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''Dmitrii Donskoi'' ((ロシア語:Дмитрий Донской)) was an armoured cruiser built for the Imperial Russian Navy in the early 1880s. She was designed as a commerce raider and equipped with a full suite of sails to economize on coal consumption. The ship spent the bulk of her career abroad, either in the Far East or in the Mediterranean. ''Dmitrii Donskoi'' was assigned to the Second Pacific Squadron after the Japanese destroyed the Russian ships deployed in the Far East during the early stages of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05. The squadron was intercepted by the Japanese fleet in May 1905 in the Battle of Tsushima after a lengthy voyage from the Baltic. The cruiser was not seriously damaged during the initial fighting and tried to continue on to Vladivostok after the first day's fighting. She was spotted by several groups of Japanese warships the following day and was badly damaged in the resulting combat. Her captain ordered the crew ashore off Ulleungdo Island and had ''Dmitrii Donskoi'' scuttled offshore. ==Design and description== ''Dmitrii Donskoi'' was classified as a semi-armoured frigate and was an improved version of her half-sister . The ship was designed with long endurance and high speed to facilitate her role as a commerce raider. She was laid out as a central battery ironclad with her armament concentrated amidships. The iron-hulled ship was fitted with a ram and was sheathed in wood and copper to reduce fouling. Her crew numbered approximately 550 officers and men.〔Wright, pp. 123–24, 127〕 The ship was long overall. She had a beam of and a draught of .〔Wright, p. 127〕 The ship displaced at deep load. ''Dmitrii Donskoi'' had two three-cylinder compound steam engines driving a single propeller shaft. Steam was provided by eight cylindrical boilers.〔Watts, p. 79〕 The engines were designed to produce , but produced during sea trials which gave the ship a maximum speed around . The ship normally carried of coal which gave her an economical range of at a speed of , but she is known to have loaded in May 1889.〔Wright, pp. 127–28〕 She was ship rigged with three masts〔Silverstone, p. 362〕 and had a total sail area of . To reduce drag while under sail, her funnels were retractable. The highest speed that she made solely under sail was .〔 ''Dmitrii Donskoi'' was armed with two 30-calibre Model 1877 guns, on sponsons on the upper deck between the funnels. The fourteen 28-calibre Model 1877 guns were mounted in casemates on the main deck. Anti-torpedo boat defence was provided by a number of nine-pounder (), four-pounder () and five-barreled revolver Hotchkiss guns.〔Sources disagree on the numbers of each weapon at any time.〕 The ship was also equipped with four above-water torpedo tubes.〔〔Wright, pp. 127, 129〕〔Chesneau and Kolesnik, p. 187〕 The ship's waterline belt was composed of compound armour and extended the full length of the ship. It was six inches thick amidships, but reduced to at the ship's ends. It extended above the waterline and below.〔 Transverse bulkheads thick protected the guns in the battery from raking fire. The sponsons of the 8-inch guns were equally thick.〔 The protective deck was thick.〔 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「Russian cruiser Dmitrii Donskoi」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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