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, Re d'Italia and Re di Portogallo. The two ships were built in the United States, and were based on the French ironclad Gloire; they were armed with a battery of thirty-eight guns in a broadside arrangement and were protected with 120 millimeters (4.7 in) of wrought iron plating.

Re d'Italia or her sister Re di Portogallo
Class overview
Name: Re d'Italia class
Builders: William H. Webb
Operators:  Regia Marina
Preceded by: Principe di Carignano class
Succeeded by: Regina Maria Pia class
Built: 1861–1864
In commission: 1864–1875
Completed: 2
Retired: 2
General characteristics [1]
Type: Ironclad warship
Displacement:
Length:
  • 83.82 m (275 ft 0 in) (p/p)
  • 99.61 m (326 ft 10 in) (o/a)
Beam: 16.76 m (55 ft 0 in)
Draft: 6.17 m (20 ft 3 in)
Installed power:
  • 1,812 to 1,845 ihp (1,351 to 1,376 kW)
  • 6 boilers
Propulsion: 1 shaft, 1 single-expansion steam engine
Sail plan: Barque-rigged
Speed: 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Range: 3,120 nmi (5,780 km; 3,590 mi) at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Complement: 565
Armament:
  • 30 × 6.5-inch (164 mm) rifled muzzle-loaders
  • 6 × 72-pounder 203 mm (8 in) smoothbore guns
Armor:

Re d'Italia served as the flagship of the Italian fleet until moments before the Battle of Lissa on 20 July 1866; Admiral Carlo Pellion di Persano's hasty transfer to another vessel deprived the fleet of central command, and in the ensuing melee, Re d'Italia was rammed and sunk. Re di Portogallo was also rammed, but was not seriously damaged and she survived the action. The ship remained in service until 1871, when she became a training ship; this service did not last long, as the green wood used to build her hull had badly deteriorated by 1875, so she was sold and broken up for scrap that year.

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.[2] The design for the ships was based heavily on the contemporary French ironclad Gloire, but they did not meet the high expectations the Italian fleet placed upon them.[3]

General characteristics and machinery

The ships of the Re d'Italia class were 83.82 meters (275.0 ft) long between perpendiculars and 99.61 m (326.8 ft) long overall and they had a beam of 16.76 m (55.0 ft). Both ships displaced 5,610 long tons (5,700 t) normally; Re d'Italia displaced up to 5,869 long tons (5,963 t) at full load while Re di Portogallo was heavier, at 6,082 long tons (6,180 t). Their draft at full load was 6.17 m (20.2 ft) for Re d'Italia and 7.18 m (23.6 ft) for Re di Portogallo. 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.[4][5]

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 knots (19.6 to 20.0 km/h; 12.2 to 12.4 mph) from 1,812 to 1,845 indicated horsepower (1,351 to 1,376 kW). They could steam for about 1,800 nautical miles (3,300 km; 2,100 mi) at a speed of 10.5 knots (19.4 km/h; 12.1 mph). 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 21,317 square feet (1,980.4 m2).[3][4][5]

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 203 mm (8 in) guns and thirty-two 164 mm (6.5 in) rifled muzzle-loading guns, while Re di Portogallo had an armament of two 10 in (254 mm) 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 203 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 203 mm guns, two 120 mm (4.7 in) guns, and eight 80 mm (3.1 in) guns. The ships' hulls were sheathed with wrought iron armor above the waterline that was 120 mm thick. Their rudder and propeller, however, were not protected by their armor.[3][4]

Ships
NameBuilder[4]Laid down[4]Launched[4]Completed[4]
Re d'Italia William H. Webb 21 November 1861 18 April 1863 14 September 1864
Re di Portogallo William H. Webb December 1861 29 August 1863 23 August 1864

Service history
An illustration of Re d'Italia rolling over after having been rammed by Erzherzog Ferdinand Max

The only Italian ironclads to be built in the United States, the two Re d'Italia-class ships formed the core of the Italian armored fleet at the start of the Third Italian War of Independence fought against the Austrian Empire in mid-1866. Re d'Italia and Re di Portogallo served as the flagships of the Second and Third Divisions, with the former also acting as the fleet flagship under Admiral Carlo Pellion di Persano.[6] The war broke out in June 1866, as Italy, which had allied with Prussia, sought to take advantage of the Austro-Prussian War to seize Austrian-controlled Venice.[7]

After initially remaining in port, the Italian fleet launched an attack on the island of Lissa in mid-July; the Austrian fleet under Rear Admiral Wilhelm von Tegetthoff sortied to mount a counterattack, which resulted in the Battle of Lissa on 20 July. Shortly before the two fleets clashed, Persano transferred to the new turret ship Affondatore without informing the fleet, leaving the Italian vessels without effective leadership.[8] In the ensuing melee, Re d'Italia was rammed and sunk by the Austrian flagship, the ironclad SMS Erzherzog Ferdinand Max, with heavy loss of life.[9][10] Re di Portogallo was also rammed by the wooden ship of the line SMS Kaiser, but was only lightly damaged.[11]

Re di Portogallo was repaired after the battle,[3] and was rearmed in 1870 before becoming a gunnery training ship the following year. In 1875, the Regia Marina sold the ship for scrap, owing to the discovery that the green timbers used to build the hull had badly rotted.[4] In addition, the navy sought to offset the financial impact of the new Caio Duilio and Italia-classes then under construction.[12]

Notes
  1. Figures are for Re d'Italia
  2. Gardiner, p. 335
  3. Ordovini et al., p. 338
  4. Gardiner, p. 338
  5. Silverstone, p. 282
  6. Wilson, p. 219
  7. Sondhaus, p. 1
  8. Wilson, pp. 220–233
  9. Wilson, pp. 236–242
  10. Greene & Massignani, pp. 232–233
  11. Wilson, pp. 238–239
  12. Sondhaus, p. 50–51

References
  • Gardiner, Robert, ed. (1979). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships: 1860–1905. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-133-5.
  • Greene, Jack & Massignani, Alessandro (1998). Ironclads at War: The Origin and Development of the Armored Warship, 1854–1891. Pennsylvania: Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-938289-58-6.
  • Ordovini, Aldo F.; Petronio, Fulvio & Sullivan, David M. (December 2014). "Capital Ships of the Royal Italian Navy, 1860–1918: Part I: The Formidabile, Principe di Carignano, Re d'Italia, Regina Maria Pia, Affondatore, Roma and Principe Amedeo Classes". Warship International. Vol. 51 no. 4. pp. 323–360. ISSN 0043-0374.
  • Silverstone, Paul H. (1984). Directory of the World's Capital Ships. New York: Hippocrene Books. ISBN 0-88254-979-0.
  • Sondhaus, Lawrence (1994). The Naval Policy of Austria-Hungary, 1867–1918. West Lafayette: Purdue University Press. ISBN 978-1-55753-034-9.
  • Wilson, Herbert Wrigley (1896). Ironclads in Action: A Sketch of Naval Warfare from 1855 to 1895. London: S. Low, Marston and Company. OCLC 1111061.
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