This strange-looking vessel, which appears to be half-sinking, is a semi-submersible battleship, proposed by Engineer Nabor Soliani to Italian naval architects at Genoa, and designed to be practically invulnerable. She is shown subjected to, gun, bomb, and torpedo attack. Three such vessels could be built for the cost of one Hood, since one-third of her 20,000-tons displacement consists of water ballast. She is much more completely protected than the standard battleship can be. Her entire above-water form, which is purely superstructure, is entirely encased in a deck and belt of 6in. armour. These works are for the crew's quarters, and to enable the guns to be fought in something of a sea-way. They can be entirely destroyed without vitally injuring the ship. One-eighth of their volume is filled with cork, 120 tons forming what is actually a "raft" to maintain stability when semi-eubmergence is effected. The hull is very like that of a submarine, and water ballast is similarly admitted to sink the ship some 4ft into the fighting position shown. The usually quite vulnerable stern, here nearly one-sixth of the entire length, is completely submerged. The bulge, being filled with water, does not affect stability if torpedoed, the only result being a probable drop in speed due to the ragged hole, providing the internal bulkhead stands. To save all-important weight, four internal-combustion engines are fitted, giving 24,000 h.p., the maximum power practicable. These yield 18 knots, so that the ship is unavoidably slow. Immersion is also long and difficult, and although she might be of some service in the Mediterranean, she could scarcely fight on the ocean with so low a freeboard. — Sphere."

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 136, 11 June 1927, Page 21

This strange-looking vessel, which appears to be half-sinking, is a semi-submersible battleship, proposed by Engineer Nabor Soliani to Italian naval architects at Genoa, and designed to be practically invulnerable. She is shown subjected to, gun, bomb, and torpedo attack. Three such vessels could be built for the cost of one Hood, since one-third of her 20,000-tons displacement consists of water ballast. She is much more completely protected than the standard battleship can be. Her entire above-water form, which is purely superstructure, is entirely encased in a deck and belt of 6in. armour. These works are for the crew's quarters, and to enable the guns to be fought in something of a sea-way. They can be entirely destroyed without vitally injuring the ship. One-eighth of their volume is filled with cork, 120 tons forming what is actually a "raft" to maintain

stability when semi-eubmergence is effected. The hull is very like that of a submarine, and water ballast is similarly admitted to sink the ship some 4ft into the fighting position shown. The usually quite vulnerable stern, here nearly one-sixth of the entire length, is completely submerged. The bulge, being filled with water, does not affect stability if torpedoed, the only result being a probable drop in speed due to the ragged hole, providing the internal bulkhead stands. To save all-important weight, four internal-combustion engines are fitted, giving 24,000 h.p., the maximum power practicable. These yield 18 knots, so that the ship is unavoidably slow. Immersion is also long and difficult, and although she might be of some service in the Mediterranean, she could scarcely fight on the ocean with so low a freeboard. — Sphere."