Russian cruiser Minin


The Russian cruiser Minin was an armored cruiser built for the Imperial Russian Navy during the 1860s and 1870s. She was renamed Ladoga in 1909 when converted to a minelayer. The ship was sunk in 1915 when she struck a mine laid by a German submarine in the Baltic Sea.

Design and description

Originally designed as a sister ship to the broadside ironclad, the navy was dissatisfied with that ship as it believed that foreign developments had made her obsolete. So the ship was redesigned as a low-freeboard twin-turret ship with full rigging, much like the ill-fated British ship. Already launched when Captain capsized in a storm in 1870, Minin was reconstructed as an armored cruiser with her armament on the broadside and improved machinery.
The ship had an overall length of, a beam of and a draft of. She displaced at deep load. Her hull was sheathed with copper to reduced biofouling and her crew numbered approximately 545 officers and men.
Minin had a vertical compound steam engine that drove a single propeller, using steam provided by a dozen cylindrical boilers. The engine produced which gave her a maximum speed around. The ship carried a maximum of of coal which gave her an economical range of at a speed of. She was ship-rigged with three masts. To reduce drag while under sail, the single funnel could be lowered.
The ship had four, a dozen and four rifled breech-loading guns. She had a complete waterline belt of wrought iron that ranged in thickness from amidships to 6 inches at the ends of the ships. The belt had a total height of, of which was below the waterline. Minin had a steel deck thick at the top of the belt, but her armament was entirely unprotected.

Construction and career

Minin, named after Kuzma Minin, was laid down by Baltic Works in Saint Petersburg on 24 November 1864 as a turret ship armed with four gun in two turrets and four 6-inch guns. The ship was launched on 3 November 1869 and began a complete reconstruction the following year. Minin was finally completed in 1878.
The ship was converted into a minelayer in 1909–11 and renamed Ladoga. Her rigging was reduced to 2 pole masts, her armament was reduced to four guns, and she could carry 1000 mines. Ladoga helped to lay the mine barrier in the Gulf of Finland in 1914 and was sunk in the Baltic on 15 August 1915 by mines laid by SM UC-4.

Footnotes