Military Museum Blog: Russian Imperial Monitor Sagittarius

After the Battle of Hampton Roads in the American Civil War in 1862 every navy wanted Monitors. Technically advanced and relatively cheap, they offered smaller navies the potential to compete with the major maritime powers

In 1864 the Imperial Russian navy placed an order for 10 monitors from John Ericsson, designer of the original USS Monitor. Ericsson made some minor improvements to the design but otherwise the 10 ships of the 'Uragan' (Hurricane) class were virtually identical to the USS Passaic class. The ships in the class were: "Hurricane", "Typhon", "Sagittarius", "Unicorn", "Battleship", "Latnik", "Sorcerer", "Perun", "Veschun", and "Lava."

To speed up delivery, two ships were built in Belgium but the remaining eight were built in Russian yards. When completed the ships formed a coastal defense squadron in the Gulf of Finland, protecting the approaches to St Petersburg and Russia's Baltic fleet base at Kronstadt. Like other monitors around the world, they quickly became obsolete and were relegated to second rate status. By the 1890s, some of the ships had be converted into training ships, some as store ships and tenders.

In 1900 the Monitor Sagittarius was disarmed and had her machinery stripped and she was converted into a floating workshop. A new superstructure was built atop her hull for the workshops and storehouses. Her name was retired and she was simply given a serial number. In this capacity she continued to serve in the Kronstadt naval yard. Although she was officially retired in 1955, the workshop in fact remained in use as a workshop storehouse, moored in a quiet inlet.

The monitor's original hull is clearly visible in these photos. The additional superstructure and workshops are painted light grey while the original hull is black.