page_title: Russian battleship Borodino
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Russian battleship Borodino / Description
caption_attribution_description: English: Right elevation and deck plan of Russian Borodino class battleship.Top diagram (right elevation) shows armour thickness in inches.Bottom diagram (deck plan) shows gun sizes in inches.
context_page_description: Borodino was the lead ship of her class of five pre-dreadnought battleships built for the Imperial Russian Navy in the first decade of the twentieth century. Completed after the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, Borodino was assigned to the Second Pacific Squadron that was sent to the Far East a few months after her completion to break the Japanese blockade of Port Arthur. The Japanese captured the port while the squadron was in transit and their destination was changed to Vladivostok. The ship was sunk during the Battle of Tsushima in May 1905 due to explosions set off by a Japanese shell hitting a magazine. There was only a single survivor from her crew of 855 officers and enlisted men.
context_section_description: The Borodino-class ships were based on the design of the French-built Tsesarevich, modified to suit Russian equipment and building practices. They were built under the 1898 program "for the needs of the Far East" of concentrating ten battleships in the Pacific. The ships were 389 feet 5 inches (118.7 m) long at the waterline and 397 feet (121 m) long overall, with a beam of 76 feet 1 inch (23.2 m) and a draft of 29 feet 2 inches (8.9 m), 3 feet 2 inches (0.97 m) more than designed. Borodino displaced 14,091 long tons (14,317 t) at normal load, over 500 long tons (508 t) more than her designed displacement of 13,516 long tons (13,733 t). The Borodino class were designed for a crew of 28 officers and 754 enlisted men, although they usually carried 826–846 crewmen in service. 
  The ships were powered by a pair of vertical triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one shaft, using steam generated by 20 Belleville boilers. The engines were rated at 16,300 indicated horsepower (12,200 kW) and designed to reach a top speed of 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph). They produced, however, only 15,012 ihp (11,194 kW) on Borodino's builder's sea trials on 23 August 1904 and gave an average speed of 16.2 knots (30 km/h; 19 mph). The ships could carry enough coal to give them a range of 2,590 nautical miles (4,800 km; 2,980 mi) at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).
  The main battery of the Borodinos consisted of four 12-inch (305 mm) Pattern 1895 guns were mounted in two twin-gun turrets, one each fore and aft of the superstructure. Their secondary armament of twelve 6-inch (152 mm) Pattern 1892 guns were mounted in six twin-gun turrets carried on the upper deck. Defense against torpedo boats was provided by a suite of smaller guns. The twenty 75-millimeter (3 in) Pattern 1892 guns carried were mounted in casemates in the sides of the hull. The ships also mounted twenty 47-millimeter (1.9 in) Hotchkiss guns in the superstructure. The ships were fitted with four 15-inch (381 mm) torpedo tubes, one each above water in the bow and in the stern, and a submerged tube on each broadside.
  The waterline armor belt of the Borodino class consisted of Krupp armor 5.7–7.64 inches (145–194 mm) thick. The armor of their gun turrets had a maximum thickness of 10 inches (254 mm) and their decks ranged from 1 to 2 inches (25 to 51 mm) in thickness. The 1.5-inch (38 mm) armored lower deck of Borodino and her sister Imperator Aleksandr III curved downwards to their double bottom and formed an anti-torpedo bulkhead.
caption: Right elevation and deck plan as depicted in Brassey's Naval Annual 1906
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