 At the outbreak of the Italo @-@ Turkish War against the Ottoman Empire in September 1911 , Agordat was assigned in the 2nd Division of the 1st Squadron , under the command of Rear Admiral Ernesto Presbitero , the divisional commander . On 15 October , Agordat and her sister joined the battleship Napoli , the armored cruisers Pisa , Amalfi , and San Marco , three destroyers , and several troop transports for an attack on the port of Derna . Negotiators were sent ashore to attempt to secure the surrender of the garrison , which was refused . Napoli and the armored cruisers bombarded the Ottoman positions throughout the day , and on 18 October the Ottomans withdrew , allowing the Italian troops to come ashore and take possession of the port . The fleet remained offshore and helped to repel Ottoman counterattacks over the following two weeks . In December , Agordat joined San Marco and the battleships Roma and Regina Margherita at Benghazi . There , they provided gunfire support to the Italian garrison against repeated Turkish assaults . In early April 1912 , Agordat , the torpedo cruiser Iride , and several other vessels rendezvoused with a troop convoy carrying 10 @,@ 000 men to Zuwarah near the border with Tunisia . 
