SS Leonardo da Vinci (1958)

SS Leonardo da Vinci was an Italian ocean liner built by the Ansaldo shipyard at Genoa for the Italian Line as a replacement for the Andrea Doria, which was lost in 1956. Her plans were adapted from the Andrea Doria and enlarged, and she was launched on 7 December 1958 and delivered in 1960. She introduced extended watertight bulkheads, engine rooms split into two compartments each driving its own propeller, retractable stabilizer wings and full air conditioning, and space amidships was reserved so she could later be converted to nuclear power, a change that never came. Like her near sisters she proved tender in rough weather, and 3,000 tonnes of iron were fitted along her bottom to steady her. She served the North Atlantic until 1976, then cruised from the Mediterranean and later from Miami as an Italia Crociere ship, was laid up in 1978, burned and capsized in 1980, and was scrapped at La Spezia in 1982.