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The ''General-Admiral''-class ships were a pair of
armored cruiser The armored cruiser was a type of warship of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was designed like other types of cruisers to operate as a long-range, independent warship, capable of defeating any ship apart from a battleship and fast en ...
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 ...
in the early 1870s. They are generally considered as the first true
armored cruiser The armored cruiser was a type of warship of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was designed like other types of cruisers to operate as a long-range, independent warship, capable of defeating any ship apart from a battleship and fast en ...
s.


Design and description

Originally classified as armored corvettes, the ''General-Admiral''s were redesignated as semi-
armored frigate A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied somewhat. The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and ...
s on 24 March 1875. They were laid out as central battery ironclads with the armament concentrated amidships. The ''General-Admiral''-class ships were long overall. They had a
beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy * Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy ** Laser beam * Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially localized g ...
of and a
draft Draft, The Draft, or Draught may refer to: Watercraft dimensions * Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel * Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail * Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a ves ...
of . The ships were designed to displace , but displaced as built, an increase of over . The iron-hulled ships were not fitted with a
ram Ram, ram, or RAM may refer to: Animals * A male sheep * Ram cichlid, a freshwater tropical fish People * Ram (given name) * Ram (surname) * Ram (director) (Ramsubramaniam), an Indian Tamil film director * RAM (musician) (born 1974), Dutch ...
and their crew numbered approximately 482 officers and men.Watts, p. 72 The ships had a vertical compound steam engine driving a single two-bladed, propeller, using steam provided by cylindrical boilers. The number of boilers differed between the sisters. ''General-Admiral'' had five that generated a working pressure of so that the engine produced . This gave her during a maximum speed around during her
sea trial A sea trial is the testing phase of a watercraft (including boats, ships, and submarines). It is also referred to as a " shakedown cruise" by many naval personnel. It is usually the last phase of construction and takes place on open water, and ...
s. ''Gerzog Edinburgski'' had four boilers and her engine made that propelled her at .Wright, pp. 44–45 The ''General-Admiral'' class carried a maximum of of coal which gave them an economical range of at a speed of . They were
ship A ship is a large watercraft that travels the world's oceans and other sufficiently deep waterways, carrying cargo or passengers, or in support of specialized missions, such as defense, research, and fishing. Ships are generally distinguishe ...
-rigged with three
mast Mast, MAST or MASt may refer to: Engineering * Mast (sailing), a vertical spar on a sailing ship * Flagmast, a pole for flying a flag * Guyed mast, a structure supported by guy-wires * Mooring mast, a structure for docking an airship * Radio mast ...
s. To reduce
drag Drag or The Drag may refer to: Places * Drag, Norway, a village in Tysfjord municipality, Nordland, Norway * ''Drág'', the Hungarian name for Dragu Commune in Sălaj County, Romania * Drag (Austin, Texas), the portion of Guadalupe Street adj ...
while under sail, the single
funnel A funnel is a tube or pipe that is wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, used for guiding liquid or powder into a small opening. Funnels are usually made of stainless steel, aluminium, glass, or plastic. The material used in its construc ...
was retractable and the propeller could be hoisted into the hull.Wright, p. 45 The sisters armament were four , two rifled breech-loading guns (RBL), and four early masnine-gun likes Engstrom guns. The ships had a complete
waterline The waterline is the line where the hull of a ship meets the surface of the water. Specifically, it is also the name of a special marking, also known as an international load line, Plimsoll line and water line (positioned amidships), that ind ...
belt of
wrought iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.08%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4%). It is a semi-fused mass of iron with fibrous slag inclusions (up to 2% by weight), which give it a wood-like "grain" ...
that ranged in thickness from 6 inches amidships to at the ends of the ships. The armor had a total height of , of which was below the waterline. The central
battery Battery most often refers to: * Electric battery, a device that provides electrical power * Battery (crime), a crime involving unlawful physical contact Battery may also refer to: Energy source *Automotive battery, a device to provide power t ...
was also protected by 6-inch armor plates.


Ships


Service

''General-Admiral'' had was blown ashore during a heavy storm at
Kronstadt Kronstadt (russian: Кроншта́дт, Kronshtadt ), also spelled Kronshtadt, Cronstadt or Kronštádt (from german: link=no, Krone for " crown" and ''Stadt'' for "city") is a Russian port city in Kronshtadtsky District of the federal city ...
in 1875, shortly after being completed. She did not participate in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78 and made one cruise in the
Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...
in the early 1880s. The ship spent 1884–85 in the
Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on th ...
before beginning a refit in 1886 during which she was partially re-boilered. ''General-Admiral'' had her boilers replaced, her funnel was replaced by two non-retractable funnels, and a fixed propeller was installed in 1892. The ship was reclassified as a 1st-class cruiser on 13 February 1892 and participated the Columibian Naval Review in
Hampton Roads Hampton Roads is the name of both a body of water in the United States that serves as a wide channel for the James River, James, Nansemond River, Nansemond and Elizabeth River (Virginia), Elizabeth rivers between Old Point Comfort and Sewell's ...
, Virginia, the following year. Afterwards she became a training ship. She became a school ship in 1906 and her armament was reduced accordingly. ''Gerzog Edinburgski'' was initially assigned to the Baltic Fleet, but made a lengthy Pacific cruise in 1881–84. She was refitted about 1890 in the same type as her sister's 1892 refit, although her engine and boilers were replaced in 1897. The ship became a training ship for
petty officer A petty officer (PO) is a non-commissioned officer in many navies and is given the NATO rank denotation OR-5 or OR-6. In many nations, they are typically equal to a sergeant in comparison to other military branches. Often they may be superio ...
s and was formally reclassified as a school ship like her sister in 1906. The sisters were converted into minelayers in 1908–11 and renamed after lakes near Saint Petersburg, ''General-Admiral'' became ''Narova'' and ''Gerzog Edinburgski'' was renamed ''Onega''. Their rigging was reduced to pole masts, their armament was reduced to four guns, and they could carry 600–800 mines. They both participated in numerous minelaying missions in the early years of World War I, but ''Onega'' was
hulked A hulk is a ship that is afloat, but incapable of going to sea. Hulk may be used to describe a ship that has been launched but not completed, an abandoned wreck or shell, or to refer to an old ship that has had its rigging or internal equipment ...
in 1915 as ''Blokshiv No. 9'' and became a mine storage ship in Helsinki. ''Narova'', however, continued to lay mines throughout the war. The
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (also known as the Treaty of Brest in Russia) was a separate peace treaty signed on 3 March 1918 between Russia and the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire), that ended Russia's ...
required the Soviets to evacuate their base in March 1918 or have them interned by newly independent
Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bo ...
, even though the
Gulf of Finland The Gulf of Finland ( fi, Suomenlahti; et, Soome laht; rus, Фи́нский зали́в, r=Finskiy zaliv, p=ˈfʲinskʲɪj zɐˈlʲif; sv, Finska viken) is the easternmost arm of the Baltic Sea. It extends between Finland to the north and E ...
was still frozen over. The sisters were not included in the initial group of evacuated ships and were only permitted to leave in May for Kronstadt after lengthy negotiations with the Germans. Narova's crew joined the Soviets and she was used to mine the approaches to Petrograd later that year against the British forces operating in the
Gulf of Finland The Gulf of Finland ( fi, Suomenlahti; et, Soome laht; rus, Фи́нский зали́в, r=Finskiy zaliv, p=ˈfʲinskʲɪj zɐˈlʲif; sv, Finska viken) is the easternmost arm of the Baltic Sea. It extends between Finland to the north and E ...
against the Soviets. She was renamed ''Dvadsatpyatavo Oktyabrya'' (25 October) in 1922Wright, pp. 44, 49, 51 The ultimate fates of the sisters are not exactly known. ''Blokshiv No. 9'' was apparently broken up in the 1920s while ''Dvadsatpyatavo Oktyabrya'' became a mine storage hulk in 1938 before being sunk as a breakwater in the
Neva River The Neva (russian: Нева́, ) is a river in northwestern Russia flowing from Lake Ladoga through the western part of Leningrad Oblast (historical region of Ingria) to the Neva Bay of the Gulf of Finland. Despite its modest length of , it ...
around 1959.


Notes


Footnotes


Bibliography

* * * * * {{Cruisers of the Imperial Russian Navy Cruisers of the Imperial Russian Navy