Italian cruiser Saetta

Saetta was a torpedo cruiser built for the Italian Regia Marina (Royal Navy) in the 1880s.

Design
Saetta was 56.7 m long overall and had a beam of 6.31 m and an average draft of 2.15 m. She displaced 364 MT normally. Her propulsion system consisted of a pair of horizontal double-expansion steam engines each driving a single screw propeller, with steam supplied by four coal-fired locomotive boilers. Saetta could steam at a speed of17 kn from 2150 ihp. She had a crew of between 57–70.

The primary armament for Saetta was three 14 in torpedo tubes. She was also equipped with two57 mm /43 guns and four 37 mm /25 guns, all mounted singly. The ship carried no armor protection.

Service history
Saetta was built at the Regio Cantiere di Castellammare di Stabia (Royal Dockyard in Castellammare di Stabia). She was launched on 30 May 1887 and was completed on 16 February 1888.

In 1892, the Regia Marina used Saetta to conduct experiments with oil-fired boilers.

In 1895, Saetta was stationed in La Spezia in the 1st Maritime Department, along with her sister ship ITALIAN CRUISER Folgore, though the latter had been badly damaged in a collision and was decommissioned.

From 1897 to 1900, the ship served as a torpedo training ship. The following year, she was transferred to the gunnery school, where she train gunners for the fleet. In 1902, her gun armament was expanded to increase the types of weapons available for training. She was still serving in this capacity in 1904&ndah;05, along with the old ironclad ITALIAN IRONCLAD Enrico Dandolo.

Saetta was ultimately discarded on 14 May 1908 and subsequently broken up for scrap.