The Washington times., 1915-05-21
Italy's Navy Places Her
Among Worlds Great
Maritime Powers

Monster ships armed with monster
guns, the acme OF naval architecture,
rank the Italian navy with the i'm
portant sea powers The dreadnaughts
Conte di Cavour, the Giulio Cesare and
the Leonardo da Vinci each displace
nominally 1900 tons. and have speeds
Of 225 knots. These ships carry three
guns in the extreme forward and after
turrets, and also In the central amid
ships turret. the guns ali being of 12-
inch caliber. In the Dante Alighien,
dreadnaught. launched as early as 1910,
the italians installed in the four tur-
rets OF that ship three 2-inch guns to
The majority Of the Italian naval
guns are Of the British typo, Elswick
model, and differ but little from British
pieces. The torpedoes used are OF the
Whitehead variety.
The ship construction in recent yeare
In the italian service has been under
the direction Of Gen. f. Ferrati. ono Of
the first naval architects. It is uni
versally conceded, in the world. II
was General Ferrati who developed the
three-gun turret system In Its present
state Of perfection.
A normal program OF ship building
is steadily executed and many vessels
Including seven battleships and two crui-
and submarines. are being completed
Italy has three dockyards at Spezia
Naples, and Venice. The first named
covers an area OF 600 acres. has five dry
docks, and is completely equipped with
the best machinery.
A large dry dock has been built al
Taranto. and there is naval establish
ment at Maddalena Island in Sardinia
Nearly all the ordnance for the italian
navv comes from the Armstrong factory
at Pozzuoli, near Naples; the torpedoes
from a factory in Venice and armor
plates are produced at the important
steel works at Terni. Machinery for the
navy is supplied by private firms, espe'
cially Ansaldo, Adero. and Orlando. who
have important shipbuilding yards and
have constructed vessels Tor the naliar
and foreign navies.
The personnel of the navy on active
service consists Of over $500 Officers
and $4,000 men. and II Is divided as fol
lows: General staff. naval engineers
sanitary corps. commissariat corps anC
crews.
The government Of the navy is in thu
hands OF the minister of marine, gen
orally an admiral. assisted by per
manent staff who controls the navy or
centralized system of administration
but with a large admtXture Of the Eng
lish representative element. Naval ex
penditure. which varies from year tC
year. amounts to an average OF owe
s25, 100000 per amman, and this sun
includes naval pensions and premium
| upon mercantile shipbuilding.
The Italian navy Is counted upon t
release all French ships now engage,
In hlockading the Adriatio against tn
| warships of Austria-Hungary. Thes
French warships will be at once avail
able for service at the Dardanelles."
| The italian plan Of campaign 1t Is be
lieved, will involve a close inne
blockade of the Austrian naval force
as a precaution against any transporta
ton plans which the Austrians ma
have in mind. as across the Adriati
| for the present the bulk Of the Austria
fleet Is based on Pola, the naval arsena
being below Trieste. The distance fror
Pola to Venice Is only seventy nv
miles, and II Venice is to be protecte
from attack by sea It will be necessar
for the italian forces to bottle up tn
Austrian fleet whore the latter Ia noN
accomplished without a major engage
ment ensuing at the head of tn
Adriatio.