Russian Monitor Vitse-admiral Popov
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''Vitse-admiral Popov'' was a
monitor Monitor or monitor may refer to: Places * Monitor, Alberta * Monitor, Indiana, town in the United States * Monitor, Kentucky * Monitor, Oregon, unincorporated community in the United States * Monitor, Washington * Monitor, Logan County, Wes ...
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 being dissolved in the wake of the February Revolution and the declaration of ...
in the 1870s. It was one of the most unusual
warship A warship or combatant ship is a naval ship that is used for naval warfare. Usually they belong to the navy branch of the armed forces of a nation, though they have also been operated by individuals, cooperatives and corporations. As well as b ...
s ever constructed, and still survives in popular naval lore as one of the worst warships ever built. The hull was circular to reduce draught while allowing the ship to carry much more armour and a heavier armament than other ships of the same size. ''Vitse-admiral Popov'' played a minor role in the
Russo-Turkish War The Russo-Turkish wars ( ), or the Russo-Ottoman wars (), began in 1568 and continued intermittently until 1918. They consisted of twelve conflicts in total, making them one of the longest series of wars in the history of Europe. All but four of ...
of 1877–78 and was reclassified as a coast-defence
ironclad An ironclad was a steam engine, steam-propelled warship protected by iron armour, steel or iron armor constructed from 1859 to the early 1890s. The ironclad was developed as a result of the vulnerability of wooden warships to explosive or ince ...
in 1892. The ship was decommissioned in 1903 and sold for
scrap Scrap consists of recyclable materials, usually metals, left over from product manufacturing and consumption, such as parts of vehicles, building supplies, and surplus materials. Unlike waste, scrap can have monetary value, especially recover ...
in 1911.


Background

In 1868, the Scottish shipbuilder John Elder published an article that advocated that widening the
beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Radio beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially lo ...
of a ship would reduce the area that needed to be protected and allow it to carry thicker armour and heavier, more powerful guns in comparison to a normal ship. In addition such a ship would have a shallower draught and that only a moderate increase in power would be required to match the speed of the normal ship. Sir Edward Reed, then
Director of Naval Construction The Director of Naval Construction (DNC) also known as the Department of the Director of Naval Construction and Directorate of Naval Construction and originally known as the Chief Constructor of the Navy was a senior principal civil officer res ...
of the
Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...
, agreed with Elder's conclusions.
Rear-Admiral Rear admiral is a flag officer rank used by English-speaking navies. In most European navies, the equivalent rank is called counter admiral. Rear admiral is usually immediately senior to commodore and immediately below vice admiral. It is ...
Andrei Alexandrovich Popov Andrei Alexandrovich Popov () (21 September 1821 - 6 March 1898) was an officer of the Imperial Russian Navy, who saw action during the Crimean War, and became a noted naval designer. Popov trained for the navy, and commanded ships before and du ...
of the Imperial Russian Navy further broadened Elder's concept by broadening the ship so that it was actually circular and he made the design flat-bottomed, unlike Elder's convex hull, to minimise its draught. Popov's design was intended to meet an 1869 requirement to defend the Dnieper-Bug Estuary and the
Kerch Strait The Kerch Strait is a strait in Eastern Europe. It connects the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, separating the Kerch Peninsula of Crimea in the west from the Taman Peninsula of Russia's Krasnodar Krai in the east. The strait is to wide and up ...
. The requirement was for very heavily armoured ships of draught and armed with
rifled Rifling is the term for helical grooves machined into the internal surface of a firearms's barrel for imparting a spin to a projectile to improve its aerodynamic stability and accuracy. It is also the term (as a verb) for creating such groove ...
guns, four of which should cost no more than four million
ruble The ruble or rouble (; rus, рубль, p=rublʲ) is a currency unit. Currently, currencies named ''ruble'' in circulation include the Russian ruble (RUB, ₽) in Russia and the Belarusian ruble (BYN, Rbl) in Belarus. These currencies are s ...
s. The met all of the requirements except that their armament was not powerful enough, so General-Admiral Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich selected Popov's circular design in late December 1869. A model was built with a circular hull and performed well during tests in the
Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...
at
St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...
in April 1870; when
Tsar Tsar (; also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar''; ; ; sr-Cyrl-Latn, цар, car) is a title historically used by Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word '' caesar'', which was intended to mean ''emperor'' in the Euro ...
Alexander II received reports of the trials, he nicknamed the ship a "popovka", after the designer. Popov's initial design proved to be too grandiose and had to be scaled down. On 24 October, the Tsar approved his design for a ship in diameter, armed with two 11-inch guns, and protected by of armour. It was estimated to cost 1.94 million rubles per ship and the total cost of the programme, including improvements to the shipyards, would cost 8.5 million rubles. For further testing, the ''Kambala'' (''Flounder''), a circular ship in diameter, was built in 1871. Equipped with two engines of eight
nominal horsepower Horsepower (hp) is a unit of measurement of power, or the rate at which work is done, usually in reference to the output of engines or motors. There are many different standards and types of horsepower. Two common definitions used today are th ...
each, her trials during that summer were considered a success. ''Vitse-admiral Popov'' was begun as the second ship of the
class Class, Classes, or The Class may refer to: Common uses not otherwise categorized * Class (biology), a taxonomic rank * Class (knowledge representation), a collection of individuals or objects * Class (philosophy), an analytical concept used d ...
, after , but Popov took the opportunity, when construction of the ship was suspended shortly after it began, to massively enlarge the ship to accommodate larger, more powerful guns and heavier armour. The Tsar approved the new design on 25 August 1873 although construction did not resume immediately. He also renamed the ship from ''Kiev'' to ''Vitse-admiral Popov'', after her designer, on 21 October.


Description

''Vitse-admiral Popov'' was not perfectly circular like the earlier ship; she had an
overall length The overall length (OAL) of an ammunition cartridge is a measurement from the base of the brass shell casing to the tip of the bullet, seated into the brass casing. Cartridge overall length, or "COL", is important to safe functioning of reloads i ...
of and 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 *Radio beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially lo ...
of . Her hull had a draught of , but her propellers stuck out well below the bottom of the hull to a depth of . The ship displaced nearly 50% more at
full load The displacement or displacement tonnage of a ship is its weight. As the term indicates, it is measured indirectly, using Archimedes' principle, by first calculating the volume of water displaced by the ship, then converting that value into weig ...
than did ''Novgorod'' although her
freeboard In sailing and boating, a vessel's freeboard is the distance from the waterline to the upper deck level, measured at the lowest point of sheer where water can enter the boat or ship. In commercial vessels, the latter criterion measured relativ ...
remained . Like the earlier ship the deck curved upwards to the gun
barbette Barbettes are several types of gun emplacement in terrestrial fortifications or on naval ships. In recent naval usage, a barbette is a protective circular armour support for a heavy gun turret. This evolved from earlier forms of gun protection ...
in the center, but the barbette was entirely enclosed by a large unarmoured
superstructure A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of physical structures such as buildings, bridges, or ships. Aboard ships and large boats On water craft, the superstruct ...
that included accommodations for an admiral and his staff. She had a crew of 19 officers and 187 ratings. Her
bluff Bluff or The Bluff may refer to: Places Australia * Bluff, Queensland, Australia, a town * The Bluff, Queensland (Ipswich), a rural locality in the city of Ipswich * The Bluff, Queensland (Toowoomba Region), a rural locality * Bluff River (New ...
hull form meant that she lost speed in heavy weather and, in some conditions, the ship could pitch enough to place her propellers out of the water. The biggest drawback to her hull shape was that it greatly reduced the
rudder A rudder is a primary control surface used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, airship, or other vehicle that moves through a fluid medium (usually air or water). On an airplane, the rudder is used primarily to counter adverse yaw ...
's ability to turn the ship by masking much of the flow of water; so much so that it took 40–45 minutes to make a full circle and the ship was almost unsteerable in a severe storm. The solution adopted was to use the engines for steering and leave the rudder fixed, even though this reduced the ship's speed. During a Force 7 storm, ''Vitse-admiral Popov''s
captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...
wrote that: "the vessel took on a lot of water through the hatches in front of the ventilators... The steering wheel was torn out of ne's/nowiki> hands, and the vessel did not answer the helm; it was necessary to steer by means of the engines, and to make fast the rudder." The ship had eight vertical compound-expansion steam engines built by the Baird Works, using steam provided by twelve cylindrical boilers. The two inboard shafts were each driven by two engines, while the remaining four engines each powered a single propeller shaft. The two inboard three-bladed propellers were in diameter and the others were four-bladed and only in diameter. The engines produced a total of which gave her a speed of around . ''Vitse-admiral Popov''s propulsion machinery proved problematic throughout her life as a result of defective workmanship and poor-quality materials. Her blunt hull form was not conducive to efficient steaming and she proved to be a prodigious consumer of coal as her capacity of only gave her range of at full speed. The ship had ventilation problems throughout her career, despite the later addition of a ventilation engine from the ironclad . ''Vitse-admiral Popov'' was armed with two 20-
calibre In guns, particularly firearms, but not artillery, where a different definition may apply, caliber (or calibre; sometimes abbreviated as "cal") is the specified nominal internal diameter of the gun barrel bore – regardless of how or wher ...
rifled muzzle-loading guns. The guns fired shells at a
muzzle velocity Muzzle velocity is the speed of a projectile (bullet, pellet, slug, ball/ shots or shell) with respect to the muzzle at the moment it leaves the end of a gun's barrel (i.e. the muzzle). Firearm muzzle velocities range from approximately t ...
of . They were intended to use Moncrieff-type disappearing gun mounts that were elevated to fire and retracted below the top of the barbette to reload. The mounts were ordered from Britain, but tensions were at a high level in late 1876 and the Russians feared that the mounts would not be delivered on time. So scaled-up versions of the mounts used in ''Novgorod'' were built, although they proved not to be robust enough to handle the weight and recoil of the guns. Gunnery trials in October–November showed the weaknesses of the mounts and damaged the adjacent superstructure. Further trials were conducted in April 1877 and were deemed satisfactory by the navy, although naval personnel still considered the mounts too weak.McLaughlin, pp. 119–20 Rear Admiral N. M. Chikhachev, commander of Odessa's naval defences during the Russo-Turkish War, reported that the guns could be fired at full power only "in case of extreme necessity". The British-built mounts were delivered in early 1878, but were not installed until late in the year. They were traversed by a pair of steam engines that also powered the hydraulic systems that controlled recoil and elevation. Gunnery trials conducted in November showed that the system worked smoothly, although reloading time was around 14 minutes per gun. For protection against
torpedo boat A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval ship designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs were steam-powered craft dedicated to ramming enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes. Later evolutions launched variants of ...
s, four 4-pounder guns were mounted near the
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 constructi ...
s. These guns fired a shell at a muzzle velocity of to a range of . Popov nearly doubled the thickness of the armour on ''Vitse-admiral Popov'' compared to that on ''Novgorod''. The design was complicated by the inability of the
Izhorskiye Zavody Izhorskiye Zavody or Izhora Plants () is a Russian machine building joint stock company (OAO) belonging to the OMZ Group. It operates a major manufacturing plant in Kolpino, Saint Petersburg. Operations The company is primarily a heavy ind ...
ironworks An ironworks or iron works is an industrial plant where iron is smelted and where heavy iron and steel products are made. The term is both singular and plural, i.e. the singular of ''ironworks'' is ''ironworks''. Ironworks succeeded bloome ...
to roll armour plates more than thick, so Popov decided to build a "sandwich" of armour. The outer
belt armour Belt armor is a layer of heavy metal armor plated onto or within the outer hulls of warships, typically on battleships, battlecruisers and cruisers, and aircraft carriers. The belt armor is designed to prevent projectiles from penetrating to ...
was separated by 9 inches of
teak Teak (''Tectona grandis'') is a tropical hardwood tree species in the family Lamiaceae. It is a large, deciduous tree that occurs in mixed hardwood forests. ''Tectona grandis'' has small, fragrant white flowers arranged in dense clusters (panic ...
reinforced by interlocking
channel iron Structural steel is steel used for making construction materials in a variety of shapes. Many structural steel shapes take the form of an elongated beam having a profile of a specific cross section. Structural steel shapes, sizes, chemical comp ...
s from the inner armour layer, which was itself backed by another 9 inches of teak and channel irons. The upper
strake On a vessel's Hull (watercraft), hull, a strake is a longitudinal course of Plank (wood), planking or Plate (metal), plating which runs from the boat's stem (ship), stempost (at the Bow (ship), bows) to the stern, sternpost or transom (nautica ...
of the outer armour was also 9 inches thick and the lower was thick. The inner armour was also 7 inches thick, which gave a total thickness of at the
waterline The waterline is the line where the hull of a ship meets the surface of the water. A waterline can also refer to any line on a ship's hull that is parallel to the water's surface when the ship is afloat in a level trimmed position. Hence, wate ...
and below it. The armour of the ship's
barbette Barbettes are several types of gun emplacement in terrestrial fortifications or on naval ships. In recent naval usage, a barbette is a protective circular armour support for a heavy gun turret. This evolved from earlier forms of gun protection ...
was identical to that of the upper strake of the belt armour. The rounded deck was protected by a total of of armour, made up of three layers of plates ranging in thickness from .


Construction and career

Unlike the earlier popovka, ''Novgorod'', ''Vitse-admiral Popov'' (that has originally name ''Kyiv'') was built at the Nikolaev Admiralty Shipyard. Construction began in January 1872, but was halted in mid-1872 when all of her workers were transferred to expedite the completion of ''Novgorod''. Popov had already received approval to change the horizontal engines to vertical ones in March 1872 and decided to improve the ship based on the trials of ''Novgorod'' during the delay. The redesign meant that some of the work already completed had to be dismantled during late 1873 before construction began again in early 1874. The nominal
keel-laying Laying the keel or laying down is the formal recognition of the start of a ship's construction. It is often marked with a ceremony attended by dignitaries from the shipbuilding company and the ultimate owners of the ship. Keel laying is one ...
ceremony was on 8 September and she was launched on 7 October 1875. ''Vitse-admiral Popov'' was completed and entered service in 1876. During the Russo-Turkish War, she was assigned to the defense of Odessa and her armament was reinforced by a pair of four-pounder guns mounted on the bridge wings. At some point early in her career, ''Vitse-admiral Popov'' was fitted with a telescoping
spar torpedo A spar torpedo is a weapon consisting of a bomb placed at the end of a long pole, or spar, and attached to a boat. The weapon is used by running the end of the spar into the enemy ship. Spar torpedoes were often equipped with a barbed spear at ...
. Together with ''Novgorod'', the ship made a cruise to the Romanian town of
Sulina Sulina () is a town and free port in Tulcea County, Northern Dobruja, Romania, at the mouth of the Sulina branch of the Danube. It is the easternmost point of Romania. History During the mid-Byzantine period, Sulina was a small cove, and in th ...
on the
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in mid-1878. Testing before the war revealed that the larger inboard propellers were more effective than the smaller outboard ones and that there was insufficient steam produced to supply all the engines, but the war delayed plans to remove the outermost pair until 1878. This reduced her total power to and her speed by about . After the war the ship received armoured covers for her
engine room On a ship, the engine room (ER) is the Compartment (ship), compartment where the machinery for marine propulsion is located. The engine room is generally the largest physical compartment of the machinery space. It houses the vessel's prime move ...
skylight and the central barbette hatch to protect against plunging fire. In 1883, ''Vitse-admiral Popov'' was reboilered and her old boilers were refurbished and transferred to ''Novgorod''. She was reclassified as a coast-defence ironclad on 13 February 1892 by which time her armament had been augmented by two quick-firing Hotchkiss five-barreled revolving cannon. These guns had a range of and a
rate of fire Rate of fire is the frequency at which a specific weapon can fire or launch its projectiles. This can be influenced by several factors, including operator training level, mechanical limitations, ammunition availability, and weapon condition. In m ...
of 32 rounds per minute. By the following year her hull and machinery were in poor condition. The ship was turned over to the Port Authority of Nikolaev for disposal on 2 May 1903 and stricken from the navy list on 4 July. ''Vitse-admiral Popov'' was offered for sale to Bulgaria in 1908, but the offer was not taken up. The ship was sold for scrap in December 1911.


Myths and reality

In his book, ''The World's Worst Warships'', naval historian
Antony Preston Antony Martin Douglas Leslie William Calhoun Preston (26 February 1938 – 25 December 2004) was an English naval historian and editor, specialising in the area of 19th and 20th-century naval history and warship design. Life Antony Pres ...
characterised the popovkas like this:
But in other respects, they were a dismal failure. They were too slow to stem the current in the Dniepr, and proved very difficult to steer. In practice the discharge of even one gun caused them to turn out of control and even contra-rotating some of six propellers was unable to keep the ship on the correct heading. Nor could they cope with the rough weather which is frequently encountered in the Black Sea. They were prone to rapid rolling and pitching in anything more than a flat calm, and could not aim or load their guns under such circumstances.
The design of these ships was very controversial while they were being built in the 1870s, with many articles being published in the newspapers of the day by supporters and detractors, and later picked up by historians. One such account, published in 1875, claimed that ''Novgorod'' made an uncontrollable turn while on the Dniepr, while Reed, describing a time when the ship's engines on one side were reversed during a cruise in
Sevastopol Bay Sevastopol Bay (; ) is a city harbor that includes a series of smaller bays carved out along its shores. The bay of Sevastopol splits the city of Sevastopol into the Southern side and the Northern side. It serves as an extension of the Chorna (r ...
, wrote: "The circular form is so extremely favourable to this kind of handiness that the ''Novgorod'' can easily be revolved on her centre at a speed which quickly makes one giddy. She can, nevertheless, be promptly brought to rest, and, if, needed have her rotary motion reversed."Quoted in McLaughlin, p. 124 It would seem probable that the two reports quoted above were combined into the story as given by Fred T. Jane: "On a trial cruise, they (''Novgorod'' and ''Vitse-admiral Popov'') went up the Dniepr very nicely for some distance, till they turned to retire. Then the current caught them, and they were carried out to sea, whirled helplessly round and round, every soul on board helplessly incapacitated by vertigo." The other criticisms made by Preston have been discussed earlier and the opinion of naval historian Stephen McLaughlin is a reasonable assessment of these ships:
In the final analysis, the popovkas seem to have been relatively effective coast-defence vessels; certainly their combination of armament and armour could have only been carried by a conventional ship of much greater draught. Their faults – and they certainly had faults — were exaggerated by critics, both in Russia and abroad, and have left as a legacy stories of uncontrollable ships designed by incompetent men.McLaughlin, p. 125
A detailed review of Russian circular ironclads has been made by Roffey in 1974 with photos and information available at that time 8/sup>


Notes


Footnotes

< 18 ^ Roffey, pp 218-239 />


Bibliography

* * * * Roffey, Clifford George(1974) "The Popoffkas" in Warship International, Vol 11, No 3, pages 218–239, Publisher International Naval Research Organization, ISSN 0043-0374


Further reading

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External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vitse-admiral Popov 1875 ships Naval ships of Russia Ironclad warships of the Imperial Russian Navy Ships built at Shipyard named after 61 Communards Ships built in the Russian Empire