Russian cruiser General-Admiral (1873)

General-Admiral was the lead ship of the General-Admiral class armored cruisers built for the Imperial Russian Navy in the early 1870s. She is generally considered as the first true armored cruiser.

Originally classified as an armored corvette, General-Admiral was redesignated as a semi-armored frigate on 24 March 1875. She was laid out as a central battery ironclad with the armament concentrated amidships. The iron-hulled ship was not fitted with a ram and her crew numbered approximately 482 officers and men.

General-Admiral was 285 feet 10 inches (87.1 m) long overall. She had a beam of 48 feet (14.6 m) and a draft of 24 feet 5 inches (7.4 m). The ship was designed to displace 4,604 long tons (4,678 t), but displaced 5,031 long tons (5,112 t) as built, an increase of over 400 long tons (410 t).

The ship had a vertical compound steam engine driving a single two-bladed 6.25-meter (20 ft 6 in) propeller. Steam was provided by five cylindrical boilers at a pressure of 4.24 kg/cm2 (416 kPa; 60 psi). The engine produced 4,772 indicated horsepower (3,558 kW) during sea trials which gave the ship a maximum speed around 12.3 knots (22.8 km/h; 14.2 mph). General-Admiral carried a maximum of 1,000 long tons (1,000 t) of coal which gave her an economical range of 5,900 nautical miles (10,900 km; 6,800 mi) at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph). She was ship-rigged with three masts. To reduce drag while under sail her funnel was retractable and her propeller could be hoisted into the hull.

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Russian armoured cruiser Vladimir Monomakh

The Vladimir Monomakh was laid down in 1880. She was originally equipped with a heavy full rig of sail on three masts and bowsprit. Completed in 1885, she was modernized in 1897-1898 with new armament, as her original armament was by then obsolete. A searchlight platform was placed atop the mainmast. As built on sea trials, the 5,593-ton cruiser reached 15.2 knots (28.2 km/h) but she was far slower 25 years later, despite the refit, as a result of overaged and worn out machinery.

During the Russo-Japanese war, Vladimir Monomakh was assigned to the Third Pacific Squadron, which was sent to reinforce Zinovy Rozhestvensky's Second Pacific Squadron. The Third Pacific Squadron was equipped with overaged warships and was unfit for in modern naval warfare despite the insistence of the Russian Admiralty. The Vladimir Monomakh was a quarter of a century old at the time of the conflict.

On May 27, 1905, at Tsushima, Vladimir Monomakh was positioned to the right side of the Russian line, guarding the fleet train and so avoided the pounding that the Second Pacific Squadron received. However, at nightfall, the Japanese torpedo boats engaged the Russians. Vladimir Monomakh, mistaking one of her attackers for a Russian destroyer, collided with the Japanese vessel and was later hit by a single torpedo. The damage was severe but her crew kept her afloat and her engines operational. The next morning, however, the cruiser was scuttled by the crew and sank at 14:30.

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Admiral Lazarev class monitor

The Admiral Lazarev class was a pair of monitors built for the Imperial Russian Navy in the late 1860s (designated frigates by the navy). Four ships were ordered, but the last two were significantly modified and became the separate Admiral Spiridov class of ships. Admiral Lazarev and Admiral Greig became the first turreted warships in the Russian Navy.

The ships were similar in size to earlier Russian ironclads. They had a shorter beam due to the turret, rather than broadside weaponry. A longer draft made the ships more stable at the sea. Due to the heavy weight, the masts of the ships were significantly lighter and smaller than initially planned, but the more powerful 2,000 horsepower (1,500 kW) engine made the ships somewhat faster than earlier monitors, with the top speed of 11 knots (20 km/h).

The ships were protected by a 4.5 in (114 mm) armor belt and turrets by 6.5 in (165 mm) armor. The main armament was three gun turrets, each with two 9-inch (229 mm) guns. Later, all four ships had turrets refitted with 11-inch (279 mm) guns, one gun per turret. With the new guns, the Admiral Lazarev and Admiral Spiridov classes became among the most powerful ships of the Baltic Fleet.

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