Beautiful Italian Royal Navy "Usodimare" torpedo boat badge, in polychrome enamel.

Beautiful Royal Navy "Usodimare" torpedo boat badge, in polychrome enamel.

The Antoniotto Usodimare was an explorer and later a destroyer of the Royal Navy.

The Usodimare was named after the Genoese navigator Antoniotto Usodimare, born in 1416, who explored the western coasts of Africa for Henry the Navigator, Infante of Portugal. He disappeared under unknown circumstances around 1461.

The ship's motto, Navigare necesse, is taken from the famous phrase uttered by Pompey to his sailors: Navigare necesse est, vivere non est necesse.