Nave Cristoforo Colombo, the sad fate of Amerigo Vespucci's sister ship

After the war, the Cristoforo Colombo in November 1946, under the command of frigate Captain Giovanni Adalberto, faced a dangerous storm off Cagliari, which put the ship, the captain and the crew to the test. So much so that for his brilliant conduct he received a 'commendation' from the Ministry of the Navy. In January 1947, another storm tore the sails and put the Colombo at risk of foundering during the Naples-Genoa cruise. The sailing ship saved itself by sheltering in the Gulf of Juan, then anchored near the lighthouse of La Garoupe on the Côte d'Azur.

The ship Columbus was spoils of war. Under the Paris Peace Treaty, at the end of the Second World War, in 1949, the Colombo was ceded to the Soviet Union as compensation for war damage. At Augusta, on 12 February 1949, the Navy flag was lowered and the Merchant Navy flag was hoisted. On 19 February she left her moorings in the Italian port for Odessa, where she was handed over to the Soviet Navy under the name Z 18. On 2 March, the Tricolour was lowered on the Odessa quay. The ship changed its name and became the Dunay (Danube in Russian). The hull was painted grey to remove the traits of the Italian character of the sailing ship. The sister ship of the Vespucci was given to the battleship Giulio Cesare, the cruiser Duca d'Aosta, the destroyers Artigliere, Fuciliere and Riboty. The torpedo boats Ardimentoso, Animoso, Fortunale, the submarines Nichelio and Marea. Together with patrol boats, tugs and motor rafts. There were incidents during the handover phase. In Taranto, where the ships to be handed over to the USSR were berthed, there were numerous demonstrations of dissent and attempts at sabotage: many people did not want to hand over proud ships of the Italian Navy to foreigners. Several sailors were discovered and arrested who were organising to put explosives under the hull and blow up the ship.

The USSR occasionally used the ship as a military training ship in Odessa, in the Black Sea, until 1959. She then passed into the employ of the High School of the Minister of the Navy in Leningrad, which in 1960 handed her over to the Odessa Nautical Institute, where she was used as a training ship. The following year, in order not to carry out maintenance work, the sailing ship was decommissioned and used as a logging ship, but a fire destroyed the cargo and the ship. It was 1963 when the Dunay was struck off the Soviet register of ships, remaining in a state of disrepair for eight years. In 1971 the ship was scrapped at the Glavvtorcement shipyard on the Turukhannye Islands in Leningrad.

The ship had three name changes. Laid down under the name Patria in the Castellammare shipyard on 15 April 1926, she was launched on 4 April 1928 with a new name, Cristoforo Colombo. She entered service on 1 July 1928. Thethe Vespucci was instead launched on 22 February 1931 and entered service in July 1931. And then, in 1949, for the ship Colombo, the new name, Dunay.

But what remains of the sister ship today? Before the Columbus was ceded to the Russian Navy, two oil paintings dedicated to Columbus' landing in San Salvador and his return to Spain were retained. Paintings that are now in the Vespucci's Council Chamber. Like the whale-boat today lowered to the rear of the Vespucci ship, where the historical wheelhouse, used for sailing, is located. The figurehead with the effigy of Christopher Columbus is instead in the Naval Museum in La Spezia. The bonnet with the battle flag of the ship Cristoforo Colombo is kept at the Sacrario delle Bandiere at the Altare della Patria in Rome. The stern frieze and rudder wheel are at the Taranto Arsenal..