Ironclad Battleships: Italia Class

[Brian James]

Lead Ship,Ironclad Battleship RM Italia 1880 schematic.

[Brian James]

Italia Class Ironclad Battleship RM Lepanto pictured in her Training Ship role c1912.
Lepanto was laid down at Cantiere navale fratelli Orlando, Livorno,in November 1876, launched in March 1883, and completed in August 1887. She was armed with a main battery of four 17 in guns mounted in a central barbette and was capable of a top speed of 17.8 knots. Unlike other capital ships of the era, Lepanto had an armoured deck rather than the more typical belt armour.
Lepanto spent the first two decades of her career in the Active and Reserve Squadrons, where she took part in annual training maneuvers with the rest of the fleet. In 1902, she was withdrawn from service for use as a Training Ship. During the Italo-Turkish War of 1911–1912, she provided fire support to Italian troops defending Tripoli in Libya. Lepanto was ultimately stricken from the naval register in January 1914 and sold for scrapping in March 1915.

[designeraccd]

A view of 2 of her 4 open, barbette mounted 17" on Lepanto, plus some other views of her; a floating "hotel"!! DFO

[Brian James]

Lead Ship,Pre-Dreadnought Ironclad Battleship RM Italia pictured c1897.She and her single sister ship, Lepanto, had lengthy construction times.She was laid down at Regio Cantiere di Castellammare di Stabia at Naples in January 1876, launched in September 1880, and completed in October 1885. She was armed with a main battery of four 17 in guns mounted in a central barbette and was capable of a top speed of 17.8 knots. Unusually, for ships of that era, Italia had an armoured deck rather than the typical belt armour.
She spent the first two decades of her career in the Active and Reserve Squadrons, where she took part in annual training maneuvers with the rest of the fleet. She was withdrawn from service in 1905 for a significant modernization. Upon returning to service in 1909, she was employed as a Training Ship. During the Italo-Turkish War of 1911–1912, the ship provided fire support to Italian troops defending Tripoli in Libya. She was used as a floating battery at Brindisi after Italy entered World War I in 1915. She was rebuilt as a grain carrier in December 1917 – June 1918.She served in this capacity for only a short time, being stricken in November 1921 and then scrapped.

[Brian James]

Lead Ship, Ironclad Battleship RN Italia pictured sporting her Armstrong Whitworth BLR 17 inch main armament at Madiera in 1887.