70065 Italian Ironclad Italia, 1886, 1/700

Italia was an Italian ironclad battleship built for the Italian Regia Marina (Royal Navy), the lead ship of the Italia class. She and her single sister ship, Lepanto, had lengthy construction times. Italia was laid down in January 1876, launched in September 1880, and completed in October 1885. She was armed with a main battery of four 432 mm (17 in) guns mounted in a central barbette and was capable of a top speed of 17.8 knots (33.0 km/h; 20.5 mph). Unusually for ships of that era, Italia had an armored deck rather than the typical belt armor.

Italia 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 She was withdrawn from service in 1905 for a significant modernization.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, Italia 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. The ship was rebuilt as a grain carrier in December 1917 – June 1918. Italia served in this capacity for only a short time, being stricken in November 1921 and then scrapped.

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