Italian corvette Caracciolo (1869)

The keel for Caracciolo was laid down in October 1865, originally under the name Brilliante. Her name was changed to Caracciolo in January 1869 and she was launched on the 18th. Fitting out work was completed on 20 July 1870.^[3] In 1871, Caracciolo was sent overseas to South America. She was stationed in Montevideo, Uruguay at that time.^[4] By 1873, she had been moved to La Plata, Argentina, where she led a small division that also included the three screw gunboats Ardita, Confienza, and Veloce.^[5] In 1875, Caracciolo was converted into a training ship for torpedo operators; she temporarily carried a torpedo tube through 1880 for this role.^[3]

The ship embarked on a circumnavigation of the globe in 1881, which was used to gather navigation data as well as samples of marine animals. She sailed south through the Atlantic to South America; she conducted extensive hydrographic surveys along the coast of Patagonia and the Strait of Magellan. During the tour of South American waters, she visited Valparaiso, Chile.^[6] By 1883, she had reached Australia; in December, she rendezvoused in Singapore with the screw corvette Cristoforo Colombo, which had been sent to protect Italian nationals in China. The two ships then sailed north to China, where they patrolled the area to protect Italian nationals in the event of a conflict.^[7] By July, Caracciolo had departed, though the corvette Vettor Pisani had been sent to take her place.^[8] She returned to Australian waters, cruising there through 1884, during which time she visited Sydney and Melbourne.^[9] Caracciolo completed her journey later that year. During the lengthy voyage abroad, seventeen men from her crew deserted, though more than eighty men who had begun the cruise illiterate had learned to read and write.^[10]

In 1892, Caracciolo served in the Training Squadron attached to the Italian naval academy at Livorno. That year, she went on a training cruise with the other vessels of the squadron, including the screw corvette Flavio Gioia and the old screw frigate Vittorio Emanuele, supported by the transport ship Conte di Cavour. The voyage began in July and lasted for three and a half months, and included stops in the Azores, Gibraltar, Vigo and Cartagena in Spain, the Balearic Islands, and La Maddalena, Italy, before returning to Livorno.^[11] Caracciolo was part of the Reserve Squadron in 1895, serving as a boys' training ship. She was supported by four tenders at that time, and she was based in La Spezia.^[12] She was assigned to the Training Squadron in 1904, along with the old ironclads Lepanto, Castelfidardo, and Affondatore and the screw corvette Flavio Gioia. At that time, Caracciolo operated as a boys' training vessel.^[13] In October that year, Caracciolo and the screw corvette Amerigo Vespucci visited Toulon, France.^[14] The ship was discarded on 10 March 1907, though her ultimate fate is unknown.^[3]

• "A Toulon" [In Toulon]. Revue des Deux Mondes [Review of Two Worlds] (in French). XXI. Paris: Bureau de la Revue des Deux Mondes: 593–635.
• von Armingen, Friedrich Geitler, ed. (21 May 1873). "Ausland" [Overseas]. Neue Militär-Zeitung [New Military Newspaper] (in German) (41). Vienna: 318. OCLC 224831739.
• Chapman, W. Percy (1893). "Naval Academy". Diplomatic and Consular Reports on Trade and Finance: Italy. Report for the Year 1892 on the Trade of the Consular District of Leghorn. London: Harrison & Sons: 16.
• China: A Collection of Correspondence and Papers Relating to Chinese Affairs. London: Harrison & Sons. 1885. OCLC 894534063.
• Cresciani, Gianfranco (2003). The Italians in Australia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521537780.
• della Croce, Norberto (2002). "Italian Contributions to the Knowledge of the Southeast Pacific Ocean". In Benson, Keith Rodney; Rehbock, Philip F. (eds.). Oceanographic History: The Pacific and Beyond. Seattle: University of Washington Press. pp. 204–209. ISBN 9780295982397.
• Fraccaroli, Aldo (1979). "Italy". In Gardiner, Robert (ed.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. London: Conway Maritime Press. pp. 334–359. ISBN 978-0-85177-133-5.
• "Francesco Caracciolo: Corvetta ad elica" [Francesco Caracciolo: Screw Corvette]. marina.difesa.it (in Italian). Archived from the original on 19 April 2022. Retrieved 3 April 2026.
• Garbett, H., ed. (1895). "Naval and Military Notes". Journal of the Royal United Service Institution. XXXIX (203). London: J. J. Keliher & Co.: 81–110. OCLC 8007941.
• Garbett, H., ed. (1904). "Naval Notes". Journal of the Royal United Service Institution. XLVIII (322). London: J. J. Keliher & Co.: 1418–1434. OCLC 8007941.
• Ziegler, Johannes, ed. (1871). "Schiffbau in Italien" [Shipbuilding in Italy]. Archiv für Seewesen: Mittheilungen aus dem Gebiete der Nautik, des Schiffbau- und Maschinenwesens, der Artillerie, Wasserbauten, etc. Sowie der Literatur und Bibliographie des Seewesens [Archives for Marine Life: Communications from the Fields of Nautical Science, Shipbuilding, and Mechanical Engineering, Artillery, Hydraulic Engineering, etc. As Well as the Literature and Bibliography of Marine Life]. VII (VIII). Vienna: Drunk und Commissions-Verlag von Carl Gerold's Sohn: 403–407. OCLC 67899261.