The thing Ferdinand had feared most had ultimately not happened. The Italians' Dreadnought, which should have entered service at the beginning of 1914, had been delayed. Of course, the Dante Alighieri-class battleship they had planned to commission in 1913 had long since been completed.
Dante Alighieri main specifications:
Displacement: 19,552 tons
Length: 168.1 m
Beam: 26.6 m
Draft: 8.8 m (average)
Engines: 3 Parsons direct-drive steam turbine sets / 4 shafts
Main boilers: 7 Blechynden oil-fired water-tube boilers, 16 mixed-fuel water-tube boilers
Power: 32,300 horsepower
Speed: 23 knots
Range: 4,800 nautical miles at 10 knots
Armament: 4 triple-mounted 305 mm/46-caliber gun turrets (one fore, one aft, two amidships), 4 single-mounted 120 mm/50-caliber guns, 12 additional single-mounted guns of the same caliber, 13 single-mounted 76 mm/40-caliber guns, 4 submerged 450 mm torpedo tubes
Armor: belt 254 mm, deck 38 mm, barbette unknown, turret face 254 mm, conning tower 305 mm
Crew: 981
Remarks: This class was the earliest warship in shipbuilding history to use triple gun turrets. Its main guns had a range of 18,000 meters.
During sea trials, the ship had also set a speed record of 24.2 knots, making it arguably the fastest battleship in the world at the time.
The one now delayed was the Giulio Cesare. It should have entered service in February, yet it was already May and still unfinished. Still, it was probably close to completion now.
Since Italy's shipbuilding industry had dragged its feet, Ferdinand guessed that the Alliance's surprise attack on the French Mediterranean Fleet had naturally failed to happen as well.
Of course, the crucial point was that the two Dreadnoughts the Ottoman Empire had ordered from Germany had been intercepted by the United Kingdom while returning home. With the current strength of the Italian navy, attacking the French fleet would most