Set with the name Venice and renamed with the new name on delivery, head of class of two units built in the Wigram construction sites in London and launched in February 1862, it had a displacement of 981 t; with wooden hull and copper-covered hull; equipped with an alternative 1070 hp engine powered by four coal-powered boilers with wheel propulsion and a speed of well 15-16 nodes had 120h full range autonomy. Equipped with sailing equipment with three masts armed with a schooner, it was armed with two 12 guns.
The two units of the class were certainly among the best of the type of their time; they had a very intense life although not particularly long: in fact they were the last units of the type to be built in wood and, perhaps also because of insufficient seasoning of the material, their hull deteriorated rapidly. Fast, of elegant and marine shapes, they had a very long hull (72 m) with a high coefficient of fineness, low on the water, with a slender bow.
Source: Military Navy
