Italian corvette San Giovanni

The keel for San Giovanni was laid down in 1848 at the Cantiere della Foce shipyard in Genoa for the Royal Sardinian Navy. Her completed hull was launched the following year.^[1] In September 1850, San Giovanni sailed to Tunis in Ottoman Tunisia, arriving there on the 29th.^[4]

San Giovanni was sent to Toulon, France, to be converted into a screw-powered steam corvette. By the time she was launched in September 1861, the Italian states had unified as the Kingdom of Italy.^[5][6] Work on the ship continued into 1862.^[1]

In June 1866, Italy declared war on Austria, as part of the Third Italian War of Independence, which was fought concurrently with the Austro-Prussian War.^[7] The Italian fleet commander, Admiral Carlo Pellion di Persano, initially adopted a cautious course of action; he was unwilling to risk battle with the Austrian Navy, despite the fact that the Austrian fleet was much weaker than his own. Persano claimed he was simply waiting on the ironclad ram Affondatore, en route from Britain, but his inaction weakened morale in the fleet, with many of his subordinates openly accusing him of cowardice.^[8]

Rear Admiral Wilhelm von Tegetthoff brought the Austrian fleet to Ancona on June 27, in attempt to draw out the Italians. At the time, many of the Italian ships were in disarray; many ships were experiencing various difficulties with their engines or armament. Persano held a council of war aboard the ironclad Principe di Carignano to determine whether he should sortie to engage Tegetthoff, but by that time, the Austrians had withdrawn, making the decision moot. The Minister of the Navy, Agostino Depretis, urged Persano to act and suggested the island of Lissa, to restore Italian confidence after their defeat at the Battle of Custoza the previous month. On 7 July, Persano took the fleet out of Ancona and conducted a sweep into the Adriatic, but encountered no Austrian ships and returned on the 13th.^[9]

San Giovanni took part in the Lissa campaign in July 1866 during the Third Italian War of Independence. There, she served in the Second Squadron under Admiral Giovan Battista Albini.^[10] Albini was responsible for transporting and landing the Italian army forces that were to seize the island of Lissa though he failed to follow his orders.^[11] After the initial attack, Albini held a council of war aboard his flagship that determined further attempts to land troops on the island would be unsuccessful and would only incur further damage to his ships. He sent San Giovanni to inform Persano of his decision to cancel further landing attempts.^[12] In the Battle of Lissa that followed the abortive landing operation, Albini failed to support the ironclad fleet under Persano, and as a result, San Giovanni saw no action during the battle. Albini was sacked after the battle for his timidity and failure to follow orders.^[13]

Later in the 1860s, San Giovanni was used as a stationary training ship for ship's boys. The navy requested funds to make repairs to the vessel in 1870, but the work was not done at that time.^[14] As of October 1871, she was stationed in Venice along with a number of other cruising vessels, including the screw corvette Magenta.^[15] Repairs had still not been carried out by 1874, and her condition had deteriorated to the point that it was no longer considered worthwhile to repair her.^[14] The ship was laid up in 1875,^[2] and by 1878, the Regia Marina had broken her up for scrap.^[16]

• Camera dei Deputati: Relazione della Commissione General del Bilancio [Chamber of Deputies: Report of the General Budget Committee] (in Italian). 1875.
• Dupont, Paul, ed. (1872). "Notes sur La Marine Et Les Ports Militaires de L'Italie" [Notes on the Navy and Military Ports of Italy]. La Revue Maritime et Coloniale [The Naval and Colonial Review] (in French). XXXII. Paris: Imprimerie Administrative de Paul Dupont: 415–430.
• 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.
• Greene, Jack; Massignani, Alessandro (1998). Ironclads at War: The Origin and Development of the Armored Warship, 1854–1891. Pennsylvania: Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0-938289-58-6.
• "Italien" [Italy]. Allgemeine Zeitung München (in German). No. 306. 2 November 1850. p. 4888.
• King, James Wilson (1878). Report of Chief Engineer J. W. King, United States Navy: On European Ships of War and Their Armament, Naval Administration and Economy, Marine Constructions, Torpedo-Warfare, Dock-Yards, Etc. Etc. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office. OCLC 464505308.
• "Metropolitan News". The Illustrated London News. Vol. XXXIX, no. 1108. London. 14 September 1861. p. 265.
• Österreichs Kämpfe im Jahre 1866: Fünfter Band [Austria's Struggles in Year 1866: Volume 5]. Vienna: Carl Gerold's Sohn. 1869.
• "San Giovanni: Corvetta di I rango ad elica" [San Giovanni: 1st Rank Screw Corvette]. marina.difesa.it (in Italian). Retrieved 5 August 2023.
• Sokol, Anthony (1968). The Imperial and Royal Austro-Hungarian Navy. Annapolis: United States Naval Institute. ISBN 978-0-87021-292-5.
• Sondhaus, Lawrence (1994). The Naval Policy of Austria-Hungary, 1867–1918. West Lafayette: Purdue University Press. ISBN 978-1-55753-034-9.
• Wilson, Herbert Wrigley (1896). Ironclads in Action: A Sketch of Naval Warfare from 1855 to 1895. London: S. Low, Marston and Company. OCLC 1111061.