Admiral Ushakov-class coastal defense ship

The ''Admiral Ushakov'' class were coastal defense battleships built for the Imperial Russian Navy during the 1890s to counter armored ships of the Swedish Navy. All three ships were stationed in the Baltic Sea when the Russo-Japanese war began and sailed with the Baltic Fleet around the Cape of Good Hope to the Pacific. Two ships were captured by the Japanese and one was scuttled during the Battle of Tsushima.

Design

General characteristics

They had an overall length of , a beam of , and a draft of at deep load. They displaced .Conway's, p. 181

Propulsion

The ''Admiral Ushakov''s used vertical triple expansion steam engines that produced . They were fed by 8 cylindrical coal-fired boilers, except in which only had four boilers. The engines drove 2 shafts for a maximum speed of . They carried of coal at normal load and at deep load.

Armament

The ''Admiral Ushakov''s had four 45-caliber guns in two twin-gun turrets, mounted fore and after of the superstructure, except for , whose rear turret only had a single gun. Their secondary armament consisted of four guns mounted in casemates at the corners of the superstructure.

Armor

Their armour consisted of a waterline belt long that protected the ship's vitals. It tapered down to at the ends where it met bulkheads thick that protected the ends of the ship. The deck was thick. The turrets and the conning tower had of armour. Harvey armour was used throughout.

Construction

In service

Russo-Japanese War

The three ''Admiral Ushakov''s were assigned to the 3rd Pacific Squadron, under the command of Rear-Admiral Nikolai Nebogatov, and sailed on 2 February 1905 to reinforce Admiral Zinovy Rozhestvensky's 2nd Pacific Squadron en route to the Pacific. They left the Baltic Sea and sailed around Europe, through the length of the Mediterranean Sea, through the Suez Canal, across the Indian Ocean, into the South China Sea where they rendezvoused at Van Fong in French Indochina on 26 April. They departed the anchorage on 1 May and encountered the Japanese fleet on 14 May at what would be called the Battle of Tsushima.

For most of the first part of the battle Nebogatov's ships trailed the more powerful 2nd Squadron and were largely ignored by the Japanese so his ships were in good shape when night fell. ''Admiral Siniavin'' had not been hit at all, although ''Admiral Ushakov'' had had her bow smashed. He had ordered his ships to turn north to make for Vladivostok earlier in the day, after Admiral Rozhestvensky had been wounded, but he ordered a turn to the southwest to evade Japanese torpedo boats during the evening, but turned north during the night. ''Admiral Ushakov'' could not make the required speed to keep up and fell out. She was either sunk or scuttled by her crew during the following morning. ''Admiral Seniavin'' and ''General Admiral Graf Apraksin'' remained with him and surrendered the following morning when he was spotted by the Japanese fleet.Pleshakov, pp. 279–83

Notes

Bibliography

*
*
*

External links

individual ship histories

{{Russo-JapaneseWarRussianShips

Battleships of Russia
Ships of the Imperial Russian Navy