History

Giuseppe Miraglia was laid down in 1921 as the train ferry

Train ferry

A train ferry is a ship designed to carry railway vehicles. Typically, one level of the ship is fitted with railway tracks, and the vessel has a door at the front and/or rear to give access to the wharves. In the United States, train ferries are sometimes referred to as "car ferries", as...

 Citta de Messina, but was acquired by the Regia Marina

Regia Marina

The Regia Marina dates from the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861 after Italian unification...

soon after her launch in 1923. Works to convert her into a seaplane carrier began in 1925, and was commissioned in 1927.

Giuseppe Miraglia participated in the Second Italo-Abyssinian War

Second Italo-Abyssinian War

The Second Italo–Abyssinian War was a colonial war that started in October 1935 and ended in May 1936. The war was fought between the armed forces of the Kingdom of Italy and the armed forces of the Ethiopian Empire...

 and the Spanish Civil War

Spanish Civil War

The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...

. During World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, after surviving the Battle of Taranto

Battle of Taranto

The naval Battle of Taranto took place on the night of 11–12 November 1940 during the Second World War. The Royal Navy launched the first all-aircraft ship-to-ship naval attack in history, flying a small number of obsolescent biplane torpedo bombers from an aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean Sea...

, she was employed in the Mediterranean theatre. After the Armistice she sailed (along with much of the Italian fleet) to Malta

Malta

Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...

 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.
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.

Aircraft facilities

Giuseppe Miraglia could carry some 17 seaplanes (originally Macchi M.18

Macchi M.18

|-See also:-References:* Sapienza Fracchia, Antonio Luis: "La Contribución Italiana en la Aviación Paraguaya". Author's edition. Asunción, 2007. 300 pp....

, later IMAM Ro.43

IMAM Ro.43

|-Newsreel clip:An Italian newsreel footage of a Ro.43 launching from a catapult aboard the Italian light cruiser Eugenio di Savoia can be viewed at YouTube as .-References:...

), and was equipped with two catapults

Aircraft catapult

An aircraft catapult is a device used to launch aircraft from ships—in particular aircraft carriers—as a form of assisted take off. It consists of a track built into the flight deck, below which is a large piston or shuttle that is attached through the track to the nose gear of the aircraft, or in...

. Seaplanes could be retrieved by means of large doors and cranes at the sides of the hangar.