I have not read all that much about warships from the late 1800s/early 1900s. This was the era prior to the dreadnaught when ships had a variety of guns with different sizes. These ships were also coal fired and did not have the sort of range that was the norm for ships in later years.

Imperial Russia had a fairly good sized navy during this time, and while not to the level of the UK (and frankly no nations were), on paper it was pretty impressive. One thing that was a bit different regarding the Russian navy at the time is they had quite a few of their ships either designed or built outside of the country with the UK being a major supplier. This was as much a result of a lack of shipyards as anything else. Most of the sea access areas in the west were frequently iced in during the long winter season which pretty much put a damper on ship construction.

This book covers a class of three ships which at the time were considered to be 1st rank  or protected cruisers. These ships did not have a lot of armor plating, but were fairly heavily armed. For most of the time, their guns were open without splinter shields as the Russians did not think they were necessary. Later experience proved that having these added was a good ideal.

The three ships covered are the Pallada, Diana, and the Aurora. Each one of these ships have their design and operational career covered to a level I have not seen on ships of this era before. Two of these ships participated in the Russo-Japanese war of 1905. One of those two, the Pallada (which was also the lead ship of the class) did not make it back to the Baltic having been lost during the invasion of Port Arthur. The Diana survived this conflict and served during WWI being scrapped in the early 1920s.

A great deal of space is provided to the Aurora. This was the last ship of the class and the one which saw the most action and survived the longest, being preserved in St. Petersburg and also still considered in active service. The Aurora survived the Battle of Tsushima and was interned in Manila after the battle until the end of the war. She participated in WWI in the Baltic, being used for shore bombardment. The Aurora is considered to be the most famous for signaling the beginnig of the October Revolution in 1917 while berthed in St. Petersburg. As you might suspect, there is a great deal of myth surrounding these actions which, thanks to this book, have been pretty well cleared up, but such was the need for something to latch onto by the revolutionaries, that it not only was elevated above the actual event, but this also led to the ship surviving when many other Russian navy ships were scrapped in the 1920s.

Over the years, the ship was used for a variety of tasks, including as a training vessel. She was refit many times, but by the 1980s was in such sorry state that even the ship's pumps could not keep her from slowly sinking. In this case, a most unusual overhaul was done wherein everything below the waterline was replaced. This not only meant machinery but the entire lower hull. While purists may gasp with horror at doing this, it was the only way the ship could be saved. A full restoration to how it was in the early years was accomplished thanks to the availability of the ship's original plans.

Many sections of these engineering planes are duplicated in the book and we are provided with separate, large sheets that are copies of the originals showing the details of each of the three classes of ships. This includes frame shape information, something that scratch builders will appreciate.

The addition of hundreds of period photos and plans makes this very much a must have book for those interested in warships of this period. It was a book that I found to be a fascinating read and can highly recommend to you.

August 2015

Review book courtesy of MMP Books, where you can order your copy of this and many other superb nautical and modeling books. Get this book at this link.

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