Italian battleship Vittorio Emanuele Vittorio Emanuele was an Italian pre - dreadnought battleship , laid down in 1901 , launched in 1904 and completed in 1908 . She was the second member of the , which included three other vessels : " Regina Elena " , " Napoli " , and " Roma " . " Vittorio Emmanuele " was armed with a main battery of two guns and twelve guns . She was quite fast for the period , with a top speed of nearly . " Vittorio Emmaneule " saw action in the Italo - Turkish War as the flagship of the 1st Division . During the war , she participated in operations in Cyrenaica and the eastern Mediterranean Sea , including the seizure of the islands of Rhodes and the Dodecanese . She served during the First World War , but saw no combat during the war due to the hesitance of both the Italian and Austro - Hungarian navies to risk their capital ship s in pitched battle . She remained in service as a training ship until 1923 , when she was stricken from the naval register and broken up for scrap . Design . " Vittorio Emanuele " was long overall and had a beam of and a maximum draft of . She displaced at full combat load . Her propulsion system consisted of two vertical triple expansion engines rated at . Steam for the engines was provided by twenty - eight coal - fired Belleville boiler s . The ship ' s propulsion system provided a top speed of and a range of approximately at . " Vittorio Emanuele " had a crew of 742 – 764 officers and enlisted men . As built , the ship was armed with two 40 - caliber guns placed in two single gun turret s , one forward and one aft . The ship was also equipped with twelve 40 - cal . guns in six twin turrets amidships . Close - range defense against torpedo boats was provided by a battery of sixteen 40 - cal . guns . She was also equipped with two torpedo tube s placed in the hull below the waterline . " Vittorio Emanuele " was protected with Krupp steel manufactured in Terni . The main belt was thick , and the deck was thick . The conning tower was protected by of armor plating . The main battery guns had thick plating , and the 8 - inch gun turrets had thick sides . Service history . " Vittorio Emanuele " was built by the Castellammare di Stabia shipyard ; her keel was laid on 18 September 1901 . The ship was launched on 12 October 1904 , and construction was completed on 1 August 1908 . " Vittorio Emanuele " served in the active duty squadron through 1910 , by which time her three sisters had been completed , bringing the total number of front - line battleships to six , which also included the two s . The active duty squadron was typically in service for seven months of the year for training ; the rest of the year they were placed in reserve . Italo - Turkish War . On 29 September 1911 , Italy declared war on the Ottoman Empire in order to seize Libya . " Vittorio Emanuele " served as the flagship of Vice Admiral Augusto Aubry , the commander of the 1st Division throughout the conflict . On 30 September , " Vittorio Emanuele " , her sister " Roma " , and the armored cruiser " Pisa " cruised in the Aegean Sea , searching for the Ottoman training squadron that had departed Beirut for Constantinople two days before , and did not know that war had been declared . The Italian flotilla failed to locate its prey , which managed to safely reach Constantinople . On 18 October , " Vittorio Emanuele " and her three sisters , along with three cruiser s and several destroyer s and torpedo boat s escorted a convoy that carried half of the 2nd Infantry Division to Benghazi . When the Ottomans refused to surrender the city before the amphibious assault , the Italian fleet opened fire on the Turkish defenders at 08 : 00 , while landing parties from the ships and the Army infantry went ashore . The Italians quickly forced the Ottomans to withdraw into the city by evening . After a short siege , the Ottoman forces withdrew on 29 October , leaving the city to the Italians . By December , " Vittorio Emanuele " and the other ships of the 1st Squadron were dispersed in the ports of Cyrenaica . " Vittorio Emanuele " , " Pisa " , and the protected cruiser s " Etruria " and " Etna " were stationed in Tobruk . While there , they supported the Italian Army as it occupied the city and surrounding area by contributing landing parties and providing fire support to the ground troops . In early 1912 , most of the fleet had withdrawn to Italy for repairs and refit , leaving only a small force of cruisers and light craft to patrol the North African coast . On 4 March , Aubry died while aboard his flagship ; Admiral Luigi Faravelli replaced him as the squadron commander . On 13 April , the 1st Division left Taranto , bound for the island of Rhodes . Meanwhile , the 3rd Division escorted a convoy of troopships from Tobruk to the island . The Italian heavy ships demonstrated off the city of Rhodes while the transports landed the expeditionary force to the south on 4 May ; the soldiers quickly advanced on the city , supported by artillery fire from the Italian fleet . The Turks surrendered the city the following day . Between 8 and 20 May , " Vittorio Emanuele " was involved in the seizure of several islands in the Dodecanese between Crete , Rhodes , and Samos . In June , " Vittorio Emanuele " and the rest of the 1st Division was stationed at Rhodes . Over the next two months , the ships cruised in the Aegean to prevent the Turks from attempting to launch their own amphibious operations to retake the islands Italy had seized in May . The 1st Division returned to Italy in late August for repairs and refitting , and were replaced by the battleships of the 2nd Squadron . The 1st Division left port on 14 October , but was recalled later that day , when the Ottomans had agreed to sign a peace treaty to end the war . World War I . Italy declared neutrality after the outbreak of World War I in August 1914 , but by July 1915 , the Triple Entente had convinced the Italians to enter the war against the Central Powers . The Austro - Hungarian Navy , Italy ' s traditional naval rival , was the primary opponent in the conflict . The Italian Naval Chief of Staff , Admiral Paolo Thaon di Revel , believed that an active fleet policy was prohibited by the serious threat from submarine s in the confined waters of the Adriatic Sea . Instead , Revel decided to implement blockade at the southern end of the Adriatic with the battle fleet , while smaller vessels , such as the MAS boats conducted raids on Austro - Hungarian ships and installations . Meanwhile , Revel ' s capital ship s would be preserved to confront the Austro - Hungarian battle fleet in the event that it sought a decisive engagement . As a result , the ship was not particularly active during the war . During the war , " Vittorio Emanuele " and her three sisters were assigned to the 2nd Division . They spent much of the war rotating between the bases at Taranto , Brindisi , and Valona , but did not see combat . On 14 – 15 May 1917 , three light cruiser s of the Austro - Hungarian Navy raided the Otranto Barrage ; in the ensuring Battle of the Strait of Otranto , " Vittorio Emanuele " and her sisters raised steam to assist the Allied warships , but the Italian commander refused to permit them to join the battle for fear of risking their loss in the submarine - infested Adriatic . After the end of the war , " Vittorio Emanuele " was used as a training ship for a short period . In the summer of 1922 , she was in Constantinople when the American destroyer accidentally collided with a cutter from " Vittorio Emanuele " , causing minor damage to the boat . Then - Lieutenant Joseph J . Clark , " Bulmer " s executive officer , came aboard " Vittorio Emanuele " to apologize for the incident . In early 1922 , the world ' s major navies , including Italy , signed the Washington Naval Treaty . According to the terms of the treaty , Italy could keep " Vittorio Emanuele " and her three sisters , along with the newer dreadnought battleships . Due to the small size and age of the ships , particularly in comparison to the modern dreadnoughts , the Italians could have kept the ships in service indefinitely . They could not , however , be replaced by new battleships under the normal practice of the Treaty system , which provided for replacements after a ship was 20 years old . " Vittorio Emanuele " was stricken from the naval register on 1 April 1923 and subsequently broken up for scrap .