Russian monitor Lava

Lava 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 Lava{{'}}s sea trials on 12 July 1865, she reached a maximum speed of {{convert|6.5|kn|lk=in}}. 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

Lava was designed to be armed with a pair of {{convert|9|in|adj=on|0|spell=in}} 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|spell=in}} 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 Lava{{'}}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 7 September 1863 at the Semiannikov & Poletika Shipyard in Saint Petersburg. Lava was laid down on 15 December 1863 and she was launched on 8 June 1864. She entered service on 1 September 1865 and cost a total of 1,142,700 rubles, almost double her contract cost of 600,000 rubles. The ship was assigned to the Baltic Fleet upon completion and she, and all of her sister ships except {{ship|Russian monitor|Latnik||2}}, made a port visit to Stockholm, Sweden in July–August 1865 while under the command of General Admiral Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich.McLaughlin, pp. 100, 104, 109 She was present when the American warships {{USS|Miantonomoh|1863|2}} and {{USS|Augusta|1853|2}} visited Kronstadt in July–August 1866.{{cite book|title=Russian Account of the Official Mission to Russia of Hon. G. V. Fox|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_HBKAAAAYAAJ&dq=monitor+lava+russia&pg=PA8|year=1867|publisher=Government Printing Office|location=Washington, D. C.|page=8}}

Sometime after Lava 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 assigned to the newly formed Artillery Training Detachment in March 1870 and she was laid up each winter when the Gulf of Finland froze. Lava 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. The ship was used as a floating barracks by the Third Destroyer Division from 1902 to 1908 and was then used as an observation post during gunnery training. Lava was converted into a mine storage hulk in 1912 and renamed Blokshiv No. 1 on 14 April of that year. She was converted into a floating hospital in 1916 and may have received her old name at that time. She was abandoned by the Soviets in Helsingfors (Helsinki) when they were forced to withdraw from Finland in April 1918 according to the terms of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, but she was later returned by the Finns in 1922. The ship was supposedly broken up there around that time, but may have still been in existence in 1941.

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{{reflist|30em}}

• {{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|date=1979|isbn=0-8317-0302-4|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|date=2012|pages=98–112|chapter=Russia's American Monitors: The Uragan Class |isbn=978-1-84486-156-9}}

{{Uragan class monitor}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lava}}

Category:Uragan-class monitors

Category:1864 ships

Category:Ships built in Saint Petersburg