Russian ship Sultan Makhmud
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 Painting of Sultan Makhmud under sail | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 Russian Empire | |
| Name | Sultan Makhmud |
| Builder | V. Apostoli, Nikolaev |
| Laid down | 1 February 1835 |
| Launched | 31 October 1836 |
| Fate | Broken up, 1854 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type | Sultan Makhmud-class ship of the line |
| Displacement | 3,790 metric tons (3,730 long tons; 4,180 short tons) |
| Length | 196 ft (60 m) |
| Beam | 53 ft 6 in (16.31 m) |
| Draft | 26 ft 7 in (8.10 m) |
| Armament |
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Sultan Makhmud was the lead ship of the Sultan Makhmud class of ships of the line built for the Imperial Russian Navy's Black Sea Fleet in the late 1830s and early 1840s. The ship supported a campaign by the Imperial Russian Army to pacify newly conquered territory in the Caucasus in the late 1830s and 1840, and thereafter patrolled the Black Sea in the early 1840s. She spent most of the last half of the decade out of service apart from brief periods of activity in 1847 and 1849, and was decommissioned in 1850. Hulked in 1852, she quickly deteriorated badly and was broken up in 1854.
The eight Sultan Makhmud-class ships of the line were ordered as part of a naval expansion program aimed at strengthening the Russian Black Sea Fleet during a period of increased tension with Britain and France over the decline of one of Russia's traditional enemies, the Ottoman Empire. Beginning in the 1830s, Russia ordered a series of 84-gun ships in anticipation of a future conflict, and the Sultan Makhmuds accounted for nearly half of the nineteen vessels built.[1]
Sultan Makhmud was 196 feet (60 m) long, with a beam of 53 ft 6 in (16.31 m) and a draft of 23 ft 8 in (7.21 m) to 26 ft 7 in (8.10 m). She displaced 3,790 metric tons (3,730 long tons; 4,180 short tons) and measured 2,500 tons burthen. The ship was built with a round stern to increase its strength.[2]
The ship carried a battery of twenty-eight 36-pounder long guns on the lower gun deck and another thirty-two 36-pound short-barreled guns on the upper gun deck. In her forecastle and quarterdeck, she mounted six 18-pound guns and sixteen 36-pound carronades.[2]
