ITS Crotone is the fifth of eight Units the Italian Navy ordered from Intermarine, Sarzana (La Spezia), which represent an evolution of the LERICI Class (so called LERICI - 2nd series, or Gaeta Class). The current Unit is the second Italian Navy ship to bear this name. The first was a Minesweeper originally belonging to the German Imperial Navy, with the name “M – 120, which was seized as war booty by the Italian King’s Navy during World War I, and given the name “Abastro.”
ITS Crotone was launched in 1992, and delivered to the Italian Navy on June 11, 1994. On June 18, 1995 she was awarded the combat flag from Crotone local authorities. At the end of her first training, ITS Crotone participated in advanced drills on the Mediterranean Sea. From December 1995 to January 1996 she took part in the International clearing operations in the coastal waters of former Yugoslavia (“Decisive Enhancement”-IFOR operation). In 1997 she took part in the NATO operation “Blue Harrier” and successfully underwent the Minehunting Operational Sea Test (M.O.S.T.) in Ostend. From February to August 2000, in the aftermath of the Kosovo war, she participated in the clearing operations in the Northern Adriatic Sea.
From January to April 2001 she took part in the MCMFORMED.
In 2002 she was engaged for three months in an exacting training campaign in Northern Europe, mooring at Tallin, Anvers, Oporto and Ostend, just to name a few. From May to August 2008 she took part in the SNMCMG2, covering 7,983 miles sailing in the Mediterranean.
In June 2009 she took part again in the Italian led SNMCMG2, sailing between Turkish and Greek coasts. Only another ship, in the history of the Italian Navy, bore the same name: (former German) Minesweeper 1921.
In recent years Crotone has become chief town of province; it stands on the Ionian coast and its busy port comprises two docks: one for fishing and pleasure boats, while the other, for freighter ships, has greatly increased its activity in recent years.
The town can boast very ancient origins: it was probably founded in the VI century B.C. by Acheans settlers in compliance with a Pythia’s oracle. The Pythia was the priestess who gave the responses from Apollo’s temple in Delphi before a tripod covered with the skin of the snake Python. The big snake was killed by Apollo who seized all his powers.
In Ancient Greece, Crotone was a thriving cultural and commercial centre; in fact there lived the philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras, who stated the famous theorem on the right-angled triangle and discovered the Pythagorean table. Originally from Samos, he ruled Crotone for several years, establishing a school of thought that influenced its inhabitants.
During the Punic Wars the city formed an alliance with the Carthaginians, who therefore settled there for three years. The following rulers, from the Romans until the Middle Ages, to the Byzantines, the Normans, the Angevins, down to the Bourbons, did not manage to revive the liveliness and importance that had previously characterized the city.
The Crest of Minehunter Crotone, just like the previous crests of this class, depicts the vessel in motion, yet here she is more in the foreground, thus highlighting the new mast arrangement abutted against the funnel, instead of behind the upper bridge.
In the area generally reserved to the city coat-of-arms, is Crotone’s Crest: a shield horizontally divided into two sections by a golden stripe. The upper part depicts the mythological story of the foundation of the city on a blue ground, with the Pythia’s tripod in Apollo’s temple, while two snakes stick out their tongues. The lower half is red, and it bears the acronym attributed to the city: QDO (nowadays KRO), written in archaic Greek characters. The crest is surmounted by the crown, while its base is demarcated by laurel and oak branches.
The Minehunter’s name “MHC Crotone” is center right, on a soft galloon under the crown.