Owing to this extent and character of the Italian coast, the government believes that absolute safety cannot be secured, and all that may be expected is the disturbance or defeat of any great attempt at invasion or bombardment. This the officials hope to effect by dividing the attention of the enemy’s fleet, so that secondary means of defence may be utilized against all attacks. The question, therefore, resolves into one of ships. If armored vessels had to resist the gun alone, effectual protection, they reason, could be given by increasing the thickness of armor; but since the invention of torpedoes, and the development of great speed in torpedo-boats, the bottoms of ships and not the armored sides will be the points of successful attack. The best vessels for their needs, therefore, will be such as are capable of making the greatest impression on any given point; that is, such as may be enabled by the partial abandonment of armor to carry enormously heavy guns, and have great speed, the highest coal endurance, and sufficient protection, by new structural devices, to meet without fear any other vessel afloat.
The first fruits of this policy were seen in the central-citadel battle-ships, Duilio and Dandolo. Apart from their novelty, the mere fact that the Italians could produce such machines with home resources was a surprise to the rest of Europe. “The rise of iron ship-building in Italy,” says the London Engineer, “is almost a romance. It owes its origin to the far-seeing efforts of Italy’s greatest statesman, Cavour.... Ten years ago it would have seemed ludicrous to the builders on the Clyde had they been told that a country which had no coal worth speaking of, and whose iron, though abundant, was difficult to get at, and where, moreover, not half a dozen men knew how to do the simplest iron ship-building job, would in the course of those years not only beat them in quality but in price, and would be turning out the largest, the most powerful, and the best built vessels in the world. Such, however, is the case.”
Subsequently the Italian Admiralty realized that the ships of the Duilio design were deficient in speed and coal endurance, and that their construction forbade the efficient use of a secondary armament for defence against torpedo and other auxiliary boats. So, after much earnest study, the Italia type has been adopted. The account in the text needs no amplification here, except to state that in her steam trials she made a maximum speed of 18 and a mean speed of 17.66 knots per hour, although the 18,000 indicated horse-power required by the contract was not developed. Eight of her 6-inch guns, it may be added, have lately been removed.
The Re Umberto and Sicilia are steel barbette ships, similar to the British Admiral class without the partial armor-belt. Their principal dimensions are, length 400 feet, beam 74 feet 9 inches, mean draught 28 feet 7 inches, and displacement 13,251 tons. The engines of the former are to develop 19,500 horse-power and 17 knots. A complete steel deck three and a half inches thick protects the under-water body. The battery is to consist of four 17-inch 106-ton pair-mounted guns, carried on the fore-and-aft line in two barbettes, which are protected by 18.9 inches of steel armor. There are in addition a number of 6-inch breech-loading rifles, and a supply of rapid-fire and machine guns, and of torpedo-tubes. The Sardegna, of the same general type as the Umberto, is now being built at Spezzia.
The Giovanni Bausan, built at Elswick between 1882 and 1885, is a ram-bowed, schooner-rigged steel cruiser, similar to, but larger than, the Esmeralda, her dimensions being, length 280 feet, breadth 42 feet, draught 18½ feet, and displacement about 3100 tons. She has an under-water protective steel deck one and a half inches thick, and cork-filled cellular compartments about the water-line. The coal supply is 600 tons, the coal endurance 5000 miles at 10 knots, and with 6000 horse-power and 116 revolutions she made on trial a speed of 17.5 knots. Her battery consists of two 10-inch, six 6-inch, and a secondary armament of rapid-fire and machine guns, and of torpedo-tubes.
The steel cruisers mentioned in the chapter, the Etna, Stromboli, and Vesuvio, are 283 feet 6 inches in length, 43 feet in beam, 19 feet 3 inches in draught, and displace 3530 tons; with forced draft 7700 indicated horse-power and 19 knots are to be developed. Their armament is to consist of two 10-inch (25-ton) Armstrong breech-loaders, mounted in an unarmored barbette on the fore and aft line, six 6-inch guns on sponsons, eight rapid-fire and machine guns, and four torpedo-tubes—two submerged at the bow and two above water in broadside. The Fieramosca of the same class is slightly different in dimensions, and the Tripoli, Goito, Monzambano, and Montebello are rapid torpedo-cruisers, 229 feet 6 inches in length, 25 feet 10 inches in beam, 9 feet 6 inches in mean draught, and of 741 tons displacement. They were designed to develop 4200 indicated horse-power and a speed of 22 knots; but it is claimed that the Tripoli, which was launched at Castellamare in August, 1886, realized a speed of twenty-four knots, and maintained a twenty-three knot rate for fifty miles. The engines of the Monzambano and Montebello will be triple-expansion, and those of the Tripoli and Goito of the two-cylinder compound inclined type. These vessels have three screws, one shaft coming out underneath the keel at an angle of eight degrees, while the others are carried farther forward on either side. The armament consists of four 57-millimetre and four 37-millimetre rapid-fire guns, of three 37-millimetre revolving cannons, and of five torpedo-tubes, two at the bow, fixed, and three training—one aft and one on each beam. The Confienza, a small twin-screw cruiser of nearly the same dimensions, carries four 4.72-inch guns, together with rapid-fire and machine guns, and five torpedo-tubes. She is to develop 17.5 knots and 2800 horse-power, and, like the Tripoli class in general, has very light steel frames and plating, and resembles outwardly an enlarged torpedo-boat. The Folgore and Saetta are torpedo-vessels, similar in type to the Tripoli, but smaller; the Archimede and the Galileo are armed despatch-vessels of the Barbarigo type; and the Volturno and Curtatone are cruising gun-vessels. Other notable additions to the fleet are the partially protected steel cruiser Angelo Emo, of 2100 tons, the Dogali, and the National Line steamer America. The Angelo Emo was designed by Mr. White, and built at Elswick for the Greek government, but subsequently she was bought by the Italians, and has, under her new name, made a capital record. The Dogali is a twin-screw, lightly protected steel cruiser, built at Elswick. The displacement is 2000 tons, length 250 feet, and beam 37 feet; on the first trial the triple-expansion engines developed 8100 horse-power and a speed of 18.5 knots, and later, with 7600 horse-power and 154 revolutions, a speed of 19.66 knots was attained. The armament is to consist of six 5-inch guns mounted on sponsons—two on the forecastle, two on the poop, and two in the waist.
The America is 441 feet 8 inches in length over all, 51 feet 3 inches in beam, 38 feet 5 inches in depth, draws 26 feet aft, displaces 6500 tons, has a coal capacity of 1550 tons, and develops 9000 horse-power and a maximum speed of 17 knots on a consumption of 216 tons of coal per day. She is built of steel, was launched in 1884, purchased in January, 1887, and when refitted is to do duty as a torpedo-depot and transport-vessel. Two iron cruising gun-vessels, the Miseno and Palinuro, of 548 tons displacement, 430 horse-power, and 10 knots speed, have lately been added to the fleet.
RUSSIA.
Russia has shown a marked independence in policy and design. Penned in the Black Sea by treaties, and blockaded in the Baltic for nearly half the year by ice, she has sought in coast-defence vessels, fast commerce-destroyers and torpedo-vessels, the fleet best suited to her necessities. In 1864 a number of monitors, built mainly upon Ericsson’s system, were launched, and later four vessels, sea-going, ten-knot turret-ships, were constructed. These are known as the Admiral class, and range in displacement from 3754 in the Lazareff to 3693 in the Tchitchachoff. About 1871 a radical departure was made by the adoption for the Crimean defence of the circular or Popoffka type. As the shallow waters of this coast forbade the employment of anything normal in design except light, unarmored gun-boats, recourse was had to a structure of circular form, which with heavy weights could carry a great displacement upon a relatively small draught. Two of these batteries, the Novgorod and the Admiral Popoff, were laid down, the dimensions of the latter being as follows: extreme diameter 121 feet, diameter of bottom 96 feet, depth of hold at centre 14 feet, extreme draught 14 feet, and displacement 3550 tons. The nominal horse-power was 640, and the number of screws six; the armament consisted of two 41-ton breech-loading guns mounted en barbette 13 feet 3 inches above the water-load line, and of four smaller pieces in an unarmored breastwork. The Novgorod attained on her trial eight and a half knots, and the Popoff had a mean speed of eight knots.