page_title: Austro-Italian ironclad arms race
section_title: Italian ironclad expansion
hierarchical_section_title: Austro-Italian ironclad arms race / Prelude to war / Italian ironclad expansion
caption_attribution_description: English: &#160;Italy, Regia Marina. The Italian frigate Castelfidardo (1864) taken at Naples in the autumn of 1866 before leaving for La Spezia.
context_page_description: A naval arms race between the Austrian Empire and Italy began in the 1860s when both ordered a series of ironclad warships, steam-propelled vessels protected by iron or steel armor plates and far more powerful than all-wood ships of the line. These ships were constructed to establish control over the Adriatic Sea in the event of a conflict between the two countries.
  The unification of much of Italy in this time period resulted in the amalgamation of the various navies of the former Italian states into the Regia Marina. The Sardinian component included two Formidabile-class ironclads, ordered from France in 1860, which became Italy's first broadside ironclads. The country quickly began a substantial construction program to bolster the Regia Marina, as the Italians believed that a strong navy would play a crucial role in making the recently unified kingdom a great power.
  These actions captured the attention of the Austrian Empire, which viewed Italy with great suspicion and worry, as irredentist claims by Italian nationalists were directed at key Austrian territories such as Venice, Trentino, and Trieste.
context_section_description: One week after presenting his ironclad plan to the Chamber of Deputies, Persano obtained approval from Prime Minister Rattazzi's cabinet to proceed. Soon after, Persano signed contracts for four ironclads to begin construction in French shipyards. These ships would ultimately form the Regina Maria Pia class. All four ships were designed by French naval architects, but three different shipyards were used to construct them, with Regina Maria Pia and San Martino both being constructed at the Société Nouvelle des Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée shipyard in La Seyne, while Castelfidardo and Ancona were constructed at the Gouin et Guibert shipyard in St. Nazaire, and the Arman Brothers shipyard in Bordeaux, respectively.
  In October 1862, Persano also placed an order with the British shipyard Mare of Millwall, London, for an armored steam ram. Designed by Italian naval officer Simone Antonio Saint-Bon, financial problems related to the construction of the ironclad resulted in the order being transferred to the shipyard Harrison, also located in Millwall. Saint-Bon had originally intended the ship to be unarmed, relying only on its ram to sink enemy ships, but Harrison engineers revised the plan to include two large-caliber guns. While based on the design of USS Monitor, the Italians intended Affondatore to have two turrets as opposed to one. She would become the most expensive warship the Regia Marina had ever ordered at the time. Indeed, the costs to construct the ironclad were so high that Persano had to substitute the two British-built ironclads Menabrea had initially proposed and which he had supported, for this single warship.
  In early 1863, Persano also went to work constructing a class of domestically-built ironclads. Shortly after negotiating contracts for French and British-built ships, orders for two Roma-class ironclads were placed with Cantiere della Foce in Genoa. These two ships, Roma and Venezia, were only the second class of ironclad warships to be domestically constructed in Italy. By the time construction on the ships would begin in February 1863, foreign navies had begun to experiment with the central battery ships, a design which discarded the usual broadside arrangement in favor of a shorter battery located amidships. This allowed the Roma-class ships to use a significantly shorter and much lighter section of side armor to protect the guns of each ship, which in turn permitted the carrying of heavier, more powerful guns.
  At the same time Italy's first ironclads, the Formidabile class, were under construction, the first two vessels of the Principe di Carignano class were ordered. These ships, initially Principe di Carignano, Messina, and Principe Umberto, were much like their predecessors in that they were initially conceived as screw-frigates by the Sardinian Navy. Principe di Carignano was laid in Genoa by Cantiere della Foce in January 1861, while Messina was laid down by the Regio Cantiere di Castellammare di Stabia in September in Castellammare di Stabia. Despite plans to initially construct the class as wooden vessels, changing technology and the emergence of ironclads in foreign navies such as with the French ironclad Gloire and the British HMS Warrior, led to efforts to redesign the ships. In an attempt to grow his ironclad program even further, Persano followed the lead Cavour established earlier in converting the Formidabile class, and worked to do the same with the Principe di Carignano class. His efforts were successful and most of these ships were converted into ironclads despite being in the middle of construction, though Principe Umberto was too far advanced in her construction to allow for this conversion, leading to her completion as a wooden vessel. To replace her, a new ship was ordered, Conte Verde. She was laid down in Livorno in March 1863 by Cantiere navale fratelli Orlando. As with their older counterparts, the Principe di Carignano-class ships were likewise redesigned with the implicit purpose of wrestling control of the Mediterranean and Adriatic Seas from the Austrian Empire
caption: The Italian ironclad Castelfidardo in Naples. The construction of Castelfidardo and her sister ships marked the second stage of the Italian ironclad program.
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