Russian battleship Tsesarevich

Type

Battleship

Period

19th Century

Nation

Russia

Overview: Tsesarevich was a pre-dreadnought battleship of the Imperial Russian Navy, built in France at the end of the 19th century, whose design became the template for the Russian-built Borodino-class battleships. She is a significant subject for modelers both as a distinctive French-designed warship and as the progenitor of Russia's most famous pre-dreadnought class. Specifications: Built by Société Nouvelle des Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée at La Seyne, the ship displaced roughly 12,900-13,100 tons and carried a main battery of two twin 305mm (12in) turrets plus six twin 152mm (6in) secondary turrets, along with numerous smaller quick-firing guns and torpedo tubes. She featured a distinctive high-forecastle hull with pronounced tumblehome sides, Krupp armor arranged in Louis-Emile Bertin's cellular protective scheme, and a top speed of 18 knots from two triple-expansion engines. Service History: Based at Port Arthur, Tsesarevich was torpedoed in the Japanese surprise attack that opened the Russo-Japanese War in February 1904, then repaired in time to serve as Rear Admiral Wilgelm Vitgeft's flagship at the Battle of the Yellow Sea, after which she was interned at Qingdao for the remainder of the war. Returned to Russian service and later transferred to the Baltic Fleet, she was renamed Grazhdanin after the 1917 revolution and took part in the Battle of Moon Sound before being decommissioned and eventually scrapped in the mid-1920s. Notable Facts: The ship's tumblehome hull form and cellular Krupp armor scheme, both French design hallmarks, make her visually and structurally distinct from her Russian-built Borodino-class derivatives, a detail worth noting for anyone modeling both ships side by side. Photographs taken after 1907 show her masts reduced from heavy "military" lattice masts to simple poles and her hull repainted overall grey, a useful recognition point for dating reference photos.