Strange ships

摘要

Engineers often say that if a design looks right it will perform well. Think of Concorde, the E-type Jaguar, the English Electric Lightning: all beautiful designs that performed to perfection. But what happens when a design looks totally and utterly wrong? Well, the Novgorod and Popovka might give us a clue. Novgorod and Popovka were two Russian monitors that are clear candidates for being the most bizarre ships ever built, for the simple reason that they were completely round. They were the brain child (although 'brain orphan' might be more appropriate!) of Admiral Andrey Alexandrovich Popov, a veteran of the Crimean War, who was very familiar with latest naval developments in the UK, France and the US. In spite of that familiarity with design practices of the day he went off at a tangent from the mainstream of naval architecture.