a vessel that remained within the limit imposed by the Washington Naval Treaty. The naval command agreed to allow the new ships to exceed the displacement limits, but instructed the designers to eliminate unnecessary features to save as much weight as possible. As a result, the belt armor was reduced in thickness and the planned torpedo tubes were removed. The flush deck of the Trentos was abandoned, with the ships instead incorporating a forecastle deck and a stepped-down main deck. In addition, the Zara design would be powered by just two propellers driven by lightweight machinery, unlike the four-shaft arrangement used in the Trentos. Nevertheless, the ships still exceeded the displacement limit by at least . By 1928, the work was finished on what would become the Zara class, and the first two ships, and , were ordered for the 1928–1929 building program. followed in the 1929–1930 construction year, and was ordered under the 1930–1931 program. All four ships were named for formerly Austro-Hungarian cities that were annexed to Italy in the aftermath of World War I. General characteristics The ships of the Zara class were long at the waterline and long overall. They had a beam of and a draft of . The ships had a standard displacement of , and displaced at full load, with Fiume being the lightest of the four and Gorizia the heaviest. The first three ships were built with light superstructures as a weight saving measure, but Pola, intended to serve as a flagship, received a much larger bridge structure to accommodate an admiral's staff. All four ships received two tripod masts, with the forward mast erected over the bridge. They had a crew of 841 officers and enlisted men. The ships carried a pair of IMAM Ro.43 seaplanes for aerial reconnaissance; the hangar was located under the forecastle and a fixed catapult was mounted on the centerline at the bow. The ships' power plant consisted of two Parsons steam turbines powered by eight oil-fired Thornycroft boilers, with the exception of Fiume, which received Yarrow boilers. The boilers were trunked into two funnels amidships. Their engines were rated at and produced a top speed of , though on sea trials all four vessels significantly exceeded those figures, reaching a minimum of and speeds of . Nevertheless, in service, their practical speeds were in the range of . The vessels each carried of fuel oil,