Galatea - Marina Militare

Marina Militare




Galatea "Felix galatea vivas" The ship and her history Galatea was delivered to the Italian Navy in 2002. A catamaran in FRP (Fibre Reinforced Plastic), it was designed to carry out hydro-oceanographic surveys at high sea and in harbours and shallow waters, in order to guarantee the production and updating of nautical charts. Technical features: • Displacement: 415 t. • Length: 39,21 m. • Beam: 12,60 m. • Draught: 2,50 m. • Range: 1700 miles at 13 knots Main activities: • sounding; • minimum depth; • topography of shorelines and port facilities; • seabed features; • collection of nautical and geographical data for the updating of nautical documentation; • detection of sunken vessels or dangerous underwater obstacles. The collected data are then processed by means of dedicated software programs and then used to produce: • paper and electronic nautical charts for the safety of navigation; • Additional Military Layers; • nautical, scientific and technical documentation for mariners; • oceanographic databases for scientific purposes. According to the legend, Galatea was a goddess-nymph of the sea, daughter of Nereus and Doris. Galatea attracted the attention of the cyclop Polyphemos, but the nymph spurned his advances because she was in love with a handsome Sicilian youth named Akis. Seeing the two lovers, Polyphemos fell into a jealous rage and crushed the boy beneath a rock. Galatea, grief-striken, transformed him into a stream. The myth was depicted by Raphael Sanctius (1483-1520) and Baldassarre Peruzzi (1481-1536) in the Farnesina Palace, in Rome.