Victoria class: armour, rams, and Italian competition

Italian naval architecture and large Italian guns helped drive the Royal Navy toward the Victoria class's two 16.25-inch weapons. The class concentrated those guns forward, retained a 10-inch gun aft, and used numerous 6-inch weapons to protect its approach and rear, producing a ram-oriented fighting concept. Eighteen inches of belt and redoubt armour, a seventeen-inch turret, and adoption of triple-expansion machinery made the ships heavily protected experiments built around new engines as well as new guns. Their all-forward emphasis anticipates later arrangements without making the class a direct ancestor of Nelson and Rodney. Low freeboard reduced target area but harmed seakeeping, and Victoria's collision with Camperdown showed how quickly water entering near the massive forward turret could become catastrophic.