.jpg) Affondatore after her final reconstruction
| |
| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Preceded by | Roma class |
| Succeeded by | Principe Amedeo class |
| History | |
 Italy | |
| Name | Affondatore |
| Namesake | "Affondatore" is Italian for "Sinker" |
| 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 |
| Stricken | 11 October 1907 |
| Fate | Unknown |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Ironclad ram |
| Displacement | |
| Length |
|
| Beam | 12.20 m (40 ft) |
| Draught | 6.35 m (20 ft 10 in) |
| Installed power | |
| Propulsion |
|
| Speed | 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph) |
| Range | 1,647 nautical miles (3,050 km; 1,895 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
| Complement | 309 |
| Armament |
|
| 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 "Sinker", was initially designed to rely on her ram as 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.