Strana 19
REPORT
First, a little history. The ship was built as
a modified cruiser of the Italian Pisa-class
at the Orlando shipyard in Livorno. The keel
was laid in 1907 and the hull of the vessel was
launched in 1910. As is sometimes the case,
at that time the Italian naval budget was running
precariously short of funds, so the government
decided to sell the ship. The Greek naval
attache there found out about this, informed
his superiors and after a positive response,
Italy officially offered the ship to Greece.
The latter seized the opportunity to strengthen
its naval capabilities and purchased the ship
with the help of the financial inheritance of
the deceased merchant and philanthropist
Georgios Averof. For this being made possible,
Averof was posthumously rewarded by having
the vessel named after him, and it still bears
his name today. In addition, it became the
flagship of the Greek naval fleet for a long
period. The cruiser was officially accepted by
the navy on May 16th, 1911.
From a structural point of view, it was an
interesting mix of equipment, because the
main gun armament was British, of Armstrong
production, the boilers were French from the
Belleville company, the steam engines were
domestically produced in Italy and the hull
was protected by German steel from the Krupp
company, as were the electric generators.
The armament consisted of four 9.2 inch
(234mm) main guns, placed in pairs in turrets
at the bow and stern of the vessel. On each
side there were a pair of turrets equipped
with twin 7.5 inch (190mm) for a total of eight
guns. All turrets were enclosed in a modern
cruiser-type construction with ammunition
supplied from below deck. The additional
armament consisted of single 76 and 47mm
guns, together with a three-barreled 17 inch
(430mm) torpedo tube. However, in later times
the ship underwent reconstructions and the
auxiliary armament changed.
As for the dimensions and performance of
the ship, the numbers are as follows. Length
was 460 feet (140m), width was 69 feet (21m)
and maximum draft 23.5 feet (7m). The highest
displacement was 10,200 tons and the engines
delivered 19,000 horsepower. The vessel, driven
by two propellers, could reach a maximum
speed of 23.5 knots per hour (approximately
43km/h), and at a cruising speed of 17.5 knots
per hour, range was 2,480 nautical miles,
(4,590km), which was completely sufficient
for Mediterranean operations. The standard
crew consisted of 655 sailors and 32 officers,
the maximum transport capacity was a total of
1,200 people.
After the ship was delivered to Greece, crew
training began, which paid off the following
year when the ship took part in the First
Balkan War. It was a conflict with Turkey over
control of the Aegean Sea. Not long after,
the ship intervened in World War I and
immediately after that in the Greek-Turkish
War. At that time, Averof mainly ensured the
safe passage of convoys or shelled Turkish
positions along the coast. After the lost war,
Greek settlers and soldiers were withdrawn
from what was then Turkish territory, and
the ship assisted in their evacuation. After
that, Averof's service continued in peacetime,
The cruiser Averof in its heyday.
The Averof on a period postcard.
Averof diagram.
INFO Eduard
19
January 2025