Enrico Morin

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Enrico Constantino Morin (born May 5, 1841 in Genoa , † September 13, 1910 in Forte dei Marmi ) was an Italian naval officer and politician. In the cabinets of Crispi (2nd and 3rd) , Saracco and Zanardelli , he was Minister of the Navy in 1893/94, from 1894 to 1896, 1900/01 and from 1901 to 1903, and in April / May 1902 also ad interim Minister of War and in the Giolitti cabinet (2.) Foreign Minister of his country from February 9 to September 3, 1903.

Life and military career

Morin's father served in the navy of Sardinia-Piedmont and so Morin joined the Naval School in Genoa in November 1852 at the age of 11, after having attended a Piarist school for some time , which he left as an ensign 2nd class in November 1857. In the next few years he served on various ships and gradually rose in rank: In March 1860 he became a sub-lieutenant in the sea, in November of the same year he became a lieutenant in the sea. Since 1863 he was also a lecturer in marine tactics at the naval school, so that periods of sea service and lecturer times alternated. In 1864 he became a first lieutenant at sea, and in July 1865 he was transferred to the Navy Ministry in Florence . During the Third Italian War of Independence , he returned to sea service in 1866 and took part in the naval battle of Lissa .

In 1868 he became the commandant of the Daino , on which the Vice-Admiral Prince Amadeus of Savoy was supposed to gain his first seafaring experience. This was followed by command posts on various other ships, during which he was promoted to frigate captain in 1871, he also dealt with questions of naval war tactics and their consequences for warship construction and published these considerations in 1873/74 in a series of articles in the journal Rivista marittima . From November 1873 to December 1874 he served again in the Navy Ministry, now in Rome , where he was particularly concerned with training issues for ship artillery crews and with the then new torpedo weapon . 1875 to 1877 followed again sea service before Morin was appointed head of department in the Ministry of the Navy, where he was promoted to sea captain in 1878.

From 1879 to 1882, Morin circumnavigated the world westward as the Garibaldi's commander , staying off the South American coast from May 1880 to June 1881 to observe the saltpeter war and to be able to evacuate Italian citizens if necessary. On its return through the Suez Canal, the ship evacuated Italian and Austro-Hungarian citizens who had been surprised by the anti-European uprising under Ahmed Urabi Pascha and served as cover for a convoy of eleven merchant ships of various origins that was forming .

Upon his return, he was appointed director of artillery and torpedo operations at the La Spezia naval base . Here he married Costanza, b. Fenzi, from a wealthy Florentine banking family. The marriage resulted in two daughters and a son. This was also a naval officer and made it up to the rear admiral . Morin himself was promoted to rear admiral in La Spezia in 1888, the promotion to vice admiral took place immediately before his appointment as Minister of the Navy at the end of 1893. Before that, he had headed the Genoa Naval School for two and a half years.

After his provisional resignation as minister in 1896, he returned to higher command posts in the Navy and in the Navy Ministry. After his final resignation from the government in 1903, he became Commander in Chief of the Italian Mediterranean Fleet and retired in 1906.

Political career

In 1889, Morin came in a by-election for the first time for a Florentine constituency in the Italian Chamber of Deputies, where he adhered to the left-wing liberals. In 1890 he was re-elected for a constituency in Genoa and in 1892/93 and 1895 for the constituency of La Spezia. The promotion to vice admiral meant according to the law of the time the automatic departure from the Chamber of Deputies, but with the chance to win the mandate again in a by-election. In March 1897 Morin resigned from the Chamber of Deputies, in June 1900 he was appointed Senator for life.

As Minister of the Navy, he was initially particularly concerned with training issues: He shortened the duration of the courses at the Navy School from five to three years. To compensate, he raised the minimum entry age to 19 and tightened the professional admission requirements. Due to the desperate situation of the Italian state finances, his term of office was determined by the strictest thrift, which made him less popular in the ranks of the navy. During his second term as Secretary of the Navy were the construction of a battleship - Squadron and securing the connections to Eritrea and Italian Somaliland in the foreground.

As foreign minister he tried to establish friendly relations with the partners of the Triple Alliance as well as with the states of the Entente cordiale .

Publications

  • Degli ordini e delle evoluzioni d'una flotta (series of articles in Rivista marittima , 1873/74)
  • La difesa marittima dell'Italia (article in Rivista marittima , 1878)
  • La guerra in America (article in Rivista marittima , 1880)
  • Viaggio della R. corvetta "Garibaldi" from Singapore a Mahé (article in Rivista marittima , 1882).

Others

In Pietrasanta there is a street Via Enrico Morin , in his place of death Forte dei Marmi there is a Viale Ammiraglio Enrico Morin in his memory.

Individual evidence

  1. a b c Entry "MORIN Costantino" on the website of the Italian Senate.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed March 22, 2016.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / notes9.senato.it  
  2. a b c d e f g h i Article MORIN, Costantino Enrico in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani , Volume 76, 2012, accessed on March 22, 2016.