3rd April 1943, Golfo di Orosei, Sardinia

The Nasello, a 42m Italian owned steam merchant ship of 314 gross register tonnage, is en-route from Olbia to the port of Cagliari, Sardinia. She is sailing under the name F67 for the Italian navy.

At 13:15 she was off the renowned Cala Luna beach in the Golfo di Orosei, when she was shelled by the British submarine HMS Safari. The Nasello sank immediately, her steam boilers exploding and ripping apart the central section of the ship. The bow and the stern sections are largely intact and now sit upright, on sand, at a depth of between 30 and 34 metres.

HMS Safari’s logbook reads:

04:00 hours: We sail in the north of the Golfo di Orosei - From heading E.N.E. no ship is visible, just an airplane flies over us every now and then.
11:37 hours: We spot a steam ship, close to the coast, coming from the North on its way south. We approach to attack it.

12:15 hours: It is hard to distinct the steam ship from the rocks, as there is hardly any contrast between them. As it appears, the ship was a former fishing boat now reconstructed as a mine sweeper, approximately 350 Tons, armed with 2 machine guns on the bow and more on the deck. It is not directly necessary to shoot on the boat, as it is travelling with a speed of 9 knots and it looks very similar to a normal fishing boat. We assume that the enemy has used the boat to bomb other ships.

12:29 hours: We surface and open fire with the deck canon from 1100 meters. The ship does not answer our fire but tries to escape to the coast. The distance from the boat to the coast is approximately 1 mile south of Cala Gonone (40°10’ N,09°40° E). The first shot fires over the ship, the second blows the exhausts, the third shot is nothing. The crew is not able to solve the problem, we had to wait the entire day before the canon was back to operation. We opened fire again. We have hit the side just on the waterline. While the crew of the Nasello is leaving the ship with its rescue boats, the sea starts to get bumpy and it is hard to keep course. We want to make sure the Nasello sinks before she reaches shore. We fire 54 times and have some good results. The attack ends around mid day and we see no reaction from Cala Gonone.

4th June 2008, Golfo di Orosei, Sardinia

The dive rib of the Argonauta dive centre, Cala Gonone drops it’s anchor into the clear turquoise water of the Golfo di Orosei just off the bow of the wreck of the Nasello. On board are Eimear and Richard, plus Simon the dive guide and two ‘students’ who are about to do their first deep wreck dive as one of the PADI advanced speciality dives. Cinzia, the slightly bonkers Italian woman who runs the Argonauta dive centre, is coxing the boat.
At 30m the amount of light and horizontal clarity of the water is amazing, from the bow it feels like almost the whole length of the wreck is visible. The bow section is largely intact with shoals of nocturnal fish hiding in the dark-spaces inside. A large scorpion fish sits, waiting, perfectly camouflaged on a cross beam. Moving towards the stern over the broken middle section we slowly ascend to deck level, shoals of dark damoiselle type fish above us. At the stern a large conger momentarily breaks cover as it moves between hiding holes. We briefly encounter the other 3 divers, the students are in a hurry, clearly wanting to make it back to the anchor line while they still have some air. We have the wreck to ourselves, doing another complete circuit as we slowly ascend, the details slowly merging into a panoramic view of the entire wreck. Finally at 15m the Nasello disappears and we head across to the anchor line for the final ascent and safety stops.

History

The Nasello was launched in Hamburg in 1924. She was Italian owned and registered in Rome.

HMS Safari (P211) was an S class submarine built by Cammel Laird Shipyard, Birkenhead. She was launched on 18th November 1941 and had a crew of 48. Her war was spent mostly in the western Mediterranean around the islands of Sardinia and Corsica, although she did patrol off Croatia during October 1942. From 14 October 1941 to 27 April 1943 she was under the command of Cdr. Benjamin Bryant, DSC, RN, who was awarded the DSO on 3 March 1943. The week following the sinking of the Nasello was a busy time for the Safari and her crew. The same day as sinking the Nasello she attacked and sank the fishing vessel S. Francisco di Paola A (77 GRT) using gunfire, three days later she failed to sink the the Italian merchant Cap Figalo (2811 GRT) off Cagliari, three days after that she sank the Italian auxiliary minesweeper No. 295/Bella Italia (117 GBRT) with gunfire off Cape Carbonara. The following day (the 10th) she intercepted a convoy torpedoing the Italian merchants Loredan (1355 GRT), Entella (2691 GRT) and the Italian tanker Isonzo (3363 GRT) near Cape Torre delle Stelle off Cagliari, Sardinia. This was the last patrol that Cdr. Bryant commanded the Safari.
HMS Safari survived the war and was sold for scrap. She sank SE of Portland, on 8th January 1946, while on the way to the breakers yard.

Newsletter Articles

Notes from the Chair
Curragh Renunion
The “Nasello”, a Sardinian “Guide Me”
Ballycastle Newsletter
Sardinia Diving
Testing Time
Trainee

Images