The first Francesco Morosini was an Italian battleship

Battleship

A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of heavy caliber guns. Battleships were larger, better armed and armored than cruisers and destroyers. As the largest armed ships in a fleet, battleships were used to attain command of the sea and represented the apex of a...

 launched

Ship naming and launching

The ceremonies involved in naming and launching naval ships are based in traditions thousands of years old.-Methods of launch:There are three principal methods of conveying a new ship from building site to water, only two of which are called "launching." The oldest, most familiar, and most widely...

 in 1885. She was the second ship of the Ruggiero di Lauria-class

Ruggiero di Lauria class battleship

The Ruggiero di Lauria class was a class of Italian battleships which served in the Regia Marina during the late 19th and early 20th centuries...

 pre-dreadnoughts, and served in the Regia Marina

Regia Marina

The Regia Marina dates from the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861 after Italian unification...

(Italian Royal Navy) during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Design

Eng Insp Giuseppe Micheli designed the Ruggiero di Lauria class ships. He chose essentially to repeat the Duilio-class design; he did, however, improve on the Duilio class by giving the Ruggiero di Lauria-class ships breech-loading

Breech-loading weapon

A breech-loading weapon is a firearm in which the cartridge or shell is inserted or loaded into a chamber integral to the rear portion of a barrel....

 17 inches (432 mm) guns (the Duilio class had been armed with 17.7 inches (450 mm) muzzle loaders

Muzzleloader

A muzzleloader is any firearm into which the projectile and usually the propellant charge is loaded from the muzzle of the gun . This is distinct from the more popular modern designs of breech-loading firearms...

) mounted in barbette

Barbette

A barbette is a protective circular armour feature around a cannon or heavy artillery gun. The name comes from the French phrase en barbette referring to the practice of firing a field gun over a parapet rather than through an opening . The former gives better angles of fire but less protection...

s rather than turrets

Gun turret

A gun turret is a weapon mount that protects the crew or mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon and at the same time lets the weapon be aimed and fired in many directions.The turret is also a rotating weapon platform...

, a high forecastle

Forecastle

Forecastle refers to the upper deck of a sailing ship forward of the foremast, or the forward part of a ship with the sailors' living quarters...

, a better quality of armor, and a better distribution of armor. The main battery was mounted in twin mounts close together en echelon amidships, with the port barbette aft of the starboard one.

Francesco Morosini was the only ship of the class with oval boiler

Boiler

A boiler is a closed vessel in which water or other fluid is heated. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications.-Materials:...

s (her sister ship

Sister ship

A sister ship is a ship of the same class as, or of virtually identical design to, another ship. Such vessels share a near-identical hull and superstructure layout, similar displacement, and roughly comparable features and equipment...

s both had cylindrical boilers) and had the least powerful propulsion machinery of the three ships of her class; she was 0.1 knot (0.195983999843213 km/h) slower Andrea Doria

Italian battleship Andrea Doria (1885)

The Andrea Doria was an Italian battleship, the first named after Andrea Doria, launched in 1885. She was the third and final ship of the Ruggiero di Lauria-class pre-dreadnoughts, and served in the Regia Marina during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.-Design:The Ruggiero di Lauria class was...

 and a full knot slower than Ruggiero di Lauria

Italian battleship Ruggiero di Lauria

Ruggiero di Lauria was an Italian battleship launched in 1884. She was the lead ship of the Ruggiero di Lauria-class pre-dreadnoughts, and served in the Regia Marina during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.-Design:...

. In 1900, additions were made to her tertiary armament.

Construction

Francesco Morosini was under construction for nearly eight years. She was laid down at Venice

Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...

 Navy Yard on 4 December 1881 and launched on 30 July 1885. She was not completed for another four years, her construction finally being finished on 21 August 1889. Because of the rapid pace of naval technological development in the late 19th century, her lengthy construction period meant that she was an obsolete design by the time she entered service.

Operational history

After a fairly short operational life, Francesco Morosini was stricken in August 1909. Less than a month later, she was used as a target during torpedo

Torpedo

The modern torpedo is a self-propelled missile weapon with an explosive warhead, launched above or below the water surface, propelled underwater towards a target, and designed to detonate either on contact with it or in proximity to it.The term torpedo was originally employed for...

 experiments, during which she was sunk in shallow water at La Spezia

La Spezia

La Spezia , at the head of the Gulf of La Spezia in the Liguria region of northern Italy, is the capital city of the province of La Spezia. Located between Genoa and Pisa on the Ligurian Sea, it is one of the main Italian military and commercial harbours and hosts one of Italy's biggest military...

on 15 September 1909. Her wreck was scrapped.

See also