Antonio de Simone (Italian, fl.1860-1900)

The steel screw schooner Capercailzie was designed and built by Barclay, Curle & Co. at Glasgow in 1892. Owned by Sir John Burns, Bart. [later the 1st Lord Inverclyde], of Castle Wemyss, Scotland, she was registered at 566 tons gross (308 net and 772 Thames), measured 229 feet in length with a 27 foot beam and was engined by her builders. Inherited by the 2nd Lord Inverclyde upon his father's death in 1900, he kept her until 1904, when she was sold to Mr. Davison Dalziel of Grosvenor Place, London. He retained her name and kept her until 1912 when she was sold to the Italian government who renamed her Archimede and employed her in a variety of roles as an armed patrol vessel. Captured by Austrian forces at Odessa in March 1918 but retaken by the Italians at Sevastopol that November, she was subsequently rearmed with 2-3in. guns and remained in service until scrapped in 1928.