page_title: List of protected cruisers of Italy
section_title: Calabria
hierarchical_section_title: List of protected cruisers of Italy / Calabria
caption_attribution_description: English: An Italian warship of the Regia Marina, probably the protected cruiser Calabria
context_page_description: From the 1880s to 1910s, the Italian Regia Marina built or purchased twenty protected cruisers; the earliest vessels were either built or designed in Britain, though later vessels were constructed in Italy, to Italian designs. Several of these cruisers were ground-breaking warships: Dogali was the first major warship equipped with triple-expansion engines and Piemonte was the first warship armed entirely with quick-firing guns. The first two designs, Giovanni Bausan and the Etna class, were armed with large-caliber guns and marked a brief experimentation with the Jeune École in the 1880s, which represented a shift away from expensive battleships in favor of cheaper vessels that could theoretically destroy battleships easily. Italian naval strategists quickly discarded the concept and returned to more traditional strategies centered on a fleet of battleships. As a result, later cruisers returned to medium-caliber batteries.
  The first several designs were intended to fill a variety of roles, including fleet scouts and colonial cruisers, but beginning with Calabria, which was solely intended for colonial duties, the Regia Marina began to build more specialized vessels.
context_section_description: Calabria was designed for use in Italy's colonial empire, rather than the earlier vessels intended as fleet scouts. As such, her steel hull was sheathed with wood and then a layer of zinc to protect it from fouling during lengthy tours in the overseas colonies. Additionally, she was equipped with less powerful though more efficient engines than the earlier cruisers. The ship was otherwise similar to preceding designs like the Regioni class, having a displacement only slightly lower and a nearly identical gun battery.
  The ship's career spanned the globe, and ranged from a deployment to China to help suppress the Boxer Rebellion in 1899–1901, to tours in the Americas throughout the 1900s, and a trip to Australia in 1905. During the Italo-Turkish War, she was transferred to the Red Sea, where she bombarded Ottoman troops and ports and helped to enforce a blockade before returning to Italy in April 1912 for a refit. The ship continued to serve in the Red Sea during World War I and as a result, did not see action. She was reclassified as a gunboat in 1921 and then a training ship in early 1924, before being sold for scrap in November 1924.
caption: Calabria, probably during her visit to Australia in 1905
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