Shipbucket

With the catastrophic loss at Tsushima in 1905 Russia had lost most of its modern battle fleet. It was decided early on that the ships should have a speed over 21kts to gain an advantage over the Germans. The Russians did not believe that superfiring turrets were of any use as end-on-fire was seen as less important than broadside firepower as battle lines fire at each other in broadsides anyway.

At 181,2m long, a beam of 26,9m and a draft of 8,99m, the Gangut class displaced 24800t, 1500 more than designed. This gave them a freeboard that was 16 inches less than designed, giving them a slight bow trim that made them wet boats.

The main armament consisted of 12x52 caliber 12 inch guns in four triple turrets along the ships' length. The secondary battery were 16x4,7in guns in casemates jutting out of the sides of the hull.

Armor was subpar when compared to other european or American designs. The Russians believed that a layered amor system was superior as it could strip the shell of its cap and loose all energy. This however, did work as advertised. The belt was 8,9 inches at its thickest. The deck was protected by 2 inches of armor. The turret faces were 8 inches thick with 5,9 inches protecting the barbettes. The conning tower was protected by 10 inches of armor.

In total four ships were commisioned; Sevastopol in november 1914, Poltava in december 1914, Petropavlovsk in january 1915 and Gangut also in january, 1915.
The quartet saw little to no service during WWI as the German navy were rather busy fighting the British in the North Sea. All four ships joined the communists in the revolution, but only the Petropavlovsk saw any servic during the civil war as shortage of manpower had the other three ships laid up. A fire destroyed the Poltava's engine room, making her unfit for service. Proposals were made to repair her, but never saw to fruition. The remaining three ships were modernised in the early 30s and saw limited use in WWII as they were completely outdated and of little use to the Soviet navy. The Petropavlovsk, renamed to Marat was bombed and sank at her moorings in 1941 after her forward magazine blew up. The rear was raised and used as a flating AA battery. All two and a half ships saw service until the early-mid 50s when they were all scrapped.

Sevastopol as commisioned in 1914:


Originally drawn for the Austrio-Hungarian AU I made a recolored version for the real life Baltic Fleet. Pictures and websites say that the Baltic ships had a mid-gray coloring, leaning towards the darker side, whereas the Black Sea ships had a pale gray coloring.

Awesome drawing! Are we going to see the entire class throughout their lives, or is this a one-off?

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MS State Guard - 08 March 2014 - 28 January 2023

The Official IJN Ships & Planes List

#FJB

Dunno. I'm working on the Maria and Borodino for my AU. Might see more stuff later.

Sweet!

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MS State Guard - 08 March 2014 - 28 January 2023

The Official IJN Ships & Planes List

#FJB

Greetings!
I think that flags placed are a bit incorrect. This jack has to be placed on bow and this ensign has to be placed on the stern. Russian Imperial ships did not use the tricolor flag as far as I am concerned.

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«A sea is not a barrier, a sea is a road, and those who try to use the sea as an instrument of isolation soon realize their foe has already put the sea into his own service.». - Alfred Thayer Mahan.

Good work.
Only nit-pick - about flags - was already raised by Keisser.

I've updated some details on the turrets.

I've updated the drawing and replaced the Gangut with the Sevastopol as commissioned in 1914

This one kinda comes out of nowhere, and it's missing from the archives to boot, I present the last, and most modernised of the Ganguts, the Parizhkaya Kommuna.

In 1930 the Parizhkaya Kommuna was transferred from the Baltic to the Black Sea in response to the refurbishment and recommissioning of the Turkish battlecruiser Yavuz. Before she left she had a bow extension grafted over, which proved unsuccessful as it was torn of by rough seas and otherwise leaked and filled with water.

Parizhkaya Kommuna in 1930:


Drawing from the lessons learned from the previous rebuilds of the Maray and Oktyabrskaya Revolutsiya, the last rebuilt was to be even more extensive, and took 5 years to complete.

Parizhkaya Kommuna in 1938:


After her rebuild the ship proved to be quite top heavy and rocked and rolled quite heavily in rough seas. In late 1939 the ship went back into drydock to have blisters added. There was also a void space added between the original hull and the new blisters to help add buyancy.

Parizhkaya Kommuna in 1940:

Very nice work!

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MS State Guard - 08 March 2014 - 28 January 2023

The Official IJN Ships & Planes List

#FJB