Italian battleship Conte di Cavour

Conte di Cavour at speed in her original configuration
History
Kingdom of Italy
Name	Conte di Cavour
Namesake	Count Camillo Benso di Cavour
Operator	Regia Marina
Builder	Arsenale di La Spezia, La Spezia
Laid down	10 August 1910
Launched	10 August 1911
Completed	1 April 1915
Refit	October 1933–June 1937
Captured	10 September 1943
Fate	Scrapped, 1946
General characteristics (as built)
Class and type	Conte di Cavour-class dreadnought battleship
Displacement	23,088 long tons (23,458 t) (standard) 25,086 long tons (25,489 t) (deep load)
Length	176 m (577 ft 5 in) (o/a)
Beam	28 m (91 ft 10 in)
Draft	9.3 m (30 ft 6 in)
Installed power	20 × water-tube boilers 31,000 shp (23,000 kW)
Propulsion	4 × shafts; 3 × steam turbines
Speed	22.2 knots (41.1 km/h; 25.5 mph)
Range	4,800 nmi (8,900 km; 5,500 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement	31 officers and 969 enlisted men
Armament	3 × triple, 2 × twin 305 mm (12 in) guns 18 × single 120 mm (4.7 in) guns 14 × single 76.2 mm (3 in) guns 3 × 450 mm (17.7 in) torpedo tubes
Armor	Waterline belt: 80–250 mm (3.1–9.8 in) Deck: 24–40 mm (0.9–1.6 in) Gun turrets: 240–280 mm (9.4–11.0 in) Barbettes: 130–230 mm (5.1–9.1 in) Conning tower: 280 mm (11 in)
General characteristics (after reconstruction)
Displacement	29,100 long tons (29,600 t) (deep load)
Length	186.4 m (611 ft 7 in)
Beam	28.6 m (93 ft 10 in)
Draft	10.02 m (32 ft 10 in)
Installed power	8 × Yarrow boilers 75,000 shp (56,000 kW)
Propulsion	2 × shafts; 2 × geared steam turbines
Speed	27 knots (50 km/h; 31 mph)
Range	6,400 nmi (11,900 km; 7,400 mi) at 13 knots (24 km/h; 15 mph)
Complement	1,260
Armament	2 × triple, 2 × twin 320 mm (12.6 in) guns 6 × twin 120 mm guns 4 × twin 100 mm (3.9 in) AA guns 6 × twin 37 mm (1.5 in) AA guns 6 × twin 13.2 mm (0.52 in) AA MGs
Armor	Deck: 135–166 mm (5.3–6.5 in) Barbettes: 130–280 mm (5.1–11.0 in)

Conte di Cavour was the name ship of the three Conte di Cavour-class dreadnought battleships built for the Royal Italian Navy (Regia Marina) in the 1910s. Completed in 1915 she served during World War I, although she was little used and saw no combat. The ship supported operations during the Corfu Incident in 1923 and spent much of the rest of the decade in reserve. She was rebuilt between 1933 and 1937 with more powerful guns, additional armor and considerably more speed than before.

During World War II, both Conte di Cavour and her sister ship, Giulio Cesare, participated in the Battle of Calabria in July 1940, where the latter was lightly damaged. Conte di Cavour was badly damaged when British torpedo bombers attacked the fleet at Taranto in November 1940. She was deliberately run aground, with most of her hull underwater, and repairs were not completed before the Italian armistice in September 1943. The ship was then captured by the Germans, but they made no effort to finish her repairs. She was damaged in an Allied air raid in early 1945 and capsized a week later. Conte di Cavour was eventually scrapped in 1946.