Imperator Petr Silny class Battleship

Soveren class Battleship
Class overview
Name	Soveren class Battleship
Operators	Far Eastern Imperial Navy
Planned	2
Built	2
Active	0
Destroyed	2
General Characteristics
Type	Battleship
Displacement	12400 tons standard 14250 tons full load
Length	122.3 metres (401 ft)
Beam	21.8 metres (72 ft)
Draught	8.4 metres (28 ft)
Propulsion	3 shafts, 3 VTE steam engines
Power	32 Belleville boilers 1,500 ihp (1,100 kW)
Speed	18 kts
Range	4000 nm at 10 kts
Complement	670
Armament	2 × 2 305mm/45 KO 1898 g gun 6 x 2 152mm/45 KO 1893 g gun 24 x 76.2mm/40 KO 1900 g gun 8 37mm/40 KO 1893 g gun 3 457mm torpedo tubes
Armour	Belt: 200-400 mm Deck: 76 mm turrets: 305mm conning tower: 305 mm

Development

(These ships are presented in this section due their historical significance despite neither of them were in service in 1920)

The emerge of Japan into powerful player in the East Asian region forced Far Eastern Empire to readjust its naval doctrines. It now faced equal opponent in close proximity which was aggressively expanding its own navy. Far Eastern Empire was forced to increase its own naval expenditures and create a fleet that can deter the Japanese navy.

The new doctrine, drafted after Sino-Japanese war of 1894 called full size battle-squadron of battleships which would be supplemented with the existing units of the Light Squadron. The so called "For the needs of the navy" construction plan called 10 modern battleships to be laid down in period of 1897 -1907. First ships of the new program were two battleships of Imperator Petr Silny class.

Although the new ships were designed in Far Eastern Empire by the naval technical institute, they shared many common features of contemporary French battleships such as the prominent tumblehome hull and secondary guns fitted in turrets. In service the design proved out to be not so successful. They had some stability issues mainly due considerable top-weight. Both ships were sunk at the Battle of Tsusima in 1905

Ships in class

Name	Builder	Laid down	Launch Date	Entered Service	Fate
Imperator Petr Silny	Voenno-Morskoy verf, Dalny	September 1897	June 1899	August 1901	Sunk in 1905
Muravyov-Amurskiy	Novaya verf, Dalny	September 1897	July 1899	September 1901	Sunk in 1905

See Also

Ships of Far Eastern Imperial Navy 1920