The ''Osetr'' class were a group of

submarine A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...

s built for the

Imperial Russian Navy The Imperial Russian Navy () operated as the navy of the Russian Tsardom and later the Russian Empire from 1696 to 1917. Formally established in 1696, it lasted until dissolved in the wake of the February Revolution of 1917. It developed from ...

during the

Russo–Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...

. The boats were ordered in the 1904 emergency programme. The boats were designed by American engineer

Simon Lake Simon Lake (September 4, 1866 – June 23, 1945) was a Quaker American mechanical engineer and naval architect who obtained over two hundred patents for advances in naval design and competed with John Philip Holland to build the first submarines f ...

and had wheels fitted for moving around on the sea bed as well as wet/dry chambers for divers. ''Osetr'' was the former ''Protector'' sold by Lake to the Russians and re-assembled in Russia. The diving depth was around .

Ships

All ships were built by the Lake company at the Libau Arsenal (Latvia) and were launched in 1904

References

* Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921 {{DEFAULTSORT:Osetr Submarine classes Submarines of the Imperial Russian Navy