Italian seaplane tender Giuseppe Miraglia

Career (Italy)
Name: Giuseppe Miraglia
Builder: Regio Arsenale della Spezia
Laid down: 5 March 1921
Launched: 20 December 1923
Commissioned: 1 November 1927
Struck: 15 July 1950
Fate: Scrapped
General characteristics
Class and type:seaplane tender
Displacement:5,400 tonnes normal
5,913 tonnes full
Length:121.22 m
Beam:14.99 m
Draught:5.82 m
Propulsion:2 Parsons steam turbines with 8 Yarrow boilers, 2 shafts, 16,700 shp
Speed:21 knots (39 km/h)
Complement:
  • 16 Officers
  • 40 NCOs
  • 240 Ratings
Armament:
  • 4x102mm/35 guns
  • 12x13.2mm MGs
Armour:
  • belt 70mm
  • deck 80mm
Aircraft carried:17 seaplanes
Aviation facilities:2 catapults

Giuseppe Miraglia was an Italian seaplane carrier.

History

Giuseppe Miraglia was laid down in 1921 as the train ferry Città di Messina, intended for use by the Italian State Railway Company, but was acquired by the Regia Marina soon after her launch in 1923. Works to convert her into a seaplane carrier began immediately; in 1925, with the ship nearly complete, Giuseppe Miraglia capsized during a storm. Salvaged under the direction of Giuseppe Pugliese, she was repaired and commissioned in November 1927.[1]

Giuseppe Miraglia participated in the Second Italo-Abyssinian War and the Spanish Civil War. During World War II, after surviving the Battle of Taranto, she was employed in the Mediterranean theatre. After the Armistice she sailed (along with much of the Italian fleet) to Malta for internment.

After the British motor torpedo boat depot ship HMS Vienna was straddled by bombs and damaged beyond repair during the Luftwaffe bombing raid on the Italian port of Bari on December 2nd 1943 and the subsequent mustard gas disaster, the Giuseppe Miraglia was impressed by the Royal Navy as temporary replacement.

After the war Giuseppe Miraglia was used to repatriate Italian prisoners-of-war, then spent the rest of her career as a barrack ship and workshop at Taranto until her scrapping in 1950.[1]

Aircraft facilities

Giuseppe Miraglia could carry some 17 seaplanes (originally Macchi M.18, later IMAM Ro.43), and was equipped with two catapults. Seaplanes could be retrieved by means of large doors and cranes at the sides of the hangar.

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Cernuschi, Enrico and Vincent P. O'Hara. in Jordan, John (2007). Warship 2007. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1844860418. Page 64.