Russian cruiser Rossia
Rossia after her 1906–09 rebuild
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| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Rossia |
| Operators: |
 Russian Navy
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| Preceded by: | Rurik |
| Succeeded by: | Gromoboi |
| Built: | 1893–1896 |
| In commission: | 1896–1922 |
| Planned: | 1 |
| Completed: | 1 |
| Scrapped: | 1 |
| History | |
 Russian Empire
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| Name: | Rossiya (Russian: Россия) |
| Namesake: | Russia |
| Operator: | Imperial Russian Navy |
| Builder: | Baltic Works, Saint Petersburg |
| Laid down: | October 1893 |
| Launched: | 30 April 1896 |
| Commissioned: | Late 1896 |
| Fate: | Sold for scrap 1 July 1922 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Armored cruiser |
| Displacement: | 12,195 long tons (12,391 t) |
| Length: | 485 ft (147.8 m) |
| Beam: | 66.6 ft (20.3 m) |
| Draught: | 26.2 ft (8.0 m) |
| Installed power: | 14,500 ihp (10,800 kW) + 2,500 ihp (1,864 kW) |
| Propulsion: | 3 shafts, 2 vertical triple expansion steam engines + 1 VTE cruising engine, 32 Belleville water-tube boilers |
| Speed: | 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph) |
| Range: | 7,740 nmi (14,330 km; 8,910 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
| Complement: | 839 officers and crewmen |
| Armament: |
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| Armor: |
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Rossia (Russian: Россия) was an armored cruiser of the Imperial Russian Navy built in the 1890s. She was designed as a long-range commerce raider and served as such during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05. She was based in Vladivostok when the war broke out and made a number of sorties in search of Japanese shipping in the early months of the war without much success.
Rossia, along with the other armored cruisers of the Vladivostok Cruiser Squadron, attempted to rendezvous in the Strait of Tsushima with the main portion of the Pacific Fleet sailing from Port Arthur in August 1904, but were delayed and had to return to port without them. They encountered a Japanese squadron of four armored cruisers between them and their base shortly after they turned around. The Japanese sank the oldest Russian ship, Rurik, and damaged Rossia and Gromoboi during the Battle off Ulsan, but both Russian ships were repaired within two months.
After the end of the war Rossia returned to Kronstadt where she underwent a three-year refit that strengthened her armament. She was fitted with mine rails in 1914 and laid one minefield during World War I that damaged two German light cruisers. She was reconstructed beginning in late 1915 to further strengthen her armament, but played no part during the rest of the war as her crew became involved in revolutionary activities in 1917. She was taken over by the Bolsheviks in late 1917, but was put into reserve in 1918 and sold for scrap in 1922.
Rossia was originally intended to be a repeat of the armored cruiser Rurik, but the Director of the Naval Ministry wanted the armor to cover more of the ship's side. However the design went through a number of changes during late 1892 and early 1893 and incorporated a number of technological advances that had recently become available. One notable change was the deletion of Rurik's sailing rig.
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