944
RUSSIA
The first-class cruisers in the following list are all of 5,000 tons or more. The vessels named in italics are armoured.
09
Name
•a
place-
lent
ons
Armament
■§1
+- o
o
.23 CE-"
^■^
n CD
h- 1 O
O o CO
arm.
Vladimir Monomaeh.
1882
5,700
4 Sin. ; 12 6in. ; 22 smaller
Q.F., &c
3
7,000
15-2
arm.
Dmitri Donskoi
1883
5,700
6 6in.; 10 4-7in. Q.F. ; 30
smaller Q.F., &c.
5
7,000
16-5
arm.
Admiral Nachimo^ .
1885
7,700
8 Sin. ; 10 6in. ; 16 smaller
Q.F.,&c
3
8,000
16-7
prot.
Admiral Koniiloff .
1887
5,000
14 6in. ; 18 smaller Q.F., &c.
9,000
17-5
arm.
Pamiat Azova
1888
6,000
2 Sin. ; 13 6in. ; 17 smaller
Q.F.,&c
3
8,000
18-8
arm.
Rurik
1892
10,933
4 Sin.; 16 6in ; 6 4-7in. Q.F.;
18 smaller Q.F. , (fee. .
4
13,250
18
arm.
Ro88ia
1896
12,130
4 8in.;24 6in.;6 4-7in. Q.F.;
30 smaller Q.F., «fec.
6
18,000
20
arm.
Gromoboi .
12,336
4 Sin. Q.F. ; 16 6in. Q.F. ; 6 4-7in. Q.F. ; 50 smaller .
5
arm.
Bayan
7,800
.
prot.
Diana
1898
6,500
6 6in. Q.F. ; 6 4-7in. Q.F. ;
35 smaller Q.F., (fee.
4
11,610
20-0
prot.
Pallada .
1898
6,500
Ditto ...
4
11,610
20.0
prot.
Aurora
1898
6,560
Ditto
4
11,610
20
prot.
Bogatyr . Waryag .
prot.
6,500
prot.
Askold . [
prot.
Three unnamed ;
The energies of Russia were for many years devoted to the construction of coast-defence monitors in the Baltic. The old K7iias Pojamky, a central- battery vessel, was joined in 1872 by the mastless turret-ship Peter the Great. Fifteen years later the powerful sister ships Alexander II. and Nicolas I. were added. These bear some resemblance to our own Hero. The Gangut was a smaller barbette ship (6,590 tons), partially belted. She was lost in the Gulf of Finland, June, 1897. The turret battleship Navarin displaces 9,476 tons, and is armed with four heavy guns coupled fore and aft. The extreme thickness of side armouring is 16 inches, and there is 12- inch plating on the barbettes. The sister battleships, Fetropavlovsk, Poltava, and Sevastopol, of 10,960 tons, heavily armoured, and carrying four 12- inch guns as well as a powerful secondary and quick-firing armament, were the most powerful vessels in the Baltic Fleet, but they are exceeded in size and o-un power by the Oslyahia and Peresvyet now completing afloat. These, with^their displacement of 12,674 tons, carry their four 10-inch Oushakoff guns coupled in turrets, and have a very large secondary and smaller quick- firing armaments. They have 9"5-inch side armour and 9 inches on the turrets, all Harvey steel, and are furnished with water-tube boilers. The recent extraordinary grant for shipbuilding enables many vessels to be put in hand, and two battleships of the Oslyabya class are already beginning at the Baltic and New Admiralty yards on the Neva, while a third has been ordered of the Rus.sian locomotive and shipbuilding company, and a fourth of Messrs. Cramp of Philadelphia. Another battleship (13,100 tons) is being put in hand by the French yard at La Seyne. All these are exclusive of the Black Sea squadron. The Sissoi Vehky, and her sisters in the Black Sea, are of a smaller but very powerful type.
The great want of a suitable fleet in the Black Sea led the Russians to lay
