Ships come in a lot of variety of sizes and shapes depending on their role and the time period they come from. However, one thing the vast majority have in common is some basics of their hull shape (I’m talking about monohulls here, so not catarmarans, trimarans etc). They are longer then they are wide with a bow that is in some way pointed. Generally ships designed to move faster have these traits more emphasised and many warships tend to fall into this category. A slow warship tends to equal a dead warship. There are some exceptions however and in the 1870s Russia built a couple of warships which were very different. Their names were the Novgorod and Vitse-admiral Popov and they had round hulls, properly round too, from above they were completely circular. No-one has tried this since and it’s often claimed they were utter disasters but the reality is a little less clear cut.
So why round?
Most warships need to be fast but actually some don’t. When people think of warships they tend to think of battleships and other ships designed to move through open water and cover long distances. The Novgorods are sometimes called round battleships but they were nothing of the sort. They were coastal defence ships so had no need for speed. What they needed to do was move into position, often in shallow water, be able to fire accurately and destroy their targets without being destroyed themselves. The round hull was a way to allow them to have a shallow draft and still carry big guns as it gave maximum displacement for the draft. The wide beam would make for a stable gun platform allowing more accurate fire. They also sat low in the water making them a more difficult target to hit. Their twin guns were mounted right in the middle of their hulls on a rotating turret with a 35 degree traverse. The Novgorods could cover a wide area without moving and the round hull kept them stable while firing. These qualities were all good for ships which were essentially redeployable fortifications which needed to hit hard and stay afloat.
Design and operational history.
The Novgorod was built between 1871 and 1874 with the Popov built between 1872 and 1876. The two shared the same unique design features but were not sisters ships since the Popov was a larger and more heavily armed vessel. The Novgorod was smaller at 2500 tons with a length (and of course width) of 101 feet. The Popov was 3600 tons and 126 feet. Main armament were twin guns of 11-inches (Novgorod) and 12-inches (Popov) respectably. Armour being 12 inches (Novgorod) and 16 inches (Popov) thick. They saw relatively limited combat but were both deployed in the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-1878 where they were assigned to defend Odessa on the Black Sea. Both survived into the 20th century being decommissioned in 1903. The Novgorod being used as a store ship while attempts to sell the Popov to Bulgaria fell through. Both were scrapped in 1911.
Why do they have such a terrible reputation?
Essentially by a combination of some genuine problems with the design and then at least some exaggeration of how badly this affected them. The Novgorods hull created plenty of drag so they were slow, the Novgorod’s top speed was 6.5 knots and the Popovs 7.5 knots. This is pretty damn slow and was notably slower than they were designed to be. Like all ships which sit low in the water they were restricted to calm waters to prevent swamping. Given their intended role these two qualities were not too much of a problem however. The biggest problem the Novgorods had was their maneuverability and controllability. The problem with a round hull is that it can spin around on its central axis as it has nothing to create any resistance rotationally. In order to make the design work the Novgorods needed a way to control this free rotational movement. Unfortunately they had rudders and propellers which were simply too undersized to control them correctly. When they fired their twin guns this would inevitably result in rotational movement as the forces of the two guns would never be exactly equal. Consequently, after each salvo the ships would have to control this then get back into position before they could fire again. Given their small rudders and propellers this took some time and gave them a much slower firing rate than was desirable. Even mildly choppy waters caused them to struggle due to their difficulties on steering. Exactly how badly the Novgorods were affected by these problems is not easy to discern. Some sources suggest that it was so bad that they would whirl around and around ever time they tried to turn or fire or do anything at all making them as good as useless. Other sources suggest that their rotations could be stopped by reversing the engines on one side meaning it could be controlled even if it did still cause problems.
Final assessment.
The Novgorod service in Odessa was fairly limited and their role in the war was minor. None the less accounts of their time there do suggest that they were successful in this service despite their problems. Presumably then were not the hopeless whirling jokes they are sometimes portrayed as and were able to fulfill their role at least reasonably adequetely. No more ships of their design were ever planned by Russia or anyone else however. The disadvantages of their design, especially their handling, seem to have outweighed their good attributes and the Novgorods had no advantage over ships of more conventional design. Plus their layout could not be transferred to other ship types and even at best could be seen as a very specialised niche design with noticeable limitations. Overall they can be seen as being a mostly unsuccessful experiment or at least a dead end. They might not have been a complete and total failure but they had no real future either.
Some unusual things. 