Marsala Ship Marsala Ship The Marsala Ship is the earliest warship known from archeological evidence. It is a wreck discovered in 1969 in an area called "Punta Scario" in the harbor of Marsala in western Sicily, Italy, near the Aegadian Islands. The Marsala Ship's "nationality" was painted on the sides with letters by its Punic builders from Carthage. Its architecture and contents show that it was not a merchant cargo ship. A merchant cargo ship made regular journeys and required large containers for storing water. It also needed grinders and mortars for dried food. It would normally carry large pots for communal
Italian cruiser Marsala at a cruising speed of . "Marsala" was armed with a main battery of six L/50 guns mounted singly. She was also equipped with six L/50 guns and two torpedo tubes. The ship was only lightly armored, with a thick deck, and thick plating on her main conning tower. "Marsala"s keel was laid down at the Castellammare shipyard on 15 February 1911, the same day as "Nino Bixio". Work on "Marsala" proceeded slower than on her sister, and she was launched on 24 March 1912, where she was named for the city where Giuseppe Garibaldi launched the Expedition of the