armored ship Thursday on Friday

this Thursday we have the Imperial Russian Protected Cruiser Askold. Askold was built by Germaniawerft of Kiel, Germany. she was commissioned into the Imperial Navy on January 25, 1902. Askold was 434' 7" in length and displaced 5,910t. at full load. her 3 triple expansion steam engines were capable of driving her at 23.8kts. flank speed{very fast indeed for her time}. the armored deck was from 2" to 4" thick and her conning tower had 6" of armor. her main battery was twelve 6" naval rifles with twelve 3" and eight 2" hotchkiss qf rifles as secondary battery. she had in addition two 1" hotchkiss qf guns and six 15" torpedo tubes. originally serving in the Baltic Fleet Askold was soon sent to the Pacific Fleet at Port Arthur were she was during the original Japanese surprise attack of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05. sustaining little damage she next took part in the Battle of the Yellow Sea as flagship of the cruisers. escaping the Japanese Navy after this battle Askold was interned in Shanghai, China until the end of the war in 1905. she then resumed service in the Pacific until September, 1914. during this time she took part in the hunt and pursuit of Admiral Von Spee's German Far East Squadron. in September and October 1914 she served in the Indian Ocean and was then transferred to the Mediterranean where she served until refitting in France in 1916. after refit Askold was sent to the Barents Sea and served there until demobilized in December, 1917 after the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany. she then served the Russian Provisional Government until the Commies took over. in 1918 Askold was seized by the British until the end of the Russian Revolution when she was offered back to the Commies. they did not want her. she was then towed to Hamburg, Germany and scrapped. a sad end for a ship that had seen so much service over the years. the first two color pictures of Askold are of a model built by Yuri Logaziac. he has done a magnificent job on this model it looks so real it could be mistaken for the real thing. next is a picture of Askold in 1902 which was the year in which she was commissioned so here she is brand new. next is a picture of her in the harbor at Port Arthur 1904. the last picture is of Askold as she looked during WW1.