In 1862 , the Italian government under Prime Minister Urbano Rattazzi and his naval minister Carlo Pellion di Persano made the decision to build a fleet of ironclad warships . The Italian fleet had already acquired a pair of small , French @-@ built armored frigates of the Formidabile class , and two more vessels of the Re d 'Italia class had been ordered from the United States . Five more ironclads was ordered from foreign shipyards , three wooden steam frigates already under construction was converted into armored ships , and four more ironclads was ordered from Italian shipyards . The two Principe Amedeo @-@ class ships was the last two of this first generation of Italian ironclads . The design for Principe Amedeo was prepared by Inspector Engineer Giuseppe De Luca . He had initially planned on using entirely wooden hulls for the ships , but had changed to composite wood and iron construction by the time the ships was laid down .