THE WORLD S WARSHIPS. 
165 
is only two feet. They have each two turrets with a pair of 15-ton 
guns in each, and a slight superstructure between the turrets. Their 
armour is only about the same. None of these vessels draw much 
more than 12 feet of water, an important point when the shallow 
waters of the Baltic ports are considered. The last two vessels have 
been said to roll 35°, but, I think, it is certainly open to doubt if they 
have ever been tested to that extent—at any rate since the loss of the 
Captain. The same year that they were launched, the four Admirals, 
Lazareff, Creig, Spiradoff, and Chichagofi: were laid down. They 
were intended to be fully-rigged sea-going turret ships of the low 
freeboard type, but our disaster in the Bay of Biscay on 6th Septem¬ 
ber, 1870, happening to such a very similar class, caused the idea of 
equipping them as cruisers to be abandoned, hence we now find them 
among the coast defence vessels. They are 250 feet long, 42 feet 
beam, 3500 tons displacement. The armour is 4*5 inches thick 
throughout, and covers the hull from five feet six inches above the 
water-line to six feet below. There are three turrets with single guns 
in the first two ships ; one in the centre, the other two at equal dis¬ 
tances fore and aft. There is one funnel, with a conning tower 
between the bow and centre turrets. There are three masts with a 
light yard on the foremast. The other two have but double turrets 
for single guns ; a funnel and mast between the turrets, and a fore 
and mizen mast in front and abaft them. These guns are 11-inch 
28-ton B.L.R. guns. Their speed is 10 knots. The height of the 
deck above the water-line is only from four feet to six feet. The 
turret armour of the two last ships is six inches thick. There is a 
superstructure erected between them. Had these four ships been 
built later they would probably have been styled barbettes, as the 
turrets are open at the top and the guns revolve on a platform and 
fire over them. 
The ships hitherto mentioned are for the defence of the Baltic or 
the Black Sea, it was thought that a draft of 14 feet should not be 
exceeded, the Admirals drawing 20 feet against the 12 feet of the 
preceding vessels. At the same time something much more ambitious 
than armoured gunboats were needed. Now, Sir Edward Reed had 
been steadily increasing the proportion of beam to length in our 
English ships, accordingly the Russians determined to go at once to 
the maximum, and reached its culminating point by building two 
circular vessels, the Novgorod and the Vice-Admiral Popofi. These 
curious craft have a displacement of 2700 and 3500 tons respec¬ 
tively, with a diameter in the one case of 101 feet and in the other 
120 feet. They stand only 18 inches out of the water, and have from 
nine inches to seven inches of armour round their sides, with an 
armoured deck slightly curved of nearly three inches thick. In the 
centre is an open turret rising seven feet above the deck, with nine 
inches of armour round it. 
The armament is a pair of two 11-inch 29-ton guns in the first ship, 
and two 12-inch 40-ton guns in the latter. They have each a signal 
mast and two funnels. The line passing through the centre of these 
is much nearer the centre of the circle in the bigger boat, i.e. } a longer 
