The Knyaz Suvorov was a Russian pre-dreadnought battleship launched in 1902; when she was completed the Russo-Japanese War was already in progress.
This ship had the honor and the disgrace to take part in what was then the largest naval battle in History, the Battle of Tsushima in May 1905 between
the Russian and Japanese fleets. At the outbreak of the war a Russian squadron on the Baltic received order to move towards Vladivostok, the Russian
main port nearest to Japan. The Knyaz Suvorov was the flagship of this fleet, which departed from Libau the 14th October 1904 and arrived to the
Tsushima Strait the 27th May 1905 after a painful journey.
There, in the narrow passage that separates Japan from Korea, the Japanese Fleet, whose flagship was the battleship Mikasa of British construction,
lurked and prepared the ambush. The combat began at 10:00 o'clock in the morning, when the Knyaz Suvorov opened fire from a distance of 6700 meters
against the Mikasa. At 10:45 o'clock of the following morning the Russian Fleet lowered the flag to then raise the flag of surrender. With the exception
of the Oryol, twin of the Knyaz Suvorov, all the Russian battleships had been lost. The Mikasa had only five usable cannons but she survived, and today
she remains preserved as the only surviving pre-dreadnought in the world.
Class: Borodino (5 units - Borodino, Imperator Alexander III, Knyaz Suvorov, Oryol, Slava)
Type: Battleship
Length: 121 meters
Beam: 23.2 meters
Draught: 8.9 meters
Displacement (standard): 13733 tonnes
Propulsion: 2 x shaft, 2 x triple-expansion steam engine, 20 x boiler Belleville, 15600 horsepower
Speed: 17.5 knots (32.4 kilometers/hour)
Range: 2590 nautical miles (4800 kilometers) at 10 knots
Complement: 782
Armament: 4 x 305-millimeter 40-caliber cannon, 12 x 152-millimeter 45-caliber cannon, 20 x 75-millimeter 40-caliber cannon,
20 x 47-millimeter 43-caliber cannon, 4 x 381-millimeter torpedo tube
Armor: 101-203 millimeters in belt, 25-51 millimeters in deck, 254 millimeters in main turrets/barbettes,
152 millimeters in secondary turrets/barbettes, 51-76 millimeters in casemates, 203 millimeters in conning tower
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