Russian yacht Livadia (1880)

The Livadia with her gray tumblehome pontoon exposed.
History
Russian Navy EnsignRussian Empire
NameLivadia
NamesakeLivadia Palace
OwnerImperial Russian Navy
OrderedSeptember 5, 1879
Builder
Laid down1879 (Official ceremony: March 25, 1880)
LaunchedJuly 7, 1880
CommissionedSeptember 30, 1880
Decommissioned
  • 1883 (hulked as Opyt)
  • 1926 (written off)
FateScrapped
General characteristics
Class and typePowered yacht
Displacement
Length
  • 71.63 m (submerged hull)[3]
  • 79.25 m (overall)[3]
Beam
  • 46.64 m (submerged hull)[3]
  • 33.53 (superstructure)[3]
Draft2.1 m (excluding propellers)
Propulsion3 steam engines (10,500 indicated h.p. standard, 12,354 i.h.p maximum[1]), 10 coal-fired boilers
Speed14 knots (15.725 knots maximum)[1]
Complement24 officers, 321 sailors and attendants (1880)[1]

The Livadia was an imperial yacht of the House of Romanov built in 1879–1880 to replace a yacht of the same name that had sunk off the coast of Crimea in 1878. The new Livadia, intended for service on the Black Sea, was a radically novel ship conceived by Vice Admiral Andrey Popov, designed by naval architect Erast Gulyaev and built by John Elder & Co. of Govan on the Clyde. The Livadia continued Popov's line of circular ships although this time Popov sacrificed geometrical perfection for seagoing capabilities. She had a beam of 153 ft (47 m) against overall length of only 259 ft (79 m).[4] An extreme example of tumblehome architecture, she sported a conventionally shaped superstructure mounted on a wide, flat-bottomed, turbot-shaped submerged hull or pontoon.

Construction of the Livadia, "a gigantic life-size experiment"[4] and a prototype for next-generation battleships, was supervised by William Pearce. Bruno Tideman and Edward James Reed acted as consultants, William Leiper and William De Morgan designed luxurious interiors. The Livadia turned out a surprisingly maneuverable and stable ship with a respectable maximum speed of 15.7 knots and her efficiency was comparable to conventional ships.[4][5] Her performance at sea trials surprised most naval architects and was attributed to the favorable placement of the propellers.[4]

The maiden voyage of the Livadia revealed that her wide flat bottom was highly prone to damage by wave slamming. She spent her brief career as a yacht in the docks and was used for her intended purpose only once, carrying Grand Dukes Constantine and Mikhail across the Black Sea. Alexander III had no interest in resurrecting an inherently flawed ship, and in August 1881 Livadia was moored in Nikolaev and then hulked and stripped of her former luxuries. Her engines were removed and reused on the Russian cruisers. The rusty hulk saw some use during World War I and was finally decommissioned in 1926.

  1. ^ a b c d Andrienko 1994, p. 32.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference H39 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b c d Cite error: The named reference A30 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ a b c d Cite error: The named reference H40 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference ML196 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).