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The ''Borodino''-class battleship was a class of five pre-dreadnought battleships built for the Imperial Russian Navy around the end of the 19th century. Their design was based on that of the French-built modified to use Russian equipment. The first four ships were finished after the start of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05 and were among the ships ordered to sail from the Baltic Sea to the Far East to relieve the Pacific Squadron besieged by the Japanese in Port Arthur. Three of these ships were sunk and one was captured by the Imperial Japanese Navy at the Battle of Tsushima in 1905. The fifth and final ship, , was not completed in time to participate in the war and served with the Baltic Fleet through World War I. She spent most of the war defending the Gulf of Riga and was badly damaged by German dreadnoughts during the Battle of Moon Sound in 1917. This damage forced the ship's crew to scuttle her because she had taken on too much water and could not pass through the shallow channel that connected the Gulf of Riga with the Baltic. The wreck was scrapped during the 1930s by the Estonians. ==Design and description== Tsar Nicholas II had desired a warm-water port on the Pacific since his accession to the throne in 1894. He achieved this ambition in March 1898 when Russia signed a 25-year lease for Port Arthur and the Liaotung Peninsula with China. Japan had previously forced China to sign over the port and its surrounding territory as part of the treaty that concluded the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894–95, but the Triple Intervention of France, Russia, and Germany forced them to return the port in exchange for a sizeable increase in the indemnity paid by the Chinese. Japan invested much of the indemnity money in expanding its fleet, while Russia began a major building programme ("For the Needs of the Far East") to defend its newly acquired port that included the ''Borodino''-class battleships.〔McLaughlin, pp. 100–03〕 The ''Borodino''s were the most numerous class of battleships ever built by Russia. Although they were intended to be near duplicates of the ''Tsesarevich'', as soon as the contracts were signed it became clear that they would be quite different from the French-built ship. The basic problem facing the navy was that the ''Borodinos'' would have heavier engines and larger turrets which would require a designer to build a ship which had the same speed, draft, guns and armor as ''Tsesarevich'', but a greater displacement. The new design was made up by D. V. Skvortsov of the Russian Naval Technical Committee (NTC). He completed his new design in July/August 1898, one month after the original contract had been signed. The new concept was roughly tons heavier and slightly larger and wider than the ''Tsesarevich.''〔McLaughlin, p. 137〕 Outwardly, the biggest change was in the appearance of the ''Borodinos'' from the original ''Tsesarevich'' design. Skvortsov added two more casemates, each containing four guns, one at the bow and the other aft. This was added to the already existing dozen 75 mm guns emplaced along the sides above the armor belt. This caused the tumblehome used on the rest of the hull to be deleted over the twelve guns, and flat-sided armor was used in its place. Thus the five ''Borodino''-class battleships only had tumblehome hulls fore and aft of their 75 mm guns emplaced along their sides.〔McLaughlin, p. 138〕 The centreline bulkhead between the engine and boiler rooms caused a danger of capsizing if one side flooded and their narrow belt armor became submerged when overloaded. As such, naval historian Antony Preston regarded these as some of the worst battleships ever built.〔Preston, 50, 55〕 The ships were long at the waterline and long overall, with a beam of and a draft of , more than designed. Their normal displacement ranged from , more than their designed displacement of . They were designed for a crew of 28 officers and 754 enlisted men,〔McLaughlin, p. 136〕 although carried 928 crewmen during the Battle of Tsushima.〔Campbell, p. 187〕 The ''Borodino''-class ships were powered by two 4-cylinder triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one propeller shaft, using steam generated by 20 Belleville boilers. The engines were designed to reach a top speed of . The lead ship, ''Borodino'', was fitted with a copy of the La Seyne machinery installed in ''Tsesarvich'' and built by the Franco-Russian Works. The remaining four ''Borodinos'' were supplied with machinery designed and built by the Baltic Works. ''Borodino''s engines were rated at and its boilers had a working pressure of ; the machinery of her sisters was rated at and their boilers had a working pressure of . Other differences were that ''Borodino'' was equipped with economisers for her boilers as well as three-bladed screws, while her sisters lacked economisers and had four-bladed propellers.〔McLaughlin, pp. 137, 144〕 Because the ships were being prepared to go to the Far East shortly after completion, they conducted only abbreviated sea trials. Only reached her designed speed during these trails, despite her engines only producing . The engines of her sisters produced more power, but they were slower during their trials. At deep load they carried of coal that provided them a range of at a speed of . The ships were fitted with six steam-driven generators with a total capacity of .〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Borodino-class battleship」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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