Russian cruiser Rossia

Rossia was originally intended to be a repeat of the armored cruiser , but the Director of the Naval Ministry wanted the armor to cover more of the ship's side. However the design went through a number of changes during late 1892 and early 1893 and incorporated a number of technological advances that had recently become available. One notable change was the deletion of Ruriks sailing rig. General characteristics Rossia was long overall. She had a maximum beam of and a draught of . She displaced , only more than designed. Rossia was sheathed in wood and copper to reduce fouling. She was considered to be a good sea boat with a smooth roll—attributable to her tumblehome sides. Propulsion In an effort to extend her range, Rossia was built with an unusual machinery arrangement. One large vertical triple expansion (VTE) steam engine drove each of the outer propeller shafts while a small cruising VTE engine drove the center shaft. At full speed the center propeller had to be uncoupled as there was not enough steam to drive all three engines simultaneously; the outer propellers were uncoupled when cruising. The two main engines were designed for a total of , but they developed on trials and drove the ship to a maximum speed of . The cruising engine developed . Thirty-two Belleville water-tube boilers provided steam for the engines. She could carry a maximum of of coal. This gave her a radius of action of at . Armament Rossias main armament consisted of four 203mm 45 caliber Pattern 1892| 45-caliber Pattern 1892 guns, one at each end of the ship on each side, sponsoned out over the tumblehome of the ship's sides. They were protected by gun shields. The guns could be depressed to −5° and elevated to 18°. They fired projectiles at a muzzle velocity of which gave a range of at 13° elevation. Her secondary armament consisted of sixteen 152 mm 45 caliber Pattern 1892|/45 Pattern 1892 guns. One gun was mounted under the forecastle and another in the stern; neither gun could fire to the side. The remaining guns were mounted in hull embrasures. In their pivot mounts the guns could depress to -6° and elevate to +20°. They fired Pattern 1907 high explosive projectiles at a muzzle velocity of . This gave a range of at maximum elevation. Rossia carried 210 rounds per gun. Defense against torpedo boats was provided by a variety of light-caliber weapons. Twelve Canet Pattern 1892 50-caliber guns were mounted in sponsons on the upper deck, protected by gun shields. The gun fired shells to a range of about at its maximum elevation of 21° with a muzzle velocity of . The rate of fire was between twelve and fifteen rounds per minute. A total of twenty QF 3-pounder Hotchkiss| Hotchkiss guns were carried. Eighteen Hotchkiss guns were also carried. Five above-water torpedo tubes were mounted. Armor Rossia used newly developed Harvey armor which saved considerable weight over the steel armor used by Rurik for the same amount of protection. Her waterline belt extended from the stern to short of the bow. It extended above the waterline and below the waterline. It was thick amidships, but reduced to six inches fore and abaft the machinery spaces and to at the stern. The belt tapered to a thickness of at its lower edge. It was closed off at the forward end by a transverse bulkhead. A protective deck ran forward from the bulkhead to the bow. The main armored deck was thick, but a five-inch glacis projected above it to protect the tops of the engine cylinders. The conning tower had walls thick. The funnel uptakes were protected by of armor between the lower and middle decks. ==Operational history==

Rossia was built by the Baltic Works in Saint Petersburg. Construction began in October 1893 although she was not formally laid down until 20 May 1895 and launched on 30 April 1896. After her launch, she was towed to Kronstadt for fitting-out, Rossia entered service in late 1896 and participated in Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee Fleet Review in June 1897 at Spithead. She returned to Kronstadt to finish her trials before sailing for the Far East in October. She reached Nagasaki, Japan on 10 March 1898 and remained in the Pacific until the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904. Russo-Japanese War At the start of the Russo-Japanese War, Rossia was under the command of Captain Andrei Parfenovich Andreev, and was the flagship of the Vladivostok Cruiser Squadron under the overall command of Rear Admiral Karl Jessen. The other ships in the squadron were the armored cruisers and as well as the protected cruiser . The squadron made a number of sorties against Japanese shipping early in the war, but only one was reasonably successful when the transport Hitachi Maru, carrying eighteen siege howitzers and over 1000 troops intended for the siege of Port Arthur, was sunk in June 1904. On an earlier sortie in May 1904 Rossia flew an observation balloon off her quarterdeck to (unsuccessfully) locate Japanese shipping; the first use of an aerial device by a warship on the high seas during a time of war. ; note the holes in the shipAdmiral Jessen turned to the northeast when he spotted the Japanese at 5:00 a.m. and they followed suit, albeit on a slightly converging course. Both sides opened fire around 05:23 at a range of . The Japanese ships concentrated their fire on Rurik, the rear ship of the Russian formation. She was hit fairly quickly and began to fall astern of the other two ships. Admiral Jessen turned southeast in an attempt to open the range, but this blinded the Russian gunners and prevented any of their broadside guns from bearing on the Japanese. About 06:00 Admiral Jessen turned 180° to starboard in an attempt to reach the Korean coast and to allow Rurik to rejoin the squadron. Admiral Kamimura followed suit around 06:10, but turned to port, which opened the range between the squadrons. Azuma developed engine problems around this time so the Japanese squadron slowed to conform with her best speed. Firing recommenced at 06:24 and Rurik was hit three times in the stern, flooding her steering compartment so that she had to be steered with her engines. Her speed continued to decrease, further exposing her to Japanese fire, and her steering jammed to port around 06:40. Admiral Jessen made another 180° turn in an attempt to interpose his two ships between the Japanese and Rurik, but the latter ship suddenly turn to starboard and increased speed and passed between Jessen's ships and the Japanese. Admiral Kamimura turned 180° as well so that both squadrons were heading southeast on parallel courses, but Admiral Jessen quickly made another 180° turn so that they headed on opposing courses. Iwate was hit around this time which knocked out three six-inch and one twelve-pounder guns, killing 32 and wounding 43. The Japanese squadron opened the range again when it made a 180° another turn to port. The Russians reversed course for the third time around 07:45 in another attempt to support Rurik although Rossia was on fire herself. Her fires were extinguished about twenty minutes later. Admiral Kamimura circled Rurik to the south at 08:00 and allowed the other two Russian ships to get to his north and gave them an uncontested route to Vladivostok. Despite this, Admiral Jessen turned back once more at 08:15 and ordered Rurik to make her own way back to Vladivostok before turning north at his maximum speed, about . About this time Admiral Kamimura's two elderly protected cruisers, and were approaching from the south. Their arrival allowed Kamimura to pursue Jessen with all of his armored cruisers. They fought a running battle with the Russians for the next hour and a half; scoring enough hits on them to force their speed down to . Azumas engines again broke down during this chase and she was replaced in the line by Tokiwa. The Japanese closed to a minimum of about , but Admiral Kamimura then opened the range up to . Rossia suffered only 44 dead and 156 wounded; far less than Gromobois 87 dead and 170 wounded. This was attributable to Rossias captain's policy of ordering the gun crews for his quick-firing guns on the engaged side to lay down and those on the unengaged side to go below, in contrast to the other ship keeping her light guns manned at all times. Rossia had been hit nineteen times on the starboard side of her hull and nine on her port side, plus other hits in her funnels, boats and decks. She had half of her guns knocked out and a fire caused by the ignition of excess propellant charges. Despite this number of hits, she was not badly damaged because her waterline belt was not penetrated by any hit. She was repaired within two months by the rudimentary facilities available at Vladivostok. Rossia made no further effort to interfere with Japanese shipping during the war. Interwar period Rossia returned to Kronstadt, arriving on 8 April 1906, where she was given a lengthy refit that was finished in 1909. Her engines and boilers were reconditioned, her mainmast was removed and she received additional six-inch guns. Six more guns in lightly armored casemates were added on the upper deck, positioned on each side in the intervals between the main-deck six-inch guns. In addition the bow gun was moved to the upper deck to allow it to fire to each side. This increased the ship's broadside by four guns. Rossia represented Russia at King George V's Coronation Fleet Review in June 1911. She departed Kronstadt in September 1912 for a training cruise to the Canaries and the Virgin Islands, returning to the Baltic in time to visit Copenhagen in March 1913 in company with the protected cruisers and . She left for another training cruise to the Azores in September 1913 and was cruising in the Mediterranean in April 1914. In January 1915 she laid a minefield in company with Oleg and Bogatyr between Kiel and the Mecklenburg coast that damaged the German light cruisers and . She was refloated in August 1923, towed to Kiel, and broken up. ==Notes==