Type,
class:
Submarine; Nazario Sauro class - Batch
I
Builder: Fincantieri SpA, Monfalcone (Friuli-Venezia
Giulia), Italy
STATUS:
Laid
down: June 27, 1974
Launched: October 9, 1976
Commissioned:
March 1, 1980
Decommissioned: May 1,
2002
Fate:
Museum ship at Galata - Museo del Mare, Genua
Namesake:
Nazario Sauro (1880-1916)
Ships
Motto: PER UNDAS AD
VICTORIAM (to the waves to victory)
Technical Data:
see
INFO >
Sauro class Submarine
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Nazario Sauro (20 September 1880 - 10 August
1916)
... was an Austrian-born Italian irredentist and sailor.
Born in Capodistria, in what was then the Austrian Littoral
(today Koper, Slovenia), he took to sailing from a very
young age, and became the captain of a cargo ship when he
was only 20. Later, in 1910, Sauro became an employee of the
shipping company Zuttiati, connecting ports in Istria and
Dalmatia to San Giorgio di Nogaro and Cervignano del Friuli.
After 1866 - when Venice and the republic of Venice region
were annexed to Italy- there was some support for
irredentism also in Istria, formerly a Venetian possession:
Tino Gavardo, Pio Riego Gambini and Nazario Sauro were the
most renowned of those who promoted Istrian unification to
the Kingdom of Italy. Many of them enrolled voluntarily in
the Italian Army during World War I against the Austrian
Empire. Some were captured and hanged as traitors by the
Austrians.
When World War I erupted, Sauro went to Venice, joining
other refugees who had gathered in the city and were
pressuring Italy to join the conflict on the Entente side.
When Italy did join the effort in 1915, he was a volunteer
in the Italian Navy, and assigned to a torpedo unit,
accomplishing over 60 missions over a period of 14 months.
In June 1916, he was promoted Sub-Lieutenant on the Giacinto
Pullino submarine, and awarded a Silver Medal.
On July 30 of that year, Sauro's boat was sent over to carry
out a sabotage in the Hungarian port of Fiume (now Rijeka in
Croatia), but it crashed into a rock in the Kvarner Gulf.
The crew was intercepted by the Austro-Hungarian destroyer
Satellit, and imprisoned. Sauro was recognized and placed on
trial for his previous act of treason, and, after facing a
military tribunal in Pola (now Pula in Croatia) was
sentenced to death and hanged.
Nazario Sauro wrote two letters to his familiars from the
cell; after his death Gabriele D'Annunzio asked for them to
be exposed as permanent memory of the heroism of Sauro. They
are currently exposed to the Central Museum of Risorgimento
in Rome. One of this, addressed to his wife, reads:
Dear Nina,
I can't but beg your pardon for leaving you alone with our
five children still in need of your milk; I also know how
hard you're going to fight and struggle in order to raise
and leave them on the right path, which will hopefully be
the same as their father. But I have nothing much to say
than I am dying satisfied for having fulfilled my duty as an
Italian. Be happy, for my happiness is nothing but knowing
that the Italians knew how to fullfil [sic] their duty and
did it. Dear soulmate, teach our children that their father
was first of all an Italian, then a father and eventually a
man. Nazario
- Venice, 20 May 1916 - letter of Nazario Sauro to his wife
Nina
source: wikipedia
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