Russian battleship Chesma ( 1886 ) The Chesma ( Russian : " Чесма " , sometimes transliterated as Tchesma ) was the second ship of the s built for the Imperial Russian Navy in the 1880s . When the ship was completed she proved to be very overweight which meant that much of her waterline armor belt was submerged . Russian companies could not produce the most advanced armour and machinery desired by the Naval General Staff , so they were imported from the United Kingdom and Belgium . " Chesma " spent her career as part of the Black Sea Fleet . When the crew of the battleship mutinied in June 1905 , the ship ' s crew was considered unreliable and she did not participate in the pursuit of the " Potemkin " . " Chesma " did , however , escort " Potemkin " as towed her back to Sevastopol from Constanța , Romania , where " Potemkin " had sought asylum . " Chesma " was turned over to the Sevastopol port authorities before being stricken on 14 August 1907 . Before she was fully dismantled the Naval Ministry decided to use her hull for full - scale armour trials . She was re - designated as " Stricken Vessel Nr . 4 " on 22 April 1912 before being used as a gunnery target . Afterwards the ship served as a torpedo target for the destroyer s of the Black Sea Fleet . During these attacks " Chesma " settled to the bottom of the Bay of Tendra and was eventually scrapped during the mid - 1920s . Design and description . " Chesma " was long at the waterline and long overall . She had a beam of and a draft of more than than designed . She displaced at load , over more than her designed displacement of . " Chesma " had two 3 - cylinder vertical compound steam engines imported from the Belgian Cockerill company . Fourteen cylindrical boilers , also imported from Cockerill , provided steam to the engines . The engines had a total designed output of , but they produced on trials and gave a top speed of almost . At full load she carried of coal that provided her a range of at a speed of and at . She differed from her sister ships mainly in her main armament . She had six Model 1886 35 - caliber guns mounted in twin barbette mounts , two forward , side by side , and one aft . Each of the forward mounts could traverse 30° across the bow and 35° abaft the beam , or a total of 155° . The rear mount could traverse 202° . They had a range of elevation from −2° to + 15° . " Chesma " s guns were mounted on unbalanced turntables and they caused her to list when the guns were trained to one side . Traversing all the guns as far as they could go to one side produced a list of 7 . 6° and made it very difficult for the turntable machinery to rotate the guns back to the fore - and - aft position . This problem had been anticipated and water tanks had been added to counteract the list , but they proved to be virtually useless because they took up to two hours to fill . The problem was partially cured in 1892 when the equipment was rearranged on the turntable to improve their balance , but more thorough solutions to the problem were either deemed too expensive or inadequate . Their rate of fire was reportedly one round every fifteen to seventeen minutes , including training time . Sixty rounds per gun were carried . The main guns were mounted very low , ( only ) above the main deck , and caused extensive damage to the deck when fired over the bow or stern . They fired a ' light ' shell that weighed or a ' heavy ' shell that weighed . The ' light ' shell had a muzzle velocity of while the ' heavy ' shell could only be propelled at a velocity of . The ' light ' shell had a maximum range of when fired at an elevation of 15° . The seven Obukhov Model 1877 35 - caliber guns were mounted on broadside pivot mounts in hull embrasures , except for one gun mounted in the stern in the hull . The eight five - barreled revolving Hotchkiss gun s were mounted in small embrasures in the hull to defend the ship against torpedo boat s . Four five - barreled revolving Hotchkiss guns were mounted in the fighting top . She carried seven above - water torpedo tube s , one tube forward on each side , able to bear on forward targets , two other tubes were mounted on each broadside forward and aft of the central citadel ; the seventh tube was in the stern . History . " Chesma " was named after the Russian victory at the Battle of Chesma in 1770 . She was built by the Russian Steam Navigation Company ( RoPIT ) at Sevastopol . She was laid down in late June 1883 , launched on 18 May 1886 , and completed on 29 May 1889 . She served with the Black Sea Fleet until 1907 . She was inactive in 1895 , probably for mechanical problems . " Chesma " conducted trials in 1902 with towing spherical observation balloon s and she was re - boilered the following year . Plans were made for a radical reconstruction to be done while her boilers were being replaced . The rebuilding involved cutting her down by one deck and replacing her armament with two twin - gun turrets equipped with 12 - inch 40 - caliber guns and ten 6 - inch 45 - caliber guns between the turrets in an armoured citadel that used Krupp armor . This proved to be too expensive and it was cancelled , but not before the armor and turrets had been ordered . Her turrets were used to equip the pre - dreadnought , then under construction . When the crew of the battleship mutinied in June 1905 , " Chesma " s crew was considered unreliable , and she did not participate in the pursuit of " Potemkin " . She escorted " Potemkin " as towed her back to Sevastopol from Constanța , Romania , where " Potemkin " had sought asylum . The ship was turned over to the Sevastopol port authorities before being stricken on 14 August 1907 . Before she was fully dismantled the Naval Ministry decided to use her hull for full - scale armour trials . She was re - designated as " Stricken Vessel Nr . 4 " on 22 April 1912 . " Chesma " was fitted with a replica of the armour system used in the s to test its effectiveness . She was towed into position and given a 7° list to simulate the descent angle of shells fired at long range . Ironically her own guns were used against her as " Ioann Zlatoust " anchored away and fired 12 - inch , and 6 - inch shells with reduced charges to simulate shells fired from approximately away . These revealed significant weaknesses in the support structure for the armour plates and in the deck protection , but the " Gangut " - class ships were too far along in construction to incorporate fixes . Afterwards she served as a torpedo target for the destroyer s of the Black Sea Fleet . During these attacks she settled to the bottom of the Bay of Tendra and was eventually scrapped during the mid - 1920s .