Battleship Sissoi Veliky (1892/1896)
The Sissoi Veliky was a small battleship of 10,000 tons, built for the Russian Baltic fleet at the beginning of the buildup for the Russo-Japanese War. She carried a main armament of four 12" guns, was armored with obsolete nickel-steel armor, and was capable of 15 kts. Her design -- with a plumb stem rather than a ram, 2 funnels and 2 masts of the standard Admiralty design -- was used as a model for the succeeding Petropavlovsk class. Built in the Tsarist regime's New Admiralty Yard at Petersburg, she was a distinctly minor player in European terms, but did compile an honorable service record in her 10 years of life.
Laid down in 1892 and finally commissioned in 1896, the ship was despatched the first time to the Far East as part of the armada sent to relieve the Beijing legations during the Boxer Rebellion in 1900. She landed a battalion of soldiers who marched on Beijing under Gen. Linevitch and took part in the looting of the city.
Specifications
Specifications for the Sissoi Veliky:
Dimensions: 351'9" x 68' x 25'6". Displacement: 10,400 tons standard. Propulsion: 12 Belleville coal-fired boilers; (2) 8,500-SHP vertical triple expansion steam engines; twin screw. Speed: 15.6 knots. Range: 2,800 nm at 10 knots. Fuel capacity: 1,000 tons coal. Armament: (4) 12" guns, (6) 6" guns, (12) 47mm guns, (8) 37mm guns, (6) 18" torpedo tubes. Armor: Nickel steel armor. Belt 16"/4", Deck 3", secondary gun battery 5", main turrets 12", conning tower 8". Complement: 586.
Metric specs:
Dimensions: 107.23m x 20.73m x 7.77m. Displacement: 10,400 tons standard. Propulsion: 12 Belleville coal-fired boilers; (2) 8,500-SHP vertical triple expansion steam engines; twin screw. Speed: 28.89 km/hr. Range: 5,186 km @ 18.52 km/hr. Fuel capacity: 1,000 tons coal. Armament: (4) 305 mm guns, (6) 152 mm guns, (12) 47mm guns, (8) 37mm guns, (6) 450 mm torpedo tubes. Armor: Nickel steel type. Belt 406/102 mm, deck 76 mm, secondary battery 127 mm, main turrets 305 mm, conning tower 204 mm. Complement: 586.
Ship's History
Like virtually all of Russia's Baltic fleet, Sissoi was assigned to join the grand armada sent to the Far East under Adm. Rozhdestvensky. In the Battle of Tsushima at voyage's end, she was part of the weaker second column. The ship sustained as many as a dozen large-calibre hits and was soldiering on at day's end when a Japanese TB torpedoed her, starting a serious fire. The ship survived through the night only to be cornered by Japanese cruisers and surrendered. The captain then ordered the ship scuttled and it sank as the Japanese were attempting to get her under tow. The old battleship had stood up remarkably well to the Japanese pounding. More than 300 of her crew survived.
Here is the ship at her most splendid, dressed over all and manned for review by the Tsar, Sept. 26, 1904. Enlarge
Plans of the Sissoi Veliky
Profile and top view of the Sissoi Veliky.
Armor plan of the Sissoi Veliky. Numbers refer to millimeters of armor thickness.
For the metrically challenged, 51mm = 2", 76mm = 3", 102mm = 4", 127mm = 5", 229mm = 9", 254mm = 10", 305mm = 12", 406mm = 16".
