edge. The upper of the belt was intended to be above the waterline, but the ship was overweight and much of the belt was submerged. The belt terminated in transverse bulkheads. The lower casemate was above the belt, long and eight feet high, and was intended to protect the bases of the turrets. It had 16-inch sides and was closed off by 16-inch transverse bulkheads fore and aft. The upper casemate protected the six-inch guns and was thick on all sides. The sides of the turrets were thick and the conning tower's sides were in thickness. The nickel steel armor deck was thick over the lower casemate, but thick forward and aft of the main armor belt to the bow and stern. Major refit in 1911–12 Tri Sviatitelia was reconstructed between November 1911 and August 1912. A number of different proposals had been considered earlier, including one to replace all of her obsolete Harvey armour with modern Krupp armour and others to replace her main guns or turrets, but these were rejected as too expensive. Her masts and fighting tops were replaced by pole masts and all of her light guns and torpedo tubes were removed with the exception of two 47-millimetre guns retained for use as saluting guns. Her 4.7-inch guns were replaced by four shielded 6-inch guns on the roof of the upper casemate. The upper casemate was modified to accommodate two extra 6-inch guns and her superstructure was reduced in size. The maximum elevation of her main guns was increased to 25° and their breeches and loading mechanisms were upgraded to increase their rate of fire to one round every 40 seconds. These modifications had the effect of reducing her displacement by almost and she was capable of on her post-reconstruction sea trials. Service Tri Sviatitelia was named after the Three Holy Hierarchs of the Eastern Orthodox Church. She was built by Nikolayev Dockyard and laid down 15 August 1891, although actual construction had begun about January 1891. The ship was launched 12 November 1893 and transferred to Sevastopol for completion the following year. Officially she entered service in 1895 with the Black Sea Fleet, but her sea trials did not begin until September–October 1896. In 1899 Tri Sviatitelia became the first ship in the world to be fitted with a radio, an installation designed by the Russian physicist Alexander Stepanovich Popov that had a range of