Broadside Ironclads built in the North

Mike Werner

Private
Joined
Aug 10, 2009
Location
California
I was quite surprised a while back to discover that the New Ironsides and Dunderburg were not the only large broadside or casemate ironclad warships built in the North during the war. Built at William H. Webb's Shipyard in New York were the two large broadside ironclads for the Italian navy: Re d'Italia and Re Don Luigi di Portogallo. They were contracted for in 1860. See website below for more info on William H Webb:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_H._Webb

Equally surprising is that, while their construction was delayed by the war, they were still completed during the war and sent off to Italy rather than retained by the Union navy. I would have expected the Union navy to grab every ironclad warship it could get its hands on. Although these two warships were deep draft and possibly viewed as not suitable for entering Charleston or Wilmington harbors, there was the possibility of France or Britain coming into the war on the side of the Confederacy - a country retaining ships under construction for others was not an uncommon occurance when a country was at war or even had the expectation of a war.

Does anybody know if the construction or completion of delivery of these two ships was intentionally delayed until the risk of war with Britain or France was over?
 
I can not find why they were delay. I can only speculate that the New Ironsides and Dundenburg took priority over the Italian ships..

But I a series of interesting pictures of the sea battle of Lissa between the Italians and Austrians. The two ironclads Webb built for the Italians were in the battle and one went down to Davie's Locker...The link below..

http://www.lissa.net/orleans/LIsola_di_Lissa/lissab.html
 
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