explorer naval officer mountain climber
He was born in Madrid, Spain, Jan. 29, 1873. His father, second son of King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy, was Prince Amadeo of Savoy, Duke of Aosta, and King of Spain (1870–1873).(1870n1873). The boy, born two weeks before his father abdicated the Spanish throne and fled the country, was named Luigi Amadeo, Prince of Savoy-Aosta.
He was enrolled by his father as a cabin boy in the Italian navy at the age of six, attended the Royal Naval Academy from 1884 to 1889, and at 20 was commander of a gunboat and leader of a punitive expedition against natives of the northeast coast of Africa. He climbed the Matterhorn in 1894; and made the first ascent of Mt. St. Elias in Alaska in 1897. He led a polar expedition in 1900 that reached 86°86d 34' north latitude, the farthest north to be reached at that time. Because of an accident the duke was unable to accompany his companions on their final dash. In 1906 he climbed, measured, and named the 16 highest peaks of the Ruwenzori Mountains, legendary Mountains of the Moon, in Africa; and in 1909, in the Himalayas, reached the unprecedented height of 22,650 feet (6,904 meters) on Mt. Godwin-Austen (K2) and 24,000 feet (7,300 meters) on Bride Peak. Made a rear admiral in 1910, he was in command of naval operations which included the bombardment of Tripoli in 1911. A vice admiral during World War I, he was commander of the Italian fleet and one of the ranking Allied naval officers in the Adriatic. Retiring from active service in 1917 because of disagreements with his chief of staff, Vice Admiral Paolo Thaon di Revel, he explored and surveyed large areas of Abyssinia, later settling on a farm in Italian Somaliland and supervising the colonization of the country. He died at Villaggio Duca Abruzzi (Abruzzi City), Italian Somaliland, Mar. 18, 1933.
