Borodino - class battleship The " Borodino " - class battleship was a class of five pre - dreadnought battleship s built for the Imperial Russian Navy around the end of the 19th century . Their design was based on that of the French - built modified to use Russian equipment . The first four ships were finished after the start of the Russo - Japanese War of 1904 – 05 and were among the ships ordered to sail from the Baltic Sea to the Far East to relieve the Pacific Squadron besieged by the Japanese in Port Arthur . Three of these ships were sunk and one was captured by the Imperial Japanese Navy at the Battle of Tsushima in 1905 . The fifth and final ship , , was not completed in time to participate in the war and served with the Baltic Fleet through World War I . She spent most of the war defending the Gulf of Riga and was badly damaged by German dreadnought s during the Battle of Moon Sound in 1917 . This damage forced the ship ' s crew to scuttle her because she had taken on too much water and could not pass through the shallow channel that connected the Gulf of Riga with the Baltic . The wreck was scrapped during the 1930s by the Estonians . Design and description . Ever since his accession to the throne in 1894 , Tsar Nicholas II had desired a warm - water port on the Pacific . He achieved his ambition in March 1898 when Russia signed a 25 - year lease with China for Port Arthur and the Liaotung Peninsula . Japan had forced China to sign over the port and its surrounding territory as part of the Treaty of Shimonoseki that concluded the First Sino - Japanese War of 1894 – 95 , but France , Russia , and Germany forced Japan to return the port in the Triple Intervention in exchange for a sizeable increase in the indemnity paid by the Chinese . Japan invested much of the indemnity money in expanding her fleet and Russia began a major building program , " For the Needs of the Far East " , to defend her newly acquired port that included the " Borodino " - class battleships . The " Borodino " s were the most numerous class of battleships ever built by Russia . Although they were to be near duplicates of the " Tsesarevich " , as soon as the contracts were signed it became clear that they would be quite different from the French - built ship . The basic problem facing the navy was that the " Borodinos " would have heavier engines and larger turrets which would require a designer to build a ship which had the same speed , draft , guns and armor as " Tsesarevich " , but a greater displacement . The new design was made up by D . V . Skvortsov of the Russian Naval Technical Committee ( NTC ) . He completed his new design in July / August 1898 , one month after the original contract had been signed . The new concept was roughly tons heavier and slightly larger and wider than the " Tsesarevich . " Outwardly , the biggest change was in the appearance of the " Borodinos " from the original " Tsesarevich " design . Skvortsov added two more casemates , each containing four guns , one at the bow and the other aft . This was added to the already existing dozen 75 mm guns emplaced along the sides above the armor belt . This caused the tumblehome used on the rest of the hull to be deleted over the twelve guns , and flat - sided armor was used in its place . Thus the five " Borodino " - class battleships only had tumblehome hulls fore and aft of their 75 mm guns emplaced along their sides . The centreline bulkhead between the engine and boiler rooms caused a danger of capsizing if one side flooded and their narrow belt armor became submerged when overloaded . As such , naval historian Antony Preston regarded these as some of the worst battleships ever built . The ships were long at the waterline and long overall , with a beam of and a draft of , more than designed . Their normal displacement ranged from , more than their designed displacement of . They were designed for a crew of 28 officers and 754 enlisted men , although carried 928 crewmen during the Battle of Tsushima . The " Borodino " - class ships were powered by two 4 - cylinder triple - expansion steam engines , each driving one propeller shaft , using steam generated by 20 Belleville boiler s . The engines were designed to reach a top speed of . The lead ship , " Borodino " , was fitted with a copy of the La Seyne machinery installed in " Tsesarvich " and built by the Franco - Russian Works . The remaining four " Borodinos " were supplied with machinery designed and built by the Baltic Works . " Borodino " s engines were rated at and its boilers had a working pressure of ; the machinery of her sisters was rated at and their boilers had a working pressure of . Other differences were that " Borodino " was equipped with economiser s for her boilers as well as three - bladed screws , while her sisters lacked economisers and had four - bladed propellers . Because the ships were being prepared to go to the Far East shortly after completion , they conducted only abbreviated sea trials . Only reached her designed speed during these trails , despite her engines only producing . The engines of her sisters produced more power , but they were slower during their trials . At deep load they carried of coal that provided them a range of at a speed of . The ships were fitted with six steam - driven generators with a total capacity of . Armament and fire control . The main armament of the " Borodino " - class consisted of two pairs of 40 - caliber 12 - inch guns mounted in French - style , electrically powered , twin - gun turret s fore and aft . The turrets had a maximum elevation of + 15° and 60 rounds per gun were carried . The guns fired one shell every 90 – 132 seconds . They fired a shell at a muzzle velocity of to a range of at maximum elevation . ` The secondary armament of the ships consisted of a dozen 45 - caliber Canet Model 1891 ( QF ) guns mounted in six electrically powered twin - gun turrets on the upper deck . The turrets had a maximum elevation of + 15° arc of fire and the center turrets could cover 180° . Each six - inch gun was provided with 180 rounds . Their rate of fire was about 2 – 4 rounds per minute . They fired shells that weighed with a muzzle velocity of . They had a maximum range of approximately . A number of smaller guns were carried for defense against torpedo boat s . These included twenty 50 - calibre Canet QF guns mounted in hull embrasure s . The ships carried 300 shells for each gun . They fired a shell at a muzzle velocity of to a maximum range of at an elevation of + 13° . The " Borodino " - class ships also mounted sixteen or eighteen Hotchkiss gun s in the superstructure . They fired a shell at a muzzle velocity of at a rate of around 15 rounds per minute . The ships carried four torpedo tube s , two of which were mounted above water in the bow and stern while the two broadside underwater tubes were located near the forward 12 - inch magazine . Four torpedoes were carried for the above - water tubes and six for the submerged tubes . They also carried 50 mines to be laid to protect their anchorage in remote areas . The " Borodino " - class were originally fitted with Liuzhol stadiametric rangefinders that used the angle between two vertical points on an enemy ship , usually the waterline and the crow ' s nest , to estimate the range . The gunnery officer consulted his references to get the range and calculated the proper elevation and deflection required to hit the target . He then transmitted his commands via a Geisler electro - mechanical fire - control transmission system to each gun or turret . While fitting out , these rangefinders were replaced on the first four ships by two Barr and Stroud coincidence rangefinder s that used two images that had to be superimposed to derive the range . Perepelkin telescopic sight s were also installed for their guns , but their crews were not trained in how to use them . The waterline armor belt of the " Borodino " s consisted of Krupp armor and was thick . The armor of their gun turrets had a maximum thickness of and their deck ranged from in thickness . The armored lower deck curved downwards and formed an anti - torpedo bulkhead . Service . On 15 October 1904 , " Knyaz Suvorov " , flagship of Vice Admiral Zinovy Rozhestvensky , commander of the 2nd Pacific Squadron , and the other three " Borodino " - class battleships set sail for Port Arthur from Libau along with the other vessels of the squadron . Rozhestvensky had received numerous reports of Japanese agents and torpedo boats disguised as fishing vessels before sailing and he ordered maximum alertness after coaling at Skagen , Denmark on 7 October . Early on the evening of the following day , when the squadron was near the Dogger Bank , the auxiliary repair ship " Kamchatka " reported that she was under attack by torpedo boats in the rain . About four hours later , the squadron encountered British fishing trawlers working the Dogger Bank in the fog and opened fire on them at very short range . One trawler was sunk and at least three others were damaged ; several fishermen were killed and others wounded . The battleships also fired upon and damaged the cruisers and in the confusion . The incident enraged the British population and caused a diplomatic incident with the British that nearly led to war until Russia apologized and agreed to pay reparations on 29 October . Rozhestvensky led his ships down the Atlantic coast of Africa , rounding Cape Horn , and reached the island of Nosy Be off the north - west coast of Madagascar on 9 January 1905 where they remained for two months while Rozhestvensky finalized his coaling arrangements . During this time , he learned of the capture of Port Arthur and changed his destination to Vladivostok , the only other port controlled by the Russians in the Far East . The squadron sailed for Camranh 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 Admiral Nikolai Nebogatov . The latter ships reached Camranh Bay on 9 May and the combined force sailed for Vladivostok on 14 May . While exact figures are not available , it is probable that the ships were approximately overweight as they were overloaded with coal and other supplies ; all of which was stored high in the ships and reduced their stability . The extra weight also submerged their waterline armor belt and left only about of the upper armor belt above the waterline . Battle of Tsushima . Before the battle Rozhestvensky grouped the four " Borodino " s into one division and retained personal command of the division . " Oryol " , the last ship in the division , fired the first shots of the Battle of Tsushima when the ship ' s captain , Nikolay Yung , ordered her to open fire at 11 : 42 at a Japanese cruiser that was shadowing the Russian formation at a range of . Rozhestvensky had not given any pre - battle instructions to the fleet covering this situation , but he ordered Yung to cease fire after 30 rounds had been fired without effect . " Knyaz Suvorov " was the lead ship in the Russian battle line and she opened fire at the , flagship of Admiral Tōgō Heihachirō at 14 : 05 . " Mikasa " and the other Japanese ships began to return fire about five minutes later . Their high - explosive shells quickly set all four of the Borodinos on fire ; at 14 : 35 , Rozhestvensky and the " Knyaz Suvorov " s captain were wounded by splinters that entered the ship ' s conning tower . Around 14 : 52 , another hit jammed " Knyaz Suvorov " s steering gear after a four point turn to starboard had been ordered and caused the ship make nearly a full circle before she could be steered by her engines . By this time " Knyaz Suvorov " s aft 12 - inch gun turret had been destroyed by an explosion that blew its roof off onto the quarterdeck , her forward funnel had fallen down and her mainmast had been shot away . " Imperator Aleksandr III " and the other ships of the division briefly followed " Knyaz Suvorov " until it became clear that the latter ship was out of control and then turned north in an effort to get behind Tōgō ' s ships . " Knyaz Suvorov " never regained her position in the battle line and became the primary target of the Japanese for a time . Around 16 : 00 the captain of " Imperator Alexandr III " , Nikolai Bukhvostov , decided to duplicate ' s maneuver at the Battle of the Yellow Sea by charging straight for the Japanese battleline in an attempt to focus their attention on his ship rather than " Knyaz Suvorov " . He was successful , but " Imperator Aleksandr III " was badly damaged in the process . " Borodino " now assumed the lead position and turned the fleet to the south where they temporarily managed to disengage in the mist and fog . " Knyaz Suvorov " was badly damaged by repeated attacks after she separated from the main body although she was initially in no danger of sinking . A Russian destroyer came alongside around 17 : 30 and evacuated Rozhestvensky and some wounded officers . Torpedoes fired by a number of torpedo boats ultimately caused a magazine to explode around 19 : 20 and " Knyaz Suvorov " capsized at about 19 : 30 . Other than the 20 officers taken off by " Buinyi " , there were no survivors of the 928 crew aboard . When the shooting between the battle lines resumed around 18 : 00 , the Japanese concentrated their fire upon " Imperator Aleksandr III " and " Borodino " . " Imperator Alexandr III " sheered out of line to port around 18 : 30 and capsized , but did not sink until 19 : 07 ; there were no survivors . " Borodino " lasted a little while longer under concentrated Japanese fire . Two 12 - inch hits by the battleship at 19 : 18 started a massive fire and both the ship ' s 12 - inch gun turrets were knocked out . Ten minutes later , after Tōgō ordered his ships to cease fire and disengage , the battleship fired her already - loaded 12 - inch guns before turning away . One of these hit " Borodino " beneath her starboard forward six - inch turret and ignited the ready - use ammunition in the turret . The fire spread and caused a catastrophic detonation in several magazines that blew open her hull . " Borodino " quickly capsized and sank with only one crewman from her crew of 855 being rescued . " Oryol " took the lead after " Borodino " was sunk ; she was joined by Nebogatov ' s Second Division after Tōgō ordered the Japanese battleships to disengage in the gathering darkness . Nebogatov assumed command of the remains of the fleet and they continued towards Vladivostok . The ships were discovered by the Japanese early the following morning and attacked by Tōgō ' s battleships around 10 : 00 . The faster Japanese ships stayed beyond the range at which Nebogatov ' s ships could effectively reply and he decided to surrender his ships at 10 : 30 as he could neither return fire nor close the range . Post - Tsushima careers . The Japanese substantially rebuilt " Oryol " and recommissioned her in June 1907 with the name of " Iwami " . To reduce her top weight , they cut down her superstructure and repositioned her guns . In addition , her boilers were replaced by an unknown number of Japanese - built Miyabara boilers and rearmed her with Japanese - made guns . These changes reduced her displacement to approximately and her crew now totaled 750 officers and crewmen . During World War I , the ship participated in the Siege of Tsingtao in August – November 1914 and served as the flagship of the Japanese Intervention Squadron in Vladivostok in 1918 when Japan intervened in the Russian Civil War . She was used as a training ship in 1921 and disarmed in 1922 in accordance with the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty . Sources differ as to her ultimate fate ; she was either sunk as a target by aircraft near Miura in July 1924 or scrapped at Kobe in 1924 – 1925 . Serving in the Baltic Sea during World War I , " Slava " was the largest ship of the Russian Gulf of Riga Squadron that fought the German High Seas Fleet in the Battle of the Gulf of Riga in August 1915 . She was lightly damaged by three hits during the battle . She repeatedly bombarded German positions and troops for the rest of 1915 and during 1916 . During the Battle of Moon Sound in 1917 " Slava " was badly damaged by the German dreadnought , significantly increasing her draft . The shallow channel made it impossible to escape and she was scuttled in the Moon Sound Strait between the island of Muhu ( Moon ) and the mainland . The Estonians scrapped her in 1935 .