Andrei Alexandrovich Popov

Popov was born in Russia on 21 September 1821, and attended the Naval School. He entered the navy after graduating, and rose to command the cruiser Meteor. He commanded a steamship during the Crimean War and was appointed Manager of Artillery Supplies at Sevastopol. When the war ended Popov was appointed to supervise the construction of steamships for the Russian Navy, a post he held for the next 30 years. The period saw a large expansion in naval construction, with Popov overseeing new Russian warships being built at St Petersburg, such as the 9,000-ton battleship Petr Velikyy. ==Pacific and San Francisco==

Popov also served at sea, and by 1863 he commanded a squadron of Russian warships in the Pacific. The American Civil War was being fought at this time, and there were good relations between Russia and the Union. In turn the Union supported Russia in the January Uprising, and in July 1863 a squadron of seven warships under Rear-Admiral Stepan Lesovskii were ordered to sail from St Petersburg to New York, where they arrived on 24 September. Popov was also dispatched to America, and arrived in San Francisco in October with six ships, the corvettes Bogatyr, Kalavela, Rynda and Novik, and the clippers Abrek and Gaidamak. Popov had been in correspondence with the director of the Ministry of Navy, Nikolay Karlovich Krabbe, concerning the threat of war with other European powers over the Polish crisis. Popov had advised Krabbe that his squadron would be best positioned in San Francisco due to its good communication links, and would sail from there to raid British and French colonial possession in the event of war. During the Russian squadron's stay in the city, a fire broke out in the wharves, which 200 Russian sailors volunteered to help fight, with possibly six of them losing their lives in doing so. The city council unanimously adopted a resolution on 26 October 1863 thanking Popov and a number of his officers for their help in fighting the fire, and gold medals were awarded. Deterred by Popov's announcement, and the presence of the Russian squadron, Confederate raiders did not risk attacking the port. ==Unconventional designs==

Russia had been banned from maintaining a battlefleet in the Black Sea after the end of the Crimean War. Fearful of further naval incursions, Russia wanted a fleet of heavily armed shallow-draught coastal defence vessels to guard the Kerch Straits and the mouth of the Dniepr River. Popov built a 24-foot steamer and carried out tests in 1870, subsequently proposing a fleet of ten large circular coastal defence vessels. The expense involved meant that only two were built, the Novgorod and the Kiev. Firing their guns caused the guns, which were mounted on their own separate turntables, to spin round due to a weak locking mechanism. This effect gave rise to a myth that the whole ship would spin around when the guns were fired, even though the guns were not powerful enough, and being placed in the center, had minimal leverage to do so. They could not cope with rough weather and were prone to rolling and pitching, which prevented the aiming and loading of the guns. Though they were judged failures, the circular hull design, tempered with a conventional bow and stern, was repeated in the design of the Russian imperial yacht Livadia with greater success. She proved to be comfortable and a good seakeeper. The two battleships and Livadia were christened 'Popovki', by Imperial decree. Popov's involvement with warship design and construction led to him being made an honorary associate of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects, in London. He died in Russia on 6 March 1898. ==Notes==