Midst Tuscan culture, in friendly Livorno, there could be no more fitting place for the new site of the school of the young Italian Navy. Here is a delightful position and facility of communication, almost equidistant from the eastern and western extremities of our Alpine border. Here speak the revered traditions of the sea: from the names of the Etruscan cities and from the ruined towers of the ancient Pisan port from which sailed forth the conquerors of the Saracens!
These were the words of Admiral Del Santo, first commandant of the modern Italian Naval Academy, when in 1881 he placed the school in commission. At that time the Kingdom of Italy was 21 years old. From the constitution of the kingdom in 1860 until the present school was begun at Livorno in 1881, there had been two schools for the training of naval line officers, one at Genoa and the other at Naples. Their respective scopes were about the same: scientific, literary, and professional instruction lasting for five years, with a practice cruise each year following the school session. In 1878 when appropriation was made for a single Royal Naval Academy, the ancient Lazzeretto di San Jacopo di Livorno was procured and from that simple beginning has grown the Picturesque and progressive institution which is today turning out the splendid young officers of the Italian Navy.
The officer personnel of the Italian Navy is divided into the following branches:
Ufficiali di vascello, line officers.
Ufficiali del Genio Navale, officers of the engineering corps (which includes naval constructors and marine engineers).
Ufficiali delle Armi Navali, armament experts.
Il corpo sanilario militare marittimo, medical officers.
Il corpo commissariato militare marittimo, supply officers.
Il corpo delle capitanerie di porto, a corps of which the United States Navy has no counterpart. They serve on shore as captains of the ports.
Il corpo reale equipaggi marittimi, officers in the lower commissioned grades who have been promoted from the ranks.
It is interesting to note that line officers are given naval titles and all staff officers are called by army titles.
The Royal Naval Academy has as its principal mission the education of the young men who aspire to be line officers, naval engineers, and armament or ordnance officers. In addition the academy conducts postgraduate classes and has a department devoted to giving basic naval instruction to newly appointed officers from civil life, i.e., paymasters, doctors, and port captains.
At present the course at the academy consists of three years of academic study with a three months’ summer practice cruise at the end of the first and second years. During these three years the boys are known as allievi which for lack of a good literal translation we will call “cadets.” At the end of the third academic year they go to sea as aspiranti guardia marina or “about-to-be-ensigns.” After six months’ sea service in this status they are examined and if successful become guardia marina or ensigns, the lowest commissioned rank.
To us who are so accustomed to the legislators having a legal or practical finger in all phases of military life, it is interesting to note that the senators and delegates of Italy have nothing to do with the Naval Academy or with the Navy. The annual procurement of new cadets is advertised and open to all comers who have the required schooling and the necessary physical well-being. Of course the candidate must be of Italian parentage and must bear several different certificates of character, etc. In the summer of 1933 it was announced that the academy would accept 50 line officer cadets, and 10 each for naval engineers and ordnance officers. These were the numbers to be finally accepted; any number could present themselves and all who met the initial requirements would be taken on, given a reduced outfit, and put through a probationary period of two months. A line cadet for that year, taken as typical, must have been born after September 30, 1913; engineering cadets might be one year older. There is no minimum age limit. After a very strict observation for two months and a final examination in which a double coefficient is given to the mark on attitudine professional, the desired number of cadets is chosen from the probationers and the unsuccessful ones are sent home.
During his stay at the academy a boy who fails but who gives promise is permitted to repeat a school year but this can be done only once during the course. In considering the individual cases of boys who are lagging in their studies a sharp line is drawn between the fellow who is backward because of lack of previous advantages in education and the laggard who is failing because he is not inclined to put forth his best efforts.
Each entering class is put definitely for its whole course at the academy into the hands of one lieutenant commander or lieutenant and several assistants, all of whom are specially selected. Except for the instruction they receive from the civilian professors these boys are thus brought up entirely by the same group of officers. The president of the academy is a rear admiral. He has a captain as second in command who acts as director of studies, but all disciplinary matters are handled by the officer in charge of the class directly with the president. At any time during a cadet’s stay at the academy he may be sent away or dismissed according to the gravity of the reason bringing about such action and the decision of the president is irrevocable. He does not even have to announce the reason for his action.
Discipline in its lesser details is entrusted to specially chosen cadets who are qualified by the “faith, respect and esteem of their companions” to set an example “which in the surroundings of the Naval Academy is always regarded as the most elementary and effective form of authority.”
The cost of a cadet’s education includes the purchase and maintenance of required clothing and nautical equipment and the cost of subsistence. It amounts to about 3,000 lire a year. The cadets live in dormitories, with many beds in one large room like a hospital ward. The mess hall is attractive and the food is good and well prepared. No form of athletics is engaged in with other schools but there is keen competition between classes. Track events, soccer, and boxing are prominent. There is within the grounds a full-sized model of a sailing ship from the main deck up. On board this brigantino the cadets exercise at making and shortening sail. For their summer cruises they have two modern full-rigged ships with Diesel-electric auxiliary power. When they are in the open sea they always sail. In this manner the students lose nothing of the modern methods of instruction, having modern guns, radio, and machinery on board, and yet coincidentally they get a considerable amount of education in the life of a windjammer which is so dear yet so inaccessible to most of us.
The Italian naval cadet is a handsome fellow. His dress uniform consists of very high-waisted trousers, a waistcoat, and short waist-length jacket, a smart little dirk suspended from a concealed belt, and (to the dismay of his American counterpart) white linen spats!
In response to certain questions posed by the writer the following is quoted from an Italian naval officer who graduated from the Royal Naval Academy and who recently completed a tour of duty there:
Many years ago “hazing” was in vigor and operated, the older boys playing all kinds of practical jokes on the younger ones, but when I became a cadet this practice had been already abandoned and now nothing of the kind exists. The freshmen are still called by their older comrades “pivetti” but no disparagement is meant and the word is only used in accordance with old custom. Among the various classes there is a great deal of pride and emulation, especially in the matter of sports and games, but the boys all treat each other with friendly cordiality and the older boys introduce the younger ones to school routine with a natural sense of superiority but always with gentlemanly consideration.
But usually the different classes have few occasions to mix with each other except during their free hours. They have separate studies, separate recreation, drills, and dormitories. Only a few of the senior class boys are picked for their authority and seriousness to supervise the younger cadets. They all, of whatever class, treat each other with familiarity and also in later years, during their career as officers, those who have been together the academy, even if in different classes, continue to “thee” and “thou” each other and keep Pa friendly cordiality.
The organization of school life at our academy is somewhat different from yours. The cadets enjoy much less freedom, they are much more supervised and are treated less like grown men. This is largely owing to the difference of customs and habits of the two nations and to the different organization of study routine, education, and life generally. For instance, no civilian (and especially to woman) except a relative is allowed within the academy grounds to speak to the cadets even during the authorized visiting hours and then only in a special drawing room for that purpose. The cadets are allowed to go out of the academy for three or four hours two or three times during the week, but for bad study notes or undisciplined conduct they are punished by depriving them of the permission to go out, and a part of these must be employed in studying.
Livorno is a provincial town and offers few excitements but there are theatres which often give good plays and the people of the city are very hospitable and like to invite the cadets to their homes. (They prefer young officers with an eye to possible future marriages!) There is a place where the cadets often go to have tea and dance with girls under maternal supervision but above all they go out to be out of sight of their superiors, and they go about the town making small purchases, go to the movies, and especially fill up on cakes and candies! Sometimes well-behaved boys are allowed to stay out till midnight and of course on special holidays this is permitted to all the cadets.
A ball was given at the academy to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of its foundation but I doubt if this will be repeated before its centenary. However it is the custom of the senior cadets to give a dinner to their officers, and a ball to which they invite their girl friends and young officers’ wives on the so-called day of MAK II 100, that is to say 100 days before they leave the academy. This dance is ordinarily given at one of the hotels and marks their “coming out” into society. An invitation to this ball is very much sought after and of course there is no dearth of cavaliers. It is a very gay affair but always within the bounds of correctness. Everything is carefully planned by the boys themselves and each graduating class tries to do a little better than the last. The boys put by their savings of three years for this dance and the academy helps them as well.
The cadets are much beloved by the population of Livorno and even in the bad period when the city was in the hands of communists and antimilitarists and many officers were insulted and in some cases injured, never even during strikes and tumults has a cadet had a hair of his head touched, and for their correct and dignified behavior they have earned for themselves the sympathy and love of the population.
(The following is in response to a question as to whether or not Italian cadets are victimized by the ready credit so eagerly offered to our midshipmen.)
Unfortunately the nuisance of lending and borrowing exists also among us, and the depression and low economic conditions of some families lead to this. The authorities can only try to stop this more or less indirectly in order not to resort to prohibitions which could be easily eluded; but the merchants get no help from the authorities in claiming payment of their credits. However, the cadets not being allowed to keep valuables and having no place in which to hide their belongings, except a small trunk which can be locked but which is subject to frequent inspection by the officers, they are unable to keep many things and so it is only in the last days before graduation that the shopkeepers make their credit affairs.
In the summer of 1933 when the Italian Naval Training Squadron, consisting of the Vespucci and Colombo under command of Admiral Romeo Bernotti, was in United States waters it was the good fortune of the writer to be detailed by the Navy Department, as a gesture of courtesy, to the staff of Admiral Bernotti. It was very interesting professionally to observe the thoroughly modern methods employed by the Italians in the instruction of their cadets and to see in the faces and bodies of the boys themselves eloquent promise that they will not fail to carry on the traditions of their service.