Shipbucket

With the completion of the Conte di Cavour and the Guilio Caesare, I finally have the motivation to finish the drawing I started on of the Francecso Caracciolo class. At 212m long, 29,6m wide, and weighting in at 34k tons, they were a class of 4 ships planned, with a top speed of 28kts. This would make them the fastest battleship design for quite some time, rivaling most battlecruisers in speed. Armor wise, they were no better than the avarage dreadnought, or heavily armored battlecruiser. The class was to be armed with 8x15"/40cal guns made by Ansaldo-Schneider, Armstong-Pozzoli and Vickers-Terni. The scondary battery would have comprised of 12x6"/45cal guns in casemates mounted in the superstructure amidships. A tertiary battery consisted of 8x4"/45cal dual purpose guns. Additionally there were to be 8 torpedo tubes, but good luck fining out if they were below waterline or above, my guess is above based on the number.

Construction on the first ship started in 1914, but was postponed in 1916 a year after Italys entry into WWI on the side of the entente. Construction resumed in 1919, but like France, Italy was short of cash, and after the launch of the hull in 1920, the rest of the class were all cancelled, and plans were made for various conversions of the Francesco Caracciolo into among other things; carrier, or a floatplane tender. Infighting within the Regia Marina about the future of the navy killed any plans for the Caracciolo, and all hulls were scrapped, and the guns were given to the army as either railway guns, or coastal defense-guns.

Francesco Caracciolo as planned when she was laid down in 1914:


Edit: If any of the higher-ups think that this does not belong in this section feel free to move it over to the apropriate section.

Very nice work!

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MS State Guard - 08 March 2014 - 28 January 2023

The Official IJN Ships & Planes List

#FJB

Nice work, good to see these Italian battlewagons.

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Hood's Worklist
English Electric Canberra FD
Interwar RN Capital Ships
Super-Darings
Never-Were British Aircraft

I've changed the colors to the late WWI very pale color scheme.

Well, just two things... is FrancesCo Caracciolo, non Franceso. And is Giulio Cesare, not Guilio Caesare. Caesar was the latin term, but in italian is Cesare.

And, of course, a great draw!

Good to see a drawing of these interesting ships

I've updated the anti-fouling paint and changed some details on the turrets.