General-Admiral was the lead ship of her class of armored cruisers built for the Imperial Russian Navy in the early 1870s. She is generally considered the first true armored cruiser.

Design and description

Originally classified as an armored corvette, General-Admiral was redesignated as a semi-armored frigate on 24 March 1875. She was laid out as a central battery ironclad with the armament concentrated amidships. The iron-hulled ship was not fitted with a ram and her crew numbered approximately 482 officers and men. General-Admiral was 285 ft long overall. She had a beam of 48 ft and a draft of 24 ft. The ship was designed to displace 4604 LT, but displaced 5031 LT as built, an increase of over 400 LT.

Propulsion

The ship had a vertical compound steam engine driving a single two-bladed 6.25 m propeller. Steam was provided by five cylindrical boilers at a pressure of 4.24 kg/cm2. The engine produced 4772 ihp during sea trials which gave the ship a maximum speed around 12.3 kn. General-Admiral carried a maximum of 1000 LT of coal which gave her an economical range of 5900 nmi at a speed of 10 kn. She was ship-rigged with three masts. To reduce drag while under sail her funnel was retractable and her propeller could be hoisted into the hull.

Footnotes