The class was a group of four ironclad warships built for the Italian (Royal Navy) in the 1860s. The class comprised four ships, , , , and . They were built by French shipyards, since Italian yards were unable to meet the demand of the rapidly expanding Italian fleet. The ships were broadside ironclads and mounted a battery of twenty-six muzzle loading guns.

All four ships saw action at the Battle of Lissa during the Third Italian War of Independence in 1866. was badly burned in the battle, but the other three vessels were not seriously damaged. The ships served in a variety of roles for the remainder of their long careers; they were modernized in the late 1880s and thereafter used as a training ships. , , and were discarded in 1903–1904, and joined them in the breaker's yard in 1910.

Design Following the unification of Italy in 1861, the new (Royal Navy) began a construction program to prepare a fleet of ironclad warships capable of defeating the Austrian Navy, initiating the Austro-Italian ironclad arms race. Italy considered the Austrian Empire to be its main rival, since it controlled predominantly Italian areas, including Venice. The nascent Italian shipyards were incapable of building the number of ships the new fleet would require, so most of this first generation of ironclads were built by foreign ship builders. In 1862, the four ships of the class were ordered from French shipyards, under the direction of Vice Admiral Carlo Pellion di Persano, then the Italian Navy Minister. These ships were designed by the French builders.

General characteristics and machinery

The ships of the class varied in their dimensions. and , built by the same shipyard, were identical in size, while and , though each built by different shipyards, also were identical. The first two ships were long between perpendiculars and long overall, and they had a beam of and an average draft of . and were between perpendiculars and overall, with a beam of and a draft of 6.35 m. The first two ships displaced normally and up to at full load, while displaced normally and at full load. Curiously, was the lightest ship normally, at , but the heaviest at full load, at .

The ships were constructed with iron hulls. They had an inverted bow with a pronounced ram below the waterline. They were protected by iron belt armor that was thick and extended for the entire length of the hull at the waterline. The battery deck was protected by of iron plate. Each vessel had a crew of 480–485 officers and men. The ships were initially schooner-rigged to supplement the steam engine, though their masts were later reduced to a barque rig. Ultimately, they lost their sailing rig completely, having it replaced with a pair of military masts with fighting tops.

The ships' propulsion system consisted of one single-expansion, two-cylinder steam engine that drove a single screw propeller, with steam supplied by six coal-fired, rectangular fire-tube boilers. The boilers were trunked into a single funnel placed amidships. Her engine produced a top speed of from . Each ship had a capacity of of coal, which allowed them to steam for at a speed of .

Armament The class were broadside ironclads, and they were initially armed with a main battery of four 72-pounder smooth-bore muzzle-loading guns and twenty-two 32-pounder rifled muzzle loaders, though their armament changed throughout her career. Most of these guns were placed on the broadside, but two of the 164 mm guns were mounted in an armored bunker forward and a third was placed in a similar mount at the stern, as chase guns. The ships were also fitted with a ram bow that was long.

In 1871, all four ships were re-armed with two muzzle-loading guns and eight 8 in muzzle-loading guns, with a ninth 8 in gun added in 1880. and were later re-equipped with eight quick-firing (QF) guns, five QF guns, four QF guns, and eight Hotchkiss revolver cannon. In 1884, received the same battery of light guns, though she had a sixth 4.7 in gun. When was similarly re-armed, she only had two of the 37 mm revolver cannon. All four ships were also equipped with three torpedo tubes, with the exception of , which received two tubes.

Ships + Construction data Name Builder Laid down Launched Completed 22 July 1862 28 April 1863 17 April 1864 21 September 1863 9 November 1864 1 August 1863 May 1864 Arman Brothers 11 August 1862 17 October 1864 April 1866

Service history

All four ships of the class entered service in time to see action during the Third Italian War of Independence against the Austrian Navy in 1866. Persano, now the commander of the Italian fleet, adopted a cautious strategy and conducted only one major offensive operation, which was directed at the island of Lissa. There, the Austrian fleet under Wilhelm von Tegetthoff attacked the Italians. The four s all took part in the ensuing Battle of Lissa. had been set on fire and badly burned in the battle, and minor fires were started by Austrian shells aboard and , but neither were seriously damaged. emerged relatively unscathed, with only minor damage to her iron plates.

After the war, the Italian naval budget was slashed; the cuts were so severe that the fleet had great difficulty in mobilizing its ironclad squadron to attack the port of Civitavecchia in September 1870, as part of the wars of Italian unification. Instead, the ships were laid up and the sailors conscripted to man them were sent home. As the Italian fleet began to rebuild in the 1870s, the s returned to active service in a variety of roles, both in the main fleet and in Italy's overseas empire. All four ships were modernized in the late 1880s, and were thereafter used as training ships. , , and were stricken from the naval register in 1903–1904, while lingered on as a torpedo training ship until 1910, when she too was sold for scrapping.

Footnotes Notes

Citations

References

External links

Classe Regina Maria Pia Marina Militare website