Italian Dreadnought Dante Alighieri - 1912
Dante Alighieri (shown above in 1914) was the prototype dreadnought in the Italian navy. A typically audacious step for the Italians, she featured triple gun turrets -- a design first, although the Austrian Tegetthoffs, using an improved version of the Skoda triple turret design developed for the Imperial Russian Navy's Gangut class, went into service before the Dante.
It had been common in Italian battleships to trade inches of protection for knots of speed, but in the Dante's case neither was sacrificed. The ship had an armor belt of neary 10 inches thickness, and extra muscular turbines for a speed of 23 knots -- quite impressive for a 1912 dreadnought. The ship was built by Castellammare and her turbines were manufactured at Ansaldo, Genoa; her guns were produced by Armstrongs' Elswick Works.
The layout of the armament was another matter. All four turrets were lined up along the top deck; the forward turret sat on a raised forecastle middeck, but the remaining three were along one flush deck aft of the bridgeworks. This layout gave the ship a long, low, menacing look. It also had the effect of reducing the ship's gunpower in end-on firing, since the forward and aft turrets masked the fire of the turrets lined up amidships. Tactically that made Dante a broadside fighting ship, scurrying to assume the correct position which would bring all 12 barrels into play. To be sure, that position vis-a-vis an enemy was desired by all battleship captains; but the Austrians circumvented the problem by using a superfiring turret layout. This doubled their weight of metal in a chase, firing six over bow or stern simultaneously.
Dante's main armament consisted of Elswick Pattern "T" Model 1909 12"/46 guns, made in Britain especially for the ship. At the height of the dreadnought arms race, this was excellent customer service, for 12" guns were in great demand. Subsequent orders of the 12" Model 1909 for Italy's next five dreadnoughts were largely produced in Italy, by Armstrongs and Vickers' local partners -- and delays in production held up completion of the dreadnoughts for which they were destined by more than a year. A photo of one of the triple, hydraulically operated turrets for the Leonardo da Vinci is seen at left being assembled at Elswick, from the collection of the Dock Museum, Barrow-in-Furness, Northumberland; image copyright © The Dock Museum.
Like the original Dreadnought, the Dante Alighieri carried a numerous anti-torpedo-boat armament mounted on top of the main turrets. This was poor positioning in case the turrets came into play, since the blast and vibration of the 12" guns firing made the smaller guns inoperable. The Italian ship had three 3" weapons mounted on each turret roof. Unlike those on the Dreadnought, these were never removed.
Dante's secondary battery included four twin 4.7" turrets placed outboard and aligned with the bow and stern 12" turrets. An addition, six 4.7" guns were deployed in casemates on the upper deck.
The Dante's layout was copied wholesale by the Russians in their Baltic Dreadnoughts of 1914 (four ships), with reduced horsepower and reduced armor. The Russians restored some of both with the three Imperatritsa Mariyas, entering Black Sea service in 1915-17. The Russian dreadnoughts' guns were made by their own ordnance shops, but the British-designed triple turrets were contracted to the Skoda Works in the present day Czech Republic -- then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This coincidence gave the technology free to the Austrians, who used it in their 4 Tegetthoff class dreadnoughts. These formidable ships later faced the Italians across the Adriatic for 3½ years of war. A severe coal shortage affecting both sides made for a prolonged Sitzkrieg between the two fleets in being. Several battleships were lost to apparent enemy sabotage on both sides: the Italians lost the Leonardo da Vinci and Benedetto Brin; the Austrians two of their dreadnoughts and one monitor. But most of the fighting in the Adriatic was done by U-boats, destroyers, minelayers, sometimes light cruisers, and late in the war, American sub chasers. So it was that Dante Alighieri came through the First World War undistinguished, but also unscathed.
Specifications for the Dante Alighieri:
Dimensions: 552' x 87'3" x 28'4". Displacement: 18,400 tons std; 19,500 tons full load. Armament: (12) 12"/46 cal. Vickers (4x3), (20) 4.7" (4x2, 12x1), and (12) 3" guns; (3) 18" torpedo tubes. Armor: Krupp Cemented (KC) type. Belt: 9.875", turrets 9½"/8", barbettes 9", conning tower 11", upper belt 8¾", secondary turrets & battery 4", deck 1¾". Fuel capacity: 920 tons of coal normal; maximum 3000 tons. Propulsion: Coal-fired Blechynden boilers; (4) Ansaldo steam turbines developing 26,000 HP, shafted to quad screw. Speed: 23 knots. Crew: 900.
Metric Specs:
Dimensions: 144.6m x 22.4m x 8.7m. Displacement: 18,400 tons std; 19,500 tons full load. Armament: (12) 305 mm/46 cal. Vickers (4x3), (20) 119 mm (4x2, 12x1), and (12) 76 mm guns; (3) torpedo tubes. (3) 45 cm torpedo tubes. Armor: Krupp Cemented (KC) type. Belt: 251 mm, turrets 241 mm, barbettes 229 mm, conning tower 279 mm, upper belt 222 mm, secondary turrets & battery 102 mm, deck 44.5 mm. Fuel capacity: 920 tons of coal normal; maximum 3000 tons. Propulsion: Coal-fired Blechynden boilers; (4) Ansaldo steam turbines developing 19,388 kW, shafted to quad screw. Speed: 42.6 km/hr.
Two fine aerial shots of Dante Alighieri reveal deck layout and distribution of the main armament. Secondary turrets are visible as white ellipses on the beam lining up with the bow 12" turret and #4 funnel. Foremast is in original position. Malandrini Ferrucclo/Alinari Archives, Florence
A postwar shot, with the foremast moved forward into the bridgeworks. Converted to oil fuel in 1923, the ship was used as a training vessel in the 1920s. She was broken up starting in 1928, Italy's sole sacrifice to the Washington Treaty.
Relevant Resources
- Learned Disquisition on the Dante's 305mm/46 Elswick Model 1909 Guns - from NavWeaps.com
- Aldo Cherini's Definitive Picture Collection on the Italian Navy - 140 Years of Naval Construction
- Dreadnought Battleship Models from Kom-Brig
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