page_title: Italian ironclad Ruggiero di Lauria
section_title: Construction – 1895
hierarchical_section_title: Italian ironclad Ruggiero di Lauria / Service history / Construction – 1895
caption_attribution_description: English: Photograph of Italian battleship Ruggiero di Lauria.
context_page_description: Ruggiero di Lauria was an ironclad battleship built in the 1880s for the Italian Regia Marina. She was the lead ship of the Ruggiero di Lauria class, which included two other ships, Francesco Morosini and Andrea Doria. Ruggiero di Lauria, named for the medieval Sicilian admiral Ruggiero di Lauria, was armed with a main battery of four 17-inch guns, was protected with 17.75-inch thick belt armor, and was capable of a top speed of 17 knots.
  The ship's construction period was very lengthy, beginning in August 1881 and completing in February 1888. She was quickly rendered obsolescent by the new pre-dreadnought battleships being laid down and, as a result, her career was limited. She spent her career alternating between the Active and Reserve Squadrons, where she took part in training exercises each year with the rest of the fleet. The ship was stricken from the naval register in 1909 and converted into a floating oil tank. She was used in this capacity until 1943, when she was sunk by bombs during World War II. The wreck was eventually raised and scrapped in 1945.
context_section_description: Ruggiero di Lauria was laid down at the Regio Cantiere di Castellammare di Stabia shipyard on 3 August 1881 and launched on 9 August 1884. She was not completed for another three and a half years, her construction finally being finished on 1 February 1888. Because of the rapid pace of naval technological development in the late 19th century, her lengthy construction period meant that she was an obsolete design by the time she entered service. The year after she entered service, the British began building the Royal Sovereign class, the first pre-dreadnought battleships, which marked a significant step forward in capital ship design. In addition, technological progress, particularly in armor production techniques—first Harvey armor and then Krupp armor—rapidly rendered older vessels like Ruggiero di Lauria obsolete.
  The ship served with the 1st Division of the Active Squadron during the 1893 fleet maneuvers, along with the ironclad Lepanto, which served as the divisional flagship, the torpedo cruisers Euridice and Monzambano, and four torpedo boats. During the maneuvers, which lasted from 6 August to 5 September, the ships of the Active Squadron simulated a French attack on the Italian fleet. In 1895, Ruggiero di Lauria, the ironclad Sardegna, and the torpedo cruiser Partenope were assigned to the 2nd Division of the Italian fleet in the Reserve Squadron. At the time, the ships of the Reserve Squadron were based in La Spezia. Ruggiero di Lauria joined the ironclads Re Umberto, Sardegna, and Andrea Doria and the cruisers Stromboli, Etruria, and Partenope for a visit to Spithead in the United Kingdom in July 1895. Later that year, the squadron stopped in Germany for the celebration held to mark the opening of the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal.
caption: Ruggiero di Lauria
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