Russian Battleship Navarin - Design and Description

Design and Description

Navarin was a low-freeboard turret ship modeled on the British Trafalgar-class battleships. The original requirement had been for a much smaller ship, but the Navy changed its mind and required a larger ship capable of operating "in all European seas and able by its coal capacity to reach the Far East." Changes were made to the design after the ship was ordered that included the replacement of the main armament by more powerful guns of the same caliber and the increase in the secondary armament from six guns to eight.

The ship was 347 feet 6 inches (105.9 m) long at the waterline and 351 feet (107.0 m) long overall. She had a beam of 67 feet (20.4 m) and a draught of 27 feet 7 inches (8.4 m). She displaced 10,206 long tons (10,370 t), almost 800 long tons (810 t) more than her designed displacement of 9,476 long tons (9,628 t). Navarin's crew consisted of 24 officers and 417 enlisted men.

She had two 3-cylinder vertical triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one propeller shaft. They had a total designed output of 9,000 indicated horsepower (6,700 kW) using steam provided by 12 cylindrical fire-tube boilers at a pressure of 9.4 atm (952 kPa; 138 psi). The four boiler rooms were arranged in two pairs abreast, each of which had its own funnel. This unusual arrangement gave the ship her odd nickname of Factory (Zavod). Trials of the first batch of boilers in May 1891 showed that they could not maintain the designed steam pressure due to flaws in their construction. The Navy demanded that the Franco-Russian Works replace them with new boilers at its own expense, but tests of the new boilers in August 1893 showed that their production of steam was inadequate. The factory asked for a year's time to rectify the problems which the Navy granted since the construction of the ship was behind schedule anyway. On her final set of sea trials in November 1895 she reached a top speed of 15.85 knots (29.35 km/h; 18.24 mph). Navarin carried a maximum of 1,200 long tons (1,200 t) of coal at full load that provided a range of 3,050 nautical miles (5,650 km; 3,510 mi) at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).

The ship's main armament consisted of two pairs of 12-inch (305 mm) Obukhov Model 1886 35-caliber guns mounted in hydraulically powered twin-gun turrets fore and aft. The forward turret had a firing arc of 243° while the rear turret could traverse 214°. The guns had a rate of fire of two minutes 22 seconds between rounds. They fired a 731.3-pound (331.7 kg) "light" shell at a muzzle velocity of 2,090 ft/s (640 m/s) to a range of 6,600 yards (6,000 m) at an elevation of 6°. 80 rounds per gun were carried. All eight 6-inch (152 mm) Pattern 1877 35-caliber guns of the secondary armament were mounted in casemates in the superstructure. Their "light" shells weighed 91.5 lb (41.5 kg) and had a muzzle velocity of 2,329 ft/s (710 m/s). They had a maximum range of 8,170 yards (7,470 m) when fired at an elevation of 12°. Each gun was provided with 200 rounds of ammunition.

The anti-torpedo boat armament included fourteen 47-millimetre (1.9 in) Hotchkiss guns were carried in the superstructure. They fired a 3.3-pound (1.5 kg) shell at a muzzle velocity of 1,476 ft/s (450 m/s) at a rate of 20 rounds per minute to a range of 2,020 yards (1,850 m). A total of eight 37-millimetre (1.5 in) Hotchkiss guns were mounted in the fighting top, the other four guns may have been used to arm the ship's boats. They fired a 1.1-pound (0.50 kg) shell at a muzzle velocity of 1,450 ft/s (440 m/s) at a rate of 20 rounds per minute to a range of 3,038 yards (2,778 m).

Navarin carried six above water 15-inch (381 mm) torpedo tubes, one each in the bow and stern and two pairs of broadside tubes. The ship carried a total of 12 torpedoes. The Type L torpedo carried a 141-pound (64 kg) warhead of TNT. It had two speed settings which gave it a maximum range of 980 yards (900 m) at 25 knots (46 km/h; 29 mph) or 660 yards (600 m) at 29 knots (54 km/h; 33 mph).

The ship used compound armor for all armored vertical surfaces except for the gun turrets which were made from nickel steel. The maximum thickness of the waterline armor belt was 16 inches (406 mm) which reduced to 12–14 inches (305–356 mm) abreast the magazines. It covered 228 feet (69.5 m) of the ship's length and was 7 feet (2.1 m) high, and tapered down to a thickness of 8 inches (203 mm) at the bottom edge. The upper 18 inches (457.2 mm) of the belt was intended to be above the waterline, but the ship was significantly overweight and much of the belt was submerged. The belt terminated in 14–16-inch (356–406 mm) transverse bulkheads.

The lower casemate was above the belt, 218 feet (66.4 m) long and 8 feet (2.4 m) high, and was intended to protect the bases of the turrets. It had 16-inch sides and was closed off by 16-inch transverse bulkheads fore and aft. The upper casemate protected the six-inch guns and was 5 inches (127 mm) thick on all sides. The sides of the turrets were 16 inches (406 mm) thick and the conning tower's sides were 12 inches (305 mm) in thickness. The armor deck was 2 inches (51 mm) thick over the lower casemate, but 2.5 inches (64 mm) thick forward and aft of the main armor belt to the bow and stern.