Evstafi-class battleship

Evstafi at anchor, 1911
Class overview
Builders	Nikolayev Admiralty Shipyard, Sevastopol Shipyard
Operators	Imperial Russian Navy
Preceded by	Borodino class
Succeeded by	Andrei Pervozvanny class
Built	1903–1910
In service	1911–1918
In commission	1910–1918
Completed	2
Scrapped	2
General characteristics
Type	Pre-dreadnought battleship
Displacement	12,738 long tons (12,942 t)
Length	385 ft 9 in (117.6 m)
Beam	74 ft (22.6 m)
Draught	28 ft (8.5 m)
Installed power	10,600 ihp (7,904 kW)
Propulsion	2 shafts, 2 Vertical triple expansion steam engines 22 coal-fired Belleville water-tube boilers
Speed	16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph)
Range	2,100 nmi (3,900 km; 2,400 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement	928
Armament	2 × 2 - 12-inch (305 mm) guns 4 × 1 - 8-inch (203 mm) guns 12 × 1 - 6-inch (152 mm) guns 14 × 1 - 75-millimetre (3.0 in) guns 2 × 1 - 17.7-inch (450 mm) torpedo tubes
Armour	Krupp armour Belt: 7–9 inches (178–229 mm) Deck: 1.37–2.75 inches (35–70 mm) Turrets: 10 inches (254 mm) Barbettes: 10 inches (254 mm) Conning tower: 8 inches (203 mm) Bulkheads: 7 inches (178 mm)

The Evstafi class were a pair of pre-dreadnought battleships of the Imperial Russian Navy built before World War I for the Black Sea Fleet. They were slightly enlarged versions of the Potemkin, with increased armour and more guns. Numerous alterations were made as a result of experience in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–5 that seriously delayed the completion of the two ships.

They were the most modern ships in the Black Sea Fleet when World War I began and formed the core of the fleet for the first year of the war, before the newer dreadnoughts entered service. They forced the German battlecruiser SMS Goeben to disengage during the Battle of Cape Sarych shortly after Russia declared war on the Ottoman Empire in late 1914. Both ships covered several bombardments of the Bosphorus fortifications in early 1915, including one where they were attacked by the Goeben, but they managed to drive her off. Later, Evstafi and Ioann Zlatoust were relegated to secondary roles after the first dreadnought entered service in late 1915, and were subsequently put into reserve in 1918 in Sevastopol.

Both ships were captured when the Germans took the city in May 1918 and were turned over to the Allies after the Armistice in November 1918. Their engines were destroyed in 1919 by the British when they withdrew from Sevastopol to prevent the advancing Bolsheviks from using them against the White Russians. They were abandoned when the Whites evacuated the Crimea in 1920 and were scrapped in 1922–23.