Italian cruiser Piemonte

Piemonte in 1889
Class overview
Preceded by:	Etna-class cruiser
Succeeded by:	Regioni-class cruiser
Completed:	1
Scrapped:	1
History
Kingdom of Italy
Name:	Piemonte
Builder:	Armstrong Whitworth
Laid down:	1887
Launched:	23 August 1888
Completed:	8 August 1889
Acquired:	30 July 1888
Struck:	15 May 1920
Fate:	Broken up, 1920
General characteristics
Type:	Protected cruiser
Displacement:	2,473 long tons (2,513 t)
Length:	310 ft (94.5 m) (p/p)
Beam:	38 ft (11.6 m)
Draft:	15 ft (4.6 m)
Installed power:	12,000 ihp (8,900 kW) 4 Scotch marine boilers
Propulsion:	2 shafts, 2 vertical triple-expansion steam engines
Speed:	22 knots (41 km/h; 25 mph)
Range:	7,000 nautical miles (13,000 km; 8,100 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement:	12 officers and 245 men
Armament:	6 × 6-inch (15 cm)/40 guns 6 × 4.7-inch (12 cm)/40 guns 10 × 6-pounder Hotchkiss guns 6 × 1-pounder Hotchkiss guns 3 × 14-inch (360 mm) torpedo tubes
Armor:	Deck: 1–3 in (25–76 mm) Conning tower: 3 in (76 mm) Gun shields: 4.5 in (114 mm)

Piemonte was a unique protected cruiser built for the Italian Regia Marina (Royal Navy) in the 1880s by the British shipyard Armstrong Whitworth. She was the first major warship armed entirely with quick-firing (QF) guns and she was also the fastest cruiser in the world upon her completion in 1889. Piemonte was frequently deployed overseas, including a lengthy tour in East Asian waters from 1901 to 1904. She saw significant action during the Italo-Turkish War in 1911–12 in the Red Sea, where she frequently bombarded Ottoman ports. During the Battle of Kunfuda Bay in January 1912, she and two destroyers sank four Ottoman gunboats and forced ashore three more. Piemonte participated in World War I but she saw little action during the conflict. She remained in service until 1920, when she was scrapped.

The first design by the newly hired naval architect Philips Watts for Armstrong Whitworth, Piemonte was designed as an improved version of the Italian cruiser Dogali. The ship was built as a speculative venture and was purchased by Italy on 30 July 1888 for delivery in six months. Her intended armament consisted of two 8-inch (203 mm) and four 6-inch (152 mm) guns, all breech-loading weapons, but the Italians insisted that she be equipped with six 6-inch QF guns. The changes to the magazines and the addition of large sponsons to accommodate the QF guns significantly delayed her completion.Piemonte was the first major warship to be armed with medium-caliber, quick-firing guns; these weapons would become the standard armament for cruisers in the 1890s.

...
Wikipedia