amerigo

Amerigo Vespucci
3 mast full rigged sailing ship
Displacement 4,100 Tons
Sparred Length 333 Feet
Beam 51 Feet
Draft 21 Feet
Sail Surface 28,000 Sq. Feet

Amerigo Vespucci 3 mast full rigged sailing ship takes its name from the famous Italian sailor
and cartographer who also lent his name to the new world. Built 1930-31, Royal Shipyard
(formerly), Castellamare di Stabia. and carried out many voyages before World War II. The
period of the war was the only time the ship has not been active. The elegant, three-mated full
rigger serves as the training vessel of the Italian Naval Academy.

Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 09:04:16 +1300
From: Rob Isaac <rob@automagic.org>
To: tom@schoonerman.com
Subject: Amerigo Vespucci

I spent Friday morning aboard Amerigo Vespucci
(currently at anchor in Auckland, New Zealand).
Some trivia for your page, if you're interested:

The standard crew is around 300 people. This
swells to 450 during the Italian summer, when they
embark naval cadets. The full crew is needed if all
the sails are hoisted.
Amerigo Vespucci makes about 4-5 knots.

The entire rig and all the sheets are traditional
materials: Canvas sails and hemp ropes. The only
synthetic on board is the mooring lines, which have
to be an approved type for some of the ports they
visit.
The sheets, laid end to end, span 35 km.

Amerigo Vespucci had a sister ship, the "Christopher
Columbus" (named in Italian, and I can't do it
justice). Both were built as replicas of an 18th
century vessel (sorry, not sure of it's name). This
sister ship was given to Russia as war reparations
immediately after WWII. The Russians (apparently)
had no interest in maintaining such an impractical
"warship", and decommissioned it shortly afterwards.
The Italians preserved two paintings from the other
vessel, and these now hang at opposite ends of the
wardroom at the stern of Amerigo Vespucci.

The crew take the vessel very seriously. They're
highly aware that (ignorant) people consider it
anachronistic and silly, and have well-developed
and well-reasoned explanations as to why it is not
true. Other than it's training duties, they visit other
countries and take dignitaries aboard, to promote
diplomatic understanding.

It's run as a warship. Naval dress, armed sailors and
so on. This only adds to the disorienting sensation
when you're on board.

It has twin steering, one manual and one
hydraulically assisted. The hydraulics are used to
shift the rudder with the smaller crew aboard, and
are driven by a wheel about 75cm in diameter. The
manual steering is used when the vessel has a full
crew aboard, and are driven by four parallel wheels
of about 150cm in diameter. Two men are assigned
to each wheel at all times. Twelve turns of the large
wheels is one degree of rudder.

Decking is tar-bonded teak, scrubbed daily and
replaced every three years.

All of the winches aboard are man-powered, with
reduction gearing in the capstan. The one
exception is the anchor winch, which has an
(optional) hydraulic assist. The main winches are
the size of a birdbath (80cm diameter), with an
ornate brass plate embossed with an image of the
ship under sail.

Everything aboard is immaculately clean and
polished. Sailors carefully carry their cigarette ash
to ornate brass ashtrays in the shape of the prow of a
man-o-war hung on the sides of the deckhouses