Russian monitor Veschun
Veschun not long after completion | |
| History | |
|---|---|
| Russian Empire | |
| Name | Veschun (Вещун) |
| Namesake | Soothsayer or Prophet |
| Ordered | 23 March 1863 |
| Builder | Cockerill, Belgium |
| Cost | 1,237,000 rubles |
| Laid down | 9 December 1863 |
| Launched | 8 May 1864 |
| In service | 1865 |
| Out of service | 6 July 1900 |
| Reclassified | As coastal defense ship, 13 February 1892 |
| Stricken | 17 August 1900 |
| Fate | Converted into a coal barge, 1903, and scrapped around 1918 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type | Uragan-class monitor |
| Displacement | 1,500–1,600 long tons (1,524–1,626 t) |
| Length | 201 ft (61.3 m) |
| Beam | 46 ft (14.0 m) |
| Draft | 10.16–10.84 ft (3.1–3.3 m) |
| Installed power | |
| Propulsion | 1 shaft, 1 × 2-cylinder horizontal direct-acting steam engine |
| Speed | 6.75 knots (12.50 km/h; 7.77 mph) |
| Range | 1,440 nmi (2,670 km; 1,660 mi) at 6 knots (11 km/h; 6.9 mph) |
| Complement | 96–110 |
| Armament |
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| Armor |
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Veshchun (Russian: Вещун) was an Uragan-class monitor built for the Imperial Russian Navy in Belgium during the mid-1860s. The design was based on the American Passaic-class monitor, but modified to suit Russian engines, guns, and construction techniques. She was one of two ships of the class built in Belgium and assembled in Russia. She served her entire career with the Baltic Fleet, operating only when the Gulf of Finland was not frozen. Little is known about her specific service. She was stricken from the Navy List in 1900, converted into a coal barge in 1903, and renamed Barzha No. 44 then Barzha No. 327. Abandoned by the Soviets in Finland in 1918, the ship was subsequently scrapped by the Finns.