 Polluce conducting weapons trials.
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 Italy | |
| Name | Castore and Polluce |
| Namesake | Castor and Pollux |
| Class overview | |
| Builders | Armstrong Whitworth, Elswick |
| Operators | Regia Marina |
| Built | 1887–1889 |
| In commission | 1889–1925 |
| Completed | 2 |
| Retired | 2 |
| Scrapped | 2 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Rendel (or "flat-iron") gunboat |
| Displacement | 667 long tons (678 t) |
| Length | 115 ft (35.1 m) |
| Beam | 37 ft (11.3 m) |
| Draft | 9 ft 2 in (2.8 m) |
| Installed power | 350 ihp (261 kW) |
| Propulsion | 2 shafts, vertical triple expansion steam engines |
| Speed | 8 knots (15 km/h; 9.2 mph) |
| Complement | 42 |
| Armament | 1 × 1 - 40 cm (16 in)/32 guns |
| Notes | Fuel load, 20–70 long tons (20–71 t) coal |
The Italian Castore-class gunboats, Castore and Polluce, were a class of two Rendel gunboats, designed and built by Sir W G Armstrong Mitchell & Co.'s Elswick Works in the late 1880s to a contract by the Italian War Ministry.[1] Designed by Philip Watts and Herbert Rowell, and constructed in Elswick's Tyneside yard in the United Kingdom, the two gunboats were disassembled and shipped to Italy for reassembly in the Armstrong facility at Pozzuoli,[1] proving to be the only ships constructed there after the Italian government cancelled the shipyard project.[1] It is uncertain whether the vessels were designed as testbeds for heavy guns, or were intended from the outset as operational gunboats.[1]