Armored Cruiser San Marco

[WayOfTheWolk 1,573]

San Marco

Introduction:

Spoiler

Successors to the Pisa class armored cruisers the San Giorgio class represented a major shift of innovation in the Reginia Marina. Consisting of two ships San Giorgio and San Marco they incorporated numerous design features such as extended forecastles, increased armor, redistributed propulsion plants  and improved crew living spaces. San Marco specifically was the first ship in the Regina Marina to be fitted with steam turbine propulsion with a four shaft arrangement and antiroll tanks not to mention she did not use any wood furnishings which presented a major fire hazard in her predecessors. Named after the patron saint of Venice, St Mark she was laid down on January 2, 1907 at the Regio Cantieri di Castellammare di Stabia, launched on December 20 1908 and commissioned on February 7, 1911.

Service History:

Spoiler

During the Italo-Turkish War in her first action San Marco shelled the Libyan town of Derna on October 15 along with her sister ship Pisa after peace negotiations failed. When a landing party was sent in to greet Ottoman forces it was fired upon and the ships fired their guns once more this time obliterating the town under 30 minutes. A second landing party attempted to get ashore but a mixture of gunfire and rough seas prevented its arrival. In return San Marco continued shelling of the shoreline for two more hours and subsequently on the 18th an 1500 man force took the town. San Marco was sent to supervise Italian landings at Benghazi in December later in May 1912 supporting the occupation of the island of Rhodes before returning home in September of that same year. During World War 1 San Marco was based at Brindisi for much of the conflict. During the Austro-Hungarian attack on Ancona on the night of May 23, 1915 Admiral Thaon di Revel sent San Marco to Venice to bolster the navy's older warships. She later participated in the bombardment of Durazzo on October 2, 1918 sinking a merchant ship and damaging two others.

Postwar San Marco carried out duties such as returning the bodies of the Italian Boundary Commission to Taranto no September 23, 1923 which was the catalyst of the Corfu Incident. Following this in October she would be the last warship to transport Italian troops from Corfu to Italy. When the city of Fiume was annexed by Italian forces the next year in March San Marco would salute King Emmanuel III at the handover ceremony and later escort his son Prince Umberto to Latin America later in 1924. During the early 1930s the ships days were numbered as an active warship and between 1931-1935 San Marco was converted into a target ship for the navy. Her 14 coal boilers were replaced by four oil-burning Thornycroft types and much of the superstructure was removed including her armament. She had the pleasure of entertaining a visiting Adolf Hitler on May 5, 1938 during a practice target run by the cruisers Fiume and Zara. When Germany invaded Italy in 1943 they later captured the ship and had it scuttled before the war's end. San Marco was formally stricken from the Italian Navy in February 1947 and broken up in 1949. 

Technical Data:

Spoiler

General Specifications:

Displacement: 10969 tonnes

Length: 131.0 m

Beam: 21.0  m

Draft: 7.80 m

Installed Power: 14 x Babcock & Wilcox boilers,  

Propulsion: 4 x shafts, 4 x Parsons Steam Turbines (23000 hp)

Speed: 23 knots

Crew: 698 men

 

Armor (Terni Cemented Steel):

Belt: 200 mm 

Deck: 50 mm 

Main turrets: 200 mm

Secondary Turrets: 160 mm

Conning Tower: 250 mm

 

Armament: (1917)

4 x 254/45 A1907 guns (2 x 2)

8 x 190/45 A1908 guns (4 x 2)

10 x 76/50 V1908 guns (six in casemates, four on front deck)

8 x 76/40 A1917 AA guns

2 x 6.5mm Colt-Browning M1895 machine guns

3 x 450 mm torpedo tubes (1 bow, 2 beam)

Sources:

Spoiler

• Fraccaroli, Aldo (1970). Italian Warships of World War I . London: Ian Allan.
• Gardiner, Robert & Gray, Randal, eds. (1985). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships: 1906–1921 . Annapolis: Naval Institute Press.
• https://www.marina.difesa.it/noi-siamo-la-marina/mezzi/mezzi-storici/Pagine/PQRS/san_marco_incrociatore.aspx
• http://www.navypedia.org/ships/italy/it_cr_san_giorgio.htm

 

Edited July 29, 2021 by WayOfTheWolk

[ItssLuBu 1,803]

Approved and open for discussion. 

[Nicholas_Concu 2,634]

+1 great suggestion

[Milocat 4,857]

+1 with other WWI and pre-WWI ships.

[Conte_Baracca 4,547]

Something needs to fill the gap between Cruisers and BB's

 

[Охраняет-Камни 6,650]

+1 a very beautiful ship)

[SturmWerwolf 793]

+1 I'm liking the idea of older ships 

[John4Plays 70]

Yes, I really want to see this dude in the game ^^

+1 from me!

[POP GAMES1212@live 6]

Yes :p more Italian ships would be nice

[Ruthless95 1,177]

yes please? if it's not taking too much of your time gaijin. while you are busy celebrating the space russian day, submarine russian day, people of russia day, lenin's day,  russian airforce day, russian ship day, russian tank day, russian gopnik day, and all the other russian days.

Edited August 17, 2021 by EdiotPastaboo95

[SturmWerwolf 793]

On 17/08/2021 at 00:20, EdiotPastaboo95 said:

yes please? if it's not taking too much of your time gaijin. while you are busy celebrating the space russian day, submarine russian day, people of russia day, lenin's day,  russian airforce day, russian ship day, russian tank day, russian gopnik day, and all the other russian days.

That comment reminded me of a "Life of Boris" video. 

Spoiler

 

 

[ironcell26 252]

+1 please Gaijin-senpai add

[camelcabal 28]

+1

[Conte_Baracca 4,547]

I would love to see this in game.  I want it very badly.

[LukTroy 124]

It would be very powerful, now with the option to fire all the guns at once.