Russian Battleship Rostislav
Coordinates: 45°25′01″N 36°37′43″E / 45.41694°N 36.62861°E / 45.41694; 36.62861
Rostislav, anchored around 1901 |
|
| Career (Russian Empire) | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Rostislav (Russian: Ростислав) |
| Namesake: | Rostislav I of Kiev |
| Operator: | Imperial Russian Navy |
| Builder: | Nikolayev Admiralty Shipyard |
| Laid down: | January 30, 1894 (actual) May 19, 1895 (formal) |
| Launched: | September 2, 1896 |
| Christened: | May 20, 1894 |
| Completed: | March 1900 |
| Fate: | Scuttled in the Strait of Kerch, November 1920 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Pre-dreadnought battleship |
| Displacement: | 8,880 long tons (9,020 t) (designed) 10,520 long tons (10,689 t) (actual) |
| Length: | 351 ft 10 in (107.2 m) |
| Beam: | 68 ft (20.7 m) |
| Draft: | 22 ft (6.7 m) (designed) 25 ft 2 in (7.7 m) (actual) |
| Installed power: | 8,500 ihp (6,300 kW) 8 fire-tube boilers |
| Propulsion: | 2 shafts, 2 Vertical triple-expansion steam engines |
| Speed: | 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph) |
| Range: | 4,100 nautical miles (7,600 km; 4,700 mi) at 8 knots (15 km/h; 9.2 mph) |
| Complement: | 633 (1900), 831–852 (World War I) |
| Armament: |
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| Armour: | Harvey armor Belt: 14.5 in (368 mm) Deck: 2–3 in (51–76 mm) Turrets: 10 in (254 mm) Conning tower: 6 in (152 mm) Bulkheads: 5–9 in (127–229 mm) |
Rostislav was a pre-dreadnought battleship built by the Nikolaev Admiralty Shipyard in the 1890s for the Black Sea Fleet of the Imperial Russian Navy. She was conceived as a small, inexpensive coastal defence ship, but the Navy abandoned the concept in favor of a compact, seagoing battleship with a displacement of 8,880 long tons (9,020 t). Poor design and construction practices increased her actual displacement by more than 1,600 long tons (1,600 t). Rostislav became the world's first capital ship to burn fuel oil, rather than coal. Her combat ability was compromised by the use of 10-inch (254 mm) main guns instead of the de facto Russian standard of 12 inches (305 mm).
Her hull was launched in September 1896, but non-delivery of the ship's main guns delayed her maiden voyage until 1899 and her completion until 1900. In May 1899 Rostislav became the first ship of the Imperial Navy to be commanded by a member of the House of Romanov, Captain Alexander Mikhailovich. From 1903 to 1912 the ship was the flagship of the second-in-command of the Black Sea Fleet. During the 1905 Russian Revolution her crew was on the verge of mutiny, but ultimately remained loyal to the regime, and actively suppressed the mutiny of the cruiser Ochakov.
Rostislav was actively engaged in World War I until the collapse of the Black Sea Fleet in the beginning of 1918. She was the first Russian ship to fire on enemy targets on land during World War I, the first to be hit by a German airstrike, and the first to destroy a submarine, albeit a Russian one. In April 1918 the fleeing Bolsheviks abandoned Rostislav in Sevastopol. A year later the British occupation forces permanently disabled her engines. The White forces used the ship as a towed floating battery, then scuttled her in the Strait of Kerch in November 1920.
Read more about Russian Battleship Rostislav: Design and Description, Construction, Service
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