On 2 December 1909 the glorious name Quarto was imposed on the new combat unit under construction at the Venice Arsenal. "The Quarto is one of the most successful units of our Navy and has rendered, in its twenty-four years of operation, excellent services in peace and in war, at home and abroad, confirming that truly good ships, as a project and as material , they always remain good ".
Words of a commander in 2 ^, the then corvette captain Alberto Da Zara, who spends words of true admiration for this splendid unity.
Designed by the major of the naval genius Giulio Truccone, launched on 9 August 1911 and entered into service on 11 May 1912, the Quarto has stupendous hull shapes that allow it to walk at full strength without lifting the "whiskers" of foam and without apparent effort ; this has always led everyone into serious errors in the appreciation of its speed, starting with the opposing submarines, who regularly saw their torpedoes parading from the stern of the Italian Explorer. These numerous escapes are at the origin of the legend, born during the Great War, that the exasperated Austrians had placed a bounty for its sinking.
The Quarto was one of the Navy units to have completed the largest number of war missions throughout the First World War, and remained in the breach for many years until it was reclassified as Light Cruiser in the post-war period. One of his best-known combat actions is vividly described in the words of war correspondent Arnaldo Fraccaroli, from board in August 1916:
"The hostile land appears far away: Lissa appears.
The Italian ship shakes from what was only its apparent sleep. The night no longer protects her now.
Dark figures run along the edge, rope ropes are lowered, the gray ship is bared even more.
Certain small aft and bow rods are raised by a movement of the steering wheel: the cannons for air defense. Groups of gunners stop around the biggest guns. Telephone wires are connected from the pieces to the control tower, pointers are applied to the telephone headset, the servers are ready for the loading cranes to refuel the bullets, a column is formed for the passage of the reserves to the pieces. The ship takes on the hard aspect of fighting.
The two youngest officers on board are carrying out the battle flag to hoist it on the ship: the flaming flag that the ladies of Quarto have given to the explorer from the glorious name. A religious sense of reverence and emotion takes all the people on the ship. The flag that is like the sacred spirit unfolds, which is the soul of this armed will.
... And suddenly a cry of alarm falls on the industrious silence of the people: - Submarine in the bow!
At the moment of danger the ship stiffens all into one supreme will: that of the commander.
The hardest battle that a ship can encounter begins: the one against a submarine, against the unknown that assails and it is not discovered.
The Commander gave a lightning-fast order: - Full speed! On!
The explorer has a start and rushes towards the whirlpool that has opened on the sinking of the submarine.
The lookout shouts: - torpedo against bow!
The ship moves with an immediate maneuver. The target has escaped.
But the danger has not ceased. Another torpedo can come. But don't lose your mind: Lissa!
And here, while the wake of the torpedo flies five meters from the side of the ship, the trumpets sing the "march on the field". On the sea of Lissa, in waters watched by the Austrians, with a submarine around, with the thrill of death just passed, the crew is thrilled.
The fighting flag is deployed, connected, waving at the first sun as a liberation downpour. The trumpets ring the signal: "Raise the fighting flag".
Every morning, every evening, on board the ships, the sailor salutes the flag that rises and drops, and stops all work, and is discovered, and stands at attention: every morning, every evening. They are sacred moments. But this is still something more: it is the flag of combat, it is as if the ship was rearing its life itself on the antenna, it is as if the divine spirit of the Fatherland rose to bless and protect.
The trumpet blasts fade, fade away. The flag is hoisted. Then the artillery starts playing with thunderous loops. Lissa is here before. They are the first Italian cannonades on the Lissa sea, it is the first Italian flag that returns with insolence as a mistress."
