Warship Wednesday, May 9 2012
Here at LSOZI, we are going to take out every Wednesday for a look at the old steampunk navies of the 1866-1938 time period and will profile a different ship each week. – Christopher Eger
Warship Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Here we have the Russian Battleship Tsar Nicholas I, about 1900.
Known in Russia as the Imperator Nikolai I (Russian: Император Николай I) was a Russian Imperator Aleksandr II-class pre-dreadnought battleship built for the Baltic Fleet in the late 1880s. Ordered in 1886, she was commissioned in 1891. Over the next 25 years, she sailed in every sea and ocean, fought in at least one war, was captured and finally sunk as a target by her new navy.
She participated in the celebration of the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America in New York City in 1892. She assigned to the Mediterranean Squadron and visited Toulon in October 1893. She sailed for the Pacific Ocean during the First Sino-Japanese War and remained in the Pacific until late 1896 when she returned to the Mediterranean Squadron and supported Russian interests during the Cretan Revolt. She returned to the Baltic in April 1898 and had a lengthy refit, which replaced all of her machinery, before returning to the Mediterranean in 1901.
Returning to the Baltic during the Russo-Japanese War Imperator Nikolai I was refitted in late 1904 to serve as the flagship of the Third Pacific Squadron under Rear Admiral Nikolai Nebogatov. She was slightly damaged during the Battle of Tsushima, receiving one hit from a twelve-inch gun, two from eight-inch guns and two from six-inch guns, and suffered only 5 killed and 35 men wounded.
She was surrendered, along with most of the Third Pacific Squadron, by Admiral Nebogatov the following day. She was taken into the Imperial Japanese Navy under the new name of Iki (壱岐?) and she served as a gunnery training ship until 1910 and then became a first-class coast defense ship and training vessel. She was sunk as a target ship in October 1915.
Displacement: 9,594 long tons (9,748 t)
Length: 346 ft 6 in (105.61 m)
Beam: 66 ft 11 in (20.40 m)
Draft: 24 ft 3 in (7.39 m)
Installed power: 7,842 ihp (5,848 kW)
Propulsion: 2 shaft vertical compound steam engines, 12 cylindrical boilers
Speed: 14 knots (16 mph; 26 km/h)
Range: 2,630 nautical miles (4,870 km) at 10 knots (12 mph; 19 km/h)
Complement: 616
Armament: 1 × 2 – 12-inch (305 mm) guns
4 × 1 – 9-inch (229 mm) guns
8 × 1 – 6-inch (152 mm) guns
10 × 1 – 47-millimeter (1.9 in) Hotchkiss revolving cannon
8 × 1 – 37-millimeter (1.5 in) Hotchkiss revolving cannon
6 × 1 – 15-inch (381 mm) torpedo tubes
Armor: Compound armor
Belt: 6–14 in (152–356 mm)
Deck: 2.5 in (64 mm)
Turret: 10 in (254 mm)
Conning tower: 6 in (152 mm)
Bulkheads: 6 in (152 mm)