Ammiraglio di Saint Bon-class battleship
 Ammiraglio di Saint Bon
| |
| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Name | Ammiraglio di Saint Bon class |
| Operators |  Regia Marina |
| Preceded by | Re Umberto class |
| Succeeded by | Regina Margherita class |
| Built | 1893–1902 |
| In commission | 1901–1920 |
| Completed | 2 |
| Retired | 2 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Pre-dreadnought battleship |
| Displacement |
|
| Length | 111.8 m (366 ft 10 in) |
| Beam | 21.12 m (69 ft 3 in) |
| Draft | 7.69 m (25 ft 3 in) |
| Installed power |
|
| Propulsion |
|
| Speed | 18.3 knots (33.9 km/h; 21.1 mph) |
| Range | 5,500 nmi (10,200 km; 6,300 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
| Complement | 557 |
| Armament |
|
| Armor |
|
The Ammiraglio di Saint Bon class was a pair of pre-dreadnought battleships built for the Italian Navy (Italian: Regia Marina) during the 1890s. The class comprised two ships: Ammiraglio di Saint Bon, the lead ship, and Emanuele Filiberto. They were armed with a main battery of four 254 mm (10 in) guns and were capable of a top speed of 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph). Smaller and less powerfully-armed than most contemporary battleships, they marked a brief departure from Italian capital ship design, which had previously emphasized large ships equipped with large guns.
Both ships served in the active duty squadron early in their careers, and participated in the Italo-Turkish War of 1911–1912. They took part in the Italian offensives in North Africa and the island of Rhodes, but did not see combat with the Ottoman fleet. They were reduced to harbor defense ships by the outbreak of World War I, and they spent the war in Venice. The ships were discarded shortly after the end of the war, both having been stricken in 1920.
Design
The previous Italian
The ships, much smaller than their contemporaries, and slower than cruisers, were not particularly useful warships. The mistake of building a battleship of only 10,000 tons was not repeated in the subsequent, and much more successful, Regina Margherita class.[2]
General characteristics and machinery
The ships of the Ammiraglio di Saint Bon class were 105 meters (344 ft 6 in)
The ships had an
The ships' propulsion system consisted of two
Armament and armor
The ships were armed with a
The ships were protected with Harvey steel. The main belt was 249 mm (9.8 in) thick, and the deck was 70 mm (2.75 in) thick. The conning tower was protected by 249 mm of armor plating on the sides. The main battery guns also had 249 mm thick plating on the turrets, and the casemates were 150 mm (5.9 in) thick.[2]
Ships of the class
| Name | Builder[2] | Laid down[2]
|
Launched[2] | Completed[2] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammiraglio di Saint Bon | Venetian Arsenal | 18 July 1893 | 29 April 1897 | 24 May 1901 |
| Emanuele Filiberto | Regio Cantiere di Castellammare di Stabia | 5 October 1893 | 29 September 1897 | 16 April 1902 |
Service
Both ships took part in the Italo-Turkish War in 1911–1912 in the 3rd Division with the two Regina Margherita-class battleships.[5] Emanuele Filiberto took part in the attack on Tripoli in October 1911,[6] though Ammiraglio di Saint Bon did not see action in the first months of the war. Both ships participated in the seizure of the island of Rhodes, where Ammiraglio di Saint Bon provided gunfire support to the soldiers ashore.[7]
The two ships were slated to be scrapped in 1914–1915 due to their age, but the outbreak of
Footnotes
References
- Beehler, William Henry (1913). The History of the Italian-Turkish War: September 29, 1911, to October 18, 1912. Annapolis: United States Naval Institute. OCLC 1408563.
- Fraccaroli, Aldo (1979). "Italy". In Gardiner, Robert (ed.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. Annapolis: Conway Maritime Press. pp. 334–359. ISBN 978-0-85177-133-5.
- Halpern, Paul G. (1995). A Naval History of World War I. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-55750-352-7.
- Hore, Peter (2006). The Ironclads. London: Southwater Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84476-299-6.
- Leyland, John (1908). Brassey, Thomas A. (ed.). "Italian Manoeuvres". The Naval Annual. Portsmouth: J. Griffin & Co.: 76–81.
- Sondhaus, Lawrence (1994). The Naval Policy of Austria-Hungary, 1867–1918. West Lafayette: Purdue University Press. ISBN 978-1-55753-034-9.
- Willmott, H. P. (2009). The Last Century of Sea Power (Volume 1, From Port Arthur to Chanak, 1894–1922). Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-35214-9.
Further reading
- Fraccaroli, Aldo (1970). Italian Warships of World War I. London: Ian Allan. ISBN 978-0-7110-0105-3.
External links
- Ammiraglio di Saint Bon (1897) Marina Militare website
