Emperor Caligula, like his predecessor Emperor Tiberius, liked to spend his summers sailing in Lake Nemi.
One ship was a floating temple dedicated to the goddess Diana.
The other was a floating pleasure palace.
Both ships were of nearly identical size, with one slightly larger than the other.
The palaces were equipped with plumbing and had hot water delivered to the baths through lead pipes.
He was assassinated by an alliance of Praetorian Guard, senators, and courtiers in 41 AD.
Shortly after his death, the ships were sunk intentionally.
Image credit:Stefano_Valeri/Shutterstock.com
Caligulas ships were gone, but not forgotten.
The first attempt to recover the ships was commissioned by Pope Prospero Colonna in the mid-1400s.
A floating platform was made and expert divers brought from Genoa were sent down to the bottom.
But the ships were too massive to the brought to the surface.
All they managed was to tear off some planks.
The second attempt took place in 1535 under the directionof Francesco De Marchi.
The timber beams he carved into walking sticks and boxes.
It would need another four hundred years and the audacity of a fascist dictator to uncover the ships.
Five months later, the first ship broke the surface.
Two years later, the second ship was exposed.
Then something curious happened.
The lake bed, released of this enormous weight, began to bounce up and erupted in mud flows.
This caused the lake floor to subside threatening the exposed ships.
Work was suspended for almost a year.
The museum was inaugurated in 1936.
It is not known whether the fires were started because of US bombing or German arson.
Both parties blame the other.
The ships were almost totally destroyed.
Only some bronzes and materials that were already moved to museums in Rome survived.
Today, only scaled replicas of the ships exist at the museum.
Benito Mussolini attends the inauguration of the museum housing the Nemi ships.
