Italian corvette Etna

The keel for Etna was laid down at the Regio Cantiere di Castellammare di Stabia (Royal Shipyard of Castellammare di Stabia) shipyard in 1860 for the Real Marina (Royal Navy) of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.^[1][2] The ship was launched on 17 July 1862,^[3] and was completed the following year.^[1][2] By that time, the various Italian states, including the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, had unified as Italy, and so Etna entered service with the Regia Marina.^[4]

While in Tunis on 15 March 1865, Etna's crew observed a major dust storm.^[5] In May, Etna was involved in a minor diplomatic incident in Alexandria in the Egyptian Eyalet of the Ottoman Empire. Altercations between the ship's crew and locals led to a settlement in Italy's favor, including the deportation of the local Ottoman police deputy director. A group of Italian colonists in the region were not satisfied and rioted to protest the agreement, which prompted Etna to send a landing party ashore to suppress the riot. They arrested nineteen colonists and took them aboard Etna.^[6]

During the Third Italian War of Independence against the Austrian Empire in 1866, Etna and several other wooden vessels remained behind when the fleet that assembled to attack the island of Lissa in July, and so she did not participate in the Battle of Lissa.^[7]

The ship served in South American waters from 1869 to 1871 to protect Italian interests in the region.^[1] In 1871, while sailing off the Hornos Islets in the Río de la Plata, south of Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay, Etna struck a submerged rock that was in about 3.7 m (12 ft) of water.^[8]

She was laid up in 1875.^[2] The Regia Marina requested to sell the ship that year, along with the corvettes Magenta, Principessa Clotilde, and San Giovanni, but the Italian parliament denied the request. Only San Giovanni was permitted to be sold, owing to her age and poor condition, while Etna and the others were to be retained with the fleet.^[9] Etna's ultimate fate is unknown.^[2]

• Camera dei Deputati: Relazione della Commissione General del Bilancio [Chamber of Deputies: Report of the General Budget Committee] (in Italian). 1875.
• Ehrenberg, C. G. (1868). Über die rothen Erden als Speise der Guinea-Neger (in German). Berlin: Buchdruckerei der Königliche Akademie der Wissenschaften.
• "Etna: Corvetta ad elica di II ordine" [Etna: 2nd Rank Screw Corvette]. marina.difesa.it (in Italian). Retrieved 21 December 2023.
• 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.
• Gorringe, Henry H. (1875). The Rio de la Plata. Washington DC: Government Printing Office.
• Österreichs Kämpfe im Jahre 1866: nach Feldacten bearbeitet durch das k. k. Generalstabs-Bureau für Kriegsgeschichte [Austria's Battles in the Year 1866: Based on Field Reports of the k. k. General Staff Bureau for Military History]. Vol. V. Vienna: Verlag der k. k. Generalstabs. 1869.
• "Turkei" [Turkey]. Leipziger Zeitung (in German). No. 136. 10 June 1865. p. 3039.