Russian monitor Latnik

Latnik was {{convert|201|ft|m|1}} long overall, with a beam of {{convert|46|ft|m|1}} and a draft of {{convert|10.16|-|10.84|ft|m|1}}. She displaced {{convert|1500|-|1600|LT|t|0}}, and her crew numbered eight officers and 88 enlisted men in 1865. They numbered 10 officers and 100 crewmen in 1877.McLaughlin, p. 103

The ship was fitted with a two-cylinder, horizontal direct-acting steam engine built by Carr and MacPherson of Saint Petersburg. It drove a single propellerMcLaughlin, pp. 106–07 using steam that was provided by two rectangular boilers.Chesneau & Kolesnik, p. 175 Specific information on the output of the ship's engine has not survived, but it ranged between {{convert|340|-|500|ihp|0|lk=in}} for all the ships of this class. During Latnik{{'}}s sea trials on 31 May 1865, she reached a maximum speed of {{convert|5|kn|lk=in}}, the slowest ship in the class. She carried a maximum of {{convert|190|LT|t|0}} of coal, which gave her a theoretical endurance of {{convert|1440|nmi|lk=in|abbr=on}} at {{convert|6|kn}}.McLaughlin, p. 107

Latnik was designed to be armed with a pair of {{convert|9|in|adj=on|0}} smoothbore muzzle-loading guns purchased from Krupp of Germany and rifled in Russia, but the rifling project was seriously delayed and the ship was completed with nine-inch smoothbores. These lacked the penetration power necessary to deal with ironclads and they were replaced by license-built {{convert|15|in|adj=on}} smoothbore muzzle-loading Rodman guns in 1867–68. The Rodman guns were replaced around 1876 with the originally intended nine-inch rifled guns.McLaughlin, pp. 104–05

All of the wrought-iron armor that was used in the Uragan-class monitors was in {{convert|1|in|0|adj=on}} plates, just as in the Passaic-class ships. The side of the ship was entirely covered with three to five layers of armor plates, of which the three innermost plates extended {{convert|42|in|m|1}} below the waterline. This armor was backed by a wooden beam that had a maximum thickness of {{convert|36|in|0}}. The gun turret was protected by eleven layers of armor and the pilothouse above it had eight layers of armor. Curved plates six layers thick protected the base of the funnel up to a height of {{convert|7|ft|m|1}} above the deck. Unlike their predecessors, the Uragans were built without deck armor to save weight, but Latnik{{'}}s deck was reinforced by the addition of {{convert|0.5|in|1|adj=on}} armor plates after completion.McLaughlin, pp. 105–06

Construction of the ship began on 17 June 1863 at the Carr and MacPherson Shipyard in Saint Petersburg. Latnik was laid down on 24 December 1863 and she was launched on 22 March 1864. She entered service on 14 July 1865 and cost a total of 1,148,000 rubles, almost double her contract cost of 600,000 rubles. The ship was assigned to the Baltic Fleet upon completion. For some reason, she was the only ship of the class not to make a port visit to Stockholm, Sweden in July–August 1865. She suffered some sort of hull damage in September, but the details are not known.McLaughlin, pp. 100, 104, 109–10

Sometime after Latnik was completed, an armored ring, {{convert|5|in|0}} thick and {{convert|15|in|0}} tall, was fitted around the base of the turret to prevent splinters from jamming it. Later, an armored, outward-curving bulwark was fitted around the top of the turret to protect any crewmen there. Three sponsons were later added, probably during the 1870s, to the upper portion of the turret. Each sponson, one above the gun ports and one on each side of the turret, mounted a light gun, probably a {{convert|1.75|in|adj=on}} Engstrem gun, for defense against torpedo boats. A fourth gun was mounted on a platform aft of the funnel when a hurricane deck was built between the funnel and the turret, also probably during the 1870s.McLaughlin, p. 108

Little is known about the ship's career other than that she was laid up each winter when the Gulf of Finland froze. Latnik was reclassified as a coast defense ironclad on 13 February 1892 and turned over to the Port of Kronstadt for disposal on 6 July 1900, although she was not stricken until 17 August. During 1903, the ship was converted into a coal barge by the removal of her turret, her side armor, and its wooden backing, and by the division of her hull into three holds.McLaughlin, p. 110 She was redesignated as Barzha No. 38 and, in 1914, Barzha No. 326. She was abandoned by the Russians in Helsingfors (Helsinki) when they were forced to withdraw from Finland in April 1918 according to the terms of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and was later broken up there.

{{reflist|group=Note}}

{{reflist|2}}

• {{cite book|title=Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905|editor1-last=Chesneau|editor1-first=Roger|editor2-last=Kolesnik|editor2-first=Eugene M.|publisher=Conway Maritime Press|location=Greenwich, UK|year=1979|isbn=0-8317-0302-4|name-list-style=amp|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/conwaysallworlds0000unse_l2e2}}
• {{cite book|last=McLaughlin|first=Stephen|title=Warship 2012|editor=John Jordan|publisher=Conway|location=London|year=2012|pages=98–112|chapter=Russia's American Monitors: The Uragan Class |isbn=978-1-84486-156-9}}

{{Uragan class monitor}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Latnik}}

Category:Uragan-class monitors

Category:1864 ships

Category:Ships built at the Baltic Shipyard