The Andrea Doria was an Italian ironclad battleship launched in 1885; she and her sister ships were the last exponents of the series of Italian
ironclads built with turrets emplaced in the center of the hull. However the ships of the Ruggiero di Lauria class had significant improvements
over the preceding series; they were armored with steel and armed with breech-loading cannons. These, built by Armstrong, were of caliber 432
millimeters and weighed 108 tonnes; they could fire a 908-kilogram projectile every four minutes. These cannons were mounted in turrets of a new
type, built with inclined armor to help divert the impacts.
Under the turrets was located the central citadel, a highly protected area containing the machinery and the mechanisms of the cannons. The lower
section of the citadel was at the level of the armored belt, which protected a length of 50 meters amidships; two transversal bulkheads installed
inside the hull completed the citadel, forming so a large armored box. The upper section of the citadel, containing the mechanisms of the cannons,
had the same level of protection, but limited to a length of 28 meters.
The Andrea Doria, which formed part of the squadron of the Italian Navy until 1903, was sent to Germany for the opening of the Kiel Canal in 1895.
Between 1907 and 1911 she served as school ship and command base, in Venetia, before being disarmed and used in Taranto as depot ship.
During the First World War she entered service again as a floating battery to defend Brindisi. After the war she was reconverted into a floating
oil tank, being eventually scrapped in 1929.
Class: Ruggiero di Lauria (3 units - Andrea Doria, Francesco Morosini, Ruggiero di Lauria)
Type: Ironclad battleship
Length: 105.9 meters
Beam: 19.8 meters
Draught: 8.3 meters
Displacement (normal): 9886 tonnes
Propulsion: 2 x shaft, 2 x vertical double-expansion steam engine, 8 x cylindrical boiler, 10500 horsepower
Speed: 16.1 knots (29.8 kilometers/hour)
Range: 2800 nautical miles (5186 kilometers) at 10 knots
Complement: 507-509
Armament (as built): 4 x 432-millimeter 27-caliber breech-loading rifled cannon, 2 x 152-millimeter 32-caliber cannon,
4 x 119-millimeter 32-caliber cannon, 4 x 356-millimeter torpedo tube
Armament (in 1900): 4 x 432-millimeter 27-caliber breech-loading rifled cannon, 2 x 152-millimeter 32-caliber cannon,
4 x 119-millimeter 32-caliber cannon, 2 x 75-millimeter cannon, 10 x 57-millimeter 40-caliber quick-firing cannon, 12 x 37-millimeter cannon,
5 x 37-millimeter revolver cannon, 2 x machine gun, 5 x 356-millimeter torpedo tube
Armor: 450 millimeters in belt, 360 millimeters in bulkheads, 76 millimeters in deck, 360 millimeters in barbettes,
360 millimeters in main turrets, 250 millimeters in conning tower
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