Regia Marina - Interwar Years

Interwar Years

During the interwar period, the Italian government decided to enhance the Regia Marina with a view to challenging the British Royal Navy's Mediterranean Fleet. In order to minimize contact with the British vessels and their more experienced crews, the Regia Marina based its strategy on fast ships with long-range artillery. Accordingly it had new guns developed which had smaller calibres but longer ranges than their British counterparts; furthermore, in order to allow higher speeds, new Italian ships had designs with thinner armour (such as Giovanni dalle Bande Nere).

In 1925, the Regia Marina ordered two school ships to be built following a design by Lieutenant Colonel Francesco Rotundi of the Italian Navy Engineering Corps, inspired by the style of large late 18th century 74-cannon ships of the line. The first of these two ships, the Cristoforo Colombo, was put into service in 1928 and was used by the Italian Navy until 1943. After World War II, this ship was handed over to the Soviet Union as part of war reparations and was shortly afterwards decommissioned.

The second ship of the design was the Amerigo Vespucci. The ship was built in 1930 at the (formerly Royal) Naval Shipyard of Castellammare di Stabia (Naples). She was launched on 22 February 1931, and was put into service in July of that year.