Italy
Venice
The Venetian Arsenal & Naval Museum
The CF memory card I was using to shoot the indoor exhibits here malfunctioned and I lost most of the images.
However, I am attempting to recover the corrupted data and If successful, I`ll add the missing shots in due course.
However, I am attempting to recover the corrupted data and If successful, I`ll add the missing shots in due course.
The Museo Storico Navale, or Naval History Museum, is located in the Castello district of Venice, near the Venetian Arsenal. The museum was established by the Regia Marina (the Italian Royal Navy) in 1919 with displays relating to the city's naval and maritime history including actual vessels, ship models and weaponry.
As of May 2015, however, there is no public access to the main building on the waterfront as major renovations are ongoing, which is a pity as it's five floors supposedly contain an interesting and wide-ranging collection of mainly smaller exhibits including gondolas, figureheads, portraits and paintings, nautical instruments, uniforms and clothing, plus a WW2 Italian Navy manned torpedo.
The Venetian Arsenal is a complex of shipyards and armouries built in the 12th Century. Both naval and merchant trading vessels were constructed here. The ornate main gate, the Porta Magna, was built around 1460 and is guarded by two stone lions `acquired` from Greece. The Arsenal was responsible for much of the Venetian Republic's economic wealth and naval dominance until Napoleon's conquest of the area in 1797. The French destroyed large portions of the facility but the Arsenal was rebuilt and is used today as a naval base, research centre and, on occasion an exhibition venue.
While doing a circuit of the main island on the Waterbus I glimpsed the forward section of the Enrico Dandolo (S513), one of four Toti-class submarines built for the Italian Navy in the late 1960s. They were the first submarines designed and built in Italy since the Second World War. They were small and as `hunter killers` were designed to detect and destroy enemy subs. All were decommissioned in the early 1990s and in addition to S513 at the Arsenal, the lead vessel, Enrico Toti (S506) has been preserved and is on display at a museum in Milan. There was no access to the Arsenal`s sub when I visited and I believe it`s only open to the public on special occasions.
The only accessible section of the naval museum when I visited in November 2016 was a nearby annexe, now referred to as the Ships Pavilion, which contains various craft, a few WW2 weapons and some nautical relief panels from years gone by. This building, the Padiglione dei Remi, was built in the mid-16th Century and stood in the area of the Arsenal where oars were made and stored. Shortly after its completion in 1577, the building was temporarily adapted to house the Great Council, the main governing body of the city, following a disastrous fire that had destroyed the council's original base in the Palazzo Ducale.
Following the reorganisation of the Arsenal after 1866, when Venice was annexed to the Kingdom of Italy, the the Padiglione dei Remi was used by the city's military engineers as workshops and storehouses.
This 18-oar ceremonial Royal Barge was built at the Arsenal in the 1850s and used for various important events, including transporting King Vittorio Emanuele in 1866 during his inaugural visit to Venice after the city officially became part of Italy. The Royal Barge was used for the last time in 1959 when the body of the recently canonised Pope Pius X was brought back to Venice for a service in the Basilica di San Marco. His body was then returned to the Basilica di San Pietro in Rome.
The three largest vessels are a Second World War converted Italian Navy Torpedo Boat (No.473), a late 19th century steamboat (above right) and the Steam Yacht Elettra. Unfortunately, although ramps allow visitors to reach deck level, they can't actually step on board and the limited space prevents shots showing the vessels in their entirety.
As previously mentioned. I hope to add more shots of these vessels at a later date.
Above: Some of the naval artillery pieces on display. I think the object beside the anti-shipping mine below is a decompression chamber.
The 67-metre-long, 700 tonne Elettra was famously associated with the Italian scientist and inventor of the wireless telegraph, Guglielmo Marconi (25 April 1874 - 20 July 1937). In early 1896, Marconi travelled from Italy to England, where he made the first demonstration of his system to the British government whose representatives were suitably impressed. Numerous additional demonstrations followed, and Marconi began to receive international attention.
Originally named Rovenska, this elegant steam yacht was built for Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria by Ramage & Ferguson at Leith, Scotland, to the designs of Cox and King, London, and was completed in May 1904. Due to the outbreak of the Great War, however, the vessel was never delivered and was instead confiscated by the British Royal Navy and served as an auxiliary patrol boat. Having been fitted with 12 pdr gun, she served in the English Channel and the North Sea. In 1919, the vessel was purchased by the famous inventor who renamed her Elettra. Marconi himself was a skilled navigator, holding the rank of captain in the Italian Royal Naval Reserve. Much of his finest research work was carried out on board as he claimed that he could obtain ideal conditions for his many experiments only when at sea.
The vessel was restored to its former glory and fitted out as Marconi`s personal, floating laboratory. It was aboard the Elettra that the scientist explored short-wave radio and radar, perfecting the process he used in 1901 when he sent the first Morse Code letter, a faint ''S,'' across the Atlantic Ocean. (The S traveled from England to Newfoundland, and took three days to arrive).
Various `firsts` were achieved during the 18 years that Elettra was in Marconi`s charge, such as in 1920 when the first music broadcast to a ship was received. The Elettra was also the first vessel to take shelter from a gale by means of a wireless warning. This was in 1922 when Marconi made his first Atlantic crossing and diverted to Bermuda to seek refuge. Following Marconi's death in July 1937, his ship was sold to the Italian Government. During the Second World War, she was requisitioned by the Germans in Trieste in 1943 and again converted to a gunboat, only to be torpedoed and sunk the following year by a British submarine off the Dalmatian coast.
In 1962, Elettra was raised and handed back to the Italian Government but restoration was not a priority and following further decay, the historic vessel was eventually cut up for scrap. In 1977, her hull was cut into sections which were transported to several museum sites with the engine and boilers coming to the Venice Naval Museum.
I`m not sure of the identity of this fairly large vessel which I believe is a coal-fired industrial steamboat dating from 1895.
The information panels are few and far between and there is very little information in English. Here are some of the smaller craft and objects on display.
Below: Baglietto Asso (Ace) Cattaneo No.5 is a Three-point Hydroplane Racer dating from 1938.