KINFAUNS CASTLE (1) .was built in 1879 by John Elder & Co. at Glasgow with a tonnage of 3507grt, a length of 360ft 4in, a beam of 43ft and a service speed of 12 knots.

She was delivered to D. Currie & Co., which was still the registered name of the company, was the first steel hulled ship ordered by the company and constructed for potential conversion into an Armed Merchant Cruiser.

A wood engraving from Illustrated London News

June 1880

A Coloured Lithograph by T G Dutton

In 1883 she was sold to the Russian Volunteer Fleet at Odessa and renamed Moscva (Moskva) and in 1895 became the Russian training ship Proot (Prut), also based in Odessa.

In 1909 she was converted into an operational minelaying training ship. On 29th October 1914 she was hit by gunfire from the German battlecruiser Goeben which had been temporarily renamed Sultan Selim off Cape Fiolen, Sevastopol and was scuttled to avoid capture.

Ten days later the Sultan Selim was badly damaged by two mines laid by her victim