Russian cruiser Bayan (1907)
Bayan (Russian: Баянъ) was the third of the four armoured cruisers built for the Imperial Russian Navy in the early 1900s. The ship was assigned to the Baltic Fleet. She was modified to lay mines shortly after World War I began. Bayan laid mines herself and provided cover for other ships laying minefields. The ship fought several inconclusive battles with German ships during the war, including the Battle of Åland Islands in mid-1915. She also participated in the Battle of Moon Sound during the German invasion of the Estonian islands in late 1917, where she was damaged. Bayan was decommissioned in 1918 and sold for scrap in 1922. Design and description Bayan was long overall. She had a maximum beam of , a draught of and displaced . The ship had a crew of 568 officers and men. Bayan was named in honor of the earlier Russian cruiser of the same class captured by the Japanese during the Russo-Japanese War. Both ships were named for the legendary bard, Boyan. The ship had two vertical triple-expansion steam engines with a designed total of , but they developed on sea trials and drove the ship to a maximum speed of . Steam for the engines was provided by 26 Belleville boilers. She could carry a maximum of of coal, although her range is unknown. Bayans main armament consisted of two 45-calibre guns in single turrets fore and aft. Her eight guns were mounted in casemates on the sides of the ship's hull. Anti-torpedo boat defense was provided by twenty-two 50-calibre guns; eight of these were mounted in casemates on the side of the hull and in the superstructure. Two guns were astern, in the admiral's apartments, and the remaining twelve guns were located on upper deck amidships (eight above the six-inch gun casemates), in pivot mounts with gun shields. The ship also had two submerged torpedo tubes, one mounted on each broadside. In early 1916, eight of the ship's 75 mm guns in the central casemate were removed, and in early 1917, the rest were removed as well. By early 1917, an additional eight-inch gun was fitted on the centreline forward of the mainmast (it was supposed to be protected with a gun shield, but the photos do not confirm this). In addition, four more six-inch guns were added on an upper deck, two on each broadside. In early 1917, Bayan was also fitted with two anti-aircraft 76 mm Lender guns, mounted to the sides of the after turret. The ship used Krupp armour throughout. Her waterline belt was thick over her machinery spaces, reducing to towards lower edge. Fore and aft, it reduced to . The upper belt and the casemates were thick. The armour deck was thick; over the central battery it was a single plate, but elsewhere it consisted of a plate over two plates. The gun turrets were protected by of armour and the conning tower had walls thick. Service Bayan was built by the Admiralty Shipyard in