Italian cruiser Montebello

Montebello was the second of four Goito-class cruiser torpedo cruisers built for the Italian Regia Marina (Royal Navy) in the 1880s. She was built at the Arsenale di La Spezia between September 1885 and January 1889, when she entered service. She was armed with a variety of light guns and four 14 in torpedo tubes, and was capable of a top speed of 18 kn. Montebello spent her active-duty career with the main Italian fleet, where she frequently took part in annual training exercises. In 1903, she was withdrawn from front-line service and converted into a training ship for engine room personnel; she served in this capacity until 1920, when she was sold for scrap.

Design
Montebello was 73.4 m long overall and had a beam of 7.88 m and an average draft of 3.31 m. She displaced 801 LT normally. Her propulsion system consisted of three triple-expansion steam engines each driving a single screw propeller, with steam supplied by six coal-fired locomotive boilers. Exact figures for the ship's performance have not survived, but the members of the Goito class could steam at a speed of about 18 kn from 2500 to 3180 ihp. Montebello had a cruising radius of 1100 nmi at a speed of 10 kn. She had a crew of between 105 and 121.

The primary armament for Montebello was four 14 in torpedo tubes. She carried a light gun battery for defense against torpedo boats. This consisted of six 57 mm 40-caliber guns and two 37 mm 20-cal. guns, all mounted singly. The ship was protected with an armored deck that was 1.5 in thick.

Service history
The keel for Montebello was laid down at the Arsenale di La Spezia shipyard on 25 September 1885. She was launched on 14 March 1888 and completed on 21 January 1889. In 1893, Montebello was laid up in Naples for the year; at the time, the Italian fleet mobilized only a handful of vessels for the annual training maneuvers, preferring to keep the most modern vessels in reserve to reduce maintenance costs. On 1 October, she was stationed in Taranto along with the ironclads ITALIAN IRONCLAD Affondatore and ITALIAN IRONCLAD Ancona, the protected cruisers ITALIAN CRUISER Liguria, ITALIAN CRUISER Umbria, and ITALIAN CRUISER Etruria, the torpedo cruisers ITALIAN CRUISER Monzambano and ITALIAN CRUISER Confienza, and several other vessels. She remained there through 1894.

In 1895, Montebello 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 Monzambano, ITALIAN CRUISER Goito, and Confienza, the eight Partenope-class cruisers, and ITALIAN CRUISER Tripoli. Montebello joined the 1st Division of the active fleet in 1897, which also included the ironclads ITALIAN IRONCLAD Re Umberto, ITALIAN IRONCLAD Sardegna, and ITALIAN IRONCLAD Sicilia, the protected cruisers ITALIAN CRUISER Giovanni Bausan and ITALIAN CRUISER Vesuvio, and the torpedo cruiser ITALIAN CRUISER Euridice. In 1898, Montebello was assigned to the Levant Squadron that patrolled the eastern Mediterranean. She served on the station with Sardegna, Etruria, Monzambano, and the torpedo cruiser ITALIAN CRUISER Aretusa.

Later in 1898, Montebello was withdrawn from front-line service and employed as a training ship for engine room personnel. In 1903, her boilers were replaced with a variety of coal and oil-burning boilers manufactured by Pattison, Yarrow, and Thornycroft to give trainees several types of equipment to operate. At the outbreak of the Italo-Turkish War in September 1911, Montebello was stationed in Venice along with Tripoli and Goito. None of the vessels saw action during the war. The ship did not see action after Italy entered World War I either, as both the Italian and Austro-Hungarian fleets adopted cautious strategies. Montebello continued in service as a training ship until 26 January 1920, when she was stricken from the naval register and broken up for scrap.