The Ships of Brawling Battleships Steel: Italy Battleship Leonardo da Vinci

Laid down on July 18, 1910, launched on October 14, 1911 and commissioned on May 17, 1915, Leonardo da Vinci carried a main armament of thirteen 12 inch main guns with three turrets having three guns each and two turrets having two guns each; two centerline superfiring forward, two centerline superfiring aft and one centerline amidships that could fire to both sides. The higher superfiring turrets fore and aft were the ones with only two guns. Leonardo da Vinci was part of the three-ship Conte di Cavour battleship class. As with all the earlier Italian battleships, the class acquired their speed at the cost of armor protection. The class was powered by turbines with both oil-fired and coal-fired boilers and supplementary oil burners. The name honored the famous Italian Renaissance artist and genius (1452–1519) who is best known for painting the "Mona Lisa" and "Last Supper." During her short World War One career, the Leonardo da Vinci saw no action. On August 2, 1916, in Taranto Harbor, she was the victim of an internal magazine explosion that killed 249 crewmen. There was some suspicion that the explosion was caused by sabotage but nothing was ever proved. Like the British and Japanese navies, the Italian Navy used British cordite and all three navies lost capital ships in horrific accidents. Raised in 1919, she was deleted and scrapped in 1921.

See ther battleships: Andrea Doria, Dante Alighieri, Prinz Eugen