Scipio (1898)

Reliable as they were, the many ships (as in the only destroyers built for the Grande Marina during the 1880’s) of the Scipio-class were showing their age by the 1890’s, being far too slow in comparison to the newest destroyers of the Grande Marina. Although the navy had increased in size massively since the announcement of the Great Re-Armament in 1888, they had not devoted sufficient funds to replace the Scipios. The Admiralty were caught in the embarrassing situation of having devoted too much funding to big ships and not enough to small ships (the opposite of what happened in the cash-strapped years of the 1880’s), and they weren’t going to be able to squeeze any more money out of the Treasury. It was thus decided to modernize many of them by buffing the powerplant, increasing the armament and placing the torpedo tubes on a rotating pivot. Of course, they’re still fairly slow in comparison to newer destroyers, but their increased capability added many more years to their serviceable lives.

Done