Dogali (1885)

Italy (1885) Protected Cruiser

Dogali, a very unique protected cruiser:
Dogali was a protected cruiser ingle in class, built for the Regia Marina in Britain, and first warship equipped with triple-expansion engines. She was originally ordered by the Greek Navy as Salamis, but after a payment default, resold to the Regia Marina before completion, renamed for the Battle of Dogali. In addition to her six 6 in her speed of 19.66 knots (36.41 km/h; 22.62 mph) on sea trials, made her the fastest protected cruiser of the time. Apart a visit to the US in 1893 (World’s Columbian Exposition) she had an uneventful career until sold in January 1908 to Uruguay as “25 de Agosto” (later Montevideo), discarded in 1914 but only sold for BU in 1932.

Design

Dogali was designed by British naval architect William Henry White for the Greek Navy as its flagship. A commission was sent in 1884 to collect the best proposals after a call for tenders and French yards were also contacted. Eventually White, one of the most famous naval architect in Britain at the time and DNC in 1885, won the tender and passed on the design to the Armstrong Whitworth shipyard at Elswick for construction after it was approved. White which retied in 1902 over 16 years would design 43 battleships, 26 armoured cruisers, 102 protected cruisers and 74 unarmoured warships, a remarkable achievement. The “Salamis” was at the time typical of small, well armoured cruisers that could deter a potential adversary for a small fleet as a relatively low cost.

She was a one-off, but White’s proposal to the Greeks was to install for the first time Vertical Triple expansion engines, still largely untested at the time at that scale, but already used on smaller vessels. It was accepted in part due to the promises of speed, but the constraints in size meant the ratio was not favourable, although it later impressed the Italians for her to speed on trials. In between indeed, soon after she was launched on 23 December 1885, the Greeks defaulted on the payment due to the inability to secure the funds at home, due to eventual parliamentary opposition. The yard was still confident to resell the now unnamed cruiser, after briefly consulting the Royal Navy, which expressed no interest. There were no shortage of foreign missions in Britain always looking for opportunities. This was the case for Italy, with the Regia Marina was just starting to build a fleet of armoured cruisers in Britain (such as the larger Etna class). The name “dogali” was secured and construction proceeded to completion after a delay of nearly two years, on 28 April 1887. By the time VTE were no longer a novelty and her stop speed as a cruiser was already beaten.

Layout and protection

The Dogali was still a small cruiser, which the Italian tought useful as a station cruiser. She was indeed only 76.2 meters (250 ft) long for a generous beam of 11.28 m (37 ft) and draft of 4.42 m (14 ft 6 in). This made for a ratio of 1:7. This was good for stability and agility, less to achieve stellar top speeds. She displaced 2,050 long tons (2,080 t) standard (evaluated so). A classic design with a forecastle and sterncastle, main battery on the weather deck in sponsons on three pairs (two fore and aft), she had two tall funnels, raked, as her two pole masts, and originally, a sailing rig of the schooner type, later removed. The masts also had small armored spotting tops fore fire direction and just daily watch. She had a crew of 224 officers and enlisted men, later increased to 247. She also had for them six boats over the battery deck under davits.

Protection was not impressive, especially compared to other protected cruisers of the time: She had an armored deck 50 mm (2 in) thick whether on the side slopes and central flat section. She also had a conning tower with also 50 mm of armor plating. The main guns were all protected by 110 mm (4.3 in) thick gun shields, as they were exposed. But you already guessed it, with such heavy guns mounted in pairs on both the forecastle and sterncastle, stability was questionable, despite the beam ration and buoyancy.

Powerplant

Dogali was powered as said above by the novelty of a pair of triple-expansion engines, the first set ever installed in a warship. Previously only liners experimented it but White was confident it was a step forward for the Navy and wanted notably to demonstrate it to the RN. The VTE soon was more largely adopted and became standard until turbines took over after a long transiton from the 1890s to the 1900s. Steam came from four coal-fired cylindrical fire-tube boilers. They were trunked into two tall funnels on the centerline. These engines produed in common a total of 5,012 indicated horsepower (3,737 kW). This made later for a top speed in service of 17.68 knots (32.74 km/h; 20.35 mph). But on trials, these engines were pushed to 7,179 ihp (5,353 kW) to produce 19.66 knots (36.41 km/h; 22.62 mph), so fairly short of 20 knots, unheard offor a cruiser. Dogali could cruise over 4,000 nautical miles (7,400 km; 4,600 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph), carrying coal 430t of coal. But she was taunted by Elswick on its largely distributed flyers, as among the fastest cruisers in the world. A title she did not kept long and was of little use in her career.

Armament

Despite her small size, reached by many destroyers ten years later, she was well armed with six 152-millimeter (6 in) L/32 guns on individual sponsoned positions, two forward, two astern, tow on the lower battery deck amidships, covering the broadside but still able to fire forward and aft. These were Pattern M Armstrong Whitworth, weighing 2 t (2.0 long tons; 2.2 short tons) apiece and unique to the needs of the Greek Navy originally.
They were supplemented nine 57 mm (2.24 in) L/40 Hotchkiss guns, plus six 5-tubes 11.4mm/94 repeating Gatling guns for close quarter defence. Location of the first was mostly on the broadsides of the main battery gun, and two on the sterncastle.
She also had four 356 mm (14 in) torpedo tubes furing the Whitehead Mark I.

Career of Dogali

Her keel was laid down on 13 February 1885, launched on 23 December as “Angelo Emo” and then Dogali as she was commissioned on 28 April 1887. On 10 June she took part in the Regia Marina’s annual fleet maneuvers. With the torpedo cruiser Folgore, she was assigned to the “defending squadron” i support of the ironclads Enrico Dandolo, Palestro, Castelfidardo, and Affondatore. She was to be capable of attack and defending the Strait of Messina. This ended with a fleet review by King Umberto I on 21 June 1887. In 1890 she took part in the annual fleet maneuvers in the First Squadron attached to the ironclad Lepanto, protected cruiser Piemonte and torpedo boats. Exercises proceeded in the Tyrrhenian Sea with a scenario where they needed to defend the approachs of Italy against an attacking “hostile” squadron fro the West.

Dogali and Etna as well as Giovanni Bausan represented Italy later at the international naval review in New York, part of the World’s Columbian Exposition started in Chicago in 1893. The Exposition marked the 400th anniversary of Columbus’s arrival. A formidable naval review als included French, German, Britsih, Spanish vessels as well as from other nations.
Later in 1893 Dogali and Giovanni Bausan were in Rio de Janeiro during the Revolta da Armada (Revolt of the Fleet) with other cruisers, including from Argentina to watch oveer their own citizen’s safety, ready to send a landing party.

She returned to Italy later that year to be assigned to the 3rd Department stationed in Venice until late 1894, in charge of the Adriatic and facing the Austro-Hungarian Navy. On 1 February 1897, Dogali was reassigned to the Cruiser Squadron with Marco Polo, Umbria and Liguria and later she cruised off the eastern coast of South America with Umbria. She left this Squadron in 1903, and joined a second division squadron with the cruisers Vettor Pisani, Giovanni Bausan and Etruria.

In 1906, she was back cruising in North American waters. She needed repairs at Pensacola Navy Yard due to her old engines. Later she took part in a ceremony in Capitán Pastene, Chile, as the city celebrtaed her 100th year after being founded by Italian immigrants. In January 1908, she was considered for decommission due to her age, but she was eventually sold to Uruguay. The latter took over the ship for a recommission as their flagship, named “25 de Agosto”, the date of independence. She remained the largest warship in the Uruguayan Navy until 1910, renamed “Montevideo” after the capital and ultimately decommissioned in 1914, but still used as a traning hull and depot ship, listed in the inventory until 1932, and then sold for scrap.

Links

Specs Conway’s all the world fighting ships 1860-1905.
https://www.navypedia.org/ships/italy/it_cr_dogali.htm
https://www.marina.difesa.it/noi-siamo-la-marina/pilastro-operativo/mezzi/mezzi-storici/Pagine/ABCD/dogali.aspx
https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogali_(ariete_torpediniere)
https://www.tynebuiltships.co.uk/D-Ships/dogali1887.html
https://www.history.navy.mil/our-collections/photography/numerical-list-of-images/nhhc-series/nh-series/NH-92000/NH-92037.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_cruiser_Dogali