Construction
Retvizan was ordered on 2 May 1898 for delivery in thirty months. The detailed sketch design was forwarded at the end of 1898 to Saint Petersburg for approval and work commenced on the ship around that time, although she was not officially laid down until 29 July 1899. Construction was delayed by a strike at the shipyard that began in August 1899 and continued until the strike collapsed in early 1900. Other delays were caused by differences between American and Russian shipbuilding techniques and the insistence of the Naval Ministry on approving any design changes even though a Russian commission had been sent to Philadelphia to supervise her construction.
Her armament arrived in Philadelphia missing electrical cables and with incomplete documentation which required Cramp's electricians to piece things together themselves, for which Cramp charged an extra $50,000. She was launched 23 October 1900 and ran her acceptance trials in October 1901. While successful they revealed a fair amount of incomplete work that Cramp had to finish before he received his last payment. More work needed to be done on her armament, but it had to wait until she arrived in Russia. Retvizan was accepted on 23 March 1902, under the command of Captain Eduard Schensnovich who commanded her throughout her Russian service.
Read more about this topic: Russian Battleship Retvizan
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