sported something like half a meter of iron
Actually, even a little more. The Victoria has 456 mm steel-iron armor ("compound"). This is +30% relative to iron, the equivalent of about 600 mm.
1. No, Victoria had 2 guns in the tower. An English ironclad ram with a single large cannon is a "Hotspur". By the way, quite an interesting ship with a round casemate as an ersatz tower. It is quite "what if" - given the fact that guns on rotary platforms have been known since at least the 18th century, only sailing/rowing armored ships were invented three times. I.e. ironclads with mobile artillery could well have existed before the steam engine, but rotating the tower manually is a dubious decision.
2. Well, the British in the caliber race were led by conservatives. The fact is that the Italians then literally reproduced the Japanese of the 30s - with an accuracy of 10 mm. Exactly for the same reason – "since we cannot build many ships, we will rely on individual superiority." Plus, after the battle of Lissa, the dump theory prevailed – it was assumed that in the powder and not only smoke, control would be lost and "every ship would be for itself."
As a result, 7 macaroni monsters sailed across the Mediterranean at one time - 5 tactical analogues of the Yamato, but more radically, because the speed. I.e., the battleships were the largest and fastest. And yes, 431 mm of full-fledged steel armor (and 550 mm of early brittle). Plus two "battlecruisers" in the same spirit.
It all started with 2 Duilio-type battleships with 450 mm guns, then there were 5 with 431mm artillery.
The British responded to the "Duilio" "Inflexible" with 406-mm, and then there were "Benbow" and 2 "Victoria"-type. And then the French came and ruined everything.
about one round every three to five minutes because that's what it took to break through that much armor back in the 1890's.
In addition, the guns were heavily refitted. The Russian Wiki slanders that with an estimated resource of 100+ shots, the guns "changed the geometry" after the first few.
The nuance is that, as you probably know, medium artillery in the era of smoky powder and separate loading did not shine. As a result, it was possible to pull armor into the citadel with relative impunity, even at the then battle distances. Meanwhile, 431 mm of steel armor = 560 mm of iron equivalent, and the Inflexible had 610 mm of iron. This is the equivalent of 233-254 mm Krupp armor. Only superdreadnoughts noticeably surpassed these figures. I.e., the battles would very vividly resemble tank ones - if they happened. Against the same background, the great love of the French "young school" for torpedoes and the fascination with the battering ram despised by Internet experts becomes clear.
Hence the theory of the knockout blow, which is considered "heresy" – "the enemy ship must be seriously damaged even by a single hit." In practice, we have 1. small distances, even the Victoria has an armor penetration of 820 mm at a distance of 1 km. And this is most likely at an almost right angle. Then the shells at least fly in an arc and slow down.
2. low rate of fire and
3. already quite high speed. For example, a 17-knot battleship will overcome 1 kilometers in 2 minutes. In any case, there will be no more than two volleys. At the same time, torpedoes and a ram will go further into action. It is obvious that artillery that is not capable of "knockout" in such a situation becomes ineffective.
In general, the growth of calibers was also stimulated by this. Moreover, it stimulated the second time - in about the same spirit (with several very large guns that were not even going to be reloaded), the late carracks and early galleons were armed. The reasons are almost the same - low rate of fire and aggressive tactics with a bet on boarding as a consequence.
Well, the whole era of pre-Dreadnoughts actually looks like one big misunderstanding. In fact, after the revolution in armament, the specific design of the times of gunpowder (2-4 heavy guns plus a trifle) was preserved mainly by inertia. At the same time, almost dreadnought design was invented back in the 1860s.
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