Italian battleship Francesco Morosini (1885)

The first Francesco Morosini was an Italian battleship launched in 1885. She was the second ship of the pre-dreadnoughts, and served in the Regia Marina (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 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.

Francesco Morosini was the only ship of the class with oval boilers (her sister ships both had cylindrical boilers) and had the least powerful propulsion machinery of the three ships of her class; she was 0.1 kn slower than ITALIAN BATTLESHIP Andrea Doria and a full knot slower than ITALIAN BATTLESHIP Ruggiero di Lauria. 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 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 experiments, during which she was sunk in shallow water at La Spezia on 15 September 1909. Her wreck was scrapped.