History | |
---|---|
Kingdom of Italy | |
Name | Zeffiro |
Namesake | Zephyr, a west wind |
Builder | Cantiere Pattison, Naples, Kingdom of Italy |
Launched | 14 May 1904 |
Commissioned | April 1905 |
Reclassified | Torpedo boat 1921 |
Decommissioned | March 1924 |
Fate |
|
General characteristics | |
Type | Destroyer |
Displacement |
|
Length | |
Beam | 5.94 m (19 ft 6 in) |
Draught | 2.29 m (7 ft 6 in) |
Propulsion |
|
Speed |
|
Complement | 55 |
Armament |
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Zeffiro ("Zephyr") was an Italian Nembo-class destroyer. Commissioned into service in the Italian Regia Marina (Royal Navy) in 1905, she served in the Italo-Turkish War and World War I, playing an active role in the Adriatic campaign. Reclassified as a torpedo boat in 1921, she was decommissioned in 1924.
Zeffiro was laid down at the Cantiere Pattison (English: Pattison Shipyard) in Naples, Italy, and launched on 14 May 1904 and completed on 1 April 1905.[1] She was commissioned in April 1905.
At various times between 1909 and 1912, each of the Nembo-class destroyers underwent a radical modernization; Zeffiro′s took place in 1912. Her coal-fired boilers were converted into oil-fired ones, and her original two short, squat funnels were replaced with three smaller, more streamlined ones, profoundly altering her appearance. Her armament also changed, with her original five QF 6 pounder Nordenfelt 57 mm/43 guns replaced by four Cannon 76/40 (3 in) Model 1916 guns, and her original four 356-millimetre (14 in) torpedo tubes replaced by four 450-millimetre (17.7 in) tubes.[2][3][4] Sometime between 1914 and 1918, Zeffiro underwent additional modifications in which minelaying equipment was installed aboard her.[3][4]
Zeffiro participated in the Italo-Turkish War, which began on 29 September 1911 with the Kingdom of Italy′s declaration of war on the Ottoman Empire. On the afternoon of 29 September she took part in one of the first clashes of the war when she, along with numerous other Italian destroyers and torpedo boats, engaged two Ottoman Navy torpedo boats, Antalya and Tokad, as they left the port of Preveza on the Ionian Sea. Zeffiro, the destroyers Alpino and Carabiniere and the torpedo boat Spiga, surrounded Antalya, and seriously damaged her. Antalya ran aground and, after the Italians captured her, Alpino destroyed her with gunfire. Other Italian ships later sank Tokad and an Ottoman gunboat.[5][6][7][8] The war ended on 18 October 1912 in an Italian victory.
World War I broke out in 1914, and Italy entered the war on the side of the Allies with its declaration of war on Austria-Hungary on 23 May 1915. At the time, Zeffiro, under the command of Capitano di corvetta (Corvette Captain) Arturo Ciano – a future admiral – as well as Alpino, Carabiniere, and the destroyers Ascaro, Fuciliere, and Pontiere made up the 4th Destroyer Squadron, based at Brindisi.[9] In the predawn hours of 24 May 1915, during the first night of Italy's participation in the war, Zeffiro took part in the Raid on Porto Buso. At 02:00, she entered the navigable channel that led to the island of Porto Buso at the mouth of the river Ausa in the Grado Lagoon, a part of the larger Marano Lagoon, on which an Austro-Hungarian barracks and small port were located. At 03:00, from a range of about 500 metres (550 yd), she fired a torpedo at the port's jetty, damaging it. She then destroyed the motor boats and other small boats moored there and bombarded the barracks, damaging them and setting them on fire. The bombardment killed 11 Austro-Hungarians, who either died in the shelling itself or drowned while trying to swim to safety, and 48 others, including the commanding officer, surrendered to Zeffiro, which brought them aboard and took them to Venice as prisoners-of-war. Of the Austro-Hungarians based on Porto Buso, only 23 avoided death or capture, only six of whom were on Porto Buso itself: The other 17 were on other islands in the lagoon at the time of the raid.[9][10][11]
On 30 April 1916, Zeffiro got underway to lay a minefield in the Adriatic Sea off Šibenik (known to the Italians as Sebenico) on the coast of Austria-Hungary, but had to abort the mission and return to base after encountering the Austro-Hungarian hospital ships Anfitride and Tirol.[9] On the nights of 3–4 May and 4–5 May 1916, Zeffiro and Fuciliere succeeded in laying a minefield off Šibenik.[9]
Supported by Alpino, Fuciliere, and the coastal torpedo boats 40 PN and 46 OS, Zeffiro, under the command of Capitano di fregata (Frigate Captain) Costanzo Ciano – brother of her previous commander – and with Lieutenant Nazario Sauro, an Italian irredentist, aboard as pilot, entered the port of Poreč on the western side of Istria, a peninsula on Austria-Hungary's coast, at dawn on 12 May 1916. A group of men from Zeffiro, including Sauro, captured a gendarme who showed them the location of an aircraft hangar. In the meantime the other ships had joined Zeffiro, and at 04:50 they began a bombardment which lasted about 20 minutes.[9][11] The hangar suffered damage from hits by 76-millimetre (3 in) shells from the Italian ships. Austro-Hungarian coastal artillery batteries returned fire, and then 10 Austro-Hungarian seaplanes attacked the Italian ships. Allied aircraft came to the defense of the Italians, resulting in a dogfight in which Austro-Hungarian seaplanes collided with two Italian and one French aircraft. All the Italian ships returned to the base, although they suffered damage and a number of casualties, including four men killed in action.[11]
On 18 July 1916 Zeffiro and the torpedo boats Climene and Procione towed three seaplanes – L 141, L 156, and L 157 – to a point in the Adriatic Sea about 20 nautical miles (37 km; 23 mi) from the Dalmatian island of Mljet (known to the Italians as Meleda) – and supported them as they made an incursion into the Velebit Channel (known to the Italians as the Morlacca Channel) between the Dalmatian coast and the island of Pag (known to the Italians as Pago). The incursion was unsuccessful, yielding no results except for the loss of two of the seaplanes.[9]
On 24 September 1917 Zeffiro, Carabiniere, and Pontiere got underway from Venice to intervene in a clash between the Italian coastal torpedo boats 9 PN, 10 PN, 11 PN, and 12 PN and four Austro-Hungarian Navy destroyers. The battle ended following the intervention of Italian aircraft, and the Austro-Hungarian destroyers withdrew before the Italian destroyers could engage them.[9]
By late October 1918, Austria-Hungary had effectively disintegrated, and the Armistice of Villa Giusti, signed on 3 November 1918, went into effect on 4 November 1918 and brought hostilities between Austria-Hungary and the Allies to an end. World War I ended a week later with an armistice between the Allies and the German Empire on 11 November 1918.
After World War I ended, Zeffiro underwent modifications to her superstructure, propulsion system, and armament. Her bridge was moved aft, one of her three funnels was removed,[3][4] and her engine power dropped to 3,400 horsepower (2,535 kW) and her maximum speed to 25 knots (46 km/h; 29 mph).[4] In addition, one of her 76-millimetre guns was removed and a Colt Browning 65-millimeter/80-caliber antiaircraft machine gun was installed.[4] Reclassified as a torpedo boat in 1921, she was stricken from the naval register in 1923[3][4] and subsequently scrapped.