The ''Sirio'' class (also known as the ''Saffo'' class) was a class of six sea-going steam-powered torpedo boats of the Italian ''

Regia Marina The , ) (RM) or Royal Italian Navy was the navy of the Kingdom of Italy () from 1861 to 1946. In 1946, with the birth of the Italian Republic (''Repubblica Italiana''), the changed its name to '' Marina Militare'' ("Military Navy"). Origin ...

'' (Royal Navy) built by the German shipyard

Schichau-Werke The Schichau-Werke (F. Schichau, Maschinen- und Lokomotivfabrik, Schiffswerft und Eisengießerei GmbH) was a German engineering works and shipyard based in Elbing, Germany (now Elbląg, Poland) on the Frisches Haff (Vistula Lagoon) of then-East ...

from 1904–1906. They served in the

Italo-Turkish War The Italo-Turkish (, "Tripolitanian War", , "War of Libya"), also known as the Turco-Italian War, was fought between the Kingdom of Italy and the Ottoman Empire from 29 September 1911 to 18 October 1912. As a result of this conflict, Italy captur ...

and the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

Design

In 1904, work began at the German shipyard of

, Elbing (now

Elbląg Elbląg (; ; ) is a city in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, in northern Poland, located in the eastern edge of the Żuławy region with 127,390 inhabitants, as of December 2021. It is the capital of Elbląg County. Elbląg is one of the ol ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

) on a class of six torpedo-boats for the Italian Navy. They were long

between perpendiculars Length between perpendiculars (often abbreviated as p/p, p.p., pp, LPP, LBP or Length BPP) is the length of a ship along the summer load line from the forward surface of the stem, or main bow perpendicular member, to the after surface of the ster ...

and

overall Overalls or bib-and-brace overalls, also called dungarees in British English, are a type of garment usually used as protective clothing when working. The garments are commonly referred to as a "pair of overalls" by analogy with "pair of trousers ...

, with a beam of and a draught of . Two Coal-fired Schultz-Thornycroft boilers fed Vertical triple-expansion steam engines rated at , giving a rated speed of , which corresponded to an in-service sea speed of about . Sufficient coal was carried to give a range of at or at .Fock 1979, p. 142

Displacement Displacement may refer to: Physical sciences Mathematics and physics *Displacement (geometry), is the difference between the final and initial position of a point trajectory (for instance, the center of mass of a moving object). The actual path ...

was . Three torpedo tubes were fitted, with a gun armament of three 47 mm guns. The ships had a crew of 38 officers and men.

Service

On delivery, the ships of the class equipped the 1st Squadron of High Seas Torpedo Boats, based first at

La Spezia La Spezia (, or ; ; , in the local ) is the capital city of the province of La Spezia and is located at the head of the Gulf of La Spezia in the southern part of the Liguria region of Italy. La Spezia is the second-largest city in the Liguria ...

and then at

Messina Messina ( , ; ; ; ) is a harbour city and the capital city, capital of the Italian Metropolitan City of Messina. It is the third largest city on the island of Sicily, and the 13th largest city in Italy, with a population of 216,918 inhabitants ...

. The ships of the class were active during the

of 1911–1912, with ''Spica'' leading four ''Pegaso''-class torpedo boats on a reconnaissance of the

Dardanelles The Dardanelles ( ; ; ), also known as the Strait of Gallipoli (after the Gallipoli peninsula) and in classical antiquity as the Hellespont ( ; ), is a narrow, natural strait and internationally significant waterway in northwestern Turkey th ...

on the night of 18/19 July 1912, penetrating under fire about before being stopped by a boom across the straits, and then escaping with little damage and no casualties.Beehler 1913, pp. 87–90. Two ships, ''Scorpione'' and ''Serpente'', were lost following collisions during the

, with the remaining ships being rearmed, with two 76 mm anti-aircraft guns replacing the 47 mm guns. A third ship, ''Saffo'' was lost after running aground off Turkey on 2 April 1920. The surviving ships were disposed of in 1923.

Ships

Notes

Citations

References

* * * *

External links

Classe Sirio (1905)
Marina Militare website {{WWI Italian ships Torpedo boats of the Regia Marina World War I naval ships of Italy