Russian battleship Borodino
| Battleship Borodino | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Name | Borodino |
| Builder | Admiralty Shipyards, Saint Petersburg |
| Laid down | July 1899 |
| Launched | September 1901 |
| Completed | August 1904 |
| Commissioned | 1 September 1904 |
| Fate | Sunk at the Battle of Tsushima, 27 May 1905 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Borodino-class battleship |
| Displacement | list error: <br /> list (help) 13,516 long tons (13,733 t) standard 14,151 long tons (14,378 t) full load |
| Length | 121 m (397 ft) |
| Beam | 23.2 m (76 ft) |
| Draught | 8.9 m (29 ft) |
| Propulsion | list error: <br /> list (help) 2 shaft reciprocating vertical triple-expansion (VTE) steam engines 12 Belleville coal-fired boilers 15,800 ihp (11,800 kW) 1,580 tons coal |
| Speed | 18 knots (21 mph; 33 km/h) |
| Complement | 28 officers, 754 men |
| Armament | list error: <br /> list (help) • 4 × 305 mm (12 in) guns (2×2) • 12 × 152 mm (6 in) guns (6×2) • 20 × 75 mm (3 in) guns (20×1) • 20 × 47 mm (2 in) guns (20×1) • 4 × 381 mm (15 in) torpedo tubes |
| Armour | list error: <br /> list (help) Krupp armour Belt: 193 mm (7.6 in) Turrets: 254 mm (10 in) max Deck: 51 mm (2 in) Anti-torpedo bulkhead: 25 mm (1 in) |
The Borodino (Russian: Бородино) was the class leader of the Borodino-class battleship, and the second ship of her class to be completed. The ship was named after the 1812 Battle of Borodino. Borodino was lost at the Battle of Tsushima on 27 May 1905 due to explosions set off by a Japanese shell hitting a 6-inch magazine. There was only one survivor out of a crew of 785 officers and men.
Description
Borodino was 389 feet 5 inches (118.69 m) long at the waterline and 397 feet 3 inches (121.1 m) long overall, with a beam of 76 feet 1 inch (23.2 m) and a draft of 29 feet 2 inches (8.9 m), 38 inches (965 mm) more than designed. Her normal displacement was 14,151 long tons (14,378 t), almost 500 long tons (508 t) more than her designed displacement of 13,516 long tons (13,733 t).[1]
Two 4-cylinder vertical triple expansion steam engines drove four-bladed propellers, with twelve Belleville water-tube boilers providing steam to the engines at a pressure of 19 standard atmospheres (1,925 kPa; 279 psi). The engines and boilers were both built by the Baltic Works. The engines had a total designed output of 15,800 indicated horsepower (11,782 kW), but they produced 16,378 ihp (12,213 kW) on trials and gave a top speed of 17.64 knots (32.67 km/h; 20.30 mph). At full load she carried 1,350 long tons (1,372 t) of coal that provided her a range of 2,590 nautical miles (4,800 km; 2,980 mi) at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph). She had four steam-driven dynamos, each with a capacity of 150 kW, and two auxiliary generators with a capacity of 64 kW each.[2]
Borodino's 12 inch 40 caliber guns were mounted in two twin-gun turrets, one each fore and aft. They had a rate of fire of about one round per minute. Sixty rounds per gun were carried. The twelve 45-caliber 6-inch (152 mm) guns were mounted in six electrically powered twin-gun turrets carried on the upper deck. They had a practical rate of fire of approximately three rounds per minute and were provided with 180 rounds per gun. Four of the twenty 75-millimeter (3.0 in) guns used against torpedo boats were mounted in casemates just below the forward main gun turret, two on each side. These guns were placed well above the waterline for use in any weather, unlike the remaining sixteen guns, which were mounted in casemates one deck lower and distributed over the length of the ship, close to the water. The unsuitability of the lower deck guns was graphically demonstrated when Borodino's sister ship Imperator Aleksander III made a high-speed turn during her trials, heeling 15°, and began taking water through the lower casemates. Each gun had 300 rounds available. All but four of her 47-millimeter (1.9 in) Hotchkiss guns were removed before she was completed and the remaining guns were used as saluting guns. She carried four 15-inch (381 mm) torpedo tubes, one above water in the bow and one in the stern with two torpedoes each, and a submerged tube on each side forward with three torpedoes each. Two of these were removed before 1904, although it is not known which ones were retained.[3] Borodino was laid down in July 1899, launched in December 1901 and commissioned in August 1904.
Service
Borodino sailed as part of the Russian Baltic Fleet in October 1904, for the Pacific. While under way, the fleet was redesignated the Second Pacific Squadron.[4] She formed part of Admiral Zinovy Rozhestvensky's battle line at the Battle of Tsushima on 27 May 1905.[5] Russian ships, including Borodino, started firing at 2:05 PM. After about an hour of combat, Borodino had a heavy starboard list and a severe fire aboard due to Japanese high explosive shell hits.[6] An hour later, as her sister ship Knyaz Suvorov was limping away from the battle-line, Borodino turned south and led the Russian battle-line out of Japanese sight.[7] As Japanese cruisers closed in, Borodino's captain turned the battle-line north again to face the Japanese, whom they re-engaged about two hours after they had disappeared from sight.[7] The Japanese focussed fire on her and her sister ship Imperator Alexsander III, thus further increasing their starboard lists.[7] Soon, Japanese torpedo boats converged on the two ships. Although she was able to fend off the torpedo boats, Borodino was struck in one of her secondary batteries, a 152-millimeter (6.0 in) turret by a 305-millimeter (12.0 in) shell from the Fuji, resulting in a catastrophic detonation in one of her nearby 6-inch magazines. Soon, other detonations across the ship blew open her hull and the vessel quickly capsized and sank.[8] Only one shipman, Seaman First Class Semyon Yushin, survived the explosion, being rescued after surviving for twelve hours in the water.[8]
References
Sources
- Forczyk, Robert (2009). Russian Battleship vs Japanese Battleship, Yellow Sea 1904–05. London, UK: Osprey. ISBN 978-1-84603-330-8.
- McLaughlin, Stephen (2003). Russian & Soviet Battleships. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-481-4.
- Taras, Alexander. Ships of the Imperial Russian Navy 1892–1917 (in Russian). Library of Military History.
- Watts, Anotoli (1990). The Imperial Russian Navy. London, UK: Arms and Armour Press. ISBN 978-0-85368-912-6.