Need Help Identifying Mediterranean-based Navy Tompion

[leproc]

Hello! I have a perplexing question to those in this forum. I was thinking about buying this tompion below (a tompion is a stopper for a gun), but the seller doesn't know which ship this item comes from. It can fit for a heavy cruiser and the owner guesses it comes from a Mediterranean-based navy because of the Maltese cross on the galleon, though this could mean Italian or Greece.

I'm wondering if anybody could identify which ship this tompion came from. I'm especially wondering if this came from a Regia Marina vessel, which is why I put it in this forum. I would appreciate any help offered. Thanks!

[Xedar]

I doubt so because regulations prescribed that the name of the ship (and we are talking about a capital ship here) was to be written, together with the heraldic coat of arms, on the tompion (which in Italian is "tappo di volata").
http://www.radiomarconi.com/marconi/...litare_06.html
“Lo stemma araldico della Regia Marina, o del nome della nave, sarà sistemato a prora delle corazzate e incrociatori, assegnando lo stemma araldico del nome della nave a quelle corazzate e incrociatori che abbiano un nome cui si riferisce uno stemma araldico. Lo stemma araldico del nome della nave sarà pure sistemato sulle imbarcazioni, bitte e tappi di volata dei cannoni relativi a corazzate e incrociatori che abbiano nomi cui si riferisce uno stemma araldico. Essi saranno in bronzo a superficie liscia. Il fondo sarà in smalto bleu scuro”.

Yet, this decree is dated April 1941, so quite after the launch of most Italian heavy cruisers.
Here:
http://www.marinaiditalia.com/public...014_3_4_04.pdf
I found that prior regulations from 1865 onwards established that every tompion had to feature the coat of arms.
You should check for every ship whether that was the coat of arms a heavy cruiser.