Russian monitor Bronenosets Bronenosets ( ) was a built for the Imperial Russian Navy in the mid - 1860s . The design was based on the American , but was modified to suit Russian engines , guns and construction techniques . The ship was only active when the Gulf of Finland was not frozen , but very little is known about her service . She was stricken in 1900 , converted into a coal barge in 1903 and renamed " Barzha No . 324 " . The ship was lost in a storm sometime during World War I . Description . " Bronenosets " was long overall , with a beam of and a draft of . She displaced and her crew numbered eight officers and 88 enlisted men in 1865 . They numbered 10 officers and 100 crewmen in 1877 The ship was fitted with a two - cylinder horizontal direct - acting steam engine built by Carr and MacPherson of Saint Petersburg . It drove a single four - bladed propeller using steam that was provided by two rectangular boilers . Specific information on the output of the ship ' s engine has not survived , but it ranged between for all the ships of this class . During " Bronenosets " s sea trials on 21 October 1864 , she reached a maximum speed of and she was the fastest ship in the class . The ship carried a maximum of of coal , which gave her a theoretical endurance of at . " Bronenosets " was designed to be armed with a pair of smoothbore muzzle - loading guns purchased from Krupp of Germany and rifled in Russia , but the rifling project was seriously delayed and the ship was completed with nine - inch smoothbores . These lacked the penetration power necessary to deal with ironclads and they were replaced by license - built smoothbore muzzle - loading Rodman gun s in 1867 – 68 . The Rodman guns were replaced around 1876 with the originally intended nine - inch rifled guns . All of the wrought - iron armor that was used in the " Uragan " - class monitors was in plates , just as in the " Passaic " - class ships . The side of the ship was entirely covered with three to five layers of armor plates , of which the three innermost plates extended below the waterline . This armor was backed by wooden beam that had a maximum thickness of . The gun turret was protected by eleven layers of armor and the pilothouse above it had eight layers of armor . Curved plates six layers thick protected the base of the funnel up to a height of above the deck . Unlike their predecessors , the " Uragan " s were built without deck armor to save weight , but " Bronenosets " had plates added after completion . Career . Construction of the ship began on 17 June 1863 at the Carr and MacPherson Shipyard in Saint Petersburg . " Bronenosets " was laid down on 24 December 1863 and she was launched on 24 March 1864 . She entered service on 6 June 1865 and cost a total of 1 , 148 , 000 rubles , almost double her contract cost of 600 , 000 rubles . The ship was assigned to the Baltic Fleet upon completion and she , and all of her sister ships except , made a port visit to Stockholm , Sweden in July – August 1865 while under the command of General Admiral Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich . Sometime after " Bronenosets " was completed , an armored ring , thick and tall , was fitted around the base of the turret to prevent splinters from jamming it . Later , an armored , outward - curving bulwark was fitted around the top of the turret to protect any crewmen there . Three sponsons were later added , probably during the 1870s , to the upper portion of the turret . Each sponson , one above the gun ports and one on each side of the turret , mounted a light gun , probably a Engstrem gun , for defense against torpedo boat s . A fourth gun was mounted on a platform aft of the funnel when a hurricane deck was built between the funnel and the turret , also probably during the 1870s . Little is known about the ship ' s career other than that she was laid up each winter when the Gulf of Finland froze . " Bronenosets " was reclassified as a coast defense ironclad on 13 February 1892 and turned over to the Port of Kronstadt for disposal on 6 July 1900 , although she was not stricken until 17 August . During 1903 , the ship was converted into a coal barge by the removal of her turret , her side armor , and its wooden backing , and by the division of her hull into three holds . She was redesignated as " Barzha No . 34 " , " Barzha No . 51 " and , in 1914 , " Barzha No . 324 " . The ship sank in a storm in the Gulf of Finland sometime during World War I .