Portuguese ironclad Vasco da Gama armored belt that was thick on either end and thick amidships. The main battery guns were protected by thick barbettes. "Vasco da Gama" was laid down at the Thames Iron Works shipyard in London, Britain in 1875, and was launched on 1 December 1876. The ship was completed in 1878. She served as part of the coastal defense force that protected Lisbon, the Portuguese capital, and the mouth of the river Tagus. On 26 June 1897, "Vasco da Gama" participated in the Fleet Review at Spithead celebrating Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. At the time, the ship was commanded by Captain
Avenida Vasco da Gama Avenida Vasco da Gama now stands vestiges of a Roman fish factory and surrounding houses were found and was widely publicized as the Roman core of Póvoa de Varzim (Villa Euracini), although currently historians and archaeologists place the core of the city in the Old Town Póvoa de Varzim, but it then proved that Póvoa de Varzim was much older than it was thought in the early years of the 20th century. Modern development started early in the 20th century and before Avenida Vasco da Gama opened, due to the north expansion of Avenida dos Banhos, in an area called