Cesare Rossarol was a light cruiser of the Italian Navy. Originally the Rossarol was a 85 meter long and 8m wide steamship which was launched in 1914. With three boilers and two turbines the engine produced 24,000 horsepower towards the shafts. While using the two drive shafts with 3 blade propellers the Rossarol could achieve a speed of 32 knots – Almost 60 km/h.

On November 16, 1918, the Cesare Rossarol was supposed to bring a South Slavic official from Pola to Fiume, who was there to convince Serbo-Croatian combat units to tolerate the Italian occupation of the city. As the Rossarol rounded the southern tip of Istria, she ran into a sea mine. The mine hit broke the ship apart. Both parts sank within a few minutes to 44° 50’ N, 13° 59’ E off Lisignano. Since the crew was eating lunch, a large part was trapped in the fuselage. 93 crew members lost their lives, only 34 survived.

The wreck lies in around 50m water depth in Croatia. Please note that on the sea bottom the distance of the stern section and bow section is around 300m.

Diving

The depth is almost 50m. On our dives we had a poor visibility. The models would have been better if the conditions were better, but we only had this one day on the wreck. We did this tour with the diving center: Shark Medulin / Croatia

Bow section

The bow and the middle part is is 53,3m long and capsized. That was the reason why so many soldiers couldn’t escape while sinking.

Stern section

In this area you can find a steering wheel, two guns, the machine telegraph, an optical instrument, the screw and many other interesting parts.

Fragments

I measured the three main fragments and came to the conclusion that there is no bigger part of the hull missing.

Combined model

Here I combined the sections. You can find the 3D-Files here: Download