Russian cruiser Bogatyr

Russian cruiser Bogatyr
History
Russian Empire
Name:	Bogatyr
Builder:	Vulcan Stettin
Way number:	BauNr. 247
Laid down:	22 December 1899
Launched:	30 July 1901
Commissioned:	20 August 1902
Decommissioned:	1918
Renamed:	1918
Fate:	Scrapped 1922
General characteristics
Class and type:	Bogatyr-class protected cruiser
Displacement:	5910 tons full load
Length:	134 m (439.6 ft)
Beam:	16.6 m (54.5 ft)
Draught:	6.29 m (20.6 ft)
Installed power:	23,000 hp
Propulsion:	2 shaft Triple expansion steam engines (VTE), 16 Normand-Sigaudy boilers - 19,500 hp
Speed:	23 knots (43 km/h)
Range:	3,000 nautical miles (6,000 km) at 12 knots (22 km/h)
Complement:	581 officers and crewmen
Armament:	4 - 152 mm (6 in)/L45 Canet guns in turrets 8 - 152 mm (6 in)/L45 Canet guns in casemates 12 - 75-millimetre (3 in)/L50 Canet guns 8 - 47-millimetre (2 in) /L43 Canet guns 2 – 37-millimetre (1 in)/L23 Hotchkiss machine guns 4 - 388-millimetre (15 in) torpedo tubes
Armour:	Sloping deck: 35–70 mm (1–3 in) Conning tower: 140-millimetre (6 in)

Bogatyr (Russian: Богаты́рь) was the lead ship of the Bogatyr class of four protected cruisers built for the Imperial Russian Navy. Her name can be translated to mean “Hercules”.

After the completion of the Pallada class, the Russian Navy issued requirements for three large protected cruisers to three separate companies: Varyag was ordered from William Cramp and Sons in Philadelphia, United States, Askold was ordered from Krupp-Germaniawerft in Kiel, Germany, and Bogatyr from Vulcan Stettin, also in Germany. Although Askold was the fastest cruiser in the Russian fleet at the time of its commissioning, Bogatyr was selected for further development into a new class of ships.

Bogatyr was laid down at the AG Vulcan Stettin shipyards in Stettin, Germany on 22 December 1899, launched on 30 January 1901 and commissioned on 20 August 1902. She initially entered service with the Russian Baltic Fleet.

At the start of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, Bogatyr was stationed at Vladivostok with the Russian Pacific Fleet’s cruiser squadron under the overall command of Rear Admiral Karl Jessen. This squadron operated in the Sea of Japan and in waters near the Japanese home islands for commerce raiding and reconnaissance. During the first months of the war, the squadron made a number of sorties against Japanese shipping, but only one was reasonably successful when the merchant vessel Hitachi Maru, carrying eighteen 28-centimeter (11 in) siege howitzers and over 1000 troops intended for the siege of Port Arthur, was sunk in June 1904. In response, the Imperial Japanese Navy assigned Vice Admiral Kamimura Hikonojō with a squadron of eight cruisers to pursue and destroy the Russian squadron.