Works, a ridiculous charge of 25 roubles nearly brought the work to a full stop. The savvy admiral always blamed the suppliers but did not even attempt to fix the disarray in his own office. Nevertheless, in April 1894 the completed hull passed static pressure tests. It was launched , 1894 during a fleet review attended by Tsar Nicholas II. The commissioning of Sissoi Veliky was scheduled for September 1896, but an examination in August revealed that the steering gear, water pumps, ventilation system and one of the turrets were still missing or defective. The builders hastily equipped the ship with rudder controls built for Poltava and delivered the ship for her sea trials on , 1896. The Navy desperately needed Sissoi Veliky in the Mediterranean and she was commissioned regardless of her known faults. Service Mediterranean Immediately after the trials Sissoi Veliky was ordered to join the Mediterranean Squadron which was engaged in the naval blockade of Crete in the wake of the 1896 Cretan riots and the Hamidian massacres. Her maiden voyage revealed more problems; the lack of ventilation in the steering compartment was so appalling that during the first port call the captain purchased electric fans with his own money and the electrical systems failed one by one before reaching Gibraltar. The copper rings for sealing the portholes were left in Kronstadt and were not found until February 1897. On , 1896 the leaking Sissoi Veliky reached Algiers. The captain planned to stay there for at least 20 days to complete the most urgent repairs, but five days later a telegram from Saint Petersburg forced him to leave for Piraeus. There the crew managed to seal the seams between the armour plates and repair the electrical systems. In February 1897 Sissoi Veliky steamed to Crete to join the International Squadron, a multinational naval force which intervened in a Greek uprising against the Ottoman Empire′s rule there. She had her first gunnery exercise ten miles off Souda Bay, Crete, at the end of February. In early March, she steamed with other ships of the squadron to Selino Kastelli on the southwest coast of Crete to put an international expedition ashore that rescued Ottoman troops and Cretan Turk civilians from Kandanos. After returning to the waters off Souda Bay, she conducted her second gunnery exercise, held on . It ended in disaster when the rear turret exploded after an