Russian Ironclad Petr Veliky - Design and Description

Design and Description

Petr Veliky had its genesis in the visit of the American twin-turret monitor USS Miantonomoh to Kronstadt in August 1866, that inspired Rear Admiral A. A. Popov to submit a preliminary design for a low-freeboard, breastwork monitor with a full suite of sails and masts. He intended the ship to act as a hybrid monitor-cruiser, able to attack enemy shipping and threaten his ports. The design was approved by the Naval Technical Committee (Russian: Morskoi tekhnicheskii komitet), and a detailed design was prepared by September 1867. This was reviewed on 20 February 1868, and the coal supply was ordered to be raised from four to five days' steaming, which forced the design to be revised to accommodate the extra coal. This modified design was approved on 26 January 1869 by the Committee, but more changes were made even after that. In May Popov proposed to add a small superstructure forward of the breastwork to improve seakeeping and overhanging side armor as used on the monitors during the American Civil War. Both changes were approved on 19 June 1869 although the displacement of the ship had constantly increased from the 7,496 long tons (7,616 t) of the 1867 design to the 9,462 long tons (9,614 t) of the June 1869 design.

Construction of the ship, now named Kreiser (Cruiser), began even before the design was approved, but changes to the design continued to be made. The masts and rigging were deleted, presumably shortly after the loss of the British masted turret ship HMS Captain in a storm on 7 September 1870, although the exact date is not known. The decision between a ram and telescoping spar torpedoes in the ship's bow was not made until November 1870. The visit of the British naval architect Edward Reed in June 1871 prompted changes in the design of the breastwork. It was increased in thickness from 12 inches (305 mm) to 14 inches (356 mm) and extended to the sides of the ship in accordance with suggestions by Reed. Kreiser was renamed Petr Veliky on 11 June 1872, in honor of the bicentennial of Peter the Great's birth.

Petr Veliky was 329 feet 8 inches (100.5 m) long at the waterline and 333 feet 8 inches (101.7 m) long overall, with a beam of 63 feet 1 inch (19.2 m) and a designed draft of 24 feet 9 inches (7.5 m). Her displacement as completed was 10,406 long tons (10,573 t), almost 500 long tons (508 t) more than her designed displacement of 9,665 long tons (9,820 t).

The ship's hull was subdivided by one centerline longitudinal, nine transverse and two wing watertight bulkheads, and it had a complete double bottom. Petr Veliky had a high metacentric height of 8 feet 8 inches (2.64 m). Although a lively roller, she was considered a passable sea-boat even though water flooded in between the gap between the gun turrets and the deck whenever the sea swept over her forecastle.