Italian ironclad Roma
Roma was an ironclad warship built for the Italian "Regia Marina" in the 1860s; she was the lead ship of the s. Armed with a main battery of five and twelve guns in a broadside arrangement, "Roma" was obsolescent by the time she entered service. As a result, her career was limited. In 1880, she took part in an international naval demonstration off Ragusa to enforce the Treaty of Berlin. In November 1881, she collided with the ironclad in a storm in Naples, but she was not damaged. "Roma" was reduced to a guard ship in 1890  and then to a depot ship in 1895. In July 1896, she was scuttled to save the ship from a fire caused by a lightning strike. She was thereafter raised and broken up for scrap. Design. "Roma" was long between perpendiculars; she had a beam of and an average draft of . She displaced normally and up to at full load. Her propulsion system consisted of one single-expansion steam engine that drove a single screw propeller, with steam supplied by six coal-fired, cylindrical fire-tube boilers. Her engine produced a top speed of from . She could steam for at  a speed of . The ship was barque-rigged to supplement the steam engine. She had a crew of 549–551 officers and men. "Roma" was a broadside ironclad, and she was armed with a main battery of five guns and twelve guns. The ship was protected by iron belt armor that was thick and extended for the entire length of the hull at the waterline. Service history. The keel for "Roma" was laid down at the Cantiere della Foce shipyard in Genoa in February 1863. She was launched on 18 December 1865, and fitting-out work was finished by May 1869 . By the time she entered service, other navies had begun to build casemate ships, rendering "Roma" obsolescent almost immediately after she was completed. In addition, the Italian naval budget was drastically reduced following the defeat at Lissa in 1866, which reflected a stark decrease in the government's confidence in the fleet. As a result, she saw little use during her career; indeed the budget was reduced so significantly 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. In 1873, the ship was assigned to the 1st Division of the main Italian fleet unit, the Permanent Squadron, where she served as the flagship of Admiral Enrico Di Brocchetti. The other vessels of the division were the ironclads and . Together with the ships of the 2nd Division, the entire squadron cruised in the Mediterranean that year. In 1874–1875, the ship's armament was revised to eleven 10-inch guns. In November 1880, "Roma" and the ironclad took part in a naval demonstration off Ragusa in an  attempt to force the Ottoman Empire to comply with the terms of the Treaty of Berlin and turn over the town of Ulcinj to Montenegro. In early November 1881, "Roma" was moored in Naples when a severe storm tore the ship from her anchors. The heavy winds drove her into the ironclad , but neither ship was damaged in the collision. During the annual fleet maneuvers held in 1885, "Roma" served in the 2nd Division of the "Western Squadron"; she was joined by the ironclad and five torpedo boats. The "Western Squadron" attacked the defending "Eastern Squadron", simulating a Franco-Italian  conflict, with operations conducted off Sardinia. The ship had her guns replaced again in 1886, this time with eleven guns. In 1890, "Roma" was removed from front-line service and tasked with the defense of La Spezia; while there, she served as the flagship of the local defense forces. While serving as a guard ship, her armament was reduced to five 8-inch guns. The ship was stricken on 5 May 1895 and thereafter used as an ammunition depot ship based in La Spezia. The ship was accidentally set on fire by a lightning strike on 28 July 1896; her  crew scuttled the ship to prevent her from being burned completely. "Roma" was refloated the following month and then broken up for scrap immediately thereafter.