Italian cruiser Francesco Ferruccio

Francesco Ferruccio had an overall length of {{convert|111.8|m|ftin|sp=us}}, a beam of {{convert|18.2|m|ftin|sp=us}} and a deep draft (ship) of {{convert|7.3|m|ftin|sp=us}}. She displaced {{convert|7350|t|LT|sp=us}} at normal load. The ship was powered by two vertical triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one shaft, using steam from 24 coal-fired Belleville boilers. The engines produced {{convert|14000|ihp|lk=in}} and gave a speed of approximately {{convert|19|-|20|kn|lk=in}}. She had a cruising range of {{convert|5500|nmi|lk=in}} at {{convert|10|kn}}. Her complement ordinarily consisted of 555 officers and enlisted men and 578 when acting as a flagship.Freivogel, p. 43

Her main armament consisted of one EOC 10 inch 40 caliber gun in a turret forward of the superstructure and two EOC 8 inch 45 caliber guns in a twin turret aft. Ten of the QF 6 inch /40 naval gun guns that comprised her secondary armament were arranged in casemates amidships; the remaining four 152-millimeter guns were mounted on the upper deck. Francesco Ferruccio also had ten QF 12-pounder 12 cwt naval gun and six QF 3-pounder Hotchkiss guns to defend herself against torpedo boats. She was fitted with four single {{convert|17.7|in|0|adj=on|disp=flip|sp=us}} torpedo tubes.Chesneau & Kolesnik, p. 351

The ship's waterline armor belt had a maximum thickness of {{convert|150|mm|sp=us|1}} amidships and tapered to {{convert|80|mm|sp=us|1}} towards the ends of the ship. The conning tower, casemates, and gun turrets were also protected by 150-millimeter armor. Her protective deck armor was {{convert|37|mm|sp=us|1}} thick and the 152-millimeter guns on the upper deck were protected by gun shields {{convert|50|mm|sp=us}} thick.

File:Marina di Albenga Navi Ferruccio - Varese - Garibaldi - Coatit - Ricordo della venuta della 2 divisione della squara del mediterraneo Comandante Andrea Moreno - 3-4 Agosto 1906 edit Musso Giovanni.jpg

Francesco Ferruccio, named after the condottiere Francesco Ferruccio,Silverstone, p. 298 was laid down at the Naval Dockyard in Venice on 19 August 1899 and launched on 23 April 1902, when she was named by the Duchess of Genoa.{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Naval & Military intelligence |date=24 April 1902 |page=10 |issue=36750}} She was completed on 1 September 1905. During the 1905 fleet maneuvers, she was assigned to the "hostile" force blockading La Maddalena, Sardinia.Professional Notes–Italy Together with her sister ships {{ship|Italian cruiser|Giuseppe Garibaldi|1899|2}} and {{ship|Italian cruiser|Varese||2}}, the ship was in Marseilles, France on 15–16 September 1906 to participate in a fleet review for Armand Fallières, President of France, on the latter date.Curtis, pp. 98–99 Francesco Ferruccio made a cruise to the Levant in July 1909 and was deployed to Crete from 26 June 1910 to January 1911, returning to Taranto on 25 January.Marchese

When the Italo-Turkish War began on 29 September 1911, Francesco Ferruccio assigned to the 4th Division of the 2nd Squadron of the Mediterranean Fleet, together with her sisters Giuseppe Garibaldi and Varese. Francesco Ferruccio and Giuseppe Garibaldi bombarded Tripoli on 3–4 October while Varese stood offshore to watch for any Ottoman ships. The desultory bombardment killed 12 Ottoman soldiers and severely wounded 23 more in addition to 7 dead civilians. On 13 October, the three sisters sailed to Augusta, Sicily to recoal.Beehler, pp. 9, 19–21 Francesco Ferruccio and Giuseppe Garibaldi bombarded Beirut on 24 February 1912, sinking the elderly {{ship|Ottoman ironclad|Avnillâh}} and forced the torpedo boat {{ship|Ottoman torpedo boat|Ankara||2}} to scuttle itself. Varese is sometimes credited with participating also in the bombardment.{{#tag:ref|Sources are contradictory about which ships performed the bombardment. Gardiner & Gray credit Garibaldi and Varese in the histories of the two Ottoman ships,Gardiner & Gray, pp. 389, 392 but also says that all three sisters were present.Gardiner & Gray, p. 256 Silverstone also credits all three ships,Silverstone, pp. 298–99, 307 but the consensus is that it was Garibaldi and Ferruccio.Beehler, pp. 56–58; Langensiepen & Güleryüz, p. 16; Sondhaus 2001, p. 218; Stephenson, p. 254|group=Note}} The bombardment killed over 140 civilians and wounded more than 200 more.Langensiepen & Güleryüz, p. 16 The ship was then transferred to Libya and remained there for the rest of the war. During the First Balkan War, she was deployed to Albania from 18 February to 5 June 1913 and then made another deployment there from 4 January to 7 February 1914.

When Italy declared war on the Central Powers in May 1915, she was assigned to the 5th Cruiser Division, based at Brindisi. On 5 June the division bombarded rail lines near Ragusa and departed Brindisi on the evening of 17 July to do the same near Ragusa Vecchia the following morning. Shortly after beginning the bombardment at 04:00, Giuseppe Garibaldi was torpedoed by the Austro-Hungarian submarine {{SMU|U-4|Austria-Hungary|2}}. Struck by a single torpedo, the cruiser sank within minutes, although only 53 crewmen were killed. The division immediately retreated to avoid further attacks, leaving three destroyers behind to rescue survivors.Freivogel, pp. 40, 46–47 The loss of Giuseppe Garibaldi and the sinking of the armored cruiser {{ship|Italian cruiser|Amalfi||2}} by another submarine on 7 July severely restricted the activities of the other ships based in the Adriatic Sea.Halpern 1994, pp. 148, 151; Sondhaus 1994, p. 289 Francesco Ferruccio was briefly stationed in the Levant from 19 November to 22 December before returning to Brindisi where she escorted convoys to Albania and patrolled the Albanian coast for the rest of the war.

Francesco Ferruccio became a cadet training ship in 1919 and finally was converted for the role in 1924.Gardiner & Gray, p. 256 On 30 July 1922, she collided with the Spanish cargo ship {{SS|Ayala Mendi||2}} in the Bay of Biscay; Ayala Mendi sank with the loss of one member of her 33-man crew.{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Casualty reports |date=1 August 1922 |page=22 |issue=43098 |column=B }}{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Casualty reports |date=3 August 1922 |page=17 |issue=43100 |column=G }}{{cite web |url=http://www.clydeships.co.uk/view.php?ref=6077 |title=SS Bra-Kar |publisher=Clydeships |access-date=6 November 2019}}{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Casualty reports |date=4 August 1922 |page=19 |issue=43101 |column=A }}

Francesco Ferruccio was stricken on 1 April 1930 and scrapped.Gardiner & Gray, p. 256

{{reflist|group=Note}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{Cite book |last=Beehler|first=William Henry|title=The History of the Italian-Turkish War: September 29, 1911, to October 18, 1912|year=1913|location=Annapolis, Maryland|publisher=United States Naval Institute|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OWcoAAAAYAAJ}}
• {{cite book|title=Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905|editor1-last=Chesneau|editor1-first=Roger|editor2-last=Kolesnik|editor2-first=Eugene M.|publisher=Conway Maritime Press|location=Greenwich|year=1979|isbn=0-8317-0302-4|name-list-style=amp|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/conwaysallworlds0000unse_l2e2}}
• {{cite book|last=Curtis|first=W. D.|title=The Log of H.M.S. Cumberland, 2nd Cruiser Squadron, 1904–1906|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iiJEAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA98|series=The Log Series|year=1907|publisher=The Westminster Press (Gerrards Ltd.)|location=Westminster, UK}}
• {{cite book|last=Freivogel| first= Zvonimir|title=The Loss of the Giuseppe Garibaldi| editor=Jordan, John| publisher=Conway| location=London| year=2012|series=Warship 2012| pages=40–51| isbn=978-1-84486-156-9}}
• {{cite book |editor1-last=Gardiner|editor1-first=Robert|editor2-last=Gray|editor2-first=Randal|title=Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921|year=1985|location=Annapolis, Maryland|publisher=Naval Institute Press|isbn=0-85177-245-5|name-list-style=amp}}
• {{cite book|last=Halpern|first=Paul S.|title=A Naval History of World War I|publisher=Naval Institute Press|location=Annapolis, Maryland|year=1994|isbn=1-55750-352-4}}
• {{cite book

| last1 = Langensiepen

| first1 = Bernd

| last2 = Güleryüz

| first2 = Ahmet

| year = 1995

| title = The Ottoman Steam Navy 1828–1923

| publisher = Conway Maritime Press

| location = London

| isbn = 978-0-85177-610-1

}}

• {{cite journal|last=Marchese|first=Giuseppe|date=June 1995|title=La Posta Militare della Marina Italiana 6^ puntata|journal=La Posta Militare|issue=70|url=http://www.giuseppemarchese.it/articoli/art_56/art56_6.html}}
• {{cite journal|date=December 1905|title=Professional Notes–Italy|journal=Proceedings of the United States Naval Institute|publisher=United States Naval Institute|location=Annapolis, Maryland|volume=XXXI; 4|issue=116|pages=1004–05|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-Ow-AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA1005}}
• {{cite book|last=Silverstone|first=Paul H.|title=Directory of the World's Capital Ships|year=1984|publisher=Hippocrene Books|location=New York|isbn=0-88254-979-0}}
• {{cite book | last = Sondhaus | first = Lawrence | title = The Naval Policy of Austria-Hungary, 1867–1918: Navalism, Industrial Development, and the Politics of Dualism | location = West Lafayette, Indiana | publisher = Purdue University Press | year = 1994 | isbn = 978-1-55753-034-9 | oclc = 59919233 }}
• {{cite book

| last = Sondhaus

| first = Lawrence

| year = 2001

| title = Naval Warfare, 1815–1914

| publisher = Routledge

| location = London

| isbn = 978-0-415-21478-0

}}

• {{cite book|last=Stephenson|first=Charles|title=A Box of Sand: The Italo-Ottoman War 1911–1912: The First Land, Sea and Air War|year=2014|publisher=Tattered Flag Press|location=Ticehurst, UK|isbn=978-0-9576892-7-5}}

• {{cite book|last=Fraccaroli|first=Aldo |title=Italian Warships of World War I|location=London|publisher=Ian Allan|year=1970|isbn=978-0-7110-0105-3}}

• [https://www.marina.difesa.it/noi-siamo-la-marina/mezzi/mezzi-storici/Pagine/EFGHI/ferruccio.aspx Francesco Ferruccio] Marina Militare website

{{Portal bar|Italy|Engineering}}

{{Giuseppe Garibaldi class cruisers}}

{{1922 shipwrecks}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Francesco Ferruccio}}

Category:Giuseppe Garibaldi-class cruisers of the Regia Marina

Category:1902 ships

Category:Italo-Turkish War naval ships of Italy

Category:World War I cruisers of Italy

Category:Maritime incidents in 1922

Category:Ships built by the Venetian Arsenal