Urania

[thierry_st_malo]

This "side-by-side" shows the Italian torpedo-cruiser "Urania" with the French protected cruiser "Lavoisier" which was commissioned the same year, in 1893.
The Italian torpedo-cruisers were roughly equivalent to the English torpedo gunboats of the "Sharpshooter" and "Alarm" classes. All were much too slow at about 20 knots to deal with their intended opponents, French torpedo-boats that reached routinely 30 knots or more.
The situation prompted Fisher to create the first destroyers in the world, the "30-knotters".

If you are interested in "Urania", keep in touch. I intend to make the model available for download. Already there are three other side-by-sides available in the "Gallery" part of my site http://www.tvi-sarl.com. Beware, this is a bi-lingual site :-)

Thierry