page_title: Italian cruiser Piemonte
section_title: General characteristics
hierarchical_section_title: Italian cruiser Piemonte / Design / General characteristics
caption_attribution_description: English: Line-drawing of the Italian cruiser Piemonte in 1889
context_page_description: Piemonte was a unique protected cruiser built for the Italian Regia Marina in the 1880s by the British shipyard Armstrong Whitworth. She was the first major warship armed entirely with quick-firing guns and she was also the fastest cruiser in the world upon her completion in 1889. Piemonte was frequently deployed overseas, including a lengthy tour in East Asian waters from 1901 to 1904. She saw significant action during the Italo-Turkish War in 1911–12 in the Red Sea, where she frequently bombarded Ottoman ports. During the Battle of Kunfuda Bay in January 1912, she and two destroyers sank four Ottoman gunboats and forced ashore three more. Piemonte participated in World War I but she saw little action during the conflict. She remained in service until 1920, when she was scrapped.
context_section_description: Piemonte was 310 feet (94.5 m) between perpendiculars, with a beam of 38 feet (11.6 m). She had a mean draft of 15 feet (4.6 m) and displaced 2,473 long tons (2,513 t). The ship had a crew of 12 officers and 245 enlisted crew. Piemonte was fitted with two heavy military masts and had a partial double bottom. The large sponsons extended down to within about a foot (305 mm) of the water and proved to be very wet in service. She proved to be rather overgunned for her size and her freeboard was only 8 feet 3 inches (2.51 m) a normal load and 6 feet 9 inches (2.06 m) at deep load.
  The ship was powered by two 4-cylinder Humphrys, Tennant vertical triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one propeller shaft. The stroke of her engines was 27 inches (690 mm) and the bores of their cylinders were 36 inches (910 mm), 55 inches (1,400 mm) and 60 inches (1,500 mm). The low-pressure cylinder of Piemonte'  engines was split in two for smoother running and she was the first warship thus equipped. Steam for the engines was supplied by four double-ended Scotch marine boilers at a pressure of 155 psi (1,069 kPa; 11 kgf/cm²) and their exhausts were trunked into a pair of funnels amidships. Designed for a maximum output of 12,000 indicated horsepower (8,900 kW), her engines produced 7,040 ihp (5,250 kW), using natural draught, and gave the ship a speed of 20.4 knots (37.8 km/h; 23.5 mph) during her sea trials in May 1889. Using forced draught increased her engine output to 12,600 ihp (9,400 kW) and her speed to 22.3 knots (41.3 km/h; 25.7 mph). This made her the fastest cruiser in the world. The ship normally embarked a total of 200 long tons (203 t) of coal, but could carry a maximum of 600 long tons (610 t). Piemonte had a cruising radius of about 7,000 nautical miles (13,000 km; 8,100 mi) at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph). At full speed, she could steam for 1,950 nmi (3,610 km; 2,240 mi).
caption: Line-drawing of Piemonte
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