful ship in the world.”
AMERIGO VESPUCCI Italian Training Ship, Sails past USS INDEPENDENCE (CVA-62) in the Mediterranean, 12 July 1962. The Navy later used this image on recruiting posters and advertising in the 1960s and 70s. USN 1061621
Well, in a salute to that exchange, the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77) transited the Adriatic Sea alongside Vespucci on 1 September to commemorate the (just passed) 60th anniversary of the 1962 meeting between Indy and Italy’s senior national vessel.
As related by the Marina Militare, the signal from the big American flat top remained very similar: “Amerigo Vespucci, after 60 years you’re still the most beautiful ship in the world”
The Navy also marked the Bush’s 25 August passage through the Strait of Gibraltar with a nice time-lapse video.
Of note, the GHWBCSG is comprised of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77), Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 7, Destroyer Squadron 26, and the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Leyte Gulf (CG 55).
“The GHWBCSG is on a scheduled deployment in the U.S. Naval Forces Europe area of operations, employed by U.S. Sixth Fleet to defend U.S., allied and partner interests.”
Speaking of carrier news…
In case you missed it, the Indian Navy’s third aircraft carrier– after the Kiev-class INS Vikramaditya (ex-Admiral Gorshkov) and Centaur-class INS Viraat (ex-HMS Hermes)– and first to be indigenously built, the brand new INS Vikrant (R11), was commissioned last week on 2 September after a 23-year planning and construction period.
The new $3 billion (which is a bargain compared to a $13 billion Ford-class CVN) carrier runs 860 feet overall and hits the scales with a 45,000-ton displacement, making her roughly the size of an old Essex-class fleet carrier of WWII or a current LHA/LHD but sans landing equipment. Using a COGAG suite of four LM2500 gas turbines– the same as an Arleigh Burke— she can make 30 knots.
She actually compares well to the new $7.4 billion 65,000-ton British Queen Elizabeth class carriers, although it should be pointed out that the QEs operate F-35s (if they ever get enough of them).
The Indian carrier’s armament is Italian/Israeli/Russian, electronics are from all over Europe, and her air group (for now) will be 30-ish STOBAR ski-jumped MiG-29Ks and a few Kamov Ka-31 ASW helicopters. However, this is set to change as the Indians are receiving MH-60Rs from the U.S. and it is between Dassault Rafale-M and the F-18E/F (with odds going towards the cheaper French option).
Boeing recently completed ski jump tests with a Super Hornet loaded with two 500lb laser-guided bombs, AIM9Xs, and AIM-120s.
The Italian Navy’s historic nave scuola (training ship) Amerigo Vespucci (A5312) was constructed back when Italy had a king on the throne and is still going strong. Built at the Royal Shipyard of Castellammare di Stabia, Vespucci was commissioned as part of the Divisione Navi Scolastiche (School Ships Division) on 6 June 1931, joining her sister, the ill-fated Cristoforo Colombo, with the task of training Italian naval cadets.
Warship Wednesday, June 24, 2020: ‘You are the most beautiful ship in the world’
Photo via the Marina Militare
Here we see the Italian Navy’s historic nave scuola (training ship) Amerigo Vespucci (A5312) during the vessel’s 1992 at-sea campaign, specifically the Colombiadi, a Tall Ship regatta organized on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus. Pushing almost a full century in service, the Vespucci is most assuredly “old school.”
Designed in 1925 for the old Royal Italian Navy, the Regia Marina, Vespucci was to replace the aging Flavio Gioia-class incrociatore (cruiser) of the same name. The former Amerigo Vespucci, a 2,750-ton iron-hulled steam barque carried 13 guns and was laid down in 1879, the first such Italian warship named in honor of the 15th Century explorer who figured out the American continent was, in fact, not Asia.
The Regia Marina’s first Amerigo Vespucci, shown here in 1903 while ranked as a corvette, served from 1882 until 1928, first as the fleet flagship, then a solid 26-years as a training ship for the students of the Royal Naval Academy, the Accademia Navale in Livorno.
The new Vespucci was designed by Francesco Rotundi as was her near-sister, the slightly larger Cristoforo Colombo, taking pains to model them on the old Sicilian (Sardinian) Navy’s 84-gun ship-of-the-line Re Galantuomo (Monarca), a key vessel in 19th Century Italian naval lore. If Rotundi’s name rings a bell, he was the naval engineer who drew up the plans for the interwar modernization of the WWI-era Caio Duilio– and Conte di Cavour-class dreadnoughts as well as the construction of the new Littorio/Vittorio Veneto-class fast battleships.
Some 329-feet in length over the bowsprit, Vespucci’s main mast towered 177 feet into the air and, when fully rigged, she carried more than 20 holona canvas sails. While she had two white-painted “gun decks” fitted with more than 200 portholes rather than cannon ports, she was completed only with saluting guns and a few vintage black powder display pieces. She carries a life-size figurehead of the ship’s namesake explorer in golden bronze, has teak decks, and ornate embellishments from her bow to stern, some covered in gold foil.
In a nod to 20th Century shipbuilding techniques, her hull, masts, and yards were steel (although her tops are wood) and the vessel was designed from the start with an “iron topsail,” an auxiliary diesel-electric plant of two 6-cylinder FIAT Q 426 engines coupled with a pair of dynamos to supply electricity for her radios, navaids, loudspeakers, sounding gear and lights. The electricity in turn could also be used to spin up a pair of Marelii motors on a single shaft– good for up to 10.5 knots. She carried enough diesel to cruise 5,400 nm at a breathtaking 6-knots without breaking out the first sheet.
Launch of Amerigo Vespucci
Built at the Royal Shipyard of Castellammare di Stabia, Vespucci was commissioned as part of the Divisione Navi Scolastiche (School Ships Division) on 6 June 1931, joining her sister Cristoforo Colombo with the task of training Italian naval cadets.
La navi scuola Vespucci (left) e Colombo (right) all’ancora a La Spezia, 1935 (Archivio storico Marina Militare)
Italian Sail Training ships- AMERIGO VESPUCCI and CRISTOFORO COLOMBO. Italy, Circa 1936. NH 111394
Schoolship C. COLUMBO in Venice 1940
A cadet of the Royal Naval Academy of Livorno in the port of Venice where the two sailing ships Cristoforo Colombo and Amerigo Vespucci are located in 1940
Vespucci sailed on her first annual training cruise, to Northern Europe, late in the summer of 1931. As noted by the Italian Navy, “From 1931 to 2006 the Amerigo Vespucci performed 79 training cruises for the 1st Class Cadets of the Naval Academy: 42 in North Europe, 23 in the Mediterranean, 4 in the Eastern Atlantic, 7 in North America and 1 in South America within the only circumnavigation of the globe carried out between May 2002 and September 2003.”
While not a warship in the traditional sense of the term, Vespucci and her sister trained the officers that manned Italy’s battleships and cruisers in a series of surface actions throughout the first few years of WWII, as well as many of the young gentlemen of the Italian submarine force and Decima MAS who wreaked havoc on the British fleet during the conflict.
As for the tall ships, however, they spent the war on training missions close to shore at Pula and, gratefully, survived to come through the other side.
The Regia Marina training ship Amerigo Vespucci repaired in the port of Brindisi following the armistice of 8 September 1943.
Once the war was over, and the Allies began carving away the most choice cuts of the old Italian fleet in 1949, Cristoforo Colombo was awarded to the Soviets along with the old battleship Giulio Cesare, the cruiser Duc’a De Aosta, two destroyers, three torpedo boats, two submarines, and assorted auxiliaries for a token fee. Colombo was renamed Dunaj (Danube) and worked with the Red Navy’s Black Sea Fleet for a decade.
Arriving in Odessa, in 1949, former COLOMBO, soon to be named DUNAJ
Arriving in Odessa, in 1949, former COLOMBO, soon to be named DUNAJ
Falling into disrepair in the 1960s after Colombo was handed over to the merchant marine school at Odessa, the graceful Italian tall ship was slowly dismantled by 1971.
Meanwhile, Vespucci returned to service with the reformed (i.e. non “Royal”) Italian Marina Militare. She resumed her overseas training cruises in 1951, equipped with a modest armament of four American-supplied 3″/50 guns and a single 20mm cannon to provide the ship’s cadets with some underway ordnance training.
Amerigo Vespucci in Rotterdam, Bestanddeelnr 912-9445
According to legend, while sailing in the Med in the 1960s, the 80,000-ton Forrestal-class supercarrier USS Independence, on a deployment with the Sixth Fleet duty in support of President John F. Kennedy’s firm stand on the newly-established Berlin Wall, came across a strange tall ship at sea. The carrier flashed the vessel, Vespucci, with the light signal asking, “Who are you?” The answer, “Training ship Amerigo Vespucci, Italian Navy,” came back. Independence was said to have replied, “You are the most beautiful ship in the world.”
AMERIGO VESPUCCI Italian Training Ship, Sails past USS INDEPENDENCE (CVA-62) in the Mediterranean, 12 July 1962. The Navy later used this image on recruiting posters and advertising in the 1960s and 70s. USN 1061621
In 1964, she was extensively refitted at La Spezia, receiving new engines, generators, radars, rigging, and refurbished below-deck areas.
Amerigo Vespucci, in a feat of seamanship, sailing out of the Taranto narrows under canvas, circa 1965
Afterward, she became increasingly visible overseas, taking part in international tall ship events in 1976, 1981, 1985, and 1986, crossing the Atlantic at least twice in that period.
The Italian cruiser Garibaldi (C551) passing Vespucci off Naples, 1968
Photograph of the Italian vessel Amerigo Vespucci visiting Finland 25 Aug 1965. By Pentti Koskinen, Finnish archives
Amerigo Vespucci (Italy) in New York Harbor during OpSail 76. Photo by Marc Rochkind via Wiki Commons
A U.S. Navy Lockheed P-3B-95-LO Orion (BuNo 154576) from Patrol Squadron VP-23 Seahawks flying over the Italian Naval Academy sailing ship Amerigo Vespucci in 1976. The P-3B 154576 was later sold to Norway. U.S. Navy photo by PH1 R.W. Beno, U.S. Navy. U.S. Navy National Museum of Naval Aviation No. 2004.NAI.055.001
A port beam view of the Italian training ship AMERIGO VESPUCCI (A 5312) in New York harbor during the International Naval Review, 7/4/1986 NARA DNST8701314
Amerigo alongside one of the Italian navy’s exotic Sparviero-class hydrofoils, Falcone (P 422). From the look of the way ahead of Falcone, a sistership may have just flown by the storied training vessel before the image was snapped. Talk about old meets new…
Today, Vespucci is only armed with two 6-pounder saluting guns in pivot mountings on the deck, forward of the mainmast, although her small arms locker is interesting, and recent pictures show that she still carries at least two dozen WWII-era Beretta MAB38/42 submachine guns, used by her ship’s watch.
Further, she is still hard at work at age 89, very much a part of the Italian fleet.
Note the saluting guns
Luigi Durand de la Penne (ex-Animoso) destroyer and the training ship Amerigo Vespucci both of the Italian navy.
The Alpino FREMM frigate docked near the Amerigo Vespucci training ship. Italian Navy, 2018.
Specs:
1:84 scale model of Italian training ship Amerigo Vespucci at the Hamburg IMMM
Displacement:
4,146 t (4,081 long tons) full load (DWT)
3,410 t (3,360 long tons) gross tonnage
1,203 t (1,184 long tons) net tonnage
Length:
329 ft 9 in LOA including bowsprit
270 ft overall, hull
229.5 ft pp
Beam: 51. ft
Height: 177.2 ft
Draught: 22 ft
Sail Rig: (original) 21 sails, 22,600 sq. ft. of canvas
(current) Up to 26 sails, 28,360 sq. ft.
Propulsion: Two 6-cylinder FIAT Q 426 engines, Two Marelli motors, 1,900 shp 1 shaft (1931),
Two 4-stroke, 8-cylinder FIAT B 308 ESS diesel engines (1964)
Engineering (since 2016)
2 × diesel engine generator MTU 12VM33F2, 1,824 bhp each
2 × diesel engines generator MTU 8VM23F2, 1,020 bhp each
1 × Electrical Propulsion Engine (MEP) ex Ansaldo Sistemi Industriali (NIDEC ASI) CR1000Y8 (1,010 bhp)
Speed:
Sails, 10 to 15 knots
Engines, 10 knots
Sensors: 2 × navigation radars GEM Elettronica AN/SPN-753(V)5, current
Complement: Up to 470
15 officers
64 NCOs (Non-Commissioned Officers)
185 sailors
130 Naval Academy Cadets and Support Staff (when embarked)
Armament:
(1951)
4 x 3″/50cal singles
1 x 20mm cannon
(Today)
Small arms, saluting guns
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