View source for Italian seaplane carrier Giuseppe Miraglia

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|Ship country=Italy
|Ship flag={{shipboxflag|Kingdom of Italy}}
|Ship name=''Giuseppe Miraglia'' 
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|Ship builder=Regio Arsenale della Spezia
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|Ship laid down=5 March 1921
|Ship launched=20 December 1923
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|Ship commissioned=1 November 1927
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|Ship struck=15 July 1950
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|Ship fate=Scrapped
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{{Infobox Ship Characteristics
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|Ship class=[[seaplane tender]]
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|Ship displacement=5,400 tonnes normal <br>
5,913 tonnes full
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|Ship length=121.22 m
|Ship beam=14.99 m
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|Ship draught=5.82 m
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|Ship propulsion=2 Parsons steam turbines with 8 Yarrow boilers, 2 shafts, 16,700 [[Horsepower#Shaft horsepower|shp]]
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|Ship speed={{convert|21|kn|km/h|0}}
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*16 Officers
*40 NCOs
*240 Ratings
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*4x102mm/35 guns
*12x13.2mm MGs
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*belt 70mm
*deck 80mm
|Ship aircraft=17 seaplanes
|Ship aircraft facilities=2 catapults
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'''Giuseppe Miraglia''' was an Italian [[seaplane tender|seaplane carrier]].

==History==
''Giuseppe Miraglia'' was laid down in 1921 as the [[train ferry]] ''Città di Messina'', intended for use by the [[Italian State Railway Company]], but was acquired by the ''[[Regia Marina]]'' soon after her launch in 1923. Works to convert her into a seaplane carrier began immediately; in 1925, with the ship nearly complete, ''Miraglia'' capsized during a storm. Salvaged under the direction of [[Giuseppe Pugliese]], she was repaired and commissioned in November 1927.<ref name="Warship">Cernuschi, Enrico and Vincent P. O'Hara. ''in'' Jordan, John (2007). ''Warship 2007''. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1844860418. Page 64.</ref>

''Giuseppe Miraglia'' participated in the [[Second Italo-Abyssinian War]] and the [[Spanish Civil War]]. During [[World War II]], after surviving the [[Battle of Taranto]], she was employed in the Mediterranean theatre. After the [[Armistice between Italy and Allied armed forces|Armistice]] she sailed (along with much of the Italian fleet) to [[Malta]] for internment.

After the RN Costal forces MTB depot ship HMS ''Vienna''was straddle by bombs and damaged beyond repair  during the Luftwaffe bombing raid on the Italian  port of Bari on December 2nd 1943 and the subsequent mustard gas disaster the Giuseppe Miraglia  was impressed by the (British) Royal Navy as temporary replacement.{{cn}}

After the War ''Giuseppe Miraglia'' was used to repatriate Italian prisoners-of-war, then spent the rest of her career as a barrack ship and workshop at Taranto until her scrapping in 1950.<ref name="Warship"/>

==Aircraft facilities==
''Giuseppe Miraglia'' could carry some 17 seaplanes (originally [[Macchi M.18]], later [[IMAM Ro.43]]), and was equipped with two [[aircraft catapult|catapults]]. Seaplanes could be retrieved by means of large doors and cranes at the sides of the hangar.

==See also==
* [[List of aircraft carriers]]
* [[List of ship commissionings in 1927]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:1923 ships]]
[[Category:Seaplane carriers of the Regia Marina]]
[[Category:Ships built in Italy]]