funnel was raised by about in an attempt to improve the draft to the boiler and 24 stokers were also added to the ship's crew during the winter of 1877–78, but neither had much effect. Armament Four muzzle-loading smoothbore guns, based on the American Rodman design, were originally intended as Petr Velikys main armament, but the Russians were impressed by a demonstration of a new Krupp rifled gun. They bought a few guns directly as well as a production license and an enlarged 12-inch, 20-caliber, gun was selected to replace the 20-inch guns. In order to keep the gun ports as small as possible the hydraulic turret machinery raised and lowered the guns' trunnions rather than their muzzles. They had a maximum elevation of +12.5° and a maximum depression of −2.5°. This gave the guns a range of about at maximum elevation. The gun turrets were of the Coles type and weighed each. Powered by steam engines they could make a complete 360° rotation in one minute, although they had a firing arc of only 310°. The guns recoiled into the turrets after firing, which meant that a great deal of powder smoke was released into the turret. To counter this problem, ventilation fans were mounted in the turret roofs. The ship's machinery filled almost the entire breastwork, which forced the main gun magazines away from the turrets towards the ends of the ship, and that complicated the ammunition resupply arrangements for those guns. While some shells were stored in the breastwork, most were not, and likely would have slowed the ship's sustained rate of fire in a lengthy engagement. A number of sources, including Campbell, claim that the ship suffered a number of cracks while firing the guns while ice-bound during the winter of 1877–78, but this incident cannot be confirmed by Russian-language sources. McLaughlin believes that any such incident would have been mentioned if it occurred, as such sources are otherwise quite candid about the ship's drawbacks. The anti-torpedo boat armament of the Petr Veliky consisted of six four-pounder () guns, four mounted on the bridge, and two at the stern, and two Palmcrantz one-pounder () Gatling-type machine guns. Two telescoping spar torpedoes were mounted in the bow; one set at below the waterline and the other at . They did not retract all the way into the hull, the excess length was hinged upwards and fastened to