for armoured ship Thursday this week we have what must be the strangest armoured ships ever launched. these two ships were designed by Imperial Russian Navy Admiral Andrei Alexandrovitch Popov. while designed to be sister ships there are a few differences. the Rear Admiral Popov is slightly larger in diameter with heavier guns and thicker armour. Novgorod is the smaller and first of the two. Novgorod has a 11" main battery and a 9" armour belt compared to the Rear Admiral Popov which has a 12" main battery and a 16" armour belt. Novgorod could make 7kts. full speed while Rear Admiral Popov is slightly faster at 8.75kts. the two basically turned out to be an interesting diversion in ship design. problems with seakeeping and mostly their slow speed and limited range made them impractical for anything but harbor and coastal defense. the two were launched in 1874-75 and served in the fleet until scrapping in 1912. the first picture shows one of them in harbor, the guns are seen in the center of the ship on their barbette. the second picture is a close up of the guns on their disappearing mountings. third we have Novgorod still being constructed before launching. fourth is a colour view of Novgorod from the side showing the hull form and the top showing the overall round shape and the screws. last is a nice painting of both ships together.
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