The ''Orione'' class was a class of four sea-going steam-powered

torpedo boat A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval ship designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs were steam-powered craft dedicated to ramming enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes. Later evolutions launched variants of ...

s of the Italian ''

Regia Marina The ''Regia Marina'' (; ) was the navy of the Kingdom of Italy (''Regno d'Italia'') from 1861 to 1946. In 1946, with the birth of the Italian Republic (''Repubblica Italiana''), the ''Regia Marina'' changed its name to ''Marina Militare'' ("M ...

'' (Royal Navy) built by the Odero shipyard of Sestri Ponente from 1905 to 1907. They served in the

Italo-Turkish War The Italo-Turkish or Turco-Italian War ( tr, Trablusgarp Savaşı, "Tripolitanian War", it, Guerra di Libia, "War of Libya") was fought between the Kingdom of Italy and the Ottoman Empire from 29 September 1911, to 18 October 1912. As a result o ...

and the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

Construction and design

On 31 March 1905, four torpedo boats were laid down at the Italian shipbuilder Odero's

Sestri Ponente Sestri Ponente is an industrial suburb of Genoa in northwest Italy. It is part of the Medio Ponente ''municipio'' of Genoa. Geography It is situated on the Ligurian Sea four miles to the west of the city, between Pegli and Cornigliano. Its ...

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian census, the Province of ...

shipyard.Fraccarolli 1970, p. 82. They were long between perpendiculars and

overall Overalls, also called bib-and-brace overalls or dungarees, 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". Overalls were ...

, with a beam of and a draught of . Two coal-fired Blechynden boilers fed steam to two sets of triple expansion steam engines rated at , giving a design speed of .Gardiner and Gray 1985, pp. 272–273. Range was at and at .

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 . They were fitted with a slightly unusual clipper bow (a bow that curves forward as it rises from the water) and two closely spaced funnels.''Purnell's Illustrated Encyclopedia of Modern Weapons and Warfare'', pp. 1939–1940. Armament was the same as the and es, with three torpedo tubes and three 47 mm guns. Crew was three officers and 35 men.

Service

The four ships of the class were completed from February 1907 to April 1908. Although the ships reached speeds of up to during

sea trials A sea trial is the testing phase of a watercraft (including boats, ships, and submarines). It is also referred to as a "shakedown cruise" by many naval personnel. It is usually the last phase of construction and takes place on open water, and i ...

, they were less seaworthy than the ships of the ''Pegaso'' class. ''Olimpia'' and ''Orfeo'' were deployed in relief efforts following the

1908 Messina earthquake The 1908 Messina earthquake (also known as the 1908 Messina and Reggio earthquake) occurred on 28 December in Sicily and Calabria, southern Italy with a moment magnitude of 7.1 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (''Extreme''). The epice ...

that devastated

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

and Calabria on 28 December 1908. ''Orione'' collided with the old coastal torpedo boat ''128 S'' in April 1911. All four ships of the class were active during the

, serving in

Libya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Suda ...

n waters and in the Dodecanese. During the

, the class formed the 1st Torpedo Boat Division, carrying out escort operations in Libyan waters, and between North Africa and Italy. Their armament was modified during the war, with the 47 mm guns replaced by two 76 mm guns and one of the torpedo tubes removed. ''Orfeo'' was badly damaged in a collision with the merchant ship ''Calabria'' on 10 December 1917, but was repaired.Fraccaroli 1970, p. 83. They were disposed of between 1920 and 1923.

Ships

Notes

Citations

References

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External links

Orione-class torpedo
Marina Militare website {{WWI Italian ships Torpedo boats of the Regia Marina World War I naval ships of Italy