 In 1862 , the Italian government under Prime Minister <unk> <unk> and his naval minister Carlo <unk> di <unk> 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 <unk> class , and two more vessels of the Re d 'Italia class had been ordered from the United States . Five more ironclads were ordered from foreign shipyards , three wooden steam frigates already under construction were converted into armored ships , and four more ironclads were ordered from Italian shipyards . The two Principe Amedeo @-@ class ships were 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 were laid down . 
