Russian battleship Imperator Aleksander III (1901)

Battleship Imperator Alexander III
Career
Name:	Imperator Aleksandr III
Builder:	Baltic Works, Saint Petersburg
Laid down:	July 1899
Launched:	November 1901
Completed:	August 1903
Commissioned:	1 September 1904
Fate:	Sunk at the Battle of Tsushima, 27 May 1905
General characteristics
Class and type:	Borodino-class battleship
Displacement:	13,516 long tons (13,733 t) standard 14,151 long tons (14,378 t) full load
Length:	121 m (397 ft)
Beam:	23.2 m (76 ft)
Draught:	8.9 m (29 ft)
Propulsion:	2 shaft reciprocating vertical triple-expansion (VTE) steam engines 12 Belleville coal-fired boilers 15,800 ihp (11,800 kW) 1,580 tons coal
Speed:	18 knots (21 mph; 33 km/h)
Complement:	28 officers, 754 men
Armament:	• 4 × 305 mm (12 in) guns (2×2) • 12 × 152 mm (6 in) guns (6×2) • 20 × 75 mm (3 in) guns (20×1) • 20 × 47 mm (2 in) guns (20×1) • 4 × 381 mm (15 in) torpedo tubes
Armour:	Krupp armour Belt: 193 mm (7.6 in) Turrets: 254 mm (10 in) max Deck: 51 mm (2 in) Anti-torpedo bulkhead: 25 mm (1 in)

The Imperator Alexander III (Russian: Император Александр III) was a Borodino-class battleship of the Russian Imperial Navy, the first ship of its class to be completed. It was named after Tsar Alexander III.

Service

Imperator Alexander III was part of the Russian Second Pacific Squadron at the Battle of Tsushima. On 27 May 1905, after Japanese bombardment, she was sunk. When the Russian flagship at Tsushima, Suvorov was temporarily disabled, Alexander III turned to port and withstood concentrated fire from 3,000 yards (2,700 m). Turning southeast, she led the Russian line, until forced to stop to make repairs. By 6:00 PM her fires were out and she rejoined the fight.

With her sister ships Borodino and Oryol she was again shelled at 7,000 yards (6,400 m), and the flooding became impossible to control. She capsized and sank, leaving four survivors.

References

• Antony Preston, World's Worst Warships, 2002, Conways Maritime Press
• Tomitch, V. M., Warships of the Imperial Russian Navy Volume 1, Battleships, 1968
• Corbett, Julian, Sir. Maritime Operations in the Russo-Japanese War 1904-1905. Originally classified Secret/Confidential until the 1950s. Published in (1994) in two volumnes. ISBN 1557501297.
• Semenov, Vladimir, Capt. The Battle of Tsushima. E. P. Dutton & Co. (1912).
• Pleshakov, Constantine. The Tsar's Last Armada: The Epic Voyage to the Battle of Tsushima. (2002). ISBN 0-46505-792-6