Italian cruiser Stromboli

Stromboli was a protected cruiser of the Italian Regia Marina (Royal Navy) built in the 1880s. She was the second member of the, which included three sister ships. She was named for the volcanic island of Stromboli, and was armed with a main battery of two 10 in and six 6 in guns, and could steam at a speed of 17 kn. Her career was relatively uneventful; the only significant action in which she took part was the campaign against the Boxer Rebellion in China in 1900. She returned to Italy in 1901 and spent the rest of her career in reserve or as an ammunition ship, apart from a brief stint in active service in 1904. Stromboli was stricken from the naval register in 1907 and sold for scrapping in 1911.

Design
Stromboli was 283 ft between perpendiculars, with a beam of 42 ft. She had a mean draft of 19 ft and displaced between 3373 - 3474 LT. Her crew numbered 12 officers and 296 men. The ship had two horizontal compound steam engines, each driving a single propeller, with steam provided by four double-ended cylindrical boilers. Stromboli was credited with a top speed of 17 kn from 6252 ihp. She had a cruising radius of 5000 nmi at a speed of 10 kn.

The main armament of the ships consisted of two Armstrong 10 in, 30-caliber breech-loading guns mounted in barbettes fore and aft. She was also equipped with six 6 in, 32-caliber, breech-loading guns that were carried in sponsons along the sides of the ship. For anti-torpedo boat defense, Stromboli was fitted with five 57 mm 6-pounder Hotchkiss guns and five 37 mm 1-pounder Hotchkiss guns. Stromboli was also armed with four 14 in torpedo tubes. One was mounted in the bow underwater and the other three were above water. She was protected with an armored deck below the waterline with a maximum thickness of 1.5 in. The conning tower had .5 in worth of armor plating.

Service history
Stromboli was laid down at the Venice shipyard on 27 September 1883 and her finished hull was launched on 4 February 1886. Following the completion of fitting-out work, she was commissioned into the Italian fleet on 21 March 1888. Stromboli and her sisters ITALIAN CRUISER Vesuvio and ITALIAN CRUISER Ettore Fieramosca participated in the 1893 naval maneuvers as part of the Squadron of Maneuvers. Stomboli and Ettore Fieramosca next participated in the 1896 naval maneuvers as part of the Maneuver Fleet. During this period, she was assigned to the Flying Squadron, along with the armored cruiser ITALIAN CRUISER Marco Polo and the protected cruiser ITALIAN CRUISER Liguria. The ships were tasked as a training squadron and were also responsible for responding to any crises that might arise.

In 1899 Stromboli was deployed to the Far East. She was joined by Vesuvio and Ettore Fieramosca, sent there in 1900 to assist the Eight-Nation Alliance in putting down the Boxer Rebellion in China. All three ships were assigned to the Cruising Squadron in Chinese waters in 1901. That year, Stromboli returned to Italy and was placed in reserve, before returning to active service in 1904. That year she was in active service for seven months; she spent the rest of the year with a reduced crew, as was standard practice in the Italian fleet at the time. She later served as an ammunition ship before being struck from the Navy List on 21 March 1907 and sold for scrap in 1911.