Design
Preliminary design work on a battleship intended to equal the latest Japanese ships was begun over the winter of 1897–98 by the Naval Technical Committee although the displacement was limited to 12,000 long tons (12,193 t) for economic reasons. The basic design was that of the Peresvet-class with its speed increased to 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph) using only two shafts and its steaming range increased to 5,000 nmi (9,260 km) at 10 kn (12 mph; 19 km/h). The Naval Ministry intended to conduct an international design competition with the ships being built abroad as the Baltic shipyards were at full capacity already.
Cramp's contacts kept him informed of the Russians' intentions and he sailed to Saint Petersburg to offer his services and design expertise in March 1898. Initially Cramp offered American designs to the Russians included an updated version of the USS Iowa as it was a relatively close match for the Russian specification, but the Russians preferred their own designs. Both sides compromised and the final design was based on the Russian battleship Potemkin. The new ship had four fewer 6-inch (152 mm) guns, but twice the coal capacity for improved range and a longer, slightly narrower, hull for more speed. The contract was signed on 23 April 1898 for a price of $4,360,000. The protected cruiser Varyag was ordered at the same time for $2,138,000.
Read more about this topic: Russian Battleship Retvizan
Famous quotes containing the word design:
“Delay always breeds danger; and to protract a great design is often to ruin it.”
—Miguel De Cervantes (1547–1616)
“I begin with a design for a hearse.
For Christ’s sake not black—
nor white either—and not polished!
Let it be weathered—like a farm wagon—”
—William Carlos Williams (1883–1963)
“For I choose that my remembrances of him should be pleasing, affecting, religious. I will love him as a glorified friend, after the free way of friendship, and not pay him a stiff sign of respect, as men do to those whom they fear. A passage read from his discourses, a moving provocation to works like his, any act or meeting which tends to awaken a pure thought, a flow of love, an original design of virtue, I call a worthy, a true commemoration.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)