Italian battleship Dante Alighieri
Dante Alighieri was the first dreadnought battleship built for the Regia Marina (Royal Italian Navy) and was completed in 1913. The ship served as a flagship during World War I, but saw very little action other than the Second Battle of Durazzo in 1918 during which she did not engage enemy forces. She never fired her guns in anger during her career. Dante Alighieri was refitted in 1923, stricken from the Navy List five years later and subsequently sold for scrap. Description Dante Alighieri was designed by Rear Admiral Engineer Edoardo Masdea, Chief Constructor of the Regia Marina, based on the ideas of General Vittorio Cuniberti who advocated a battleship with main guns of a single caliber and optimized for broadside fire. In addition, the ship's superstructure and funnels were to be kept to a minimum. The dreadnought was long at the waterline, and overall. The ship had a beam of , and a draft of . She displaced at normal load, and at deep load. Dante Alighieri had two rudders, one behind the other, and a crew of 31 officers and 950 enlisted men. The ship was propelled by four propeller shafts driven by Parsons steam turbines. Steam for