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Building the Admiral Nahkimov, 1889

"Jim Baumann shares his full build feature of the armored cruiser "Admiral Nahkimov", as she was in 1889."

about the vessel. . .

Construction started on 7 December 1883 at Baltic Works in Sankt Petersburg . She was launched on 21 October 1885 and entered service in October 1888.

Admiral Nakhimov was one of the first armored cruisers; the design being inspired by the British Imperieuse and Warpite cruiser designs of the time. Armed with four turrets of twin 8 in guns in a diamond layout, "Admiral Nakhimov" had perhaps the heaviest broadside of all armored cruisers built in the 19th century.

She was extensively refitted, re-armed, new boiler installed, and re-rigged in 1899, but despite this, she was an obsolete vessel in 1905. She also was the first Russian vessel to introduce anti-torpedo nets.

Upon entering service in May 1889 she became flagship of the Pacific Fleet. In September 1891, she returned to the Baltic Sea for a refit. In July 1893 she visited New York City , then Toulon, and prior to her return to Vladivostock, served there for the next four years, taking part in seizing Port Arthur.

In 1898, she returned to the Baltic Sea for another re-fit, and further modernization. November 1899, saw her being assigned to the Pacific Fleet in Port Arthur, and returning to the Baltic in 1903 .

At the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese war 1904-1905, Admiral Nakhimov was included into the 2nd Pacific fleet assembled in the Baltic Sea to assist the 1st fleet in Port Arthur . October 1904 saw her set out for the Far East.
After an epic journey circumnavigating half the globe she took part in the battle of Tsushima; despite receiving around 30 hits, mainly from Japanese armored cruisers she remained in fighting trim .During the night the remaining Russian ships were attacked by torpedo boats and destroyer; Admiral Nakhimov being hit by a torpedo in the bow. Despite a valiant attempt by the crew to save the ship she was inevitably going to sink and was abandoned next morning close to Tsushima. 523 crewmen were captured by the IJN auxiliary cruiser Sado Maru. 103 crewmen escaped in boats and were captured later, 18 crewmen were lost with the ship
The wreck was found and examined in the 1980s by divers, the only ship sunk at Tsushima to be accorded this treatment.

LOA ~333 ft
Displacement ~8524 tons
Beam~61 ft
9000 iHP = 17 knots
Draft ~27ft, 6in
Crew~570
Armament ~8 x 8 in, 10 x 6in, 4 x 3.4 in

Building the Model

Having bought the W W Arbuzov ship monograph on the Admiral Nahkimov sometime ago, and poured over the pictures for a number of years...and despite not being able to read a word of Cyrillic... I decided that having had the Kombrig resin kit of this ship in my stash for a number of years, that the time was ripe to have the photo captions translated and do some further research on this interesting looking ship!

The hull of this ship is very distinctive with its rolled topsides, symmetrical gun disposition, ram bow coupled with (as fitted originally) full sailing rig... she embodied the ultimate phase of the transitional era.

Despite being armed with the Arbuzov book, as well as the Morskaya Kollektsia plans and perspective drawings, having studied the photos extensively and made numerous sketches to ensure feasibility of the deck layout...I still wanted yet more info!!