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fighting ships of the world

IMPERIAL RUSSIAN NAVY (RUSSIA)

CAPITAL SHIPS

RETVIZAN battleship (1901)

Retvizan 1902

Name No Yard No Builder Laid down Launched Comp Fate
Ретвизан [Retvizan]   300 Cramp, Philadelphia, USA 29.7.1899 23.10.1900 12/1901 sunk 6.12.1904

 

Displacement normal, t

12900

Displacement full, t

 

Length, m

117.9

Breadth, m

22.0

Draught, m

7.92 max

No of shafts

2

Machinery

2 VTE, 24 Niclausse boilers

Power, h. p.

17000

Max speed, kts

18

Fuel, t

coal 2000

Endurance, nm(kts)

5500(10)

Armour, mm

belt: 229 - 127, belt ends: 51, turrets: 229 - 203, battery: 127, casemates: 127, deck: 76 - 51, CT: 254

Armament

2 x 2 - 305/38, 12 x 1 - 152/44 Canet, 20 x 1 - 75/48 Canet, 2 x 1 - 63/17 Baranovski, 24 x 1 - 47/40 Hotchkiss, 8 x 1 - 37/20 Hotchkiss, 2 x 1 - 7.6/94, 6 - 450 TT (1 bow, 4 beam, 1 stern)

Complement

738

Project history: A three-funnelled, flush-deck ship, and the best Russian battleship so far described. The 305mm guns were in French-type turrets, 4 of the 152mm in upper deck casemates and 8 in a main deck battery.

Ship protection: The belt was complete, the lower strake from 1.2m below lwl to 1.1m above, being 229mm with a 127mm lower edge for 78m, and the upper strake to the main deck was 152mm between turrets, 178mm bulkheads closing these parts of the belt which tapered beyond to 51mm at bow and stern. The alloy steel armour deck was 51mm with 76mm slopes.

Modernizations: None.

Naval service: The Retvizan was torpedoed in the Japanese attack at Port Arthur on 9.2.1904 when she took on 2100t water, and was damaged in the Yellow Sea battle where she was apparently hit by 18 305mm to 203mm shells. During the siege of Port Arthur she was hit by 13 280mm howitzer shells and sank on 6.12.1904. Three shells, one of which burst in a boiler room, were very damaging. She was raised and repaired by the Japanese and served as Hizen.

Retvizan 1902

© Ivan Gogin, 2014