The Amerigo Vespucci draws a crowd wherever she ports. Hundreds of people in Quebec City waited over two hours Thursday to visit aboard; hundreds more will visit again Friday. By the time it makes its way back to Italy, she will have visited 13 ports in five different countries in five months.
The sail ship is named after Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian explorer in the 1400s. The word “America” was derived from his first name.
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“That is the name of the explorer that gave the name to the continent,” said Paolo Podico, the second commander.
One hundred metres long and over 50 metres high, the vessel built in 1931 is immaculate. It’s easy to see why a U.S. aircraft carrier once called it “the most beautiful ship in the world.”
The Vespucci is an Italian training ship — 125 naval cadets live and work aboard for three months straight. Everything on the main deck requires manual labour to operate, including polishing the large amount of brass by hand everyday. Below are four diesel generators and an electrically-powered engine.
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“If you walk from the engine room to the main deck, it’s like you cover 200 years of history,” Podico said. “The training here is military-oriented, but it’s not exactly the training they will receive later on a conventional war ship.”
So why require young naval men and women to sail aboard the Vespucci? The commander said it helps to instill values in its new recruits that are important to the Italian military.
“They figure out to be tired, how to be tired and to keep concentrating and to keep going on,” Podico said.
The Amerigo Vespucci leaves Quebec City Saturday, sailing to Boston and New York before it returns across the Atlantic.
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