Russian battleship Poltava (1911)

History
Russian Empire
Name	Poltava
Builder	Admiralty Shipyard, Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire
Laid down	16 June 1909
Launched	19 July 1911
Out of service	1918
Fate	Damaged in 1919, deemed beyond repair, renamed Frunze and entered Soviet service as an experimental hulk.
History
Soviet Union
Name	Frunze
Namesake	Mikhail Frunze
Fate	Scrapped in 1956
General characteristics
Class and type	Gangut-class battleship
Displacement	original: 23,000 tonnes modernized: 26,692 tons
Length	184.9 metres (607 ft)
Beam	26.9 metres (88 ft)
Draft	9.5 metres (31 ft)
Propulsion	steam engines, 60,600 hp
Speed	23 knots (43 km/h)
Range	2,625 nautical miles (4,862 km)
Complement	1,126
Armament	12 × 305 mm 10 × 120 mm (originally 16) 6 × 76.2 mm 14 × 37 mm 10 × 12.7 mm machine guns 89 × 7.62 mm machine guns 4 × 450 mm torpedo tubes

For other ships with the same name, see Russian battleship Poltava.

Poltava was a Gangut-class battleship of the Imperial Russian Navy.

The Poltava was laid down in 1909 at the Admiralty Shipyard, St.Petersburg. She was launched in July 1911 and completed in December 1914. Named after the Battle of Poltava (1709), the ship was laid up for repairs in 1918. On 24 November 1919 a fire broke out on board which further crippled the ship and she was deemed beyond repair. Nevertheless, she was returned to service as an experimental hulk in 1925. On 7 January 1926 she was given the name Frunze. Repair work began two years later but was halted in the mid-thirties. Plans to rebuild the ship as a battlecruiser or aircraft carrier were considered but abandoned. The Frunze continued service as a barracks hulk until she was stripped for parts. She was scuttled as a blockship in 1941, raised in 1944, and was scrapped in 1956.

References

• Battleships List