Russian cruiser Pallada ( 1906 ) Pallada ( Russian : Паллада ) was the last of the four armored cruiser s built for the Imperial Russian Navy in the first decade of the 20th Century . She was assigned to the Baltic Fleet during World War I where she captured codebook s from the German cruiser that had run aground during the first month of the war . The ship was torpedoed by a German submarine in October 1914 and exploded ; none of the crew survived . " Pallada " was the first warship lost by the Russians during the war . Design and description . " Pallada " was long overall . She had a maximum beam of , a draught of and displaced . The ship had a crew of 568 officers and men . " Pallada " was named in honour of the earlier Russian cruiser captured by the Japanese during the Russo - Japanese War . Both ships were named for the Greek goddess , Pallas Athena . The ship had two vertical triple - expansion steam engines with a designed total of , but they developed on sea trials and drove the ship to a maximum speed of . Steam for the engines was provided by 26 Belleville boiler s . She could carry a maximum of of coal , although her range is unknown . " Pallada " s main armament consisted of two 45 - calibre guns in single turrets fore and aft . Her eight gun were mounted in casemate s on the sides of the ship ' s hull . Anti - torpedo boat defense was provided by 20 50 - calibre guns ; eight of these were mounted in casemates on the side of the hull and in the superstructure . The remaining guns were located above the six - inch gun casemates in pivot mounts with gun shield s . " Pallada " also mounted four Hotchkiss gun s . The ship also had two submerged torpedo tube s , one mounted on each broadside . The ship used Krupp armour throughout . Her waterline belt was thick over her machinery spaces . Fore and aft , it reduced to . The upper belt and the casemates were thick . The armour deck was thick ; over the central battery it was a single plate , but elsewhere it consisted of a plate over two plates . The gun turrets were protected by of armour and the conning tower had walls thick . Service . " Pallada " was built by the Admiralty Shipyard in Saint Petersburg . Construction began on 24 June 1905 , although she was not formally laid down until August , and the ship was launched on 10 November 1906 . " Pallada " was completed in February 1911 . She spent her entire career with the Baltic Fleet . On 26 August 1914 , during the first month of World War I , the German light cruiser " Magdeburg " ran aground near the island of Odensholm in the Gulf of Finland . Her escort , the destroyer , failed to pull her off and rescued part of the crew before " Pallada " and the protected cruiser appeared and opened fire . The Germans blew up the front part of the ship , but failed to demolish the rest of the ship . They failed to destroy their naval codebooks , which were discovered by the Russians . A copy was later given to the British where it proved enormously helpful in reading German wireless traffic . Together with the armoured cruiser , " Pallada " unsuccessfully searched for German ships between Bornholm and Danzig on the night of 27 August . Less than two months later , on 11 October , she was torpedoed by the German submarine " U - 26 " and blew up with the loss of all hands , the first Russian warship sunk during the war . Wreck . On 6 October 2012 the Finnish newspaper " Helsingin Sanomat " reported that the wreck of " Pallada " had been discovered by a diver group outside Hanko near the coast of Finland in 2000 , but the group had waited until 2012 before publishing their find . The ship is lying in three pieces , all upside - down , at a depth of about . Although the wreck was severely damaged during the sinking and is now covered in silt , a number of details such as a large wooden emblem of the Russian double - headed eagle are still intact . One of the eight - inch turrets is resting on the seafloor next to the bow section . On 6 September 2013 , Helsingin Sanomat reported that the previously largely untouched wreck of " Pallada " had been looted .