Following the single-turret monitors of the Uragan class, the Russian Admiralty turned to its own design genius A.A. Popov to produce an even more powerful class of monitor. The initial attempt was the 2-ship Rusalka class of two-turreted ships, followed by the three-turret "frigate" Admiral Lazarev and her 3 sister-ships.
Following the single-turret monitors of the Uragan class, the Russian Admiralty turned to its own design genius A.A. Popov to produce an even more powerful class of monitor. The initial attempt was the 2-ship Rusalka class of two-turreted ships, followed by the three-turret "frigate" Admiral Lazarev and her 3 sister-ships.
Among Russia's pioneering ironclads, Rusalka (Mermaid) and her sister Charodeyka
were built at New Admiralty Yard, St. Petersburg. They were 300 tons larger and 3½ feet longer than their predecessors, the Uragan class monitors. Originally equipped with 15" Dahlgren smoothbores manufactured in Russia, they were rearmed with 9" breech-loading rifles developed by the Russian Admiralty in conjunction with Krupp. They could steam at 9 knots, a marked improvement over the 6½-kt speed of the previous class; and they carried a far heavier secondary armament of 3.5" and 1.5" guns. But like all monitors of the day, they had very low freeboard: only 2½ feet separated the waves and the weather deck in a flat calm. While the ships had an elaborate "breastwork" or superstructure amidships, carrying ventilation equipment and funnel uptakes well above the waves, the low-riding ships were liable to multiple leaks in a seaway, making them subject to the same conditions that destroyed the original Monitor.
Like the Uragans, these were long-lasting iron ships; Charodeyka remained on active duty in the Baltic from 1867 until 1904. They were important training ships for the worldwide fleet that Russia was to develop following the end of the Russo-Turkish War in 1879, in which Russia overcame previous restrictions on developing naval facilities on her Black Sea shoreline. Among the young naval officers posted to the Rusalka was Stepan Osipovich Makarov (left), a leading scientific mind who studied torpedo tactics on his own time and turned this study into deadly-earnest practice in the war against Turkey, torpedoing a number of Turkish vessels with the new Whitehead torpedoes and actually sinking one, the ironclad frigate Assari Shevket. Makarov -- a national hero throughout Russia -- went on to become the admiral commanding the Pacific Squadron in the Russo-Japanese War. He was killed when a Japanese mine sank his flagship Petropavlovsk off Port Arthur in 1904 -- an incident that, at one stroke, greatly reduced Russia's chance of victory.
Among Russia's pioneering ironclads, Rusalka (Mermaid) and her sister Charodeykawere built at New Admiralty Yard, St. Petersburg. They were 300 tons larger and 3½ feet longer than their predecessors, the Uragan class monitors. Originally equipped with 15" Dahlgren smoothbores manufactured in Russia, they were rearmed with 9" breech-loading rifles developed by the Russian Admiralty in conjunction with Krupp. They could steam at 9 knots, a marked improvement over the 6½-kt speed of the previous class; and they carried a far heavier secondary armament of 3.5" and 1.5" guns. But like all monitors of the day, they had very low freeboard: only 2½ feet separated the waves and the weather deck in a flat calm. While the ships had an elaborate "breastwork" or superstructure amidships, carrying ventilation equipment and funnel uptakes well above the waves, the low-riding ships were liable to multiple leaks in a seaway, making them subject to the same conditions that destroyed the original Monitor.
Like the Uragans, these were long-lasting iron ships; Charodeyka remained on active duty in the Baltic from 1867 until 1904. They were important training ships for the worldwide fleet that Russia was to develop following the end of the Russo-Turkish War in 1879, in which Russia overcame previous restrictions on developing naval facilities on her Black Sea shoreline. Among the young naval officers posted to the Rusalka was Stepan Osipovich Makarov (left), a leading scientific mind who studied torpedo tactics on his own time and turned this study into deadly-earnest practice in the war against Turkey, torpedoing a number of Turkish vessels with the new Whitehead torpedoes and actually sinking one, the ironclad frigate Assari Shevket. Makarov -- a national hero throughout Russia -- went on to become the admiral commanding the Pacific Squadron in the Russo-Japanese War. He was killed when a Japanese mine sank his flagship Petropavlovsk off Port Arthur in 1904 -- an incident that, at one stroke, greatly reduced Russia's chance of victory.
Her sister may have had a long service life followed by decades as a utilitarian coal hulk, but Rusalka's place in history is a tragic one. She was already 26 years in service, but apparently seaworthy when she was ordered across the Baltic from Talinn, Estonia to Helsinki, Finland on Sept. 7, 1893. (Both Estonia and Finland were territories of the Russian Empire at the time.) The ship was to have left at dawn (0730), in company with the gunboat Tucha ("Cloud"), but Rusalka had to wait a full hour before her skipper hurried aboard. The despatch orders were confirmed despite a gathering storm, and the two ships departed at 0830. They headed northwards in the teeth of a howling gale.
