History
A contract to build four second-rank protected cruisers to reinforce the Russian Pacific Fleet was issued by the Marine Ministry on 15 April 1899. It was intended that these ships be built in Danzig to the design of the cruiser Novik for reconnaissance, aviso and destroyer support duties. However, due to political pressure from the throne, the contract for Boyarin was issued to the Danish firm of Burmeister & Wain (the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorvna was from Denmark). This created numerous issues. The cost of Boyarin was far higher than expected, due to higher wages in Denmark and need for the shipyard to import many components. Changes made to the design resulted in problems with stability, and efforts to compensate by increasing her displacement from 2600 tons to 3075 tons resulted in a lower speed. Despite the increase in displacement, she was inferior to Novik in ammunition storage, the number of naval mines and layout of the bridge.
The keel was laid of 24 September 1900, with Commander V I Litvinov appointed chief equipping officer. She was launched on 26 May 1901 without any presence of the Imperial Russian Navy during the ceremony - a breach of tradition and etiquette. After launching, Commander Vladimir Fedorovich Sarychev, former captain of the gunboat Gilyak, who had just returned from the Boxer Rebellion in China, was appointed captain. During factory acceptance testing in June 1902, severe vibrations revealed that the practical operational speed was only 14 knots.
Read more about this topic: Russian Cruiser Boyarin (1901)
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