Rostislav was a pre-dreadnought battleship built by the Nikolaev Admiralty Shipyard in the 1890s for the Black Sea Fleet of the Imperial Russian Navy. She was conceived as a small, inexpensive coastal defence ship, but the Navy abandoned the concept in favor of a compact, seagoing battleship with a displacement of . Poor design and construction practices increased her actual displacement by more than . Rostislav became the world's first capital ship to burn fuel oil, rather than coal.Willmott, p. 57. Her combat ability was compromised by the use of main guns instead of the de facto Russian standard of .
Her hull was launched in September 1896, but non-delivery of the ship's main guns delayed her maiden voyage until 1899 and her completion until 1900. In May 1899 Rostislav became the first ship of the Imperial Navy to be commanded by a member of the House of Romanov, Captain Alexander Mikhailovich. From 1903 to 1912 the ship was the flagship of the second-in-command of the Black Sea Fleet. During the 1905 Russian Revolution her crew was on the verge of mutiny, but ultimately remained loyal to the regime, and actively suppressed the mutiny of the cruiser Ochakov.
Rostislav was actively engaged in World War I until the collapse of the Black Sea Fleet in the beginning of 1918. She was the first Russian ship to fire on enemy targets on land during World War I, the first to be hit by a German airstrike, and the first to destroy a submarine, albeit a Russian one. In April 1918 the fleeing Bolsheviks abandoned Rostislav in Sevastopol. A year later the British occupation forces disabled her engines. The White forces used the ship as a towed floating battery, then scuttled her in the Kerch Strait in November 1920.
Design and description Similar in size to earlier coastal defence ships but seaworthy for operations in the Black Sea, Rostislav was conceived in 1892 as a cheap and compact platform for 12-inch guns. Admiral Nikolay Chikhachov, Chief of the Ministry of the Navy, envisioned a squadron of such ships, each displacing , that would fit into his total desired displacement target of . Chief designer of the Nikolaev Shipyard, Sergey Ratnik,In the very beginning of 1893, Ratnik moved from Nikolaev to Saint Petersburg and became chief executive of privately owned Baltic Shipyard. – Melnikov, p. 4 evaluated Chikhachov's request for proposals, and advised against the idea in general. The Naval Technical Committee (NTC) concurred: any meaningful combination of firepower, armor, speed and stability required at least . The NTC discarded Ratnik's advice to build an improved copy of the battleship of , but did not present a definite alternative. The NTC declined to discuss tactical matters, leaving the choice of armament to Chikhachov.Melnikov, p. 4.
Chikhachov instructed Andrey Toropov of the Nikolaev Shipyard to draft two proposals, one armed with 10-inch and the other with 12-inch guns.Melnikov, p. 5. Toropov estimated that the ship should have displaced at least 8,880 tons. Chikhachov admitted the fact and presented the two options to the NTC. The admiral himself and the active fleet commanders voted for the 12-inch caliber, which had already become a worldwide battleship standard, but the NTC strongly advised against it. The Navy brass spent April and May 1893 in lengthy debates. They agreed to increase displacement to 8,880 tons and were leaning toward accepting 12-inch guns when General Admiral Grand Duke Alexey resolved the discussion in favor of the smaller caliber.Melnikov, p. 8.
Rostislav had the same hull as Sissoi Veliky, protected with the newly developed Harvey armor. She was also the first Russian battleship to use electric power instead of older hydraulic systems to train her guns.
General characteristics Rostislav was long at the waterline and long overall. She had a beam of and a draft of . She displaced , over more than her designed displacement of .McLaughlin, p. 93. This weight gain increased her draft by about , submerging most, if not all, of her waterline armored belt.McLaughlin, p. 96.
Propulsion Rostislav had two vertical triple-expansion steam engines, identical to those of Sissoi Veliky, that had a total designed output of . Eight cylindrical fire-tube boilers provided steam to the engines, each of which drove one propeller. Half of the boilers were coal-fired and the other half were oil-fired, making Rostislav the first capital ship in the world to use fuel oil.Silverstone, p. 366. This was done in order to substitute cheap oil from Baku for expensive imported coal. On sea trials, the power plant produced a total of and a top speed of . She carried a maximum of of fuel oil and coal at full load that provided a range of at a speed of .McLaughlin, pp. 93, 97.
Armament The main armament consisted of two pairs of 45-caliber Model 1891 guns mounted in French-style, center-pivot twin gun turrets fore and aft. Each turret had an arc of fire of 240°.McLaughlin, p. 95. These guns had a maximum elevation of +15° and could depress to −5°. They fired a shell at a muzzle velocity of . At an elevation of +6° the guns had a range of .Friedman, pp. 256–257. All eight of the 45-caliber, Canet Pattern 1891 guns were mounted in twin-gun turrets on the main deck. Each turret was positioned at a corner of the superstructure and had an arc of fire of 110°. They fired shells that weighed with a muzzle velocity of . They had a maximum range of when fired at an elevation of +20°.Friedman, pp. 260–261.
The anti-torpedo boat armament consisted of twelve Hotchkiss guns. Eight of these were mounted in the superstructure and the locations of the remaining four are unclear. They fired a shell at a muzzle velocity of .Smigielski, p. 160 The ship also mounted sixteen Hotchkiss guns, eight of which were carried in the fighting top. The locations of the other eight are unknown. They fired a shell at a muzzle velocity of .Friedman, p. 120.
Rostislav carried six torpedo tubes. The bow and stern tubes and the aft pair of broadside tubes were above water. The forward broadside tubes were underwater. The ship carried 50 mines to be used to protect her anchorage.McLaughlin, pp. 95–96.
Protection The maximum thickness of the Rostislavs waterline belt was , tapering to abreast the magazines. It covered of the ship's length and was high. While the exact height of the belt above the designed waterline is unknown, much of it, if not all, would have been below the waterline as the ship's draft was over deeper than designed. The belt terminated forward in a transverse bulkhead and aft in a bulkhead. The upper belt was 5 inches thick, high and covered of the ship's side. The sides of the main gun turrets were 10 inches thick and they had roofs. The sides of the 6-inch turrets were 6 inches thick as were the sides of the conning tower. The armor deck was flat and located at the upper edge of the main belt. It was thick. Below the waterline, forward and aft of the armored citadel, were decks.McLaughlin, pp. 96–97.
Construction Work on Rostislav commenced on January 30, 1894. The ship was officially christened May 20, 1894; in line with Russian tradition, the formal laying down ceremony was delayed until May 19, 1895. The contract for oil-firing boilers and engines was awarded to Baltic Works.Melnikov, p. 9. The armor was rolled in the United States by Bethlehem Steel within the framework of an earlier contract for s."Russia Buys Armor Here: The New Battle Ship Rostislav". The New York Times, November 26, 1895. Bethlehem Steel faced the scrutiny of the Senate Committee on Naval Affairs for charging the Russians an unusually low "introductory" price of $250 to $300 per ton, compared to $600 to $660 paid by the United States Navy."Prices for Armor Plate" The New York Times, July 30, 1897 Senator Benjamin Tillman publicly accused Bethlehem and Carnegie of price fixing and robbing the American taxpayer.According to Senator Benjamin Tillman, Carnegie Works and Bethlehem Steel formed a trust with an intent to rob the U.S. government on naval armor contracts. The law obliged the U.S. Navy to purchase only U.S.-made steel, thus eliminating competitive choices open to other navies. As a result, the U.S. Navy paid $660 a ton when foreign governments paid only $300. – "Serving Two Masters: Naval Officers Employed by Armor Plate Makers". The New York Times, April 28, 1896.
Rostislavs hull was launched on September 2, 1896. Lack of proper cranes in Nikolaev made the installation of its engines exceedingly difficult, to the point that the navy even considered towing the hull to Sevastopol for completion. The Nikolaev engineers eventually resolved the problem and the ship was ready to sail in July 1897. Rostislav conducted her speed trials on October 21, 1898, still missing her main guns. Her power plant performed flawlessly, but its weight exceeded the design target by more than .Melnikov, p. 10.
Non-delivery of the new 10-inch Model 1897 guns, made by the Obukhov Factory in Saint Petersburg for Rostislav, s and s, delayed the completion of the ship by two years. One of these guns, earmarked for Admiral Ushakov, exploded at the proving ground and the whole batch was subjected to exhaustive tests and, when possible, repairs. Guns Number 16 through Number 19 passed the tests and were delivered to Sevastopol in July and August 1899. Rostislav was able to sail to her first gunnery trial on April 12, 1900.Melnikov, p. 11. On the second day of shooting practice the recoil mechanisms of her forward turret failed and more defects were discovered back at the base. Rostislav spent the rest of the spring having her gun mounts repaired, but the problem persisted and the Navy "solved" it by prohibiting them from being used. The gun mounts were rebuilt along the pattern of those used by the armored cruiser in 1901 and 1902, and Rostislav successfully passed the gunnery tests in June 1902. The ship's electrical turret controls, with their 332 contact pairs, required tedious maintenance and proved too complex for most of the enlisted men.Melnikov, p. 14.
Service On May 1, 1899, Captain Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich assumed command of Rostislav, becoming the first Romanov since Peter I to command a combat ship.Melnikov, p. 12. Another Romanov, Grand Duke Kirill, spent a few uneventful months on board Rostislav in 1900.Melnikov, p. 13. Alexander's guests, parties and diplomatic visits to Istanbul regularly interfered with the crew's duties, but he personally managed the repairs and alterations of the ship's equipment. Shipyards and contractors treated Rostislav as a priority customer. Alexander, based on his experience with Sissoi Veliky, persuaded the NTC to reinforce Rostislavs rudder frame and supervised installation of a backup control post deep under the conning tower. In 1903 Alexander was promoted to rear admiral and returned to his ship as a squadron commander.Melnikov, p. 17. Rostislav served as the junior flagship of the Black Sea Fleet until September 1912.Melnikov, p. 28.
The 1900 season revealed grave problems with Rostislavs boilers. Black smoke from burning oil was more conspicuous than coal smoke. Uneven distribution of heat inside the boilers caused severe local overheating, buckling of fireboxes and sudden backdrafts. For three and a half months the boilers failed one by one, starting with small auxiliary power units and ending with the main boilers. Oil delivered by the Rothschild-controlled Russian Standard Oil was not at fault; similar problems were experienced by oil-fired ships of the Baltic Fleet.Melnikov, pp. 17–18. Repairs and alterations of the power plant continued until 1904, when the continuing boiler failures compelled the Navy to dispense with oil fuel and convert Rostislav to coal in 1904 and 1905.Melnikov, p. 21. Each round of repairs and alterations added more weight to the already overweight ship, and by 1907 the ship's belt armor was completely below the waterline.