Re d'Italia-class ironclad

The Re d'Italia class was a pair of ironclad warships built for the Italian Regia Marina (Royal Navy) in the 1860s. The class comprised two ships, ITALIAN IRONCLAD Re d'Italia and ITALIAN IRONCLAD Re di Portogallo.

Design
Following the unification of Italy in 1861, the new Regia Marina (Royal Navy) began a construction program to prepare a fleet of ironclad warships capable of defeating the Austrian Navy. 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 1861, the two ships of the Re d'Italia class were ordered from the American shipyard owned by William H. Webb, under the direction of General Luigi Federico Menabrea, then the Italian Navy Minister. The design for the ships was based heavily on the contemporary French ironclad FRENCH IRONCLAD Gloire, but they did not meet the high expectations the Italian fleet placed upon them.

General characteristics and machinery
The ships of the Re d'Italia class were 83.82 m long between perpendiculars and 99.61 m long overall. They had a beam of 16.76 m and a draft of 6.17 to 7.18 m. They displaced 5610 MT normally and up to 5869 MT at full load. The ships' hulls were built from unseasoned green wood, and were not subdivided with watertight compartments. Re d'Italia had a crew of 565, while Re di Portogallo's crew numbered 552.

The ships' propulsion system consisted of one single-expansion steam engine that drove a single screw propeller, with steam supplied by four coal-fired, rectangular boilers. The boilers were trunked into a single funnel. Their engines produced a top speed of 10.6 to 10.8 kn from 1812 to 1845 ihp. They could steam for about 1800 nmi at a speed of 10.5 kn. Steering was controlled through a single rudder, though the ships did not maneuver well. For long-distance travel, the ships were fitted with three masts and were barque-rigged, with a total sail area of 21317 sqft.

Armament and armor
The Re d'Italia-class ships were broadside ironclads Re d'Italia was armed with a main battery of six 72-pounder 8 in guns and thirty-two 164 mm rifled muzzle-loading guns, while Re di Portogallo had an armament of two 10 in guns and twenty-six 164 mm guns. The ships were equipped with a spur-shaped ram at the bow. In 1870, Re di Portogallo was rearmed with six 200 mm and twelve 164 mm guns in place of her original twenty-six 164 mm guns; she retained the two 10 in guns. The following year, her armament was revised more radically for service as a gunnery training ship, and then consisted of twenty 200 in guns, two 120 mm guns, and eight 80 mm guns. The ships' hull was sheathed with wrought iron armor that was 4.75 in thick. Their rudder and propeller, however, were not protected by her armor.