Italian battleship Affondatore
Encyclopedia
Affondatore was a ironclad warship
Ironclad warship
An ironclad was a steam-propelled warship in the early part of the second half of the 19th century, protected by iron or steel armor plates. The ironclad was developed as a result of the vulnerability of wooden warships to explosive or incendiary shells. The first ironclad battleship, La Gloire,...
of the Regia Marina
Regia Marina
The Regia Marina dates from the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861 after Italian unification...
(Italian Royal Navy), built in the 1860s. Her name translates as "Sinker".
She was an armoured turret-ship built by Harrison, Millwall, London for the Italian navy. Construction commenced in 1863; the ship, despite being incomplete, was brought to Italy a few days before the Third Italian War of Independence
Third Italian War of Independence
The Third Italian War of Independence was a conflict which paralleled the Austro-Prussian War, and was fought between the Kingdom of Italy and the Austrian Empire.-Background:...
.
Eight boilers powered one steam engine, generating 2,700 HP and propelling her at 12 knots. She carried 474 tonnes of coal, giving her a range of 1,647 miles at 10 knots, adequate for the time's Mediterranean engagements.
Maximum protection was 127 mm of iron armour. The main armament consisted of two rifled Armstrong gun
Armstrong Gun
The term Armstrong Gun was primarily used to describe the unique design of the rifled breech-loading field and heavy guns designed by Sir William Armstrong and manufactured in England from 1855 by the Elswick Ordnance Company and the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich...
s and two smaller 80 mm smoothbore cannon to be used in landings. Engaged at the Battle of Lissa
Battle of Lissa (1866)
The Battle of Lissa took place on 20 July 1866 in the Adriatic Sea near the Dalmatian island of Lissa and was a decisive victory for an outnumbered Austrian Empire force over a superior Italian force...
against the Austrian in 1866, she unsuccessfully tried to ram the Austrian ships, and received damage which caused her to founder in Ancona harbour two days later.
She was eventually raised. In 1867-1873 the two masts were replaced by one, astern the funnel, and a secondary armament was added, including 6 120mm/40, 8 57 mm and 4 37 mm guns. In 1891 it also received four torpedo launchers. Affondatore served with the Italian navy in the Mediterranean until her decommissioning in October 1907. Its armament stripped, it was brought to the Taranto Harbour, where it was used as an ammunition depot