Italian dreadnought Leonardo da Vinci 1910-1923

Dante Alighieri

Conte di Cavour-class

Courbet-class

Andrea Doria-class

Laid down at the shipyard Odero Shipbuilding Company, Sestri Ponente, Genoa Italy on 18 July 1910, launched on 14 October 1911, completed on 17 May 1914, sunk in 11 metres depth in the harbour of Taranto taking with her 248 men when a magazine exploded on 2 August 1916, raised on 17 September 1919, lacking funds to modernize her was she finally sold to be broken up on 22 March 1923. The explosion can be an technical failure although Italian suspected Austro-Hungarian saboteurs for the disaster.

Italian Conte di Cavour-dreadnought class consisting of the Conte di Cavour, Giulio Cesare and Leonardo da Vinci. General technical specifications of this class designed by rear admiral Edoardo Masdea (1), at that moment the naval chief constructor. The new class was to be an improvement of the faults of the Dante Alighieri and an answer of the French Courbet-class battleships. Succeeded by the Andrea Doria-class. Hull divided in a large number of compartments thanks to 23 longitudinal and transverse bulkheads. Displacement 23.458 tons/23.088 long tons (standard)-25.849 tons/25.086 long tons (deep load) and as dimensions 168.9cm (waterline)-176 (over all) x 28 x 9,3 metres or 554.2-577.5 x 91.10 x 30.6 feet. The four Parsons steam turbines and 20 Blechynden water tube boilers (8xoil, 12xfuel oil and coal) supplied via 4 shafts 31.000 (design)-32.800 (trials)  shp allowing a speed of 21,6 (trials) 22,5 (design) knots and with a speed of 10 knots and a bunker capacity of 1.470 ton coal and 860 ton fuel oil a range of 4.800 nautical miles. Their crew numbered 1.000 men. The armour consisted of a 13-25cm,/5.1-9,8” thick waterline belt, a 2,4-4cm/0.9-1.6” thick decks and with the gun turrets, barbettes and conning tower protected by respectively 24 (sides)-28 (front) cm/9.4-11”, 13-23cm/5.1-9.1” and 18-28cm/7.1-11”. The armament consisted of 3x3&2x2-30,5cm/12” 46 cal guns, 18x1-12cm/4.7” 50 cal guns, 14x1-7,62cm/3” guns and 3-45c,/17.7” torpedo tubes.

Note
1. Masdea (23 July 1849 Naples, Italy-12 May 1910 Rome, Italy) had been responsible for designing the Pisa and the San Giorgio-classes but also the Dante Alighieri.