As part of the implementation of the shipbuilding program "For the needs of the Far East", adopted in early 1898, the Russian government, represented by the ITC, announced an international competition for the construction of battleships, cruisers and destroyers to strengthen the Pacific squadron. However, in the spring of 1898, the Russian side urgently concludes a contract with the American entrepreneur Charles Cramp for the construction of an armored cruiser and a battleship squadron. Over the course of many subsequent decades, domestic sources, as an explanation for the refusal of the Maritime Ministry from the competition it had planned, featured the accusation of the chief commander of the fleet of corruption
And if you try to look at the situation with an open mind? Both foreign companies that have responded to the invitation, the Italian “Gio. Ansaldo & C "and the German" Schiff- und Maschinenbau AG "Germania" ", there was no experience in building large warships according to their own designs. By the time of the events described, Ansaldo had handed over to the customer two armored cruisers, Garibaldi and Cristóbal Colón, built according to the design of the Italian politician, general and naval engineer E. Masdea (Edoardo Masdea). "Germania" - the armored cruiser "Kaiserin Augusta" and the battleship "Wörth", designed by the actual secret adviser A. Dietrich, head of the Konstruktionsdepartements (Konstruktionsdepartements) of the Admiralty of the German Empire.
Schiff- und Maschinenbau AG "Germania", a shipyard with a staff of several hundred, was acquired by Friedrich Krupp AG in 1896 and expanded and modernized in the following years. The area of the shipyard, which in 1902 changed its name to "Friedrich Krupp Germaniawerft", within six years was increased from six to twenty two and a half hectares, the number of personnel exceeded a thousand people. "Gio. Ansaldo & C "by 1898 in terms of the volume of completed orders was several times inferior to the leaders of the Italian shipbuilding industry. So, over the last two decades of the nineteenth century, the shipyard "Castellammare di Stabia" for the Italian navy built ships with a total displacement of 77 313 tons, "Venice" 49 696 tons, "Spezia" 47 775 tons. "Ansaldo" has this figure equaled 10,477 tons. The number of workers in the period from 1890 to 1893 due to the lack of orders was reduced from 600 to 380 people. With the beginning of the construction of the armored cruisers of the "Garibaldi" class, the shipyard's personnel began to increase, reaching 1,250 in 1897. Comparing this shipbuilding company with others, it can be noted that about 16,000 workers worked at the Armstrong shipyard in 1897, from 1882 to 1897 the company built warships with a total displacement of 179,685 tons. In 1895, William Cramp & Sons "occupied an area of 13 hectares with a total of 6,000 workers. From 1877 to 1897, the company delivered combat and civilian vessels with a total displacement of 181,856 tons to customers. As these facts and figures show, both German and Italian the firms that submitted their applications for participation in the international competition, at the beginning of 1898, were small shipbuilding companies with limited capabilities.
Ch. Crump arrived in Russia in March 1898. By that time, the shipbuilding company headed by him, according to its own projects, had built two armored cruisers of the same type Columbia and Minneapolis, armored cruisers New York and Brooklyn, three battleships Indiana "," Massachusetts "and" Iowa ".
Following meetings with Kramp, Admiral-General Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich and Chief of the Main Naval Staff F. K. Avelan approved the construction of a battleship squadron and an armored cruiser in America.
It was decided to build another battleship, also on a non-competitive basis, in France, at the shipyard of the Forges et chantiers de la Méditerranée. According to the projects of the chief designer and director of the engineer A. Lagane (Amable Lagane), by 1898, by order of the French naval forces and foreign customers, the shipyard had built armored cruisers Amiral Cécille, Itsukushima and Matsushima, as well as the battleships Amiral Duperré, Marceau, Pelayo, Capitan Prat and Jauréguiberry.
The international competition for the creation of the battleship project did not take place, possibly also due to the unsuccessful experience of holding another international competition, for the creation of an armored cruiser, announced by the circular MTK No. 2 dated March 2, 1894. In October 1894, the results of the first round of the competition were summed up on the submitted nine projects, and in June 1895 - the final results of the competition. The competition lasted fifteen months, but none of the submitted projects could be "subject to immediate construction." Obviously, in the face of a clearly recognized growing threat from the rapidly developing Japanese fleet, the leadership of the Naval Ministry considered it unacceptable to delay the start of construction of two battleships abroad by holding useless competitions, the results of which then still had to be finalized, and in fact, the project had to be re-created.
It is impossible to prove or deny the version of bribe-taking by officials, but what if we look at the situation from a different angle, asking the question: did it make sense for Ch. Crump to give a bribe in order to receive an order that did not promise serious profit?
According to the contract, the cost of the battleship Retvizan, with and without armor, was $ 4,358,000.00. For comparison, the "Tsarevich" with armor and without weapons cost 5,842,605.00 dollars (30,280,000 francs) under the contract. We do not know the amount at which the booking of the Retvizan should have cost, however, the data at our disposal allow us to estimate the cost of the armor of the Russian ship. Between 1898 and 1899, the US government paid the major American steel companies (Bethlehem Iron Company and Carnegie Steel Company) $ 405 per ton of Harvey armor. Considering that the replacement, at the request of the MTK, which was supposed to be installed by Ch. Crump on the Garvey armor on Kruppovskaya (Krupp armor) resulted in an additional $ 310,000.00 for the treasury, the armor for the Retvizan, the total weight of which was about 3300 tons, cost $ 1,646,500.00. Consequently, "Retvizan" without armor and weapons cost 2,711,500.00 dollars.
Now let's compare the figure obtained with that of the battleship "Maine", which had a displacement and design similar to the "Retvizan" and was built at the Ch. Kramp shipyard simultaneously with the Russian battleship.
According to the contract, the cost of the Maine without armor and weapons was $ 2,885,000.00, which is $ 173,500.00 more than the cost of the Retvizan without armor and weapons. The fact is all the more remarkable because the price for the construction of a series of three Maine-class battleships, voluntarily appointed by the presidential act of March 4, 1898, was politically motivated and looked too low by American standards. Thus, the earlier built armored cruiser "New York" without armor and weapons under the contract cost 2,985,000.00, which is one hundred thousand dollars more than the cost of the battleship "Main". The battleships Indiana and Massachusetts built by the same Ch. Crump had a total cost of six million dollars each. The third Oregon-class battleship built by Union Iron Works cost even more, at $ 6,500,000.00.
The above figures give us reason to believe that Ch. Crump, trying to gain a foothold in the Russian market and push back competitors, went to price dumping. He offered a relatively low price for the battleship, obviously, coupled with the reputation of the company, which looked more advantageous against the background of “Gio. Ansaldo & C "and" Germania ", apparently, and persuaded the leadership of the Russian fleet to conclude a contract with Ch. Crump.
