Russian monitor Veschun

Veschun not long after completion
History
Russian Empire
Name	Veschun (Вещун)
Namesake	Soothsayer or Prophet[1]
Ordered	23 March 1863[Note 1]
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 and 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	340–500 ihp (254–373 kW) 2 rectangular Morton boilers
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	1865: 2 × 9 in (229 mm) smoothbore guns 1868: 2 × 15 in (381 mm) smoothbore Rodman guns 1873: 2 × 9 in (229 mm) rifled guns
Armor	Hull: 5 in (127 mm) Gun turret: 11 in (279 mm) Funnel base: 6 in (152 mm) Conning tower: 8 in (203 mm)

Veshchun (Russian: Вещун) was an Uragan-class monitor built for the Imperial Russian Navy in Belgium in the mid-1860s. The design was based on the American Passaic-class monitor, but was modified to suit Russian engines, guns and construction techniques. She was one of two ships of the class to be built in Belgium and assembled in Russia. Spending her entire career with the Baltic Fleet, the ship was only active when the Gulf of Finland was not frozen, but very little is known about her service. She was stricken in 1900 from the Navy List, 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 later scrapped by the Finns.

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