Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1899 American Edition.djvu/1102

 746

ITALY

The Italian army is provided with the repeating rifle (the Italian system) and sword bayonet.

III. Navy.

The naval administration, under the Minister of Marine, is thus organised : An assistant secretary ; an admiral as chief of the staff" ; a medical inspector at the head of the sanitary service ; a major-general or colonel of military engineers at the head of a section having charge of the engineering works of the naval stations ; and two officials directing the sections of account. An admiral is chief of a special department administering matters concerning the 'personnel, an inspector-general of the genio navale of that dealing with naval construction, and an admiral of that devoted to ordnance and equipment. A civil official administers the department of the merchant marine, which is under the direction of the assistant secretary for the navy. For purposes of local naval administration and defence the Italian littoral is divided into three prefectures : 1, Spezia ; 2, Naples ; 3, Venice. By a royal decree of August 14, 1893, the vessels of the Italian fleet have been apportioned, for administrative purposes, between the three prefectures and Taranto. There are torpedo stations all round the Italian coasts, the head stations being at Spezia, Maddalena, Gaeta, Messina, Taranto, Ancona, and Venice.

The following tabular statement of the strength of the Italian Navy, in- cluding ships built and building, but excluding training ships, transports, and non-effective vessels, is framed on the same plan as similar tables given for the British, French, German, and other navies.

-

Launched Dec. 1897

Building

i

Battleships, 1st Class

10

3

,, 2nd Class

2

—

,, 3rd Class

2

—

Coast defence ships.

1

—

Cruisers, 1st Class.

2

2

,, 2nd Class.

5

—

,, 3rd Class.

10

1

Torpedo gunboats.

17

—

Torpedo-craft, 1st Class

IQ

4

,, , , 2nd Class

103

—

,, ,, 3rd Class

73

1

The tables which follow of the Italian armour-clad fleet and first-class cruisers are arranged chronologically, after the manner of other similar tables in this book. In the first table, the figures following the names indicate the several battleship classes to which they have been assigned. Abbreviations : c. h., central battery ; t. turret ; bar. , barbette ; q. f., quick fire : —