Vettor Pisani was a screw corvette of the Italian Regia Marina (Royal Navy) built in the late 1860s and early 1870s, originally with the name Briosa, though she was renamed Vettor Pisani before work was completed. A wooden-hulled corvette with a coppered bottom, Vettor Pisani was armed with a battery of fourteen medium-caliber guns and used both a steam engine and a sailing rig for propulsion. The ship made three voyages round the world, the first from 1871 to 1873; the second from 1874 to 1877; and the third from 1882 to 1885. The last cruise saw the crew conduct a number of scientific experiments, chart significant sections of the ocean, and collect specimens for later study in Italy. Converted to a training ship after returning to Italy in 1885, Vettor Pisani remained in service for several more years before being discarded in 1893; the ship's ultimate fate is unknown.
Design
The design for Vettor Pisani was prepared by the naval engineer Giuseppe Micheli. Vettor Pisani was 65.1 meters (213 ft 7 in) long between perpendiculars, and she had a beam of 11.84 m (38 ft 10 in) and an average draft of 5.28 m (17 ft 4 in). She displaced 1,676 long tons (1,703 t). Her hull was constructed of wood and was sheathed with copper to protect it from biofouling during lengthy periods at sea. She had a crew of 226. Her propulsion system consisted of a single marine steam engine that drove a single screw propeller. Steam was supplied by a pair of coal-fired fire-tube boilers that were manufactured by the firm Guppy of Naples. Vettor Pisani could steam at a top speed of 9.76 knots (18.08 km/h; 11.23 mph) from 1,004 indicated horsepower (749 kW). To supplement the steam engines, she was fitted with a square-rigged, three-masted full ship rig. The main battery for Vettor Pisani consisted of four rifled 160 mm (6.3 in) built-up guns and ten rifled 120 mm (4.7 in) built-up guns. She also carried three 80 mm (3.1 in) bronze guns.. Her armament was replaced entirely during a refit; her main guns were six 120 mm muzzle-loading guns, three guns per broadside, and a secondary battery of two 75 mm (3 in) guns, two 57 mm (2.2 in) guns, and two 37 mm (1.5 in) guns were added for close-range defense against torpedo boats. During another refit in 1879, she was rearmed with a main battery of ten 120 mm breech-loading guns. Four of these guns were removed in 1885.
Service history The ship was laid down on 11 May 1867 in the Venice Naval Yard, during a period of naval retrenchment in Italy, following the navy's humiliating defeat at the Battle of Lissa the previous year. Sharply reduced naval budgets slowed construction of new ships. Work on the ship began with the vessel originally under the name Briosa, but while still under construction in 1868, she was renamed Vettor Pisani. Her completed hull was launched on 22 July 1869. Fitting out was completed by 10 April 1871.
Overseas cruises
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