Author: D. Hotkin
General-Admiral Apraksin was a Russian, and later Japanese, coastal defense battleship in the early 20th century. The keel for this unit was laid in 1894, the launch took place in May 1896, and the entry into service - in 1899. The length of the ship was 80.6 meters and the width was 15.9 meters. Full displacement reached about 4,300 tons, and maximum speed - to about 15 knots. The deck armament, at the time of the launch, consisted of: 3 254 mm guns, 4 120 mm guns and 10 47 mm guns.
General-Admiral Apraksin was one of the three battleships belonging to the Admiral Ushakov class. This type of vessel was designed and built primarily for service in the Baltic Sea, and their main - potential - opponent was to be the Swedish Navy. The battleship General-Admiral Apraksin was built at the New Admiration Shipyard in Saint Petersburg. Shortly after entering the service, he was assigned to the Baltic Fleet. However, shortly after the outbreak of the Japanese-Russian war (1904-1905), the unit was dispatched to the Far East and took part in the Battle of Tsushima, defeated by the Russian side (1905). As a result, the battleship was captured by the Japanese, who shortly afterwards modernized it, and most of all they rearmed it - e.g. by removing 120 mm guns and replacing them with 6 152 mm guns. The unit name was changed to Okinoshima. The vessel was removed from the state of the Japanese Navy in 1922 and later converted into a museum ship by a private company. In 1939, the unit was finally sold for scrap.