Italian submarine Enrico Toti (S 506)

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History
Italy
Namesake	Enrico Toti
Builder	Italcantieri Monfalcone
Laid down	15 April 1965[1]
Launched	12 March 1967[1]
Commissioned	22 January 1968[1]
Fate	Transported to Museo della Scienza e della Tecnologia "Leonardo da Vinci", in Milan.
Status	Museum ship
General characteristics [1]
Class and type	Toti-class submarine
Displacement	532 t (524 long tons) surfaced 591 t (582 long tons) submerged
Length	46.2 m (151.6 ft)
Beam	4.7 m (15.4 ft)
Draught	5.7 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
Range	3,000 nmi (5,600 km; 3,500 mi) at 5 kn (9.3 km/h; 5.8 mph) (surfaced)
Complement	4 officers and 22 men
Armament	4 × 533 mm (21 inch) torpedo tubes

S506 Enrico Toti in action.

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

History[]

Control system for wire-guided torpedoes (the pictures on the screens are not genuine).

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 what is called the "classe Toti". They are small submarines (so small that they were called “pocket sized submarines”), employed from the late 1960s until the end of the 90s. They were conceived to work inside the Mediterranean sea and have never had to face real war situations. They had two main tasks:

• patrol the Mediterranean sea with special attention to the Channel of Sicily during the Cold War; for this reason their main base was the Military Arsenal of Augusta (Syracuse);
• participate in NATO exercises with other submarines (US).

The 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 the 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 still^[when?] in Augusta and are scheduled for scrapping.

Recently^[when?], a stray female cat was found near the museum and personnel brought her in the Toti, where she lives and is called "the last captain of the Toti".

In 2016, the Italian telephonic company TIM filmed a TV spot with people dancing, including Santa Claus on a beach, some Star Wars First Order Stormtroopers, an astronaut with an Apollo/Skylab A7L spacesuit on the Moon and two sailors on the harbour mole-like entrance of the museum ship.

Technical data[]

The number under the periscope.

• Length: 46 m
• Width: 4,75 m
• Speed: 9.5 knots in surface, 14 knots underwater
• Operational depth: 150 m
• Test depth: 300m
• Displacement: 530 tons in surface, 590 tons underwater
• Engines: 1 electrical propeller engine (900 hp); two Fiat diesel engines (1040 hp) generating electrical power.
• Armament: 4 launcher tubes for 533-mm torpedoes; wire-guided electrical torpedoes with auto-guided warhead.

References[]

See also[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Enrico Toti (S 506).

• Moore, John (1979). Jane's Fighting Ships 1979–80. London: Jane's Yearbooks. ISBN 0-354-00587-1.

Coordinates: 45°27′42″N 9°10′16″E / 45.461692°N 9.171123°E / 45.461692; 9.171123