San Giorgio-class cruiser

San Marco underway, 18 August 1910
Class overview
Name	San Giorgio
Builders	Regio Cantiere di Castellammare di Stabia, Castellammare di Stabia
Operators	Regia Marina
Preceded by	Pisa class
Succeeded by	None
Built	1905–1911
In service	1910–1943
Completed	2
Lost	1
Scrapped	1
General characteristics
Type	Armored cruiser
Displacement	10,167–10,969 t (10,006–10,796 long tons)
Length	140.89 m (462 ft 3 in) (o/a)
Beam	21.03 m (69 ft 0 in)
Draft	7.35–7.76 m (24 ft 1 in – 25 ft 6 in)
Installed power	19,500–23,000 hp (14,500–17,200 kW) 14 water-tube boilers
Propulsion	2 shafts, 2 vertical triple-expansion steam engines (San Giorgio) 4 shafts, 4 steam turbines (San Marco)
Speed	23 knots (43 km/h; 26 mph)
Range	4,800–6,270 nmi (8,890–11,610 km; 5,520–7,220 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement	32 officers, 666–73 enlisted men
Armament	2 twin 254 mm (10.0 in)/45 guns 4 twin 190 mm (7.5 in)/45 guns 18 single 76 mm (3.0 in)/40 guns 2 single 47 mm (1.9 in)/50 guns 3 × 450 mm (17.7 in) torpedo tubes
Armor	Belt: 200 mm (7.9 in) Gun turrets: 160–200 mm (6.3–7.9 in) Deck: 50 mm (2.0 in) Conning tower: 254 mm (10.0 in)

The San Giorgio class consisted of two armored cruisers built for the Royal Italian Navy (Regia Marina) in the first decade of the 20th century. The second ship, San Marco, was used to evaluate recently invented steam turbines in a large ship and incorporated a number of other technological advances. The ships participated in the Italo-Turkish War of 1911–1912, although San Giorgio was under repair for most of the war. San Marco supported ground forces in Libya with naval gunfire and helped them to occupy towns in Libya and islands in the Dodecanese. During World War I, the ships' activities were limited by the threat of Austro-Hungarian submarines, although they did bombard Durazzo, Albania in 1918.

San Giorgio spent several years in the Far East and Italian Somaliland after the war and became a training ship in 1931. After a brief deployment to Spain in 1936, she was reconstructed to better serve her role as a training ship. The ship's anti-aircraft armament was augmented when she was deployed to Tobruk, Libya to reinforce the port's defenses after Italy declared war on Britain in May 1940. San Giorgio was scuttled in early 1941 when Allied forces were poised to capture the port. Her wreck was salvaged in 1952, but sank while under tow. San Marco was converted into a target ship in the early 1930s and was found sunk at the end of the war. She was scrapped in 1949.