Italian battleship Dante Alighieri Dante Alighieri was the first dreadnought battleship built for the " Regia Marina " ( Royal Italian Navy ) . Completed in 1913 , she was the first battleship built with her main armament in triple - gun turret s . The ship served as a flagship during World War I , but saw very little action other than the Second Battle of Durazzo in 1918 where 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 in 1928 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 the turbines was provided by 23 Blechynden water - tube boilers , seven of which burned oil and the remaining 16 burned a mixture of oil and coal . The boilers were widely separated in two compartments , each with two funnels , and the turbines were positioned between the two center turrets . Designed to reach a maximum speed of from , " Dante Alighieri " failed to reach this goal on her sea trials . The ship only made a maximum speed of using . The ship could store a maximum of of coal and an unknown quantity of fuel oil that gave her a range of at , and at . Armament . " Dante Alighieri " s main armament consisted of a dozen 46 - caliber 305 - millimeter guns , in four triple - gun turrets positioned on the ship ' s centerline . None of the turrets were superfiring . While the later classes of battleships and battlecruiser s designed for the Imperial Russian Navy shared the turret layout of the " Dante Alighieri " , all surviving evidence shows that the Russians decided on this layout for their own reasons . Sources disagree regarding these guns ' performance , but naval historian Giorgio Giorgerini claims that they fired armor - piercing ( AP ) projectiles at the rate of one round per minute and that they had a muzzle velocity of which gave a maximum range of . The ship ' s secondary armament consisted of twenty 50 - caliber guns . Eight of these guns were fitted in twin - gun turrets abreast the forward and aft main gun turrets while the remaining 12 guns were mounted in casemate s on the sides of the hull . These guns could depress to −10 degress and had a maximum elevation of + 15 degrees ; they had a rate of fire of six shots per minute . They could fire a high - explosive projectile with a muzzle velocity of to a maximum distance of . For defense against torpedo boat s , " Dante Alighieri " carried thirteen 50 - caliber guns mounted on the turret tops . These guns had the same range of elevation as the secondary guns , although their rate of fire was higher at 10 rounds per minute . They fired a AP projectile with a muzzle velocity of to a maximum distance of . The ship was also fitted with three submerged torpedo tube s , one on each broadside and the third in the stern . " Dante Alighieri " had a complete waterline armor belt that had a maximum thickness of . The ship ' s armored deck was thick . The main turrets were protected by a maximum of 254 millimeters of armor while the secondary turrets and the casemates had of armor . The conning tower had walls thick . Construction and service . " Dante Alighieri " , named after the medieval Italian poet , was the only battleship ever named for a poet . She was laid down at the naval shipyard in Castellammare di Stabia on 6 June 1909 , launched on 20 August 1910 , and completed on 15 January 1913 . The ship was used to evaluate Curtiss floatplane s in 1913 – 14 . When Italy entered World War I in May 1915 , " Dante Alighieri " was the flagship of the 1st Battle Squadron based at Taranto and remained with the squadron through 1916 . For the rest of the war , the ship was assigned to the Southern Adriatic and Ionian Sea forces . Under the command of Vice Admiral Paolo Thaon di Revel , the ship was positioned to intercept any Austro - Hungarian ships based at Cattaro if they sortie d to attack the Allied ships bombarding Durazzo on 2 October 1918 . The Austro - Hungarians remained in harbor and " Dante Alighieri " did not fire her guns during the battle . King Victor Emmanuel III entertained delegates to the Genoa Conference aboard " Dante Alighieri " in 1922 . The ship was refitted in 1923 with a tripod foremast , an aircraft flying - off platform on Turret No . 3 , and her forward funnels was made taller to reduce smoke interference with the bridge . She tested a new fire - control system in 1924 at ranges up to ; her new tripod mast was not sturdy enough for the weight of the system , but it was judged to be successful and subsequently installed in the s . That same year , the ship transported Benito Mussolini to Palermo , Sicily . The Italian economy had been weakened by fighting World War I , and by the late 1920s , it could no longer afford to maintain a sizable fleet . As a result , Admiral Sechi decided to scrap " Dante Alighieri " and the salvaged battleship to reduce the naval budget . The ship was stricken on 1 July 1928 and was subsequently scrapped .