armament of a dozen guns in four triple turrets was specified in the same 'linear' non-superfiring arrangements as the Ganguts. The sixteen anti-torpedo boat guns of the Ganguts were replaced by twenty /55 B7 Pattern 1913 guns to counter the ever-increasing size of torpedo boats. The maximum elevation of the 12-inch guns was to be increased to 35°, 10° more than in the Gangut-class ships, and turret armor was to be increased from to . A design competition was announced in July 1911, but there were not many contenders. The Naval Ministry favored the design from the Russud Works and gave preliminary orders for three ships on 2 September, even before the competition was concluded in November. Russud's design was unsurprisingly selected and the government transferred designers from the government-owned Baltic Works as well as a complete set of drawings for the Gangut-class to speed up the detailed design process. General characteristics The ships of the Imperatritsa Mariya-class were long overall, had a beam of and at full load a draft of . They displaced at (standard). High-tensile steel was used throughout the hull with mild steel used only in areas that did not contribute to structural strength. The hull was subdivided by 18 transverse watertight bulkheads. The engine room was divided by two longitudinal bulkheads and a double bottom was provided. Their designed metacentric height was . Imperatritsa Ekaterina Velikaya was slightly larger than her half-sisters because ONZiV enlarged her in an effort to counter the usual problem Russian battleships had with weight. She was long at the waterline and had a beam of ; longer and wider than her half sisters. Her exact draft is not known, but she had a draft of on trials. Her displacement was at load, over more than her designed displacement of . Imperatritsa Mariya proved to be very bow-heavy in service and tended to ship large amounts of water through her forward casemates. The ammunition for the forward 12-inch guns was reduced from 100 to 70 rounds each while the 130 mm ammunition was reduced from 245 to 100 rounds per gun in an attempt to compensate for her trim. This did not fully cure the problem, but Imperatritsa Mariya was lost before any other changes could be implemented. This did not fully cure the problem so Volias, as she was known by then, forward pair of 130 mm guns were removed