Caio Duilio class (1880)
 The modernized Enrico Dandolo
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The Caio Duilio class was a two-unit class of tower ships belonging to the Italian Regia Marina . The two ships were built between 1873 and 1882. The type ship Caio Duilio remained in the fleet until 1909, its sister ship Enrico Dandolo even until 1920.
history
The design for the two naves came from Benedetto Brin . These were the first large units of the Italian Navy to have two propellers , as well as the first battleships worldwide that no longer had full rigging , but only a battle mast. The naval shipyards in Castellammare di Stabia and La Spezia were responsible for building the two ships .
The Caio Duilio , launched on May 8, 1876 , came into service on January 6, 1880, after exactly seven years of construction. She remained in the navy as a warship until the summer of 1909 and was then disarmed. Under the designation GM40 , the ship then served as a Hulk for the storage of coal and oil.
The construction of the Enrico Dandolo , although also started on January 6, 1873, took two years longer. The tower ship was launched on July 10, 1878 and put into service on April 11, 1882. Modernized between 1895 and 1898, it received a significantly changed armament and a new propulsion system. The Enrico Dandolo served in the First World War to defend Brindisi and the Italian-occupied Valona . It was not until 1920 that the ship was removed from the list of warships and subsequently scrapped.
technology
The ships of the Caio Duilio class were 109.16 m long and 103.5 m between the perpendiculars. The two ships differed slightly in width, draft and displacement . The Caio Duilio was 19.74 m wide and with a maximum displacement of 12,071 t was 8.31 m deep in the water. The Enrico Dandolo, however, was 19.65 m wide, had a draft of 8.36 m and displaced a maximum of 12,037 t. In the course of the conversion, their maximum displacement was also reduced to 11,264 t.
The propulsion system consisted of standing steam engines that acted on two shafts . Eight boilers provided the necessary steam supply . The Caio Duilio's engine delivered an indicated power of 7,711 PSi and accelerated the ship to a maximum of 15.04 knots . The composite steam engines of Enrico Dandolo developed up to 8,045 PSi, which resulted in a slightly higher speed of 15.6 kn. The renovation did not change any of these values.
From the beginning, four guns were planned as armament, but their size kept increasing during the planning phase. Ultimately, instead of the originally envisaged 35 t models, models with a weight of 100 t and a 45 cm L / 20 caliber were used. The British Elswick Ordnance Company supplied the " RML 17.72 inch gun " . They were accommodated in pairs in rotatable and diagonally offset towers on the upper deck . The cannons fired grenades weighing 864 kg with a muzzle velocity of 450 to 500 m −1 . The rate of fire of each gun was four rounds per hour.
In addition, there were three torpedo tubes with a diameter of 36 cm on board. The armament of the Caio Duilio was supplemented by three 12 cm cannons in 1890. In 1900 two 7.5 cm caliber, eight 5.7 cm L / 40 rapid-fire guns and four 3.7 cm L / 20 caliber revolver cannons were added. The Enrico Dandolo received completely new armament during its conversion, consisting of four 25.4 cm L / 40 cannons as main artillery, seven 15.2 cm L / 40 and five 12 cm L / 40 and 16 5.7 cm L / 43 guns, eight 3.7 cm L / 20 revolver cannons, four machine guns and four 45 cm torpedo tubes. Six of the revolver cannons were removed again during the First World War.
The steel armor was up to 550 mm thick on the sides. The armored deck was 30 to 51 mm thick. The towers and deck structure were protected with 430 mm thick armor plates, the armored bulkheads with up to 390 mm. In the course of the renovation, the Enrico Dandolo also received new turrets, which were only provided with 223 mm armor protection. The bow and stern of both ships were unarmoured, but were divided into a total of 83 watertight compartments to protect against water ingress.
The crew of the ships consisted of 420 to 515 men. For the Enrico Dandolo from 1898 a target strength of 495 men was planned.
literature
- Gardiner, Robert (Ed.): Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1860-1905 . Conway Maritime Press, London 1979, ISBN 0-85177-133-5 , pp. 340 f .
