Italian cruiser Alberico da Barbiano

Alberico da Barbiano was an Italian light cruiser of the Giussano class that served in the Regia Marina, named after a fourteenth-century condottiero. She was launched on 23 August 1930 and is listed among the cruisers built by Gio. Ansaldo & C. for the Italian navy. On her trials she reached 42.05 knots, but only by pushing her engines to 123,479 horsepower, far beyond their safety limits, and she could hold that speed for about thirty minutes. In the late 1930s she escorted ships carrying supplies for the Spanish Nationalist forces during the Spanish Civil War, and in the Second World War she served in the 4th Cruiser Division and was present at the Battle of Calabria in July 1940. On the night of 12 to 13 December 1941 she and her sister Alberto di Giussano, loaded with fuel and supplies for Tripoli, were surprised off Cape Bon by four Allied destroyers using radar. Torpedoes sank her at 3:35 and 534 men were lost, among them Admiral Antonino Toscano. Her wreck was located in 2007.