:Principe di Carignano-class ironclad

The first two vessels of the Principe di Carignano class were initially ordered as steam frigates by the Regia Marina Sarda (Royal Sardinian Navy) shortly before the unification of Italy. While they were on the stocks, the Regia Marina (Royal Navy) of the newly-formed Kingdom of Italy decided to convert the ships into ironclads. A third ship, {{ship|Italian frigate|Principe Umberto||2}}, was too far advanced in her construction to allow for conversion, and so she was completed as a wooden vessel. These ships had been designed by Inps. Eng. Felice Mattei.{{sfn|Ordovini, Petronio, & Sullivan|p=334}} A fourth ship, Conte Verde, was built to a modified design created by Inps. Eng. Giuseppe De Luca. These ships came as part of a major naval expansion program that was designed to prepare a fleet of ironclads capable of defeating the Austrian Navy, which resulted in the Austro-Italian ironclad arms race. Italy considered the Austrian Empire to be its main rival, since it controlled predominantly Italian areas, including Venice, that the newly unified kingdom sought to incorporate into the country.{{sfn|Fraccaroli|pp=335, 338}}

The ships of the Principe di Carignano class varied slightly in their dimensions. Principe de Carignano was {{convert|72.98|m|ftin|sp=us}} long between perpendiculars, with a beam of {{convert|15.1|m|ftin|abbr=on}} and an average draft of {{convert|7.18|m|ftin|abbr=on}}. She displaced {{convert|3446|LT|sp=us|lk=on}} normally and up to {{convert|3912|LT|sp=us|abbr=on}} at full load. The second ship, Messina, was {{convert|72.8|m|ftin|abbr=on}} between perpendiculars; she had a beam of {{convert|15.1|m|ftin|abbr=on}} and an average draft of {{convert|7.27|m|ftin|abbr=on}}. At normal loading, she displaced {{convert|3868|LT|sp=us|abbr=on}}, and she reached {{convert|4245|LT|sp=us|abbr=on}} with a full load. Conte Verde was {{convert|73.7|m|ftin|abbr=on}} long between perpendiculars and her beam was {{convert|15.3|m|ftin|abbr=on}}. She had a draft of {{convert|6.5|m|ftin|abbr=on}}, and displaced {{convert|3514|LT|sp=us|abbr=on}} normally and up to {{convert|3866|LT|sp=us|abbr=on}} at full load. The ships had a crew of 572.{{sfn|Fraccaroli|p=338}}

Their propulsion system consisted of one single-expansion marine steam engine that drove a single screw propeller, with steam supplied by six coal-fired, cylindrical fire-tube boilers. The boilers were trunked into a single funnel. Their engines produced a top speed of {{convert|10.2|to|11.4|kn|lk=in}}, with Conte Verde being the fastest member of the class, from {{convert|1968|ihp|lk=in}}. They could steam for about {{convert|1200|nmi|lk=in}} at a speed of {{convert|10|kn}}. To supplement her steam engine, the ship was barquentine-rigged with three masts.{{sfn|Fraccaroli|p=338}}

The Principe di Carignano-class ships were broadside ironclads; the lead ship was armed with a main battery of ten 72-pounder {{convert|8|in|abbr=on|0|order=flip}} guns and twelve {{convert|164|mm|abbr=on}} rifled muzzle-loading guns Messina and Conte Verde instead carried four 8 in guns and eighteen 164 mm guns. The ships were equipped with a spur-shaped ram at the bow. In 1870, the ships' armament was revised; Principe di Carignano retained four of her 8 in guns, with the other four being replaced by 164 mm guns. Messina lost ten of her 164 mm guns and gained a pair of {{cvt|10|in|0|order=flip}} guns, while Conte Verde was reequipped with six 10 in guns and one 8 in gun.{{sfn|Fraccaroli|p=338}}

The above-water portions of the first two ships' hulls were sheathed with wrought iron armor that was {{convert|4.75|in|abbr=on|0|order=flip}} thick. Unlike her two sisters, Conte Verde did not have complete iron armor on her sides. She instead had wrought iron armor that covered only parts of her bow and stern instead of the full armored belt fitted to her sisters. The rest of the ship received traditional timber armor.{{sfn|Fraccaroli|p=338}}

Though the Principe di Carignanos were the second class of Italian ironclads, the foreign shipyards that built the subsequent {{sclass|Re d'Italia|ironclad|5}} and {{sclass|Regina Maria Pia|ironclad|4}}es completed almost all of those vessels before the first member of the Principe di Carignano class entered service.{{sfn|Fraccaroli|pp=338–339}} Principe di Carignano was the only member of the class to enter service in time to take part in the Third Italian War of Independence against the Austrian Empire.{{sfn|Fraccaroli|p=338}} The war broke out in June 1866, as Italy, which had allied with Prussia, sought to take advantage of the Austro-Prussian War to seize Austrian-controlled Venice.{{sfn|Sondhaus 1994|p=1}} After initially remaining in port, the Italian fleet under Admiral Carlo Pellion di Persano launched an attack on the island of Lissa in mid-July; the Austrian fleet under Rear Admiral Wilhelm von Tegetthoff sortied to mount a counterattack, which resulted in the Battle of Lissa on 20 July. Principe di Carignano, the lead ship in the line of battle, was not heavily engaged, as Tegetthoff had attacked the Italian fleet at its center. Principe di Carignano tried to attack the wooden vessels of the Austrian fleet without success before Persano broke off the action; the Italian fleet had become disorganized and two ships, {{ship|Italian ironclad|Re d'Italia||2}} and {{ship|Italian coastal defense ship|Palestro||2}} had been sunk.{{sfn|Greene & Massignani|p=232}}{{sfn|Wilson|pp=232–241}}

The three ships, which rapidly became obsolescent due to the development of central battery ironclads and later turret ships,{{sfn|Sondhaus 2001|p=112}} saw very limited service in the 1870s. Principe di Carignano and Messina were modernized with new guns in 1870.{{sfn|Fraccaroli|p=338}} Neither ship played a role in the attack on Civitavecchia that year—the last stage of the Italian wars of unification that resulted in the seizure of Rome—owing to the very poor state of the Regia Marina in the aftermath of Lissa.{{sfn|Fraccaroli|p=336}} In 1875, Principe di Carignano was sold for scrap to reduce the maintenance budget in an attempt to offset part of the cost of the new {{sclass|Duilio|ironclad|5}} and {{sclass|Italia|ironclad|1}}s then under construction; Messina and Conte Verde followed in 1880, though the latter remained laid up until she too went to the breakers' yard in 1898.{{sfn|Sondhaus 1994|p=50–51}}

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{{reflist|20em}}

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| url-access = registration

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}}

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|title=Ironclads at War: The Origin and Development of the Armored Warship, 1854–1891

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|first1=Aldo F.

|last2=Petronio

|first2=Fulvio

|last3=Sullivan

|first3=David M.

|title=Capital Ships of the Royal Italian Navy, 1860–1918: Part I: The Formidabile, Principe di Carignano, Re d'Italia, Regina Maria Pia, Affondatore, Roma and Principe Amedeo Classes

|magazine=Warship International

|date=December 2014

|volume= 51

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|name-list-style=amp

|ref={{sfnref|Ordovini, Petronio, & Sullivan}}

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| title=The Naval Policy of Austria-Hungary, 1867–1918

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• {{cite book

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|title=Ironclads in Action: A Sketch of Naval Warfare from 1855 to 1895

|url=https://archive.org/details/ironcladsinacti00wilsgoog

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}}

{{commons category}}

• [https://www.marina.difesa.it/noi-siamo-la-marina/mezzi/mezzi-storici/Pagine/PQRS/principe_carignano.aspx Classe Principe di Carignano] Marina Militare website {{in lang|it}}

{{Portal bar|Italy|Engineering}}

{{Principe di Carignano class ironclads}}

{{Italian ironclads}}