Battleships: Ammiraglio di Saint Bon Class

[Brian James]

Italian Pre-Dreadnought Battleship RM Ammiraglio di Saint Bon pictured in 1901.
She was laid down at Venice Naval Shipyard in July 1893, launched in April 1897, and completed in May 1901. She was the Lead Ship of her Class, and had one sister ship, Emanuele Filiberto. She was armed with a main battery of four 10-inch guns and was capable of a top speed of 18 knots.
Ammiraglio di Saint Bon served in the active squadron of the Italian navy for the first several years of her career. She was assigned to the 3rd Division during the Italo-Turkish War of 1911–1912. During the war, she was involved in the seizure of the island of Rhodes, where she provided gunfire support to Italian infantry. She was obsolescent by World War I and was slated to be broken up in 1914–15, but the need for warships granted Ammiraglio di Saint Bon a respite. She spent the war as a Harbour Defense Ship in Venice and, after April 1916, was used primarily as a floating Anti-Aircraft Battery. She was stricken from the naval register in June 1920 and subsequently broken up for scrap.