Peresvet - class battleship The " Peresvet " class was a class of three pre - dreadnought battleship s built for the Imperial Russian Navy around the end of the 19th century . and were transferred to the Pacific Squadron upon completion and based at Port Arthur from 1901 and 1903 . All three ships were lost by the Russians in the Russo - Japanese War of 1904 – 1905 ; " Peresvet " and " Pobeda " participated in the Battles of Port Arthur and the Yellow Sea and were sunk during the Siege of Port Arthur . " Oslyabya " , the third ship , was sunk at the Battle of Tsushima with the loss of over half her crew . " Peresvet " and " Pobeda " were salvaged after the Japanese captured Port Arthur and incorporated into the Imperial Japanese Navy . " Peresvet " was sold back to the Russians during World War I and sank after hitting German mines in the Mediterranean in early 1917 while " Pobeda " , renamed " Suwo " , participated in the Battle of Tsingtao in late 1914 . She became a gunnery training ship in 1917 until she was disarmed and hulked in 1922 – 23 . The ship was scrapped after the end of World War II . Design and description . These ships were inspired by the British s . They were second - class battleships designed for service on foreign stations and to defeat enemy commerce raiders like French and Russian armored cruiser s , not to fight first - class battleships in a battle line . The " Peresvet " - class ships were intended to counter ships like the " Centurion " class and support the Russian armored cruisers in any " guerre de course " . This role meant that the primary considerations of the ships ' design were long range , high speed and seakeeping ability at the cost of weaker armament and armor than contemporary first - class battleships . Only two ships were originally planned , but a third was ordered to keep the Baltic Works shipyard gainfully employed until a new design could be prepared . Ironically , it was completed before the second ship , despite having been laid down over three years later . The " Peresvet " - class ships were long overall , had a beam of and a draft of . Designed to displace , they were overweight and actually displaced . To reduce biofouling , the hulls of the first two ships were sheathed with wood and copper , but this was eliminated in " Pobeda " to reduce weight . They had a partial double bottom and the hull was divided by 10 watertight transverse bulkheads ; a centerline bulkhead divided the forward engine rooms . Their crew consisted of 27 officers and 744 enlisted men . The ships were powered by three vertical triple - expansion steam engines using steam generated by 30 Belleville boiler s . The engines were rated at , using forced draft , and designed to reach a top speed of . All three ships slightly exceeded their specifications and reached a top speed of from during their sea trials . They carried a maximum of of coal which allowed them to steam for at a speed of . The electrical equipment consisted of four steam - driven dynamo s with a total capacity of . Armament . The ships ' main battery consisted of four 45 - caliber Model 1891 guns mounted in electrically powered twin gun turret s , one forward and one aft of the superstructure . These guns had serious development problems as they proved to be too weak to use a full - strength charge of propellant and had to be reworked and the charge reduced . The guns in " Peresvet " and " Oslyabya " were the original model and could be elevated to maximum of + 35° , while the reinforced guns used in " Pobeda " could only elevate to a maximum of + 25° . The guns were designed to fire once every 40 seconds , but in service they fired every 80 seconds . The ships carried 75 rounds for each gun . The older guns fired a shell at a muzzle velocity of while " Pobeda " s newer ones fired the same shell at at muzzle velocity of . Maximum range was for the older guns , although " Pobeda " s could reach . Their secondary armament consisted of eleven 45 - caliber Canet Model 1892 quick - firing ( QF ) gun s , 10 mounted in casemate s on the sides of the hull and one in the bow , underneath the forecastle , as a bow chaser . Each gun was provided with 220 rounds . Their maximum elevation was + 20° and they fired shells that weighed with a muzzle velocity of . They had a maximum range of when fired at maximum elevation . A number of smaller guns were carried for defense against torpedo boat s . These included twenty Canet Model 1892 QF guns . Of these guns , eight were mounted in embrasures in the hull , four on the main deck , four on the battery deck and the final four at the corners of the superstructure on the forecastle deck . The ships carried 300 rounds for each gun . The gun fired shells to a range of about at its maximum elevation of 21 degrees with a muzzle velocity of . The rate of fire was between 12 and 15 rounds per minute . The smaller guns included twenty Hotchkiss gun s in hull embrasures and on the superstructure . Each gun had 810 rounds available for it . They fired a shell at a muzzle velocity of at a rate of 20 rounds per minute to a range of . Eight smaller Hotchkiss guns were positioned between the 47 - millimeter guns on the forecastle deck . They fired a shell at a muzzle velocity of at a rate of 20 rounds per minute to a range of . The " Peresvet " - class ships carried five torpedo tube s , three above water , one in the bow and one pair of broadside tubes , and two broadside underwater tubes . The ship carried a total of 12 torpedoes . The Type L torpedo carried a warhead of TNT . It had two speed settings which gave it a maximum range of at or at . The ship also carried 45 mines to be laid to protect her anchorage in remote areas . The ships were 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 transmitted his commands via a Geisler electro - mechanical fire - control transmission system to each gun or turret . " Oslyabya " and the rest of the 2nd Pacific Squadron was fitted with Perepelkin telescopic sight s for their guns , but their crews were not trained in how to use them . Protection . The first two ships used Harvey armor for most of their armored vertical surfaces except for the gun turrets and their support tubes which were made from Krupp armor . Over the machinery spaces , the maximum thickness of their waterline armor belt was which reduced to abreast the magazine s . The belt tapered to a thickness of over the machinery spaces and over the magazines . The belt covered of the ship ' s length and was high , of which the upper was intended to be above the waterline , but the ships were significantly overweight and much of the belt was submerged . This was so extensive that " Peresvet " only had of armor exposed at normal load ; at full load the effect was even greater and the belt was completely submerged . " Oslyabya " was even more overweight and only had of her belt armor showing at normal load . The belt in both ships terminated in 7 - inch transverse bulkheads , leaving the ends of the ships unprotected . The transverse bulkheads of the waterline belt in " Pobeda " were eliminated as the belt was extended to the ends of the ship with four - inch armor plates . Above the waterline belt in all three ships was a shorter belt that protected the middle of the ships . It was long and four inches thick . The ends of the upper belt were closed off by four - inch angled transverse bulkheads . The sides of the gun turrets were nine inches thick and of armor protected their roofs ; their supporting tubes were thick . The face of the casemates for the six - inch guns was five inches thick and their rears were protected by armor plates . The casemates at each end of the ships were protected by five - inch transverse bulkheads . Bulkheads thick separated the 75 - millimeter gun positions . " Peresvet " had two conning tower s , each with sides six inches thick , but the other two ships only had a forward conning tower with nine - inch sides . A communications tube three inches thick connected each conning tower to the armored deck in all three ships . The flat part of the deck in the central citadel consisted of a plate over the normal 0 . 75 - inch structural steel deck plate ; the sloped portion connected to the lower edge of the waterline belt and was 2 . 5 inches thick . Outside the citadel the armored deck consisted of plates laid over the thick deck plating . On the first two ships the deck armor consisted of mild steel ; in " Pobeda " it was a chrome - nickel steel alloy . Careers . " Peresvet " , named after Alexander Peresvet , a Russian monk who fought at the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380 , and " Pobeda " ( " Victory " ) were sent to the Far East almost immediately after entering service in 1901 and 1903 respectively . " Peresvet " became flagship of the squadron ' s second - in - command , Rear Admiral Prince Pavel Ukhtomsky , upon her arrival . During the Battle of Port Arthur on the second day of the war , " Peresvet " was not hit , but " Pobeda " was hit once amidships , losing two men killed and four wounded , but little damage was done . The latter struck a mine during the squadron ' s sortie on 13 April and she was under repair for almost two months . Both ships had some of their anti - torpedo boat guns and secondary armament removed during the summer to bolster the defenses of the port . Both ships participated in the Battle of the Yellow Sea on 10 August ; " Pobeda " was only lightly damaged by eleven large - caliber hits , but " Peresvet " was hit 39 times and suffered a considerable amount of flooding . More guns were landed after the squadron ' s return to Port Arthur , but the Imperial Japanese Army captured the hills overlooking the harbor in November and they allowed the Army ' s siege guns to fire directly at the Russian ships . " Pobeda " and " Peresvet " were hit many times and " Pobeda " sank on 7 December 1904 from the accumulated damage . " Peresvet " , however , was scuttled in shallow water on that same day . Construction of " Oslyabya " , named after Radion Oslyabya , another monk who fought at the Battle of Kulikovo , was greatly delayed , and the ship was en route to the Far East when the Russo - Japanese War began in February 1904 . She was ordered home and assigned to the Second Pacific Squadron that was intended to relieve the forces in Port Arthur . The ship served as the flagship of Rear Admiral Baron Dmitry von Fölkersam , second - in - command of the Squadron , but he died two days before the Battle of Tsushima in May 1905 . " Oslyabya " led the Second Division of the squadron during the battle and was the target of numerous Japanese ships during the early part of the battle . A number of the many hits received by the ship were along the waterline and caused extensive flooding . Efforts to counteract the resulting list destroyed her remaining stability and she sank just over an hour after the Japanese opened fire , the first modern battleship to be sunk solely by gunfire . Sources differ on the exact number of casualties , but the lowest figure given is 471 . " Peresvet " and " Pobeda " were raised , repaired , and rearmed by the Japanese and incorporated into the Imperial Japanese Navy as " Sagami " and " Suwo " , respectively , reclassified as 1st - class coastal defense ship s . After the beginning of World War I , " Sagami " was sold to Russia in March 1916 and arrived in Vladivostok on 3 April 1916 , where she resumed her former name of " Peresvet " . The ship was intended to serve with the Russian Arctic flotilla and was en route to the Arctic when she struck two mines off Port Said , Egypt on 4 January 1917 . The mines had been laid by the submarine and " Peresvet " sank with the loss of 167 lives after catching fire . During World War I , " Suwo " served as the flagship for the Japanese squadron during the Battle of Tsingtao from 27 August to 7 November 1914 . The ship served as flagship of the Second Squadron of the Second Fleet in 1915 – 16 before becoming a gunnery training ship for the rest of the war . In April 1922 , in compliance with the Washington Naval Treaty , " Suwo " was disarmed at the Kure Naval Arsenal . While her armor was being removed , the ship capsized on 13 July . Sources differ as to her ultimate fate ; she was either refloated and hulked , serving until broken up at Kure in 1946 , or she was scrapped immediately afterward .