The design of
Imperator Nikolai I was based on that of the British first-rate ship of the line . The ship was long
between perpendiculars, with a
beam of and a maximum
draft of . The ship
displaced and measured 3,469 tons
bm. She was equipped with an imported British
Humphrys and Tennant steam engine of 600
nominal horsepower that drove a single propeller shaft. Initially rated as a 124-gun ship of the line,
Imperator Nikolai I was rerated while under construction as a 111-gun ship. All of her guns were
smoothbores and they consisted of one 60-pounder gun on a
pivot mount, twenty 60-pounder guns, 32 long and 26 short 36-pounders and thirty 36-pounder
gunnades. The ship was
laid down on 26 June 1855 at the
New Admiralty Shipyard in
St. Petersburg with the name of
Imperator Aleksandr I, but she was renamed on 28 July 1855.
Imperator Nikolai I was
launched on 18 July 1860 and conducted her
sea trials after the installation of her engines and machinery was completed on 1 June 1861. She was considered for conversion to an
ironclad in 1862–63, but no work was actually done.
Imperator Nikolai I served as a gunnery training ship from 1862 to 1866 with the Baltic Fleet; she also served as a troop transport in 1863–64. The ship was stricken on 26 January 1874. ==Notes==