Russian battleship Chesma (1886)

Bow view of Chesma, showing both forward gun turrets.
History
Russian Empire
Name:	Chesma
Namesake:	Battle of Chesma
Builder:	ROPiT Shipyard, Sevastopol
Cost:	3,217,500 rubles
Laid down:	June 1883
Launched:	18 May 1886
In service:	29 May 1889
Renamed:	Stricken Vessel Nr. 4 22 April 1912
Struck:	14 August 1907
Fate:	Scrapped mid-1920s
General characteristics
Class and type:	Ekaterina II-class battleship
Displacement:	11,396 long tons (11,579 t)
Length:	339 ft 3 in (103.4 m)
Beam:	68 ft 11 in (21.0 m)
Draft:	28 ft 10 in (8.8 m)
Installed power:	9,059 ihp (6,755 kW)
Propulsion:	2 shafts, vertical compound steam engines 14 cylindrical boilers
Speed:	13.55 knots (25.09 km/h; 15.59 mph)
Range:	2,800 nmi (5,200 km; 3,200 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement:	633
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:	Compound armor Belt: 8–16 in (203–406 mm) Redoubt: 12 inches Decks: 2–2.5 in (51–64 mm) Gun shields: 2–3 in (51–76 mm) Conning tower: 8–9 in (203–229 mm)

Chesma (Russian: Чесма, sometimes transliterated as Tchesma) was the second ship of the Ekaterina II-class battleships built for the Imperial Russian Navy in the 1880s. When the ship was completed she proved to be very overweight which meant that much of her waterline armor belt was submerged. 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, 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.

Chesma was 331 feet 8.5 inches (101.1 m) long at the waterline and 339 feet 3 inches (103.4 m) long overall. She had a beam of 68 feet 11 inches (21.0 m) and a draft of 28 feet 10 inches (8.8 m) more than 28 inches (710 mm) than designed. She displaced 11,396 long tons (11,579 t) at load, over 1,200 long tons (1,200 t) more than her designed displacement of 10,181 long tons (10,344 t).