page_title: Russian cruiser Rurik (1906)
section_title: General characteristics and propulsion machinery
hierarchical_section_title: Russian cruiser Rurik (1906) / Design / General characteristics and propulsion machinery
caption_attribution_description: English: Sketch of the Russian armoured cruiser Rurik.
context_page_description: Rurik was the last armored cruiser to be built for the Imperial Russian Navy. The ship was designed by the British firm Vickers and built in their shipyard, being laid down in 1905 and completed in 1908. She was armed with a main battery of four 254 mm guns and a secondary battery of eight 203 mm guns; her top speed was rated at 21 knots. Despite her powerful gun armament, Rurik was rendered obsolescent even before she was completed by the advent of the British battlecruisers of the Invincible class, which were more powerfully armed and faster. Her design is nevertheless well regarded and naval historians rate her as one of the best vessels of her type ever built.
  Rurik served as the flagship of the Russian Baltic Fleet for much of her relatively short career. She made one overseas cruise with a trip to the Mediterranean Sea in mid-1910, but spent the rest of her early career in the Baltic Sea. After the start of World War I, she operated with the other cruisers of the fleet, making raids on German positions in the southern Baltic, and after being modified to carry naval mines, took part in laying offensive minefields to block German naval traffic.
context_section_description: Rurik was 149.4 m (490 ft 2 in) long between perpendiculars, 157.6 m (517 ft 1 in) long at the waterline, and 161.23 m (529 ft) long overall. She had a beam of 22.86 m (75 ft) and a draft of 7.92 m (26 ft) and displaced 15,190 long tons (15,430 t). Her hull featured a long forecastle deck that extended to her main mast and incorporated a pronounced ram bow. Her superstructure was minimal, consisting primarily of her main conning tower forward with a command bridge and a smaller, secondary conning tower aft.
  She was completed with just the pole main mast that was placed just ahead of the rear conning tower, but around the time she entered service in 1909, a pole fore mast was installed atop her forward conning tower as well. By 1917, the fore mast had been replaced with a sturdier tripod mast to support a spotting top to help the direction of her armament. Steering was controlled by a single rudder. Her crew numbered 26 officers and 910 enlisted men.
  The ship's propulsion system consisted of two vertical triple-expansion steam engines that drove a pair of screw propellers. Steam was provided by twenty-eight coal-fired Belleville type water-tube boilers, which were vented through three funnels located amidships. The power plant was rated to produce 19,700 indicated horsepower (14,700 kW) for a top speed of 21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph). Coal storage amounted to 1,920 long tons (1,950 t). While steaming at a more economical 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph), Rurik could cruise for 6,100 nautical miles (11,300 km; 7,000 mi).
caption: Profile and plan drawing of Rurik in her original configuration
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