Italian submarine Atropo (1938)
Atropo was one of three minelayers built for the (Royal Italian Navy) during the late 1930s. Design and description. The "Foca"-class submarines were improved versions of the preceding "Pietro Micca". They displaced surfaced and submerged. The submarines were long, had a beam of and a draft of . They had an operational diving depth of . Their crew numbered 60 officers and enlisted men. For surface running, the boats were powered by two diesel engines, each driving one propeller shaft. When submerged each propeller was driven by a electric motor. They could reach on the surface and underwater . On the surface, the "Foca" class had a range of at , submerged, they had a range of at . The boats were armed with six internal torpedo tubes, four in the bow and two in the stern, for which they carried eight torpedoes. They were also armed with one deck gun for combat on the surface. The gun was initially mounted in the rear of the conning tower, but this was re-sited on the forward deck later in the war in the surviving boats and the large conning tower was re-built to a smaller design. Their anti-aircraft armament  consisted of two pairs of machine guns. The "Foca"s carried a total of 36 mines that they ejected through chutes in the stern. Construction and career. "Atropo" was laid down by Cantieri navali Tosi di Taranto at their Taranto shipyard on 10 July 1937, launched on 20 November 1938 and completed on 14 February 1939.