The Lucky Stars of the Amerigo Vespucci

Today, the 22nd of February, is the 93rd birthday of one of Europe’s oldest warships still in service – the Amerigo Vespucci. This tall ship has been used mainly to train Italian navy cadets, and it has sailed widely around the world, encountering a wide range of difficult conditions. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLh9Mvr58-E)

For a Navy vessel to survive such a long period of time in active service, a strong element of luck would be required. Indeed her builders went to great lengths to ensure this would be the case. The launch date coincided with the day the explorer Amerigo Vespucci died. They had the local bishop celebrating mass on the morning before the launch, followed by a formal blessing. And finally baptism with a champagne bottle.

The inception chart is shown below. At first sight not a lucky configuration – Sun opposed to Neptune, and a Jupiter-Uranus-Venus T-square. However, a more detailed analysis shows some more positive patterns.

Aries is rising. Mars, lord of first House, indicates the ship as a whole. It is strong in maximum declination, and angular at the Imum Coeli. It is also biquintile the Sun, which is conjunct the fixed star Fomalhaut, traditionally a very positive influence. The Sun was also applying trine Jupiter.

Uranus is at the centre of the T-square. However it is conjunct the North Node, and also the fixed star Alpheratz, both having positive connotations. One could argue that in this context Uranus has transformed into a benign entity, and hence a T-square of positive elements is beneficial.

In this chart the part of Fortune is at midpoint of Jupiter/Pluto, another indicator of good luck.

While much has been written about the charts of enterprises ending in disasters, less is known about fortunate inceptions. There are several other long-lived navy vessels around the world, and their charts will be of great interest.

More details about the actual launch at https://www.cronachedellacampania.it/2022/02/amerigo-vespucci-varo/