Italian ironclad Affondatore
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Affondatore after her final reconstruction
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| History | |
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 Italy
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| Name: | Affondatore |
| Namesake: | "Affondatore" is Italian for "Sinker" |
| Operator: | Regia Marina (Italian Royal Navy) |
| Ordered: | 11 October 1862 |
| Builder: | Harrison, Millwall, London, United Kingdom |
| Laid down: | 11 April 1863 |
| Launched: | 3 November 1865 |
| Completed: | Entered service in incomplete state 20 June 1866 |
| Struck: | 11 October 1907 |
| Fate: | Unknown |
| Notes: | Served as floating ammunition depot after being stricken |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Ironclad ram |
| Displacement: |
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| Length: |
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| Beam: | 12.20 m |
| Draft: | 6.35 m |
| Installed power: | 2,717 ihp (2,026 kW) |
| Propulsion: | 1 shaft single-expansion steam engine, 8 rectangular boilers, sails |
| Speed: | 12 knots (14 mph; 22 km/h) (using engine) |
| Endurance: | 1,647 nautical miles (3,050 km) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
| Complement: | 309, later 356 |
| Armament: | 2 × 300-pounder guns, 2 × 80 mm landing guns |
| Armour: | |
Affondatore was an armoured ram of the Regia Marina (Italian Royal Navy), built in the 1860s by Harrison, Millwall, London. Construction commenced in 1863; the ship, despite being incomplete, was brought to Italy during the Third Italian War of Independence. Affondatore, which translates as "", was initially designed to rely on her ram her only weapon, but during construction she was also equipped with two 300-pounder guns.
The ship arrived off the island of Lissa shortly before the eponymous battle in July 1866. There, she served as the flagship of Admiral Carlo Pellion di Persano. During the action, she was involved in a melee with Austrian warships and was hit many times by Austrian guns. She sank in a storm in August, potentially as a result of the damage she incurred at Lissa, but was refloated and rebuilt between 1867 and 1873. She thereafter served with the main Italian fleet. She served as a guard ship in Venice from 1904 to 1907, and then as a depot ship in Taranto. The ultimate fate of the ship is unknown.
On 11 October 1862, the Italian Navy placed an order with the British shipyard Mare of Millwall, London, for an armoured steam ram, to a design by the Italian naval officer Simone Antonio Saint-Bon, but financial problems resulted in the order being transferred to the shipyard Harrison, also of Millwall. Saint-Bon had originally intended the ship to be unarmed, relying only on its ram to sink enemy ships, but an engineer at Harrison revised the plan to include two large-caliber guns.
Affondatore had a length of 89.56 metres (293 ft 10 in) between perpendiculars and 93.89 metres (308 ft 0 in) overall, with a beam of 12.20 metres (40 ft 0 in) and a draught of 6.35 metres (20 ft 10 in). She displaced 4,006 metric tons (3,943 long tons; 4,416 short tons) normally and up to 4,307 t (4,239 long tons; 4,748 short tons) at full load. As built, the ship had a very minimal superstructure, with only a small conning tower. She had a crew of 309 officers and enlisted, which later increased to 356.
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