Amalfi was a armored cruiser of the Italian Royal Navy () built in the first decade of the 20th century. During the Italo-Turkish War of 1911–1912, Amalfi operated with the Italian fleet off Tripoli in September 1911 and participated in the amphibious landings at Derna in October. In April 1912, Amalfi and sister ship led the way in attacks on Turkish forts in the Dardanelles. After the rest of the fleet retired later in the month, the pair of armored cruisers remained in the area to attack Turkish communications facilities. After the Treaty of Lausanne signed in October 1912 ended the war, Amalfi escorted the Italian king and queen on the royal yacht to Germany and Sweden during a 1913 visit.
At the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, Italy declined to join her Triple Alliance partners, Germany and Austria-Hungary. The country was eventually persuaded to side with the Entente Powers and declared war on neighboring Austria-Hungary in May 1915. After the Austro-Hungarian Navy raided the Italian coast with relative impunity in May and June, Amalfi, Pisa, and two other armored cruisers were sent to Venice to thwart future sorties by the Austrians. Shortly after their arrival, the ships were sent—in a show of force—to patrol near the main Austrian naval base at Pola on the night of 6/7 July 1915. During Amalfis return from that mission, she was torpedoed by Austro-Hungarian submarine (in fact flying the Austro-Hungarian flag, since Germany and Italy were not yet at war) and sunk with the loss of 67 men. Amalfis loss caused the Italians to keep the other armored cruisers at Venice in port for most of the next year before they were eventually relocated.
Design and description
As built, Amalfi was long overall by abeam, with a draft of . She had twin propeller shafts powered by two vertical triple-expansion steam engines. The steam engines were fed from 22 coal-fired Belleville boilers. The projected output of her power plant was , but in service Amalfi was able to produce —some less than her sister ship, —which was enough to give a maximum speed of .
The main armament of the Pisa-class ships consisted of four Cannone da 254/45 V Modello 1906 guns in twin-gun turrets fore and aft of the superstructure. The ships mounted eight Cannone da 190/45 V Modello 1906 in four twin-gun turrets, two in each side amidships, as their secondary armament. For defense against torpedo boats, they carried 16 quick-firing (QF) Cannone da 76/50 V Modello 1908 guns and eight QF Cannone da 47/40 V Modello 1908 guns. They were also equipped with three submerged torpedo tubes. During World War I, Pisas 76 and 47 mm guns were replaced by twenty 76/40 guns; six of these were anti-aircraft guns.
Amalfi was protected by a main belt of armor thick. The 10-inch gun turrets were protected by of armor plate, and the 7.5-inch gun turrets by . The conning tower had armor thick, while the thickness of the deck armor was 130 millimeters.
Construction and career
Work began on the pair of Pisa-class ships in August 1904, nearly a year before the keel of Amalfi, named after the eponymous city, was laid down on 24 July 1905 at the Cantieri navali Odero shipyard in Sestri Ponente. It was nearly three years before Amalfi was launched on 5 May 1908. The ship was completed on 1 September 1909, just over four years after her keel was laid.
Italo-Turkish War
Amalfi and sister ship Pisa both entered service in 1909, but there is little information in sources on their activities until the 1911 Italo-Turkish War. On 24 September 1911, five days before Italy declared war against the Ottoman Empire to start the conflict, Amalfi departed from Syracuse for Tripoli as part of a squadron that included battleships and ; armored cruisers Pisa, , , and ; and two flotillas of destroyers. Five days later, Amalfi and several of the other ships were seen taking on coal at Malta, before heading on to blockade Tripoli.