Russian battleship Chesma (1886)

For other ships with the same name, see Russian ship Chesma.
An 1892 lithograph depicting Chesma
History
Russian Empire
NameChesma
NamesakeBattle of Chesma
BuilderROPiT Shipyard, Sevastopol
Cost3,217,500 rubles
Laid downJune 1883
Launched18 May 1886
In service29 May 1889
RenamedStricken Vessel Nr. 4 22 April 1912
Stricken14 August 1907
FateScrapped mid-1920s
General characteristics
Class and typeEkaterina II-class battleship
Displacement11,396 long tons (11,579 t)
Length339 ft 3 in (103.4 m)
Beam68 ft 11 in (21.0 m)
Draft28 ft 10 in (8.8 m)
Installed power9,059 ihp (6,755 kW)
Propulsion
  • 2 shafts, vertical compound steam engines
  • 14 cylindrical boilers
Speed13.55 knots (25.09 km/h; 15.59 mph)
Range2,800 nmi (5,200 km; 3,200 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement633
Armament
  • 3 × 2 – 12-inch (305 mm) guns
  • 7 × 1 – 6-inch (152 mm) guns
  • 8 × 1 – 47-millimeter (1.9 in) 5-barrel revolving Hotchkiss guns
  • 4 × 1 – 37-millimeter (1.5 in) 5-barrel revolving Hotchkiss guns
  • 7 × 1 – 14-inch (356 mm) torpedo tubes
Armor

Chesma (Russian: Чесма, also transliterated Tchésma) was the second ship of the Ekaterina II-class battleships built for the Imperial Russian Navy in the 1880s.[1] When the ship was completed she proved to be very overweight which meant that much of her waterline armor belt was submerged.[2] Russian companies could not produce the most advanced armour and machinery desired by the Naval General Staff, so they were imported from the United Kingdom and Belgium. Chesma spent her career as part of the Black Sea Fleet.

When the crew of the battleship Potemkin mutinied in June 1905,[a] the ship's crew was considered unreliable and she did not participate in the pursuit of the Potemkin. Chesma did, however, escort Potemkin as Sinop towed her back to Sevastopol from Constanța, Romania, where Potemkin had sought asylum. Chesma was turned over to the Sevastopol port authorities before being stricken on 14 August 1907. Before she was fully dismantled the Naval Ministry decided to use her hull for full-scale armour trials. She was re-designated as Stricken Vessel Nr. 4 on 22 April 1912 before being used as a gunnery target. Afterwards the ship served as a torpedo target for the destroyers of the Black Sea Fleet. During these attacks Chesma settled to the bottom of the Bay of Tendra and was eventually scrapped during the mid-1920s.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference McLaughlin21 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ McLaughlin, p. 25


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