Italian battleship Sicilia

Sicilia was a pre-dreadnought battleship built for the Italian Navy in the 1880s. She was the second ship of her class to be laid down, but was the last to be completed. Decommissioned before World War I, she was used during the war as a depot ship at Taranto and then became a repair ship. She was stricken again in 1923.

General characteristics
Sicilia was 400 ft between perpendiculars and 418 ft long overall. She had a beam of 76 ft and a draft of 28 ft. Normally she displaced 13058 LT and displaced 14842 LT at full load. She was built with a ram bow.

Propulsion
Sicilia had two vertical compound steam engines with a total designed output of 19131 ihp. Eighteen cylindrical boilers provided steam to the engines. On trials, the ship had a top speed of 20.1 knots. She carried enough coal to give her a range of 4000 - 6000 nmi at 10 knots. She had three funnels, but, unusually, the two forward funnels were side-by-side.

Armament
Sicilia's main armament consisted of two pairs of breech-loading British BL 13.5 in Mk I–IV 30-caliber guns mounted in twin barbettes fore and aft. These guns had a maximum elevation of 13.5° and could depress to -3°. They fired a 1250 lb shell at a muzzle velocity of about 2016 ft/s to a range of about 11950 yd at maximum elevation. They had a rate of fire about 2–3 minutes per round.

The eight 6 in 40-caliber guns were mounted on pivot mounts on the upper deck. They were protected by gun shields 2 in thick. The anti-torpedo boat armament consisted of sixteen 4.7 in 40-caliber guns. Twelve of these were in casemates on the main deck and four were mounted in the fore and aft superstructures, protected by gun shields. Twenty 57 mm six-pounder and ten 37 mm one-pounder guns were mounted in the superstructure. Sicilia carried five 17.7 in torpedo tubes, all above water.

Armor
Sicilia's steel armor was made by the French company Schneider et Cie. The side of the hull between the barbettes was completely protected with a maximum thickness of 4 in of armor. The barbettes were 13.75 in thick and the guns were unprotected. The conning tower had 11.8 in walls. The armor deck was 3 in thick.

Service
Sicilia was named after the island of Sicily. She was built by the Venice Naval Shipyard. She was laid down on 3 November 1884, launched on 6 July 1891, and completed on 4 May 1895. She was stricken on 9 July 1914 and became a depot ship at Taranto before becoming a repair ship during the war. She was stricken again in 1923.