An item reported that on 20 December 1913 at Rome, Italy the chairman of the board for designing ships deceased. Vittorio Emanuele Cuniberti (7 June 1854 Turin, Italy) died at the age of 69 years. As a young naval engineer he was the friend and best scholar of the famous Italian naval engineer Benedetto Brin.(1) According to the item was Cuniberti certainly one of the most original and perhaps even the most ingenious naval shipbuilder of his time. He influenced to a large extent the modern shipbuilding by the ships he built and his publications.
De by him built ironclads of the Benedetto Brin-type (2) were at their time highly praised. Furthermore was referred to an article he wrote for Jane‘s All the World Fighting Ships handling with the ideal battleship design, armed with 12-30,5cm guns, 30,5cm thick armour and a displacement of 17.000 ton.(3) In fact he described the modern dreadnought which 3 years later appeared caused a revolt in battleship building. Experimenting with metal ingenious and scientific tested constructions and the maximum metal strength he discovered the maximum profit of the displacement. Other shipbuilders claimed that his ships were too weakly built. However they were modern, heavily armed, fast and relative cheap and suitable for the Mediterranean.
Notes
1. Benedetto Brin (17 May 1833 Turin, Italy-24 May 1898 Rome, Italy). Appointed in 1853 as part of the Sardinian Naval Engineers and who in 1864 wrote that armoured ships were the future. Promoted in 1871 in shipbuilding was he decades for major important for the Italian naval designs of battleships but also torpedo boats. Also a politician.
2. The Benedetto Brin was built between 1899 and 1905.
3. An Ideal Battleship for the British Fleet. 1903 edition, p. 407-409.
