Foca was the lead ship of her class of three submarine minelayers built for the (Royal Italian Navy) during the late 1930s.
Design and description The Foca-class submarines were improved versions of the preceding Pietro Micca. They displaced surfaced and submerged. The submarines were long, had a beam of and a draft of . They had an operational diving depth of . Their crew numbered 60 officers and enlisted men.Chesneau, p. 305
For surface running, the boats were powered by two diesel engines, each driving one propeller shaft. When submerged each propeller was driven by a electric motor. They could reach on the surface and underwater. On the surface, the Foca class had a range of at , submerged, they had a range of at .Bagnasco, p. 156
The boats were armed with six internal torpedo tubes, four in the bow and two in the stern, for which they carried eight torpedoes. They were also armed with one deck gun for combat on the surface. The gun was initially mounted in the rear of the conning tower, but this was re-sited on the forward deck later in the war in the surviving boats and the large conning tower was re-built to a smaller design. Their anti-aircraft armament consisted of two pairs of machine guns. The Focas carried a total of 36 mines that they ejected through chutes in the stern.
Construction and career Foca was laid down by Cantieri navali Tosi di Taranto at their Taranto shipyard on 15 January 1936, launched on 19 June 1937 and completed on 6 November 1937.Fraccaroli, p. 113 The boat was lost in October 1940 probably due to the explosion of one of the mines it was to lay off Haifa.Colombo
References
Bibliography
External links Sommergibili Marina Militare website