Diana armored cruiser. Analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of the Diana-class cruisers based on the experience of their operation and combat use
Shortly after commissioning, Diana was transferred to the Pacific Squadron. Baltic Fleet. The detachment, which also included Pallada, Retvizan and 7 destroyers, left Kronstadt on October 17, 1902, heading for Far East through the Suez Canal. The journey lasted several months, and on April 24, 1903, the Diana arrived in Port Arthur.
On the night of January 27 (February 9, New Style), 1904, Diana and Pallada were duty cruisers on the Port Arthur roadstead. They were the first Russian ships to enter the war, opening fire on Japanese destroyers that suddenly attacked the squadron. Pallas received heavy damage from a torpedo fired by Japanese destroyers.
"Diana" also participated in the famous battle in the Yellow Sea, where she received heavy damage. Then "Diana" made an attempt to break through to Vladivostok alone, but after it became clear that the damage could not be repaired along the way and there were problems with the supply of coal, the cruiser commander, Prince Alexander Alexandrovich Liven, decided to go to Saigon. This decision was driven by two factors:
1) according to the French declaration of neutrality, the ship could stay there indefinitely and carry out full repairs;
2) "Diana", leaving the battle to the south, could go all the time with an economical move, without fear of a collision with the enemy.
On August 12, the Diana arrived in Saigon, but it was not possible to dock the ship right away, the French authorities were delaying the decision. Japan was able to put pressure on the French authorities, and on August 21 the ship was decided to be interned. At the same time, the ship's commander received an order to disarm from St. Petersburg. On August 29, the Andreevsky flag was lowered on the Diana, and on September 16 she stood in the dock for repairs. The cruiser could no longer participate in the war. Only a year later, on October 11, 1905, "Diana" again raised the St. Andrew's flag, and on January 8, 1906, she arrived at the port of Libava.
Avrora, sister of Diana, returns to St. Petersburg
In the interwar period, "Diana" was modernized - small-caliber artillery was removed from the ship, which showed its inefficiency during the Russo-Japanese War, and strengthened main caliber. According to its results, the armament was 10 152-mm and 20 75-mm guns. A major overhaul of the machines was also carried out, and the boilers were replaced with new ones, the Belleville-Dogolenko systems.
Already after the start of the First World War, in May-June 1915, the Diana underwent the last major modernization - instead of the old 152-mm guns, it received new 130-mm guns of the 1913 model. A fire control system was installed.
On June 17, 1916, Diana, along with the armored cruiser Gromoboy and five destroyers, took part in a night battle off the coast of Sweden. Their opponents were eight German destroyers and then a submarine. In total, the cruiser fired more than two hundred shells.
From July to October 1916 "Diana" participated in the defense of the Gulf of Riga. October 23, 1916 "Diana" returned to Helsingfors (now Helsinki) for the winter.
The last campaign of "Diana" was the famous Ice Campaign of the Baltic Fleet - saving ships from being captured by German troops.
After returning to Kronstadt, the guns were removed from the ship and mothballed. In 1922 - cut into metal. But the history of the Diana-class ships did not end there. "Aurora" participated in the defense of Leningrad, and its guns and sailors were engaged in artillery support of the Soviet troops in 1941.
"Aurora" can still be seen in St. Petersburg: now it is a museum. And you can see "Diana" and even feel yourself in the role of her commander in the World Of Warships project. In the world of warships, she is presented in her state during the Russo-Japanese War, in olive combat camouflage. In addition to the "Diana", in the game you can see other ships of the Russian Imperial and Soviet fleets, in particular, the famous cruisers of projects 26 (Kirov) and 68-K (Chapaev), destroyers of project 7 - Wrathful, and at the highest, 10th level are Soviet cruisers projects 66 - "Moscow" and 82 "Stalingrad".
DESIGN OF CRUISERS OF THE TYPE "DIANA"
The cruisers "Diana", "Pallada" and "Aurora" did not differ significantly from other 6000-ton armored cruisers of that time in architecture, placement of equipment, layout of premises, hull design. The ships had a traditional tank superstructure and three decks - upper, battery and armored carapace. Along the perimeter of the armored deck, above its bevels, there was a platform framing its horizontal sections along the sides and at the ends. Two more platforms (one at the end) were in the hold. The interior space of the hold was divided into compartments by 13 transverse bulkheads. The volume in space from the armor to the battery decks was divided into four main compartments: the bow, with a length from the stem up to 35 sp., the boiler room compartment - up to 75 sp., the engine room compartment - up to 98 sp., then to the sternpost - aft.
The outer skin of the hull consisted of steel sheets up to 6.4 m long. The horizontal keel had two layers: an inner one 13 mm thick in the middle part and 10 mm thick at the extremities; outer - respectively 16 and 14mm. The remaining skin sheets had a thickness of 10 to 13 mm.
In the underwater part, the hull was sheathed with 102 mm teak boards and on top of them - 1 mm copper sheets. The stems were cast in bronze. The outer keels stretched along the chines for 39.2 m. The vertical keel consisted of sheets 1.0 m high and 11 mm thick. The thickness of the bottom stringers (three per side) was 10 mm.
The transverse set was spaced with 914.4 mm (3 ft) spacing. Its sheet parts (knits, brackets, strips) had a thickness of 6 to 10 mm. The second bottom extended in length from 22 to 98 sp., and in width - between the second bottom stringers.
The deck and platform decks had a thickness (including the thickness of the deck stringers) from 5 to 19 mm; in the interior, linoleum lay on top of the steel deck. The upper deck teak boards were 76 mm thick, the forecastle decks were 64 mm thick. The thickness of the teak flooring in the area of the spiers was 144 mm, and 89 mm oak planks were laid around the upper deck guns, bollards and bitten.
The armor plates laid on top of the steel flooring of the armored deck had a thickness of 38 mm in the horizontal part, on the bevels 50.8 mm and 63.5 mm on the bevels directly at the side, the glacis of the engine hatches - 25.4 mm. Chimney casings, elevator shafts, drives of control systems above the armored deck were covered with 38-mm armor protection. The pipe from the conning tower to the central post had 89 mm walls. The armor of the conning tower barbette and the traverse sheet that covered the entrance to the cabin were 152 mm thick. Behind the aft cabin, across the upper deck, a protective traverse of 16 mm steel sheets was installed.
The artillery armament of each ship consisted of eight 152-mm guns of the Kane system with a barrel length of 45 calibers, 20 75-mm guns, also of the Kane system, with a barrel length of 50 calibers, eight (installed on the Mars and bridges) single-barreled 37-mm Hotchkiss guns and two landing 63.5-mm guns Baranovsky. The technical rate of fire (without spending time on aiming the gun) of 152-mm guns was 5 rds / min with a mechanized supply of ammunition and 2 - with a manual drive of the elevators; for 75-mm guns, these values were 10 and 4 rds / min, respectively.
The total ammunition of 152-mm guns was calculated for the execution of 1414 shots and was placed in four cellars. The loading was separate: armor-piercing, high-explosive and shrapnel shells weighing 41.4 kg and a powder charge in cartridge cases. Unitary cartridges for 75-mm guns (only armor-piercing shells weighing 4.9 kg), a total of 6240 pieces, were stored in eight cellars. The ammunition capacity of 37-mm cannons and Baranovsky cannons was 3600 and 1440 rounds, respectively. Arbors with shells and shells for 152-mm guns and arbors with cartridges for 75-mm guns were fed through elevators to the upper and battery decks with the help of winches with electric drives and transported to the guns through a system of monorail guides.
Artillery fire control systems, which regulated both the firing of individual guns or plutongs, and the ship as a whole, were manufactured at the St. Petersburg Electromechanical Plant N.K. Geisler & Co."
Armed with cruisers and torpedo tubes; one surface in the stem and two installed side-by-side, underwater, the ammunition was eight 381-mm Whitehead self-propelled mines (torpedoes) of the 1898 model. The mine armament also included spherical barrage mines: thirty-five mines stored in the hold were intended for installation from rafts or boats and boats of the ship.
Each cruiser had three three-cylinder triple-expansion steam engines with a total power of 11,610 hp. With a steam pressure behind the inlet expander (reduction gear) of 12.9 atm and a shaft speed of 135 rpm, they had to provide a speed of 20 knots. Condensation of the exhaust steam after leaving the machines was carried out by three condensers (refrigerators), one for each machine, with a total cooling surface of 1887.5 m2. For pumping outboard water through the cavity of the condensers, in each of the engine rooms there was one circulation pump driven by two-cylinder steam engines. The power plant included a steam condenser for auxiliary machines and mechanisms with a cooling surface of 377.6 m2 and its own circulation pump. The propellers were three three-bladed bronze propellers with a diameter of 4.09 m. left - right.
Steam boilers of the Belleville system were located in three boiler rooms: eight boilers each - in the bow and stern; six on average. The total area of the grates was 108 m2, the total heating surface of the boilers was 3355 m2, the operating pressure was 17.2 atm. Above each of the boiler compartments there was a chimney with a diameter of 2.7 m and a height of 27.4 m from the level of the grates.
The ship's tanks held 332 tons of fresh water for boilers and 135 tons for domestic needs. The water supply was replenished by two desalination plants of the Krug system with a total capacity of 60 tons of water per day. Water was supplied to the boilers by 1 2 side-mounted bottoms (submersible pumps) of the Belleville system with a capacity of 17 m3/h. Air was blown into the boilers by six (two for each boiler room) Tiron steam blower pumps with a total capacity of 3000 m3/h. Forced forced ventilation of the boiler rooms was provided by 1 2 steam-driven fans with a total capacity of 360,000 m3/h.
Coal was placed in 24 pits located in the inter-board space near the boiler rooms (12 lower and 12 upper above them) and in eight coal pits of spare fuel located in the space between the armor and battery decks along the engine rooms. The normal supply of coal was 800 tons, the full - 972 tons, which, in accordance with the project, should have been enough for 4,000 miles of navigation at a speed of 10 knots. However, the actual capacity of the coal pits was different and somewhat different on each cruiser. In particular, up to 1070 tons of fuel were loaded onto the Diana; of these, 810 tons were in the main pits and 260 tons were in spare pits. To consume fuel from spare pits, coal from them was loaded into bags or baskets and through narrow mines passing through the inter-deck space, they lifted it from under the battery deck to the upper one, then poured it down through the deck hatch holes into the supply pits of the stoker compartments; the stokers allocated for this work overloaded no more than 30 tons of coal per day.
Ships of the "Diana" type were equipped with steam dynamos with a total power of 336 kW, which produced a direct current of 105 V. The main consumers of electricity were: capstan and steering machines, fans of ventilation systems, winches of elevators, cargo booms and unloading slag from boiler rooms, searchlights, incandescent lamps, washing machine and dough mixer.
The electric steering gear for the Diana was manufactured by the Union company, for the Pallada - the Baltic Zavoya for the Aurora - the Simmens and Halske company. The reason for this heterogeneity was the idea of conducting comparative tests of steering gears in real operation to select the best for the ships of the fleet. The rotation of the baller could also be carried out by a steam engine or manually. The steering control posts were located in the wheelhouse and conning tower, the central combat post, on the aft bridge, in the tiller compartment. The rudder blade was made from a bronze frame filled with teak wood, protected over copper.
The selection of anchor chains and mooring ends was carried out by two anchor and two mooring capstans, which were driven by an electric capstan machine. Initially, it was planned to equip the ships with Admiralty anchors weighing 4.6 tons, but in 1898 a decision was made to use more modern Hall anchors. However, by the time the construction of Diana and Pallada was completed, the production of new anchors was just being established at the Izhora factories, and two cruisers, unlike the Aurora, were equipped with Martin system anchors.
The boat armament consisted of two steam boats, one 18- and 16-oar barge each, one 14- and 12-oar boat, two 6-oared whaleboats and a yawl.
In the drainage system, autonomously used: one turbine with a capacity of 250 t / h at the ends, in engine rooms - circulation pumps of the main refrigerators, in boiler rooms - six turbines (two in each) with a capacity of 400 t / h. On each of the ships, the main pipe of the drainage system (made of red copper) stretched from the collision bulkhead to the stern compartment over the decking of the second bottom. Its length was 116 m with a diameter of 102 mm. The pipe had 31 receiving branches and 21 uncoupling valves. Drying was carried out by three twin-cylinder Worthington steam pumps located in the engine rooms with a total capacity of 90 t/h. The fire main pipe (also made of red copper and having a length of 97.5 m and a diameter of 127 mm) passed under the armored deck on the starboard side from the bow to the aft compartments of the dynamos. Two Worthington steam pumps were used to supply water to the system. Branches from the main pipe went to the upper deck, where they ended with copper swivel horns for connecting fire hoses. The flooding system kingstons were located in one e-end compartments, two in the middle watertight compartments and were controlled from the battery deck.
The premises were calculated for 570 crew members, as well as for the placement of the flagship of the formation and officers of its headquarters.
In terms of mechanization and electrification of equipment, Diana-class cruisers surpassed cruisers previously built in Russia, and their construction was the first experience. domestic shipbuilding in the serial creation of ships of this class. And yet, they entered the history of the Russo-Japanese War as the most unreliable and unsuitable for combat use cruisers of the "first line". Indeed, the insufficiently high quality of work, the engineering ill-conceivedness of many devices, systems, mechanisms, structures for the worse distinguished them from those introduced in the same period into the Russian fleet foreign built ships. But it cannot be said that shortcomings of this kind were characteristic only of Diana-class cruisers. As Admiral A.P. Kashereninov, who led the tests of Pallada and Diana, noted in his report: “... all the noticed ... shortcomings ... have already been repeated on our other ships, especially those built at state-owned shipyards "8.
More serious were the mistakes made at the design stage of the project: inconsistency in contours, displacement and power of the machines, which did not allow reaching the 20-knot design speed; redundancy of steam generation relative to the needs of machines and mechanisms, and consequently, an excess number of boilers, large dimensions and weight of the boiler plant; incorrect longitudinal centering with an allowed trim on the bow, which worsened the already low seaworthiness; placement of equipment for power plants to the detriment of the placement of artillery and its ammunition (the latter, in particular, led to the installation of a clearly small number of 152-mm guns); ridiculous in terms of mass savings, but disastrous for artillery servants, the refusal to mount the armor protection of guns; refusal to place ammunition for two 75-mm guns in artillery cellars with the excessive crampedness of the cellars remaining, despite the measure taken, and the unacceptably high temperature in them during the operation of the ship's power plant.
But the main factor turned out to be significant obsolescence relative to cruisers of the same purpose, which entered service in the same time interval, but were built during the implementation of the shipbuilding program of 1898.
All of the above gave reason to the officers of the Pacific squadrons, who were aware of the best combat capabilities of foreign-built cruisers, to look down on ships of the Diana type and ironically call them “goddesses of domestic invention”9.
Tactical and technical elements of Russian armored cruisers
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WEAPONS |
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mass of 152- and 75-mm projectiles fired in 1 min when firing at a traverse, kg ***: |
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RESERVATION, mm. |
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SHIPBUILDING ELEMENTS |
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Displacement, t: |
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Main dimensions, m: |
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Main power plant: |
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total power, l. from.: |
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Maximum speed, knots: |
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Stock of coal, t: |
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* The time elapsed from the approval of the project by the plant with the MTK until the end of the ship's tests; for cruisers of the "Diana" type - until the end of the tests of the "Aurora". |
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** Calculated by the formula: nd 3 /D, where n is the number of guns, d is the caliber of guns from 75 mm and above in inches, D is the displacement. |
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*** Based on the practical rate of fire 2 rds/min with 152 mm guns (firing range up to 53 kb) and 4 rds/min with 75 mm guns (firing range up to 42 kb) |
Now Rear Admiral Deva was dead, and he had taken all his thoughts and conjectures to his sea grave. In general, not a single person from the personnel of the third combat detachment survived this day. And events continued to roll on, like a mountain avalanche rolling down from a mountain.
Neighborhood of Port Arthur, 20 miles southeast of Liaoteshan.
Conning tower BOD "Admiral Tributs"
Captain of the first rank Karpenko Sergey Sergeevich.
Well, with God, Andrei Alexandrovich, keep your fists. - I suddenly suddenly crossed myself, - So that, as they say, "do not swerve to the side"! Through the glazing of the cabin, one could see how the cavitation traces of six "Squalls" were stretching towards the Japanese battleships. Four from Tributz and two from Quick. It was fundamentally impossible to miss the Shkval from such a distance and for such a target, and all the excitement was only from nerves. Too much has been invested in this moment. It seems that Comrade Odintsov's colleagues call this phase of the operation the "moment of truth." There he stands, filming a historical moment on a video camera. In the meantime, in the wheelhouse, the stopwatch in the hand of the captain of the third rank Shurygin clicks measuredly. Everyone was frozen in tension.
As expected, the first to reach were "Squalls" fired by "Fast" on two lead Japanese battleships. First, after one minute thirty-seven seconds, "Mikasa" literally jumped up, first from the explosion of the "Shkval" under the bow main turret, and then from the explosion of the ammunition load. A massive carcass with a half-torn bow lay on the port side, turned over like a keel and, sparkling in the air with furiously rotating propellers, sank like a stone. A thick black cloud of chimose and coal smoke covered the final resting place of Vice Admiral Togo and almost a thousand Japanese sailors like a mourning veil. The senior flagship of the squadron survived the younger by less than five minutes.
"Asahi" got his eight seconds after "Mikasa". Water stood up on both sides of the hull directly under the second pipe. A second later, the battleship was enveloped in steam - the connections of the steam pipelines and boiler tubes burst from the concussion. And then cold sea water burst into the furnaces, and the explosion of the boilers completed the work of the warhead of the torpedo. Fragments of machines and mechanisms, fragments of the deck and sockets of boiler fans flew high up. And then the sea parted and swallowed up the Japanese battleship, as if it had never been.
A couple more seconds and it exploded almost the same way under the boiler room of the battleship Fuji, the third in the column. A black-and-white cloud of smoke and steam rose from the Japanese ship. Initially, the damage affected only the bottom of the boiler room, and therefore the team, desperately struggling with the ever-increasing left roll, it seemed that everything would still work out .... But, a few seconds later, somehow, water also penetrated into the bow stoker, another explosion crashed and, listing faster and faster, the battleship turned upside down, showing everyone a huge hole into which the train could freely enter.
Eight seconds after the Fuji, and with a terrible roar, the battleship Yashima, the fourth in the column, exploded. "Shkval" hit him under the aft main gun turret.
The battleship "Sikishima" was hit in the stern area, behind the main turret. I imagined the severity of the damage, the steering machines were destroyed, the propeller blades were torn off or twisted, the propeller shafts were bent and the bearings were scattered. And besides, a hole through which a company of soldiers would march in formation and without bending down. It seems that today his fate is to become a Russian trophy.
So, from under the stern of the closing armadillo, water enraged by the explosion rose. "Hatsuse", and it was he, losing speed and landing with a damaged stern, now fell into an uncontrolled left circulation. Apparently, his steering wheel was jammed into the left turn position, and only the right car was operating. It seems that the depth of travel was incorrectly set on the Shkval, and it exploded at the side, and not under the bottom. But, anyway, the battleship was doomed. All he could do was circle around pointlessly. A list from ten degrees to the port side, although not critical, completely ruled out artillery fire. But Makarov has to deal with this hemorrhoids, and I pass, we have already done our job.
By the way, a lieutenant Yamamoto died in this battle on the Mikasa. For the entire duration of the battle, the Japanese squadron did not fire a single shot with the main or at least medium caliber.
Well, that's all comrades, - I smoothed my hair and again put on the long-suffering cap, which I crumpled in my hands "all the way", - Admiral Togo is no more, and his fleet too. - someone handed me a microphone. - Comrades, officers, midshipmen, foremen, sailors ... Today you have completed your task, today you are great! Listen, you are all great! I would like to express my thanks to the entire team.
The bridge of the armored cruiser of the 1st rank RIF "Askold".
Present:
Vice Admiral Stepan Osipovich Makarov - Commander of the Pacific Fleet of the Republic of Ingushetia
Captain 1st Rank Nikolai Karlovich Reitsenstein - Commander of the Cruiser Detachment of the Port Arthur Squadron
Captain 1st rank Konstantin Aleksandrovich Grammatchikov, - cruiser commander
Colonel Alexander Petrovich Agapeev - head of the military department of the headquarters Pacific Fleet RI
Lieutenant Georgy Vladimirovich Dukelsky - flag officer of Admiral Makarov
Vice Admiral Makarov was approached by his flag officer, Lieutenant Dukelsky, - Your Excellency, Stepan Osipovich, may I address you? An urgent dispatch from the Fleet Observation Post on the Golden Mountain!
Listen, lieutenant? Makarov nodded.
It is reported that, from the southeast, the Japanese fleet is approaching Arthur: a detachment of six battleships and two armored cruisers, behind him in the wake of Rear Admiral Dev's cruiser detachment of four armored cruisers.
Raise the signal, the battleships speed up the exit to the sea - Makarov threw to Dukelsky and turned to the captain of the first rank Reitsenstein. - You see, Nikolai Karlovich, your cruisers are already in the outer roadstead, and the battleships are barely crawling. The squadron is leaving slowly, slowly!
Vice Admiral Makarov moved his binoculars, scanning the horizon. - One, two, five, eight, twelve... Gentlemen, Admiral Togo brought his entire fleet here. And here, after today's embarrassment with Sevastopol and Peresvet, we have exactly half the strength. For three of our battleships, Togo has six, for one of our armored cruisers, Togo has two, for two of our armored cruisers, Togo has four ...
Stepan Osipovich, Reizenstein stroked his beard, don't you take "Diana" into account?
Is Diana a cruiser? Is she able to race with Japanese dogs, like "Novik" or "Askold"? The loss of "Boyarin" and "Varyag" is indeed a loss for a detachment of cruisers ... And your two sleepy goddesses, Nikolai Karlovich, will not even catch up with Japanese battleships. Those have a half knot more design speed. And accordingly, anyone who is not lazy will catch them. And this is fatal for a cruiser. So, Nikolai Karlovich, for your "goddesses" you need to come up with some new class of ships. And the name "low-speed cruiser" sounds like "dry water", or "fried ice", such ships, in these conditions, are suitable only for midshipmen for practice and only ...
It is not known what else Admiral Makarov wanted to say. Very opportunely annoyed by today's incident with the colliding armadillos, the slow exit of the squadron, and even not getting enough sleep after the night rush with the reflection of the fire-ship raid. Only now, eighty cables from the "Askold", over one of the Japanese armored cruisers, a column of flame suddenly arose several tens of fathoms high.
Konstantin Alexandrovich, - Makarov turned to the commander of the Askold, - give me your binoculars ... - he silently watched the Japanese squadron for a minute, then lowered the binoculars, - Lord officers, can anyone explain what is happening?
Stepan Osipovich, - Reizenstein answered, without lowering his binoculars, - only one thing is clear who is fighting with a detachment of armored cruisers. And they have already reduced this detachment by two units ... Stepan Osipovich, see for yourself - the Japanese terminal cruiser is under fire. It seems that a whole squadron is hitting him, no less than three dozen eight-inch barrels. Moreover, under cover, the Japanese were taken from the very first salvo and the accuracy is beyond praise. But the shooters are almost invisible, they are almost on the very horizon, I clearly see flashes of shots, but there is no smoke. Yes, and the shooting is kind of strange, the rate of fire is like that of a shotgun.
Makarov again raised the binoculars to his eyes, - Perhaps you are right, Nikolai Karlovich, the rate of fire and accuracy is amazing, and the absence of smoke leads to some bewilderment ... how then they move.
Stepan Osipovich, - attracted the attention of Grammatchikov, - Togo's squadron is consistently turning to the south.
It was designed as a "trade fighter", being a halved (in terms of displacement and armament) version of the armored cruisers of the "Rurik" series.
It was designed as a "trade fighter", being a halved (in terms of displacement and armament) version of the armored cruisers of the "Rurik" series. Weak armament with such a large displacement, the complete lack of artillery protection, insufficient speed due to suboptimal hull contours and a long construction period made it obsolete even before commissioning. The underwater part is sheathed in wood and copper for long-term activities in the ocean. After the battle on July 28 (10 killed, 17 wounded) she was interned in Saigon. After the war she served in the Baltic. In 1912-13 underwent repairs (10 152- and 20 75-mm guns), and in 1915-16. rearmament (10 130-mm guns). Participated in the first world war, revolution, ice campaign. From May 1918 it was stored in the port of Kronstadt, and in 1922 it was dismantled for metal.
