Russian Battleship Navarin (1889/1896)
Navarin, a one-off battleship closely based on the British Trafalgar class, flaunts her identity as an IRONCLAD in the photo above. The ship's main guns were in two turrets, the remainder casemate-mounted in the armor-plated redoubt amidships. The lighting in this shot makes clear the relationship not only to the Trafalgars but to HMS Hood of 1890.
The ship was a victim of Russian technological backwardness. Built at Galerny Yard, St Petersburg, Navarin took the unconscionably long time of 7 years to build and fit out. Though she might have been defensible as a design in 1888, by a decade later the ship was practically obsolete. Her armor was mostly of the outmoded compound type (iron and steel armor layers faced with hardened nickel-steel); she was to be pitted against ships equipped with lighter and tougher Harvey and Krupp Cemented armor. Entering service in 1896, her first major duty was to quell the Boxer Rebellion in 1900, requiring a voyage to China to participate in the joint western-Japanese expedition. Navarin's next journey to the East would be made under more desperate circumstances.
Specifications for the Navarin:
Dimensions: 357'7" x 67' x 27'10" Displacement: 10,206 tons std. Armament: (4) 12"/40, (8) 6", (8) 1.9" guns, and (15) 1.5" guns; (6) 15" torpedo tubes. Armor: Mixture of compound (CP) and Nickel-steel (NS) types. 16" CP belt; 5" NS redoubt; 12" NS turrets; 10" CP conning tower; 3"/1.5" CP deck. Propulsion: (12) coal-fired cylindrical boilers; (2) inverted vertical triple expansion engines developing 9,140 shp, shafted to twin screw. Speed: 15.5 kts. Fuel capacity: 700 tons of coal. Crew: 622.
Metric specifications:
Dimensions: 109m x 20.42m x 8.5m Displacement: 10,206 tons std. Armament: (4) 305 mm/40, (8) 152 mm guns, (8) 47 mm, and (15) 37 mm guns; (6) 38 cm torpedo tubes. Armor: Mixture of compound (CP) and Nickel-steel (NS) types. 406 mm CP belt; 130 mm NS redoubt; 305 mm NS turrets; 254 mm CP conning tower; 76/38 mm CP deck. Propulsion: (12) coal-fired cylindrical boilers; (2) vertical triple expansion steam engines developing 6,816 kW, shafted to twin screw. Speed: 28.7 km/hr. Fuel capacity: 700 tons of coal. Crew: 622.
Navarin's design imperative of strong protection was borne out by the ship's performance in battle. Sent to Japan in late 1904 as part of the newly-minted "2nd Pacific Squadron," the venerable ship dutifully plugged along on the long, coal-dust covered voyage of Adm. Rozhdestvensky -- a voyage to a great battle where one fleet had no practice ammunition. At the end of the tortuous trip Navarin met her doom in the flaming hell of Tsushima Kaikyo. Where Japanese shell burst through the flimsy upper decks of many of the newer, French-style battleships, setting them on fire, the turtle-like Navarin absorbed an impressive amount of punishment. Despite sustaining six large calibre hits, the ship continued to steam, fire, and keep station. Her captain, Baron B.A. Fitingov, was fatally wounded in this phase of the action, and 17 crewmen were killed or wounded. During the night she was torpedoed in the stern from the starboard side, in the port bow, and amidships on the starboard side; yet still she floated. Later she ran into two mines laid directly in her path by specially equipped Japanese destroyers. After the mines detonated, Navarin capsized, taking with her more than 670 mariners. Three crewmen were later rescued by a Japanese fishing vessel, having spent four days adrift in the sea.
The Navarin was named to honor veterans of the Battle of Navarino in the wars against Turkey in 1822. But she was known in the fleet as "The Factory" for her industrial midsection, abloom with smokestacks, skylights, and 14 ventilator cowls. This shot also shows the diamond-shaped redoubt with its oblique sides, intended to deflect enemy shot and to allow a wider arc of fire for the main guns. A close comparison with the Nile and Trafalgar reveals a literal copy; even the pilothouse is an exact duplicate. Only the arrangement of vents and chimneys deviates from the model. Navarin was nearly 2,000 tons smaller, hwoever.
The Navarin in port before her first trip to the East. The lighting here models the shape of the redoubt.
The Navarin seems to have been photographed mostly in profile. As she was partly designed for ramming and head-on attack, her designers would have been gratified that she presented such a small target head-on. Here is a welcome 3/4 bow view with some gratifying billows of coal smoke from that forest of funnels. This angle also emphasizes the ship's low freebord, intended to make her a small target. Warships were popular subjects for postcards and nowhere more so than in Russia -- though these patriotic subjects were printed in German rotogravure plants more often than not.
The Navarin in tropical colours, probably during the voyage to wreak vengeance on the Boxers in 1900-01. The lighting here emphasizes the oblique-shaped ends of the midships redoubt, and the over-all turtle shape of the design. Below, inspection. We are back in temperate climes with the standard colours: black hull, white upperworks, yellow-and-black funnels and yellow vents.
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This scene aboard Navarin shows the parade-ground size space on the ship's weather deck fore and aft. This scene from the quarterdeck, with its central 12" turret, seems quite similar to the afterdeck of Potemkin, famous for the scenes of the mutiny in Eisenstein's film.
Three of the 'flatirons and galoshes' that later journeyed to Tsushima: Navarin leads the Nikolai I and Admiral Senyavin in target practice.
Relevant Web Resources
- Paper model of the Navarin
- The British Nile Class
- The Battle of Tsushima (1905): The Tsarist Fleet's Armageddon
- The Siege of Port Arthur (1904-05): The Tsarist Empire's Cataclysm by Land
- Overview of Russo-Japanese War
- Battleships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1897-1912
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