Italian cruiser Amalfi Amalfi was a armored cruiser of the Italian Royal Navy ( ) built in the first decade of the 20th century . She was a participant in the Italo - Turkish War and the First World War before she was sunk in July 1915 . The ship was the second of two ships of the " Pisa " class , which was designed in 1904 . In the Italian classification system at the time of their building , the " Pisa " ships were considered second - class battleships . The lengthy construction of " Amalfi " began before her keel was laid in July 1905 . The ship was launched in May 1908 and completed in September 1909 . The ship was armed with four guns in two twin turrets , eight guns in four twin turrets , and numerous smaller guns . The ship was also equipped with three underwater torpedo tube s . " Amalfi " s armor thickness ranged from on the decks up to on her sides . During the Italo - Turkish War , " Amalfi " operated with the Italian fleet off Tripoli in September 1911 and participated in the amphibious landings at Derna in October . In April 1912 , " Amalfi " and sister ship led the way in attacks on Turkish forts in the Dardanelles . After the rest of the fleet retired later in the month , the pair of armored cruisers remained in the area to attack Turkish communications facilities . After the Treaty of Lausanne signed in October 1912 ended the war , " Amalfi " escorted the Italian king and queen on the royal yacht to Germany and Sweden during a 1913 visit . At the outbreak of World War I in August 1914 , Italy declined to join her Triple Alliance partners , Germany and Austria - Hungary . The country was eventually persuaded to side with the Entente Powers and declared war on neighboring Austria - Hungary in May 1915 . After the Austro - Hungarian Navy raided the Italian coast with relative impunity in May and June , " Amalfi " , " Pisa " , and two other armored cruisers were sent to Venice to thwart future sorties by the Austrians . Shortly after their arrival , the ships were sent — in a show of force — to patrol near the main Austrian naval base at Pola on the night of 6 / 7 July 1915 . During " Amalfi " s return from that mission , she was torpedoed by Austria - Hungarian submarine ( in fact flying the Austro - Hungarian flag , since Germany and Italy were not yet at war ) and sunk with the loss of 67 men . " Amalfi " s loss caused the Italians to keep the other armored cruisers at Venice in port for most of the next year before they were eventually relocated . Design and construction . The " Pisa " class was designed in 1904 by Italian engineer Giuseppe Orlando , who attempted to replicate on a smaller scale the armament and armor of the s then entering the service of the " Regia Marina " . According to the Italian classification system at the time , the " Pisa " ships were considered second - class battleships , but " Conway ' s All the Worlds Fighting Ships , 1906 – 1921 " classes them as armored cruisers . For ships of their displacement , " Conways " considers them to have been heavily armed , but inferior to battlecruiser s , a type introduced during the " Pisa " class ' long construction time . Work began on the pair of " Pisa " - class ships in August 1904 , nearly a year before the keel of " Amalfi " was laid down on 24 July 1905 . It was nearly three years before " Amalfi " was launched on 5 May 1908 . The ship was completed on 1 September 1909 , just over four years after her keel was laid . As built , " Amalfi " was long overall by abeam , with a draft of . She had twin propeller shafts powered by two vertical triple - expansion steam engines . The steam engines were fed from 22 coal - fired Belleville boilers . The projected output of her power plant was , but in service " Amalfi " was able to produce — some less than her sister ship , — which was enough to give a maxiumum speed of . Armament . " Amalfi " s main battery consisted of four / 45 guns mounted in two twin turrets . Each of the guns , manufactured by the Elswick Ordnance Company of the United Kingdom , weighed . The guns fired armor - piercing projectiles with a bag propellant charge weighing at at up to 2 . 6 rounds per minute . At the maximum elevation of 25° , the guns had an effective range of about . The turrets were arranged on the centreline of the ship , one fore and one aft of the superstructure . The gun turrets could be rotated 150° in either direction from the centerline of the ship ( for a sweep of 300° ) , and allowed for depression down to −5° and elevation up to 25° . The ship ' s secondary battery consisted of eight / 45 guns mounted in four twin turrets . These guns — also manufactured by Elswick — fired armor - piercing projectiles with about of bag propellent at a muzzle velocity of . At a 25° elevation , the range of the guns was about . Two gun turrets were located fore and aft of the superstructure on each side of the ship ; each turret had a sweep of about 160° and an elevation range of −7° to 25° . Other armament on " Amalfi " consisted of sixteen / 40 guns , eight / 50 guns , and four machine gun s . She was also equipped with three underwater torpedo tube s . Armor . " Amalfi " was protected by a main belt of armor thick . The 10 - inch gun turrets were protected by of armor plate , and the 7 . 5 - inch gun turrets by . The conning tower had armor thick , while the deck was 130 millimeters . Italo - Turkish War . " Amalfi " and sister ship " Pisa " both entered service in 1909 , but there is little information in sources on their activities until the 1911 Italo - Turkish War . On 24 September 1911 , five days before Italy declared war against the Ottoman Empire to start the conflict , " Amalfi " departed from Syracuse for Tripoli as part of a squadron that included battleships and ; armored cruisers " Pisa " , , , and ; and two flotillas of destroyers . Five days later , " Amalfi " and several of the other ships were seen taking on coal at Malta , before heading on to blockade Tripoli . On 2 October , a division headed by the battleship relieved " Amalfi " s groups in blockade duty , allowing them to proceed to the east to join the main Italian fleet . " Napoli " , " Amalfi " , and " Pisa " were joined by the recently commissioned armored cruiser , three destroyers , and two torpedo boats . The group escorted several Italian transports that arrived off Derna on 15 October . After negotiations for a surrender of the town fell apart , " Pisa " shelled the barracks and a fort . There was no return fire from Derna , so a boat with offers of a truce was sent in . When it was greeted by a volley of rifle fire " Amalfi " and the other armored cruisers opened fire on the town with their guns and , according to a contemporary account , " completely destroyed " the town in 30 minutes time . A landing party dispatched at 14 : 00 was unable to reach the shore because of rough seas and gunfire from the shore . " Amalfi " and company then shelled the beach until 16 : 00 . Weather conditions prevented a landing until the 18th , when 1 , 500 men took possession of the Derna . On 13 April 1912 , " Amalfi " sailed from Taranto as part of the Italian 1st Squadron , which consisted of the battleships ( the squadron flagship ) , " Roma " , and " Napoli " ; fellow armored cruisers " Pisa " , " San Marco " , and . The squadron was initially destined for Tripoli , but was diverted to the Aegean Sea to bombard the Turkish coast . The 2nd Squadron — consisting of battleships ( squadron flagship ) , " Benedetto Brin " , , and " Emanuele Filiberto " ; and armored cruisers " Francesco Ferrucio " , " Varese " , and " Giuseppe Garibaldi " — sailed from Tobruk and Augusta at the same time . The two squadrons rendezvoused at Stampalia on 17 April . At 06 : 30 , " Pisa " and " Amalfi " steamed into the Dardanelles in advance of the Italian fleet in an attempt to draw out the Turkish fleet . Four Turkish shore batteries , outfitted with 18 Krupp guns ranging from in size fired on the Italian fleet . The Italians , firing at a range of , returned fire in an exchange that lasted more than two hours . Official Italian reports claimed that no ships were hit and specifically rebutted Turkish claims that " Varese " had been set on fire , but a summary in " The New York Times " reports that " Varese " was hit twice . On 19 April , the Italian fleet departed for home , but left " Amalfi " , " Pisa " , and an assortment of smaller craft to continue destroying telegraph stations and cutting cables . One other action of note involving " Amalfi " occurred on 28 April when a party of 250 men recruited from her complement and that of " Pisa " took the Turkish garrison on the island of Astropalia . The 1912 Treaty of Lausanne that ended the war was signed on 18 October . Interwar period . In the period between the end of the Italo - Turkish War in 1912 and Italy ' s entry into the First World War in 1915 , " Amalfi " is mentioned in several news accounts that offer hints of her peace - time activities . In June 1913 , " Amalfi " escorted King Victor Emmanuel III and his wife , Queen Elena , on the royal yacht " Trinacria " to the annual regatta at Kiel , Germany . While there , Victor Emmanuel met with Kaiser Wilhelm II , to discuss — it was speculated in a contemporary news report — the ongoing Balkan War . After departing from Kiel , " Amalfi " escorted the King and Queen on " Trinacria " to their next stop at Stockholm . By November , " Amalfi " was back in Italian waters when Admiral Cattolica , the former Italian Minister of the Marine , and the captains of " Amalfi " and the battleship greeted United States Navy Admiral Charles J . Badger at Naples on his flagship , . During the " Wyoming " s stay , one stop on the battleship ' s 1913 Mediterranean tour , Badger returned the visits and toured " Amalfi " as part of his courtesy calls . First World War . At the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914 , Italy declined to join its Triple Alliance partners Germany and Austria - Hungary when they declared war against the Entente Powers , opting instead to remain neutral . Pressure from the United Kingdom and France swayed Italy to sign the secret Treaty of London on 26 April 1915 . In the agreement , Italy promised to leave the Triple Alliance and declare war against its former allies within a month in return for territorial gains after the end of the war . At the beginning of May , " Amalfi " was part of the squadron headquartered at Brindisi that included six pre - dreadnought battleship s — , " Vittorio Emanuele " , " Roma " , " Napoli " , " Benedetto Brin " , and " Ammiraglio di Saint Bon " — and four armored cruisers — " Pisa " , " San Marco " , , and " Amalfi " herself . After Italy ' s declaration of war against Austria - Hungary on 23 May , Admiral Anton Haus , the fleet commander of the Austro - Hungarian Navy sortied his fleet to bombard the Italian coast on the night of 23 / 24 May in an attempt to disrupt the Italian mobilization . Of the many targets , Ancona was hardest hit , with disruptions to the town ' s gas , electric , and telephone service ; the city ' s stockpiles of coal and oil were left in flames . All of the Austrian ships safely returned to port , making it seem that they had been able to attack with impunity , putting political pressure on the " Regia Marina " from Rome . When the Austrians resumed attacks on the Italian coast in mid - June , Italian Admiral Paolo Thaon di Revel responded by sending " Amalfi " and the other armored cruisers at Brindisi — the navy ' s newest — to Venice to supplement the older ships already there . Historian Lawrence Sondhaus argues that the arrival of the four fast armored cruisers in Venice should have been a major deterrent against future Austrian coastal raids , but concedes that they ended up becoming more inviting targets for Austrian U - boats instead . Sinking . Shortly after the arrival of the quartet of cruisers at Venice , " Amalfi " participated in a " reconnaissance in force " mission near the Austro - Hungarian port of Pula on the night of 6 / 7 July 1915 . After completion of the mission , the cruiser was about from Venice when she was torpedoed by the Austrian submarine at dawn on 7 July . " U - 26 " — in actuality the German submarine " UB - 14 " , marked as an Austrian vessel and flying the Austrian flag since Italy and Germany were not at war — was under the command of " Oberleutnant zur See " Heino von Heimburg , and on her first patrol . " Amalfi " immediately began listing to port and , after initial damage control efforts proved fruitless , her commander ordered the ship evacuated . The cruiser sank less than 30 minutes after she was torpedoed . Distress calls were answered by other ships of the division which rescued a large number of the ship ' s complement . The loss of men was reported as about 200 at the time , but later reports list only 67 fatalities . " Amalfi " was among the largest ships sunk by U - boats during the war . As a result of " Amalfi " s sinking , sister ship " Pisa " and the other pair of armored cruisers at Venice rarely ventured out of port for most of the next year , and were eventually transferred to Valona in April 1916 .