The ship's motto initially was what then also was the motto of Italy's gendarmerie, the Carabinieri: Usi obey tacendo e tacendo morir ("It is customary to obey in silence and to die in silence"), taken from the 1861 short poemLa rassegna di Novara ("The Review of Novara") by Costantino Nigra. In 1914, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Carabinieri, the Carabinieri adopted the new motto Nei secoli fedele ("Forever faithful"). The destroyer then adopted the new motto as well, and it went on to become the motto of subsequent Regia Marina ("Royal Navy") and Marina Militare (Italian Navy) ships named Carabiniere.
Service history
Italo-Turkish War
The Italo-Turkish War began on 29 September 1911 with the Kingdom of Italy′s declaration of war on the Ottoman Empire. At the time, Carabiniere was part of the 2nd Squadron's 3rd Destroyer Division along with her sister shipsAlpino, Fuciliere, and Pontiere.[2] On the afternoon of 29 September Carabinieri took part in one of the first clashes of the war, the Battle of Preveza, when she, along with Alpino, the destroyers Artigliere and Zeffiro, and the torpedo boatSpica engaged the Ottoman Navy torpedo boats Antalya and Tokad as they attempted to leave the port of Preveza on what then was the Ionian Sea coast of the Ottoman Empire. The Italian ships attacked the two torpedo boats at 14:00, and Artigliere seriously damaged Tokad and pursued her into the anchorage as she attempted to return to Preveza. Meanwhile, Carabiniere, Alpino, Spiga, and Zeffiro surrounded Antalya. Hit repeatedly, seriously damaged, and on fire, with four members of her crew killed in action and numerous other crewmen wounded, Antalyastruck her colors and ran herself aground on a nearby beach. As Antalya′s crew abandoned ship, members of Alpino′s crew boarded and captured her and removed her flag and her only usable gun, after which Alpino finished her off with gunfire. Carabiniere, Alpino, Spiga, and Zeffiro then joined Artigliere in the harbor and sank Tokad and an Ottoman gunboat. As the Italian ships departed, the crew of the GreeksteamerMarte cheered them.[3][4][5][6][7]
In a 1912 magazine article[8] and a 1913 book[9] based on contemporary sources, United States NavyCommodore W. H. Beehler offers a different version of the events of 29 September 1911. According to Beehler, the Italian ships sighted Antalya and Tokad in the Ionian Sea between Corfu and Preveza, steering north-northwestward, at either 15:00[8] or 16:00.[9] The Italians opened fire, and the Ottoman ships returned fire only feebly. Tokad steamed northward chased by three Italian destroyers, while Antalya headed south with two Italian destroyers in pursuit. Hit 15 times and on fire, Tokad beached herself near Nicopolis and was totally destroyed, with her commanding officer and eight of her sailors either killed by the Italian gunfire or drowned. Meanwhile, Antalya reached Preveza undamaged. The Italian destroyers were undamaged and fired 100 76-millimetre rounds during the engagement.[8][9]
On 5 October 1911, a motorboat from Artigliere that had been searching an Austro-Hungarianmail steamer in the harbor at Shëngjin (known to the Italians as San Giovanni de Medua) on the coast of Albania came under fire from field guns in an earthwork. Artigliere responded by bombarding the earthwork, silencing its guns and damaging a number of buildings in the city of Shëngjin. Artigliere, which suffered minor damage before silencing the earthwork, ceased fire after 45 minutes when she ran out of ammunition. Meanwhile, Carabiniere arrived on the scene and also opened fire, bombarding the earthwork for 20 minutes before departing.[8][10]
The war ended on 18 October 1912 in an Italian victory.
On 11 February 1917 Carabiniere — now under the command of an officer named Gais — Alpino, Fuciliere, Pontiere, the torpedo boats 19 OS, 20 OS, 21 OS, and 22 OS, and six French airplanes provided escort and support to a group of two French and three Italian seaplanes as the seaplanes conducted a reconnaissance of the Austro-Hungarian Navy base at Pola.[11]
On 24 September 1917 Carabiniere, Pontiere, and Zeffiro got underway from Venice to intervene in a clash between the Italian coastal torpedo boats 9 PN, 10 PN, 11 PN, and 12 PN and four Austro-Hungarian Navy destroyers. The battle ended following the intervention of Italian aircraft, and the Austro-Hungarian destroyers withdrew before the Italian destroyers could engage them.[11]
By late October 1918, Austria-Hungary had effectively disintegrated, and the Armistice of Villa Giusti, signed on 3 November 1918, went into effect on 4 November 1918 and brought hostilities between Austria-Hungary and the Allies to an end. World War I ended a week later with an armistice between the Allies and the German Empire on 11 November 1918.
Post-World War I
After World War I, Carabiniere was stationed for various periods at Split (known to the Italians as Spalato), Trogir (known to the Italians as Traù), Dubrovnik (known to the Italians as Ragusa), and Korčula (known to the Italians as Curzola) because of tensions between Italians and populations in the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (which in 1929 was renamed the Kingdom of Yugoslavia), including the 1918–1920 unrest in Split.[12] Reclassified as a torpedo boat on 1 July 1921, Carabiniere was stricken from the naval register on 7 May 1925, discarded the same day,[13] and subsequently scrapped.
References
^ abFraccaroli, Aldo (1970). Italian Warships of World War I. Ian Allan. p. 67. ISBN0711001057.
Favre, Franco. La Marina nella Grande Guerra. Le operazioni navali, aeree, subacquee e terrestri in Adriatico (in Italian).{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
Fraccaroli, Aldo (1985). "Italy". In Gray, Randal (ed.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. pp. 252–290. ISBN978-0-87021-907-8.
