Italian submarine Enrico Toti (S 506)

Last updated
Enrico Toti submarine.jpg
History
Naval Ensign of Italy.svgItaly
Namesake Enrico Toti
Builder Italcantieri Monfalcone
Laid down15 April 1965 [1]
Launched12 March 1967 [1]
Commissioned22 January 1968 [1]
FateTransported to Museo della Scienza e della Tecnologia "Leonardo da Vinci", in Milan.
StatusMuseum ship
General characteristics [1]
Class & type Toti-class submarine
Displacement
  • 532 t (524 long tons) surfaced
  • 591 t (582 long tons) submerged
Length46.2 m (151.6 ft)
Beam4.7 m (15.4 ft)
Draught5.7 m (18.7 ft)
Propulsion
  • 2 × Fiat MB 820 N/I Diesels,
  • 1× electric motor
  • Diesel-electric drive
  • 1,600 kilowatts (2,200 hp)
Speed
  • 14 kn (26 km/h; 16 mph) surfaced
  • 15 kn (28 km/h; 17 mph) submerged
Range3,000 nmi (5,600 km; 3,500 mi) at 5 kn (9.3 km/h; 5.8 mph) (surfaced)
Complement4 officers and 22 men
Armament4 × 533 mm (21 inch) torpedo tubes

Italian submarine Enrico Toti (S 506) was the first of a new class of Italian submarine (Toti class), with Enrico Toti being laid down in 1965, launched in 1967, decommissioned in 1992 and preserved as a museum ship at the Museo della Scienza e della Tecnologia "Leonardo da Vinci", in Milan. The ship, and class, are named after the Italian war hero Enrico Toti.

Contents

History

Toti was built by Fincantieri in Monfalcone, between 1965 and 1967, and given to the Italian Navy in 1968; Soon after that three more identical units were added to the Toti class. They are small submarines (so small that they were called “pocket sized submarines”), employed from the late 1960s until the end of the 1990s. They were conceived to work inside the Mediterranean Sea. They had two main tasks:

S506 Enrico Toti in action. MM Toti.jpg
S506 Enrico Toti in action.

Museum ship

Control system for wire-guided torpedoes (the pictures on the screens are not genuine). Sottomarino enrico toti - museo della scienza e della tecnica - milano - controllo per siluri.jpg
Control system for wire-guided torpedoes (the pictures on the screens are not genuine).

Enrico Toti arrived at the Museo della Scienza e della Tecnologia "Leonardo da Vinci" in August 2005 with a trip in two steps:

  1. 2001: From Augusta to the Cremona port, towed through the Adriatic Sea and the Po (14 days)
  2. 2005: From Cremona to Milan, on top of a specially built convoy, on a road trip lasting four nights.

As museum ship Enrico Toti is unusual, because Milan has no direct access to the sea or a significant river. Moreover, the museum is in the inner part of the city. The transportation of the sub to the museum was made overnight in mid-August, to minimize inconvenience to the population. Another Toti-class unit is on exhibition at the Arsenale in Venice, while the remaining two are scheduled for scrapping.

A stray female cat was found near the museum and personnel brought her in the Enrico Toti, where she lives and is called "the last captain of the Toti".[ citation needed ]

Technical data

The number under the periscope. Enrico Toti Matricola.jpg
The number under the periscope.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Moore 1979, p. 271.

See also

45°27′42″N9°10′16″E / 45.461692°N 9.171123°E / 45.461692; 9.171123