At 181,2m long, a beam of 26,9m and a draft of 8,99m, the Gangut class displaced 24800t, 1500 more than designed. This gave them a freeboard that was 16 inches less than designed, giving them a slight bow trim that made them wet boats.
The main armament consisted of 12x52 caliber 12 inch guns in four triple turrets along the ships' length. The secondary battery were 16x4,7in guns in casemates jutting out of the sides of the hull.
Armor was subpar when compared to other european or American designs. The Russians believed that a layered amor system was superior as it could strip the shell of its cap and loose all energy. This however, did work as advertised. The belt was 8,9 inches at its thickest. The deck was protected by 2 inches of armor. The turret faces were 8 inches thick with 5,9 inches protecting the barbettes. The conning tower was protected by 10 inches of armor.
In total four ships were commisioned; Sevastopol in november 1914, Poltava in december 1914, Petropavlovsk in january 1915 and Gangut also in january, 1915.
The quartet saw little to no service during WWI as the German navy were rather busy fighting the British in the North Sea. All four ships joined the communists in the revolution, but only the Petropavlovsk saw any servic during the civil war as shortage of manpower had the other three ships laid up. A fire destroyed the Poltava's engine room, making her unfit for service. Proposals were made to repair her, but never saw to fruition. The remaining three ships were modernised in the early 30s and saw limited use in WWII as they were completely outdated and of little use to the Soviet navy. The Petropavlovsk, renamed to Marat was bombed and sank at her moorings in 1941 after her forward magazine blew up. The rear was raised and used as a flating AA battery. All two and a half ships saw service until the early-mid 50s when they were all scrapped.
Sevastopol as commisioned in 1914:
Originally drawn for the Austrio-Hungarian AU I made a recolored version for the real life Baltic Fleet. Pictures and websites say that the Baltic ships had a mid-gray coloring, leaning towards the darker side, whereas the Black Sea ships had a pale gray coloring.
