Italian destroyer Giuseppe Sirtori
# Italian destroyer Giuseppe Sirtori

Giuseppe Sirtori was the lead ship of the Giuseppe Sirtori class of destroyers built for the Italian Regia Marina (Royal Navy) during World War I.

## Design

The ships of the Giuseppe Sirtori class were 72.5 m (237 ft 10 in) long at the waterline and 73.54 m (241 ft 3 in) long overall, with a beam of 7.34 m (24 ft 1 in) and a mean draft of 2.7 m (8 ft 10 in). They displaced 709 t (698 long tons) standard and up to 914 t (900 long tons) at full load. They had a crew of 98 officers and enlisted men. The ships were powered by two steam turbines, with steam provided by four Thornycroft water-tube boilers. The engines were rated to produce 15,500 shaft horsepower (11,600 kW) for a top speed of 30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph), though in service they reached as high as 33.6 knots (62.2 km/h; 38.7 mph) from around 17,000 shp (13,000 kW). At a more economical speed of 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph), the ships could cruise for 1,700 nautical miles (3,100 km; 2,000 mi).

Giuseppe Sirtori was armed with a main battery of six 102 mm (4 in) guns. Her light armament consisted of a pair of 40 mm (1.6 in) anti-aircraft guns and two 6.5 mm (0.26 in) machine guns. She was also equipped with four 450 mm (17.7 in) torpedo tubes in two twin launchers, one on each side of the ship. The ship also carried ten naval mines.

## Service history

Giuseppe Sirtori was built at the Cantieri navali Odero shipyard in Sestri Ponente, and was launched on 24 November 1916.

While at Corfu in the aftermath of the Italian surrender to the Allies, Giuseppe Sirtori came under aerial attack from Italy's erstwhile ally, Germany, on 14 September 1943. German bombers inflicted serious damage to the ship, and the crew ran her aground to avoid sinking. The crew later refloated the ship and took her out to the Straits of Corfu, where they scuttled the ship on 25 September to prevent her from captured by German forces.

