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 pre-dreadnoughts, and served in the Regia Marina (Italian Royal Navy) during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Design
The Ruggiero di Lauria class was designed by Giuseppe Micheli. He chose essentially to repeat the design; he did, however, improve on the Caio Duilio class by giving the Ruggiero di Lauria-class ships breech-loading 17 in guns (the Caio Duilio class had been armed with 17.7 in muzzle loaders) mounted in barbettes rather than turrets, a high forecastle, 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.

Andrea Doria had the second most powerful propulsion machinery of the three ships of her class; she was 0.1 kn faster than ITALIAN BATTLESHIP Francesco Morosini, but 0.9 kn slower than ITALIAN BATTLESHIP Ruggiero di Lauria. In 1900, additions were made to her tertiary armament.

Construction
Andrea Doria was under construction for nine-and-a-half years. She was laid down at La Spezia Navy Yard on 7 January 1882 and launched on 21 November 1885. She was not completed for another five-and-a-half years, her construction finally being finished on 16 May 1891. 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, Andrea Doria was stricken on 25 May 1911. After that, she became a depot ship at Taranto. From 7 April 1915 until after the end of World War I, she served as the defensive floating battery GR104 at Brindisi. After the war, she was used as a floating oil tank until she was scrapped in 1929.