Italian destroyer Borea (1927)

Borea was one of eight Turbine-class destroyers built for the Regia Marina in the late 1920s, named for the cold, dry northerly wind of the Italian peninsula. Gio. Ansaldo & C. laid her down at its Genoa shipyard on 29 April 1925, launched her on 28 January 1927 and completed her on 14 November. Two Parsons geared steam turbines, each driving one propeller shaft with steam from three Thornycroft boilers, were rated at 40,000 shaft horsepower for 33 knots in service, and her fuel oil gave a range of 3,200 nautical miles at 14 knots. She served in the 1st Squadron of the I Destroyer Flotilla at La Spezia with her sisters Espero, Ostro and Zeffiro, and played a minor role supporting the Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War. On the evening of 16 September 1940 a bomb broke her in two as she lay in Benghazi harbour, and she sank in shallow water.