Charodeika-class monitor

Charodeika at anchor; her two turrets are painted white
Class overview
BuildersGalernyi Island Shipyard, Saint Petersburg
Operators Imperial Russian Navy
Preceded bySmerch
Succeeded byAdmiral Lazarev class
Cost762,000 roubles
Built1866–69
In service1869–1907
Completed2
Lost1
Scrapped1
General characteristics (as completed)
TypeMonitor
Displacement2,100 long tons (2,134 t)
Length206 ft (62.8 m) (waterline)
Beam42 ft (12.8 m)
Draft12 ft 7 in (3.8 m)
Installed power
Propulsion2 shafts, 2 Horizontal direct-action steam engines
Speed8 knots (15 km/h; 9.2 mph)
Complement13 officers and 171 crewmen (1877)
Armament
Armor

The Charodeika class was a pair of monitors built for the Imperial Russian Navy in the late 1860s. They were designed by the British shipbuilder Charles Mitchell and built in Saint Petersburg. Both ships were assigned to the Baltic Fleet and had fairly uneventful careers mostly assigned to training units. Rusalka struck a rock in 1869 and had to be run aground lest she sink. They were reclassified as coast-defense ironclads in 1892 and Rusalka sank during a storm in the Gulf of Finland the next year with the loss of all hands. Her sister ship Charodeika continued in service until 1907 and was eventually scrapped in 1911–12. Rusalka's wreck was discovered in 2003 by an expedition sponsored by the Estonian Maritime Museum.