Italy – Regia Marina San Giorgio, San Marco Cuniberti’s cruisers The San Giorgio class were a counterpoint to the previous unsatisfactory Pisa class. The latter impressed enough the Greeks however to become the Giorgios Averoff, flagship of the navy, with a very long career. Engineer Edoardo Masdea was entrusted with improving the design, but on … Read more
Italy (1896-22) 52 ships From Torpedo boats to destroyers Audace in 1918 Development of Italian torpedo boats had a lot to do with its immediate Adriatic neighbour and rival, Austria-Hungary. Indeed it’s a subject of the Empire which in the late 1860s and early 1870s developed for the first time a new kind of naval … Read more
Italy (1911) Scout Cruiser The best Italian scout cruiser The Quarto was the third Italian modern scout cruiser in service in 1915, when Italy went at war on the side of the entente. She was a light protected cruiser of the Regia Marina started in 1910 at Venice Admiralty NyD and often favourably compared to … Read more
Italy (1912) Nino Bixio, Marsala The first modern Italian scouts The Nino Bixio class were protected cruisers of the Regia Marina built in Castellammare before WW1. Their main duty was as scouts for the main fleet, therefore emphasis was put on a high speed. However they proved quickly overweight and never reached their intended speed … Read more
Italy (1916/1937): Battleships Caio Duilio, Andrea Doria Cavour’s sister class: Doria The Andrea Doria class (or Caio Duilio class for Italians sources) was the last dreadnought battleship class of the Regia Marina to see service in WW1, started in 1912 and completed 1916. The Andrea Doria and Caio Duilio were an incremental improvement over the … Read more
Italy Dreadnought Battleship (1910). The first Italian Dreadnought With limited industrial capabilities compared to the UK, Italy could not compete in numbers or construction time, when the first world war broke out. Therefore only six of them were built, a “prototype”, the Dante Alighieri, and two series, the Cesare and Cavour, five ships total, partially … Read more
Italy – Regia Marina Pisa, Amalfi Based on the Regina Elena Battleships These two ships were designed in August 1904 by engineer Giuseppe Orlando on the model of the Regina Elena, but in reduced version. They were started at Orlando, Leghorn, and Odero at Sestri Ponente in February and July 1905, launched in September 1907 … Read more
Italy – Regia Marina – Regina Elena, Roma, Vittorio Emmanuele, Napoli The world’s fastest battleships The last Italian pre-dreadnought battleships were by far the best, and even precursors of a new type of battleship, the Dreadnought. The minister of the navy in 1899, Giovanni Bettolo asked Vittorio Cuniberti, the chief shipbuilding engineer, to prepare the … Read more
Italy (1891-98) – Umbria, Lombardia, Etruria, Liguria, Elba, Puglia The “Regionali” class, first Italian-designed protected cruisers In 1887, Chief Engineer Edoardo Masdea designed a serie of lightweight protected cruisers designed to perform a variety of roles with a limited budget. The first, Umbria, was started in 1888 in Orlando (Leghorn NyD), and as customary was … Read more
Italy (1901) Regina Margherita, Benedetto Brin Brin’s modern battleships The two ships of the Margherita class, were the first large Italian modern battleships designed in 1898 by Benedetto Brin, admiral, chief engineer and later minister of the navy. They were fast and powerful albeit at the cost of some protection. Main armament was massive, since … Read more
