Italian cruiser Nino Bixio
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Design
The s were ordered in response to the development of fast light cruisers by the Austro-Hungarian Navy in the early 1900s. They were intended to supplement the protected cruiser to serve as scouts for the main battle fleet. Two ships, Nino Bixio and, were ordered during the tenure of Admiral Carlo Mirabello as the Minister of the Navy.Nino Bixio was long at the waterline, with a beam of and a draft of. She displaced normally and up to at full load. She had a short forecastle deck and a pair of pole masts. Her crew consisted 13 officers and 283 enlisted men.
The ship's propulsion system consisted of three Curtiss steam turbines, each driving a screw propeller. Steam was provided by fourteen mixed coal and oil firing Blechynden boilers, which were vented into four widely spaced funnels. The engines were rated at for a top speed of. She had a cruising range of at an economical speed of. The ship's propulsion system proved to be unreliable in service.
The ship was armed with a main battery of six L/50 guns mounted singly. She was also equipped with a secondary battery of six L/50 guns, which provided close-range defense against torpedo boats. She also carried two torpedo tubes submerged in the hull. Nino Bixio also had a capacity to carry 200 naval mines. The ship was only lightly armored, with a thick deck, and thick plating on her main conning tower.
Service history
Nino Bixio, named for the soldier and politician, was built at the Regio Cantiere di Castellammare di Stabia shipyard; her keel was laid down on 15 February 1911, the same day as her sister Marsala. Nino Bixios completed hull was launched ten months later on 30 December, after which fitting-out work commenced. The ship was completed by 5 May 1914, when she was commissioned into the Italian fleet. Nino Bixio was thereafter assigned to the 2nd Division of the 1st Squadron; the squadron consisted of two divisions of battleships, each supported by a scout cruiser. The 2nd Division included the four s, for which Nino Bixio served as the scout.World War I
Italy, a member of the Central Powers, declared neutrality at the start of World War I in August 1914, but by May 1915, the Triple Entente had convinced the Italians to enter the war against their former allies. Admiral Paolo Thaon di Revel, the Italian naval chief of staff, believed that Austro-Hungarian submarines could operate too effectively in the narrow waters of the Adriatic, which could also be easily seeded with minefields. The threat from these underwater weapons was too serious for him to use the fleet in an active way. Instead, Revel decided to implement blockade at the relatively safer southern end of the Adriatic with the main fleet, while smaller vessels, such as the MAS boats, conducted raids on Austro-Hungarian ships and installations.Nino Bixio was based at Brindisi in southern Italy to support the Otranto Barrage, along with the protected cruisers, Quarto, and, and several destroyers and submarines. The British contributed four cruisers of the British Adriatic Squadron: the light cruisers and and the protected cruisers and. Two French armored cruisers and twelve destroyers rounded out the light forces available to patrol the area.
On 29 December 1915, an Austro-Hungarian force of two cruisers and five destroyers attempted to intercept transports supplying the Serbian Army trapped in Albania. Quarto departed first, along with the British cruiser and five French destroyers; Nino Bixio followed two hours later with Weymouth and four Italian destroyers. The first flotilla engaged in a running battle with the fleeing Austro-Hungarian cruiser but Nino Bixios group was too far behind to close to effective range. It was hoped that the Quarto and Dartmouth group, which was further to the north, would be able to drive the Austro-Hungarian flotilla toward Nino Bixio and Weymouth, but the faster Austro-Hungarian ships were able to escape the trap. She and Weymouth briefly engaged the fleeing Austro-Hungarians at very long range, and Nino Bixio received a single hit forward. Poor coordination between the Italian, British, and French ships led to their failure to decisively engage the Austro-Hungarians, but the latter nevertheless lost two of their six best destroyers.
By May 1917, the reconnaissance forces at Brindisi had come under the command of Rear Admiral Alfredo Acton. On the night of 14–15 May, the Austro-Hungarian cruisers Helgoland,, and raided the Otranto Barrage—a patrol line of drifters intended to block Austro-Hungarian and German U-boats. She did not participate in the ensuing Battle of the Otranto Straits because she did not have steam up in her boilers when the Italo-British forces counterattacked.