Russian battleship Imperator Aleksandr II
![]() Imperator Aleksandr II as depicted by an 1893 lithograph
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History | |
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Name | Imperator Aleksandr II |
Namesake | Alexander II |
Builder | New Admiralty Yard, Saint Petersburg |
Laid down | 12 July 1885 |
Launched | 13 July 1887 |
Commissioned | June 1891 |
Out of service | 21 May 1921 |
Renamed | Zarya Svobody about 9 May 1917 |
Fate | Sold for scrapping 22 August 1922 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Imperator Aleksandr II-class battleship |
Displacement | 9,244 long tons (9,392 t) |
Length | 346 ft 6 in (105.61 m) |
Beam | 66 ft 11 in (20.40 m) |
Draught | 25 ft 9 in (7.85 m) |
Installed power | 8,289 ihp (6,181 kW) |
Propulsion | 2 shaft vertical compound steam engines, 12 cylindrical boilers |
Speed | 15.27 knots (28.28 km/h; 17.57 mph) |
Range | 4,400 nautical miles (8,100 km) at 8 knots (15 km/h; 9.2 mph) |
Complement | 616 |
Armament |
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Armour |
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Imperator Aleksandr II (Russian: Император Александр II) was a Russian Imperator Aleksandr II-class battleship built for the Imperial Russian Navy in the 1880s. She was an artillery training ship assigned to the Baltic Fleet by the time of the Russo-Japanese War of 1905 and was not sent to the Pacific as was most of the rest of the Baltic Fleet. She was inactive at Kronstadt during World War I, but her crew was active in the revolutionary movement. She was turned over to the Kronstadt port authority on 21 April 1921 before she was sold for scrap on 22 August 1922. She was towed to Germany during the autumn of 1922, but was not stricken from the Navy List until 21 November 1925.
Description
Imperator Aleksandr II was named after the Emperor
She was 334 feet (101.8 m)
Imperator Aleksandr II had two three-cylinder
The main armament of the Imperator Aleksandr II-class ships was a pair of 12-inch (305 mm) Obukhov Model 1877 30-calibre guns mounted in a twin barbette mount forward. The four 9-inch (229 mm) Obukhov Model 1877 35-calibre guns were on center-pivot mounts in casemates at the corners of the citadel, the hull being recessed to increase their arcs of fire ahead or behind. The eight 6-inch (152 mm) Model 1877 35-calibre guns were mounted on broadside pivot mounts. Four were fitted between the 9-inch guns and could traverse a total of 100°. The others were mounted at each end of the ship where they could fire directly ahead or astern. The ten 47-millimetre (1.9 in) Hotchkiss revolving cannon were mounted in hull embrasures of the ship between the nine and six-inch guns to defend against torpedo boats. Four 37-millimetre (1.5 in) Hotchkiss revolving cannon were mounted in each fighting top. Imperator Aleksandr II carried five above-water 15-inch (381 mm) torpedo tubes, two in the bow, one on each side of the stempost, one tube on each broadside and a tube in the stern. Smaller 14-inch (356 mm) torpedo tubes could be mounted in four of the ship's cutters. Thirty-six mines could also be carried.[4]
History
Imperator Aleksandr II served in the Baltic Fleet and along with the cruiser
Imperator Aleksandr II returned to
Conway's says that she was reconstructed in France between 1902 and 1904, with her torpedo tubes removed and her six and nine-inch guns exchanged for five
References
- ^ McLaughlin, pp. 32, 37
- ^ McLaughlin, p. 32
- ^ McLaughlin, pp. 32, 36–37, 43
- ^ McLaughlin, p. 35
- ^ McTiernan, p. 17.
- ^ "McTiernan, Mick, "Spyros Kayales – A different sort of flagpole," mickmctiernan.com, 20 November 2012". Archived from the original on 6 January 2018. Retrieved 17 January 2018.
- ^ McLaughlin, pp. 37–38
- ^ McLaughlin, p. 38
- ^ Conway's, p. 178
- ^ Arbazov, pp. 54, 56
Bibliography
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- Arbuzov, V. V. (1997). Bronenoset︠s︡ Imperator Aleksandr II. Bronenost︠s︡y russkogo flota (in Russian). Vol. 4. Saint Petersburg: Izd. alʹmanakha "Korabli i srazhenii︠a︡.
- Gardiner, Robert, ed. (1979). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. New York: Mayflower Books. ISBN 0-8317-0302-4.
- McTiernan, Mick, A Very Bad Place Indeed For a Soldier. The British involvement in the early stages of the European Intervention in Crete. 1897–1898, King's College, London, September 2014.
- McLaughlin, Stephen (2003). Russian & Soviet Battleships. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-481-4.
Further reading
- А.Б. Широкорад. Корабельная артиллерия российского флота 1867–1922 г. «Морская коллекция» No. 2 за 1997 год.
- Моисеев С. П. Список кораблей русского парового и броненосного флота 1861–1917 г. М., Воениздат, 1948
- Чертеж ЭБР «Император Николай I». Тверь, «Ретро-Флот», 1993
- Вторая тихоокеанская эскадра. «Наваль», вып. 1, с. 24–29. М., 1991
- А.А. Белов «Броненосцы Японии». Серия "Боевые корабли мира"
External links
- ship history Encyclopedia of Ships (in Russian)
- ship photo gallery