The Kingdom of Italy, located in the middle of the Mediterranean, was rapidly strengthened after the unification of the country in 1870, and Italy gradually became one of the great powers. Because the country is surrounded by the sea on three sides, unified Italy attaches great importance to the development of the navy, so it actively builds various ships.
On January 7, 1890, the Italian Navy began the first construction of the Marco Polo class of armored cruisers, which had a displacement of 4580 tons and was launched on July 21, 1894. Marco Polo class is the country's first construction of armored cruisers, inexperienced, so after service, after use, its firepower, speed, protection are not as good as other European naval powers, so only 1 was built, so the Italian Navy decided to build a second class of armored cruisers on the basis of the Marco Polo class. Construction of two new ships, the first of which was named after Italian Admiral Vito Pisani, began construction in 1892.
Marco Polo Class
The second ship was named after King Carlo Alberto of the Kingdom of Sardinia Piedmont and construction began in 1893. Before the reunification of Italy, the country was in a state of fragmentation, and there was no development of a modern navy at all, so it caused a serious lag in naval construction after reunification. At this time, Italy was inferior to other European naval powers in the design and construction of ironclad ships, resulting in the construction cycle of the Veto Pisani class armored cruisers lasting up to six years, until 1898, when the Vito Pisani and the Carlo Albert were completed and commissioned.
The Veto Pisani-class armored cruiser has a standard displacement of 6720 tons, a full load displacement of 7242 tons, a total length of 105.7 meters, a waterline length of 99 meters, a full width of 18 meters, a draft of 7 meters (standing) 7.5 meters (full load); the power system adopts 8 coal heavy oil mixed boilers, 2 upright three-stage expansion three-cylinder reciprocating steam engines, biaxial propulsion, the maximum output power is 13259 horsepower, the maximum speed is 18.6 knots, and the endurance is about 10 knots / 6000 nautical miles; Fuel: (standard coal 600 tons, full coal 1000 tons) heavy oil 120 tons; It carried 430 crew members and 486 crew members.
Veto Pisani class
In terms of armament, the Vetto Pisani class installed the British Armstrong 1892, 6 152 mm single-mounted rapid-fire guns, 8 Armstrong 1891 120 mm single-mounted rapid-fire guns, 2 Armstrong 76mm single-mounted rapid-fire guns, 14 Armstrong 57mm single-mounted rapid-fire guns, 10 37mm single-mounted machine guns, and 5 457mm torpedo tubes. Veto Pisani class armor protection: 150 mm on the side of the ship (waterline surface), 37 mm on the deck, 150 mm for the main turret, 51 mm for the gun mount, 150 mm for the command tower.
By parameter, it can be seen that the main gun caliber of the Veto Pisani-class armored cruisers is only 152 mm, which is not as good as that of warships with the same displacement as other naval powers, such as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which is also a second-rate naval power, and its Titotov, built in 1882, has a displacement of 7400 tons and a main gun caliber of 283 mm. Veto Pisani is also inferior in terms of armor protection, and twenty years ago, the German Saxony class with a displacement of 7300 tons, the hull armor has reached 127 to 254 mm, compared with the Weto Pisani armor is thin. At this time, the speed of the 6,000- and 7,000-ton warships of various navies generally reached about 20 knots, and the speed of the Veto Pisani class of about 18 knots was not dominant.
The Italian Navy also knew that the Veto Pisani-class cruisers were weak in performance, so in 1916, more than a decade after service, the Veto Pisani was converted into a repair ship, the Carlo Alberto was converted into a transport ship in 1917, and renamed Chamsan in 1918, and both ships were decommissioned by 1920.
Garibaldi class
Because of the late development of armored ships, due to technical limitations, the performance of the Veto Pisani class armored ships is average. However, through the construction of this class of ships, as well as the previous class of ships, the Italian Navy accumulated a wealth of experience and technical reserves, and began to build excellent Garibaldi class armored cruisers in 1896.