Giovanni Di Trapani, in the wake of the Calino: memories of silence. Fictionalized historical research: a tale of the misadventure of the merchant motor vessel Calino, Guida editori, Naples 2024, pages 192
(by Pasquale Giustiniani)
Expert on naval units and naval history - an important story especially following the Royal Decree n. 1483 of 5 September 1943, which classified warships into nine main categories (see Legend on pages 187 to 192 of the book) -, here is Giovanni Di Trapani - almost giving substance to a wish, or rather to a vow of the sailors Oreste (cross for military valor in 1941) and Nicola, who had both sworn to carry on the memory of the Calino (see page 123; Technical data sheet on pages 167 to 170) -, gives us a gripping fictionalized story - as the subtitle of this book promises, and keeps. The Author almost paints that memory, during the intense narration, in a clear and documented historical horizon (also reconstructed narratively on the basis of the Logbook (pages 171 to 175).
Thus, Oreste, a young man full of dreams and hopes, whose innocence is torn away by the war, is "forced" to discover that the sea is not just an expanse of water: "getting on the Calino was like crossing an invisible threshold between two worlds" (page 151). The fictionalized story is above all, but not only, this memory of Oreste, "a young twenty-year-old born and raised in Chiaiano" (page 32), who soon embarks in a dimension of floating community (compare page 155), which replaces the original town close to the great Naples: Chiaiano, where «the community was everything to him, a microcosm of solidarity and traditions», where «the echo of the war began to be felt» (pages 32 to 33).
But then it is not just an echo: Oreste receives, in fact, the call to arms, becomes a young gunner in the «war at sea» (page 34), right on the ship Calino: a ship with camouflage - one of the various examples «of conversion of civilian ships for military purposes» (page 44) -. Both a civil and military convoy, the Calino sailed along the routes of the Mediterranean, which «during the Second World War… became a strategic battlefield, where every sea route had crucial importance» (page 43).  The role of transport ships such as the Calino… in supporting the campaigns in North Africa was in fact great, the Author informs us» (page 46). Indeed, «the Calino and the other transport ships, often overshadowed by history compared to the great naval battles, were instead the true pillars on which the Italian war effort in the Mediterranean was based» (page 47). After all, the Royal Navy - as we know from the historical point of view and researcher of the CNR of Trapani - was, in a certain way, a bit of an heir to the ships deployed at the beginning of the Battle of Trafalgar, after the stern turn ordered by Villeneuve, when: «the British divided into the two columns of windward and leeward, those of the combined Franco-Spanish fleet divided into the various squadrons, from Dumanoir's vanguard to the so-called observation squadron of Gravina, which closed the formation» faced each other at Trafalgar (From Gastone Breccia, Trafalgar. The naval battle, Giulio Einaudi editore, Turin 2024, Legenda di p. 292). It will be remembered that Nelson's naval squadron had dropped anchor right in the Gulf of Naples, on 22 September 1798, before the admiral conceived «with great lucidity the tactical plan of the battle that he would try to impose on the French» (Gastone Breccia, quotation, page 57). An admiral will judge, as we will see, also the two commanders, civil and military, of the sunken Calino.
The various missions of the Calino, recounted by Di Trapani, are not “battles”; above all, they sail between Naples and Africa: here is Tobruk (page 59), passing through the crucial year - as the Author calls it -, which is 1941: «the year in which the ship and its crew faced numerous risky missions, escaping mortal dangers several times» (page 61). In turn, 1942 is «a year in which the ship continued to plough the treacherous waters of the Mediterranean, braving dangers and completing missions crucial to the Italian war effort» (page 69)…; these are missions towards Bari, Patras, Rhodes and Bizerta, dodging enemy torpedoes, sometimes almost for supernatural help «in that series of escaped dangers» (page 75). The ship Calino is becoming, as our Author notes, «more and more a symbol of hope and resilience for those who depended on those supplies» (page 81). Until the crucial moment of the recovery of the Pentcho, ((⏱️=400))as the sixth Chapter narrates: «an old paddle steamer of Bulgarian manufacture», which had taken on board about 500 Jews, fleeing Nazi persecution (pages 85 to 86). Sunk among the rocks of the Italian Dodecanese, as many as 200 Jewish shipwrecked sailors from Pentcho boarded the Calino: those sailors, including Oreste, thus became the guardians of innocent lives; then, when little Benito was born on board, «the Calino, which before was just one ship among many engaged in the war effort, takes on a new, almost sacred value for them» (page 96). By now the ship is real, but also metaphorical. Indeed, it is a symbol of hope in the midst of the horrors of war, especially after a British attack suffered by the Calino in the port of Palermo: in fact, «the attack, although unsuccessful, made the crew understand how vulnerable they were even when they felt safe» (page 104). And behold, at the first light of dawn between 9 and 10 January 1943, while the ship was proceeding off the coast of Capri, a mine hit the Calino, which began to sink (see page 119): «Oreste and Nicola, sitting in the lifeboat, exchanged a look full of pain and understanding» (page 121). By now, «for Oreste and Nicola, the sea was no longer just a stretch of water; had become the guardian of their past, the tomb of a part of themselves» (page 123).
After the sinking, the civilian commander, Salvio Diodato, and the military commander, Aldo Scarpin, had to undergo an interrogation in the Port Authority of Naples, aimed at ascertaining what actions they had put in place from the departure from Bizerta until the sinking of the Calino (see page 129), why they had not corrected the route, had not immediately ordered the abandonment of the ship, what they knew about the mines at sea…: «Both commanders were found responsible for negligence, although to a different extent» (page 138), but, in the end, it was recognized that the causes of the sinking were complex and could not be directly attributed to the two commanders.
But above all, the disappearance of the Calino ship will become a warning - to be re-listened to today - "on the fragility of human efforts in the face of the destructive power of war" (page 141). An even stronger and more urgent warning, in this time of polycrisis.