Italian cruiser Iride

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

Design
Iride was 73.1 m long overall and had a beam of 8.22 m and an average draft of 3.48 m. She displaced 931 MT normally. Her propulsion system consisted of a pair of horizontal triple-expansion steam engines each driving a single screw propeller, with steam supplied by four coal-fired locomotive boilers. Specific figures for Iride's engine performance have not survived, but the ships of her class had top speeds of 18.1 to 20.8 kn at 3884 to 4422 ihp. The ship had a cruising radius of about 1800 nmi at a speed of 10 kn. She had a crew of between 96–121.

Iride was armed with a main battery of one 120 mm /40 gun and six 57 mm /43 guns mounted singly. She was also equipped with three 37 mm /20 guns in single mounts. Her primary offensive weapon was her six 450 mm torpedo tubes. The ship was protected by an armored deck that was up to 1.6 in thick; her conning tower was armored with the same thickness of steel plate.

Service history
Iride was laid down at the Regio Cantiere di Castellammare di Stabia (Royal Dockyard in Castellammare di Stabia) on 21 February 1889, and was launched on 20 July 1890. After fitting-out work was completed, the ship was commissioned into the fleet on 1 November 1892.

Iride took part in the annual fleet exercises in 1893 in the "attacking squadron", which also included six ironclads, her sister ship ITALIAN CRUISER Euridice and the torpedo cruisers ITALIAN CRUISER Goito and ITALIAN CRUISER Monzambano. In 1895, Iride was stationed in the 2nd Maritime Department, split between Taranto and Naples, along with most of the torpedo cruisers in the Italian fleet. These included her sister ships ITALIAN CRUISER Partenope, ITALIAN CRUISER Aretusa, ITALIAN CRUISER Euridice, ITALIAN CRUISER Urania, ITALIAN CRUISER Minerva, and ITALIAN CRUISER Caprera, the four s, and ITALIAN CRUISER Tripoli.

In 1904–05, Iride was assigned to the Levant Station in the eastern Mediterranean. She took part in the 1907 fleet maneuvers that took place in September and October that year.

At the start of the Italo-Turkish War in September 1911, Iride was stationed in Italy, alternating between the ports of La Spezia and Naples, along with her sister ships ITALIAN CRUISER Urania and ITALIAN CRUISER Caprera. By January 1912, Iride had been stationed in Tripoli to support the garrison there against Ottoman forces. In early April, Iride, the torpedo cruiser ITALIAN CRUISER Agordat, and six torpedo boats rendezvoused with a troop convoy carrying 10,000 men to Zuwarah near the border with Tunisia. In June and July, Iride and the armored cruiser ITALIAN CRUISER Carlo Alberto bombarded Turkish forces near Zuara.

Iride was sold for scrap in December 1920 and was subsequently broken up for scrap.