Yesterday, Monday September 9, the Italian Navy celebrated the ‘Memorial Day to honour Sailors lost at Sea’, in eternal memory of the sacrifice of military and civilian mariners lost or buried at sea.
This commemoration –a civil holiday, this year at its 76th anniversary – was held at the National Memorial to the Italian Sailors, raised in 1933 on the initiative of the Lega Navale Italiana, on occasion of the decoration of the city of Brindisi with the War Merit Cross.
In fact, during WW1 Brindisi had been designed as major naval base of the Regia Marina in the Lower Adriatic.
September 9th is a special date that holds precise historical significance and sentimental value for the Italian Navy, being symbolically connected with the sinking of battleship Roma, and destroyers Vivaldi and Da Noli, as well as with the commemoration of over 1700 sailors who lost their lives during those dramatic war events.
Many local civilian, religious and military authorities attended the ceremony – which was presided over by Monsignor Domenico Caliandro of the Archdiocese of Brindisi-Ostuni – paying homage to all sailors, both military and civilian, who died during war or peacetime, giving their own life for their country.

After lighting the flame on the votive memorial altar, the Chief of the Italian Navy, Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, accompanied by the authorities attending the ceremony, laid a laurel wreath in the crypt of the National Memorial to the Italian Sailors.
At the end of the Holy Mass, the Chief of the Italian Navy highlighted how "this day is full of meaning and evokes intense emotions for all those who work at sea and those who mourn for their dead across the sea.

This celebration is dedicated not only to sailors killed in battle, but also to all those who, through their daily work, accomplish their duty as sailors, military and civilian personnel, examples of courage, tenacity and self-sacrifice".