23. Serious Design and Manufacturing Defects
The Novgorod’s circular hull played havoc with the rudder’s ability to steer the ship or turn it around. In a storm, the ship was unsteerable, and even in calm weather, it took 45 minutes to make a full circle. Moreover, the wide flat bottom made the vessel susceptible in rough seas to pitching so severe that the propellers came out of the water. Additionally, the blunt hull did not slice through water to reduce its resistance, but pushed large volumes of water out of the way by brute force. That made the ship very fuel-inefficient, causing it to consume coal at a prodigious rate.
On top of design defects, the Novgorod had numerous manufacturing defects. Low-quality materials and poor workmanship led to persistent problems with the ship’s propulsion, from blades to shaft to drive, that lasted for the vessel’s entire career. Additionally, the ship suffered from poor ventilation that no amount of troubleshooting could fix, even after installing ventilation cowls on the gun emplacements.
