Russian battleship Navarin

Navarin(Russian:Наварин) was apre-dreadnought battleshipbuilt for theImperial Russian Navyin the late 1880s and early 1890s. The ship was assigned to theBaltic Fleetand spent the early part of her career deployed in the Mediterranean and in theFar East. She participated in the suppression of theBoxer Rebellionin 1900 before returning to the Baltic Fleet in 1901. Several months after the beginning of theRusso-Japanese Warin February 1904, she was assigned to the2nd Pacific Squadronto relieve the Russian forces blockaded inPort Arthur. During theBattle of Tsushimain May 1905, she was sunk byJapanesedestroyerswhich spread twenty-four linkedminesacross her path during the night.Navarinstruck two of these mines and capsized with the loss of most of her crew.
Navarinwas a low-freeboardturret shipmodeled on the BritishTrafalgar-classbattleships. The original requirement had been for a much smaller ship, but the Navy changed its mind and required a larger ship capable of operating "in all European seas and [even be] able by its coal capacity to reach the Far East."Changes were made to the design after the ship was ordered that included the replacement of the main armament by more powerful guns of the samecaliberand the increase in thesecondary armamentfrom six guns to eight.
The ship was 347 feet 6 inches (105.9 m)long at the waterlineand 351 feet (107 m) longoverall. She had abeamof 67 feet (20.4 m) and adraughtof 27 feet 7 inches (8.4 m). Shedisplaced10,206long tons(10,370t), almost 800 long tons (813 t) more than her designed displacement of 9,476 long tons (9,628 t).Navarin's crew consisted of 24 officers and 417 enlisted men.
She had a pair of three-cylindervertical triple-expansion steam engines, each driving onepropeller shaft. They had a total designed output of 9,000indicated horsepower(6,700 kW) using steam provided by 12 cylindricalfire-tube boilersat a pressure of 9.4atm(952kPa; 138psi). The fourboiler roomswere arranged in two pairs abreast, each of which had its ownfunnel. This unusual arrangement gave the ship her odd nickname of Factory (Zavod). Trials of the first batch of boilers in May 1891 showed that they could not maintain the designed steam pressure due to flaws in their construction. The Navy demanded that theFranco-Russian Worksreplace them with new boilers at its own expense, but tests of the new boilers in August 1893 showed that their production of steam was inadequate. The factory asked for a year's time to rectify the problems which the Navy granted since the construction of the ship was already behind schedule. On her final set ofsea trialsin November 1895,Navarinreached a top speed of 15.85 knots (29.35 km/h; 18.24 mph). She carried a maximum of 1,200 long tons (1,200 t) of coal that provided a range of 3,050nautical miles(5,650 km; 3,510 mi) at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).
The ship'smain batteryconsisted of four 35-caliber12-inch (305 mm) Obukhov Model 1886 guns mounted in hydraulically powered twin-gun turretsfore and aft of thesuperstructure. The guns required 2 minutes, 22 seconds between shots.They fired a 731.3-pound (331.7 kg) "light" shell at amuzzle velocityof 2,090 ft/s (637 m/s).Each gun was provided with 80rounds. Her secondary armament of eight 35-caliber6-inch (152 mm) Pattern 1877 gunswere mounted incasematesin the superstructure. The ship carried a total of 1,600 rounds for them.
Navarinwas protected againsttorpedo boatsby a suite of smaller guns that included fourteenquick-firing (QF)47-millimetre (1.9 in)Hotchkiss gunsmounted in the superstructure.They fired a 3-pound-3-ounce (1.4 kg) shell at a muzzle velocity of 1,867 ft/s (569 m/s).A total of eightMaximQF37-millimetre (1.5 in) gunswere mounted in thefighting topand the other four guns may have been used to arm the ship's boats.They fired a 1-pound (0.45 kg) shell at a muzzle velocity of 1,319 ft/s (402 m/s).Navarinwas also armed with six above-water 15-inch (381 mm)torpedo tubes, one each in the bow and stern and one pair on eachbroadside. The ship carried two torpedoes for each tube.
The ship usedcompound armorfor all armored vertical surfaces except for the gun turrets which were made from nickel steel.The maximum thickness of thewaterlinearmor beltwas 16 inches (406 mm) which reduced to 12–14 inches (305–356 mm) abreast themagazines. It covered 228 feet (69.5 m) of the ship's length and was 7 feet (2.1 m) high, and tapered down to a thickness of 8 inches (203 mm) at the bottom edge. The upper 18 inches (457.2 mm) of the belt was intended to be above the waterline, but the ship was significantly overweight and much of the belt was submerged. The belt terminated in 14–16-inch (356–406 mm) transversebulkheads.
The lower casemate was above the belt, 218 feet (66.4 m) long and 8 feet (2.4 m) high, and was intended to protect the bases of the turrets and everything between them. It had 16-inch sides and was closed off by 16-inch transverse bulkheads fore and aft. The upper casemate protected the six-inch guns and was 5 inches (127 mm) thick on all sides. The armor plates of the turret sides were 16 inches thick and theconning towerhad sides that were 12 inches (305 mm) thick. The armor deck was 2 inches (51 mm) thick over the lower casemate, but 2.5 inches (64 mm) thick forward and aft of the main armor belt to the bow and stern.
Navarin, named after theBattle of Navarino,was ordered on 24 April 1889 from the Franco-Russian Works and construction began on 13 July 1889 at theirSaint Petersburgshipyard. The ship waslaid downon 31 May 1890 andlaunchedon 20 October 1891. She was transferred toKronstadtin 1893 forfitting out, but did not enter service until June 1896 at a cost of over nine millionrubles. Construction was seriously delayed by problems with the boilers and late deliveries of armor plates, the gun mountings, and other components, compounded by inefficiencies in building. One example of such was that the Russian armor plate company lacked the capacity to makegun portarmor for the gun turrets of the required thickness, but the builder somehow lost track of this fact and had to place a rush order with the French company of St. Chamond.
Navarinwas assigned to the Baltic Fleet and began a cruise to the Mediterranean Sea in August 1896. She visited the Greek port ofPiraeuson 1 October. Together with the battleshipSissoi Veliky, the ship was ordered to the Far East in early 1898 and arrived at Port Arthur on 28 March. She took part in the suppression of the Boxer Rebellion two years later.NavarinandSissoi Veliky, together with a number of cruisers, sailed for theBalticon 25 December 1901 and arrived at the port ofLibauin early May 1902. She began a refit the following September that was interrupted by the start of the Russo-Japanese War in February 1904. During this refit,Navarinreceived 4.5-foot (1.4 m)Barr & Stroudrangefinders, telescopicgun sightsandTelefunkenradio equipment. Her light armament was increased by four 75-millimeter (3.0 in) guns that displaced an equal number of 47-millimeter guns on top of the superstructure; one of the displaced guns was mounted on each of the turret roofs.
On 15 October 1904, she set sail for Port Arthur from Libau along with the other vessels of the Second Pacific Squadron, under the command ofAdmiralZinovy Rozhestvensky.When his ships reached the port ofTangier, Morocco, on 28 October,Rozhestvensky split his forces and ordered his older ships, includingNavarinandSissoi Veliky, to proceed through the Mediterranean and theSuez Canalto rendezvous with him inMadagascaras previously planned. Under the command of Rear AdmiralDmitry von Fölkersam, they departed that night and reachedSouda Bay,Crete, a week later andPort Said, Egypt two weeks after that.The two forces reunited at the island ofNosy Beon 9 January 1905 where they remained for two months while Rozhestvensky finalized his coaling arrangements. The squadron sailed forCamranh Bay,French Indochina, on 16 March and reached it almost a month later to await the obsolete ships of the 3rd Pacific Squadron, commanded by Rear AdmiralNikolai Nebogatov. The latter ships reached Camranh Bay on 9 May and the combined force sailed forVladivostokon 14 May.
Rozhestvensky reorganized his ships into three divisions; the first consisted of the four newBorodino-classbattleshipscommanded by himself, von Fölkersam commanded the second division of the battleshipsOslyabya,Navarin,Sissoi Velikyand the armored cruiserAdmiral Nakhimov, and Nebogatov retained his ships as the third division. Von Fölkersam, ill with cancer, died on 26 May and Rozhestvensky decided not to inform the fleet in order to keep morale up. The captain ofOslyabyabecame the commander of the 2nd Division while Nebogatov had no idea that he was now the squadron's de facto second-in-command.
Very little is known ofNavarin's actions during the Battle of Tsushima on 27–28 May as there were very few survivors from the ship and visibility was poor for most of the battle. The ship was apparently not heavily engaged during the early part of the battle, but was badly damaged later in the day when she was third from last in the Russian line of battle.She was hit four times by large-caliber shells on the waterline that caused major flooding aft. Her quarterdeck was awash up to her rear 12-inch turret by 2100 and the ship was forced to stop for repairs. Around that time she was attacked by Japanese torpedo boats that may have made one or two torpedo hits.Navarinmanaged to get underway again and damaged one torpedo boat badly enough that she sank later that night. Around 0200 on 28 May, the ship was attacked again by the Fourth Destroyer Division which dropped six strings of mines ahead of her.These consisted of four mines linked together with cables so that hitting any part of the string would draw the mines onto the ship. Two of these mines struckNavarin, which quickly capsized and sank.Some 70 men were able to abandon ship before she sank, but only three were alive when they were found 16 hours later. One man was rescued by a Japanese torpedo boat while the other two were rescued by a British merchant ship.The rest of her crew of 674 officers and enlisted men were lost. The rescued men had said that when they called out for help, they were fired on by Japanese torpedo boats.