page_title: Russian yacht Livadia (1880)
section_title: Design
hierarchical_section_title: Russian yacht Livadia (1880) / Design
caption_attribution_description: English: Three dimensions of the Livadia as presented in the 1881 Transactions of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects
context_page_description: The Livadia was an imperial yacht of the House of Romanov built in 1879–1880 to replace a yacht of the same name that had sunk off the coast of Crimea in 1878. The new Livadia, intended for service on the Black Sea, was a radically novel ship conceived by Vice Admiral Andrey Popov, designed by naval architect Erast Gulyaev and built by John Elder & Co. of Govan on the Clyde. The Livadia continued Popov's line of circular ships although this time Popov sacrificed geometrical perfection for seagoing capabilities. She had a beam of 153 ft against overall length of only 259 ft. An extreme example of tumblehome architecture, she sported a conventionally shaped superstructure mounted on a wide, flat-bottomed, turbot-shaped submerged hull or pontoon.
  Construction of the Livadia, "a gigantic life-size experiment" and a prototype for next-generation battleships, was supervised by William Pearce. Bruno Tideman and Edward James Reed acted as consultants, William Leiper and William De Morgan designed luxurious interiors. The Livadia turned out a surprisingly maneuverable and stable ship with a respectable maximum speed of 15.7 knots and her efficiency was comparable to conventional ships.
context_section_description: According to Popov, the new imperial yacht should have had a wide, flat-bottomed tumblehome hull and sustainable speed of 14 knots. Popov recruited Erast Gulyaev to produce initial drawings. The main, submerged hull of the new Livadia was 71.63 metres long and 46.64 metres wide. It was compared in shape to a pancake, a turbot, a turtle or even a pair of soup plates. The superstructure perched on the hull was only 33.53 metres wide, and had a clipper bow for an overall length of 79.25 metres. Gulyaev explained that "as the Livadia had to be a yacht, it was decided to make all her qualities subordinate to the utmost safety of navigation, and to the utmost comfort depending on the possible limitation of rolling motion at sea, and on the provision of spacious apartments with a luxurious amount of light and air."
  The submerged hull was split into forty watertight compartments. Four housed the steam engines, placed forward, the boilers, electrical systems and store room. The rest were allocated to coal storage. A belt of forty smaller compartments wrapped around the hull, forming a rigid structural frame. Popov sent the drawings to the Dutch naval architect Bruno Tideman, who ran a series of tests of a paraffin wax model in a ship model basin and concluded that the design was feasible. According to Tideman, the ship could reach 14 knots with 8,500 indicated horsepowers, below Popov's earlier estimate of at least 10 thousand horsepower (the first Livadia could make 13 knots on mere 460 horsepower). Tideman insisted that the contract must be awarded to a first-rate firm and that the plans be approved by him.
  In the summer of 1879, the drawings were sent to Sir William Pearce of John Elder & Co. Pearce agreed to build it, and in August Tsar Alexander II gave his assent. Pearce and the head of the Baltic Shipyard Mikhail Casi, representing Alexander II, signed the contract on September 5, 1879. Pearce agreed to complete the job by July 1, 1880. The deal excluded interior finishes, to be completed in Russia. Unusually for the period, Pearce agreed to guarantee the speed of an experimental craft. According to the contract, the full price was payable only if the ship attained 15 knots. Under-performance was punishable by hefty liquidated damages, and the Russians reserved the right for a full money back guarantee if the ship failed to make 14 knots. They agreed to pay generous premiums if speed and engine power exceeded design targets of 15 knots and 12,000 indicated horsepowers. Pearce was instructed to build his own state-of-the-art steam engines, with no cap on maximum power output. The Russians subscribed to supply the complete electrical system, including arc lighting by Yablochkov candles. The British press discussed the unusual project and concluded it was a test bed for future military ships and their powerplants in particular.
caption: Drawings of the Livadia published by Gulyaev' in Transactions of the Institution of Naval Architects, 1881.
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