Italian monitor Alfredo Cappellini


Alfredo Cappellini was an Italian monitor converted from the floating crane GA53 during World War I. She bombarded Austro-Hungarian positions during the Eleventh Battle of the Isonzo in 1917 before she was wrecked off Ancona on 16 November 1917.

Development and description

Alfredo Cappellini was built when Cannone navali da 381/40 guns from the s became available after their construction was suspended in 1916. Her guns were built by Ansaldo-Schneider and originally destined for the Francesco Morosini. Converted from the floating crane GA53, she displaced, with a length between perpendiculars of, a beam of and a draft of. The ship was powered by one vertical double-expansion steam engine. On sea trials the ship reached a maximum speed of, but her maximum speed in regular service was about.
Her hull and gun turret were unarmored, but she was protected by two anti-torpedo nets. Her main guns could elevate 20° and her turret could traverse 30° to either side. They fired an armor-piercing shell at a muzzle velocity of to a range of at maximum elevation.

Service

Alfredo Cappellini was launched in 1915, even before the battleships were officially suspended, by the Orlando Shipyard, in Livorno, completed on 24 April 1917 and commissioned four days later. Her first action came during the Eleventh Battle of the Isonzo in August 1917. She, in company with the Italian monitor and the British monitors and, bombarded Austrian positions with little noticeable effect. She was wrecked on 16 November 1917 off Ancona.