Horseman destroyers

Design

Draft Design

Negotiations of the Naval General Staff (MGSH) with the company "Germany" , the purpose of which was the creation by the specialists of this German shipyard of a project of a 570-ton destroyer for the Russian fleet, were begun in March 1904 by the acting head of the MGS, Rear Admiral Z. P. Rozhestvensky . On April 8, 1904, the general drawing and brief specification of the project were hastily sent to the Marine Technical Committee (MTK). In mid-April, the project was submitted to the ITC ^[1] . On April 27, magazine decision No. 12 on the mine business project issued an assessment that revealed a number of shortcomings in it: ^[2]

1. The overall design of the project was not detailed enough, the specification too short;
2. The simplified drainage system, consisting of a circulation pump, ejectors, and a pipe that was no longer used in the Russian fleet, was declared unsatisfactory. Ejectors that consumed a lot of steam could deprive the ship of its movement while receiving a hole. Instead, MTK recommended installing six self-contained electric centrifugal pumps in their compartments (three stoker, one machine and two at the extremities) with a water flow rate of 80 t / h and waterproof housings;
3. The cruising range defined by the company (a full 26-knot course of 800 nautical miles and an economic 12 knot - 4000 nautical miles with a coal pit capacity of 192 tons) was considered exaggerated by the MTK and at an economic speed it was possible to achieve a maximum of 2400 mile sailing range;
4. Artillery weapons (6 57-mm guns) were considered completely inadequate. The MTK itself was also in doubt with the 57-mm caliber, which had not been previously used in the Russian Navy;
5. Torpedo armament, which included only two single-tube vehicles with a stock of two Whitehead mines according to the project of the German company, was deemed insufficient;
6. The Schulz-Tornicroft boilers provided by the company were recognized by the MTK as “badly proven” on the latest Russian destroyers. More suitable were Norman boilers;
7. There was no stock of displacement.

On June 5, 1904, the L.K. Wachter, the St. Petersburg representative of the company Germany, handed over the amended specification of the 570-ton destroyer in Russian and German, along with three drawings ^[3] . On June 21, 1904, Major General Ya. D. Levitsky, chief of the MTK drawing, presented his feedback on the project. He was told that the project for the construction of destroyers on it should be considered unsuitable for several reasons. The scale of the drawings was too small (1: 100), indistinct and inconsistent communications and components of the hull structure, the general arrangement was carelessly executed, many of the comments of the MTK were omitted and not taken into account, the details were poorly worked out. The general arrangement drawing did not include a dynamo , sump turbines , steering wheel , etc. The number of crews envisaged by the German project was 77, including 5 officers, 4 conductors , 18 quartermaster , 32 machine crew members and 18 sailors . Nevertheless, for unknown reasons and despite the serious flaws of the project identified, Y. D. Levitsky concluded his remarks with the conclusion that the requirements of magazine No. 13 were fulfilled by the German company. The response "either from the inconsistency of the initial and final conclusions, or from the seemingly excessive harshness was postponed and hidden" for information "in the shipbuilding department" ^[4] . For discussion, a review was made of the shipbuilding department, which was compiled at the request of the mine department of June 13, 1904 .

On August 7, 1904, the Germany plant, through its representative in St. Petersburg, decided to summarize the first results of work on the destroyer project (in German documents it was referred to as project No. 120). As a result of twofold project changes, the component loads have changed. Bulkhead reinforcements increased the weight of the hull from the original 178 tons to 180 tons; subsequent redistribution of the thickness of the hull brought the weight of the latter to 183 tons. The inclusion of 6 57-mm guns in the artillery armament requested by the head of the Ministry of the Sea caused an increase in the weight of artillery from 20 to 25 tons. Auxiliary mechanisms from adding three additional pumps were “heavier” by 1.6 tons . 3 tons in the load was added and the replacement of anchor cables with chains. The added 2 sailboats, an increase in the crew’s property and the spread of a sun awning over the entire length of the deck generally brought their load from 25 tons to 32 tons (while the total capacity of the coal pits remained the same) ^[4] .

The construction cost of a destroyer requested by the company in May 1904 in the amount of 1.7 million marks, thanks to the exclusion from the supply of the artillery and mine weapons initially expected by the company, was reduced to 1,601,500 marks (741,494 rubles. 50 kopecks). One destroyer was to be built in Kiel (the weapons were to be installed at the Helsingforsky machine-building and bridge-building plant. The second destroyer was to be built at the Helsingfors factory under the supervision of the German factory technicians. According to the contract signed by the head of the Main Directorate of Civil Aviation , September 16, 1904 , the first destroyer was to be delivered fleet in Helsingfors to 15 June 1905 the year , and the second - to 15 July . The project is expected to be approved at the upcoming September 17 report from the manager of the Naval Ministry, but suddenly (after the new paragraph iezda director of the shipyard "Germany") Helsingfors engineering and bridge-building factory orders fell out of the scope of the Ministry of Marine and took over the independent construction of two destroyers commissioned by the Special Committee (with delivery dates 1 August and 1 September 1905 the year ), the third destroyer (optional Marine ministries) the plant could have been commissioned only in November or December of that year, and the Germany shipyard took over the Ministry of the Sea in this situation. The shipyard assumed the obligation to build both destroyers intended for her order in Kiel and then (no later than June 1 and August 1, 1905, respectively) to deliver destroyers to one of the Russian ports. Overcoming all the formal obstacles in connection with German neutrality in the Russo-Japanese War, the German shipyard took over ^[5] .

In October 1904, a contract for the construction of all 4 destroyers was approved by Lieutenant General L. Ya. Lyubimov; On October 11, a contract, typographically printed, was signed by the company representative K. Wachter and A. R. Rodionov. The deadline for preparing for delivery in Kiel for the first ship was postponed to July 1 , the deadline for the second destroyer remained the same. Ships were delivered to Russia on previous conditions. For an additional fee (more than 4,500 rubles per ship), the German factory took over the installation of artillery and mine weapons upon arrival at the Russian port. The final cost of each ship was determined by the sum of 1,487,160 German marks or 607,000 rubles ^[6] .

Working draft

On October 12, 1904, K. L. Wachter requested the Ministry to immediately send two engineers (a shipbuilder and a mechanic) to Germany to receive materials ordered by the Germany shipyard. These requests were repeated by 2 telegrams (from October 16 and 23) already on behalf of the Krupp company, but the Russian Ministry of the Sea did not answer them ^[6] , not having time to deal with new orders that were constantly being made at that time ^[7] . Ultimately, the assistant to the senior mechanical engineer V. A. Postnikov was appointed to oversee the construction of the destroyers, the structural and technological correctness of the work of the shipyard “Germany”. His duties also included the reception of materials ordered by the German shipyard ^[8] .

The results of the first stage of detailed design were summed up on November 30, 1904 by K. L. Wachter. In a letter to the Chief Inspector of Mines, he reported on how the company took into account the proposals of the MTK on the changes in the drawings submitted by it ^[8] :

1. The command bridge and bow cabin were made in accordance with the design of the MTK. The foreseen canvas shield has been removed;
2. Instead of a similar aft felling, behind which a searchlight was initially installed, it was proposed to construct a light quadrangular cabin to accommodate a wireless telegraph . The exit to the conductors room combined with it was separated by a special partition;
3. Floodlights were proposed to be installed on their own light platform;
4. Behind the machine sunroof there is a light bridge up to 2.25 m wide with a compass located on it and a hand wheel for the aft steering car ;
5. On the sides will be placed 7.62 mm machine guns;
6. The laying of the forecastle was continued until the nasal cabin;
7. At the davits there were boats - 2 large ones on the deck, and small ones inside the large ones. The starboard forward davit was also to be used to lift Whitehead mines from the water.

After clarification of a number of technical details, the working drawings of the project (in the amount of 2 copies) were drawn up. The first copy of the drawings was intended for MTK and was drawn on a transparent kolenor , the second copy of the drawings, made in the painting , was to serve as a guide during construction. The last missing artillery drawings were sent to Kiel on December 17, 1904 ^[9] .

Construction

The order for materials for cases and mechanisms was made by the shipyard “Germany” as far as the contract terms and specifications were ready - by September 1904 . The acceptance of these materials was carried out by the assistant to the senior mechanical engineer V. A. Postnikov who arrived at the shipyard on November 26 . Hull work was monitored by a ship engineer V. M. Gredyakin ^[10] .

For the construction of Russian destroyers, the shipyard "Germany" took one of the four large boathouses , on which three slipways were built for the first of the four destroyers ordered. Destroyer's hulls received serial numbers S-112, S-116, S-117 and S-118 (S from the word German Schiff - ship). Destroyers No. 112 and 118 (commissioned by the Special Committee) were mounted on assembly bolts. When ready, their sections were dismantled for delivery and final assembly in Helsingfors . Installation of destroyer hulls No. 116 and 117 (order of the Ministry of the Sea) was made riveting in the same boathouse ^[10] .

The first hull structures - sheets of horizontal and vertical keels with squares were installed only on the destroyer S-112 and the first stage of hull assembly stopped at that (in three months the actual weight of the assembled structures was barely 8 tons instead of the planned 250) ^[10] . The reason for the delay was the inventory, the consideration of which the ITC postponed during the discussion of the working draft. Due to the growing delay in the work, K. L. Wachter was forced to ask the Ministry on February 18 to give the engineer Gredyakin instructions that he could adhere to until the materials of the project approved by MTK were received ^[11] .

The lead ship of the type actually became the first "committee" destroyer S-112, which was being built collapsible and with a noticeable lead. By February 1, sheets of horizontal and vertical destroyers S-116 and S-118 were installed on the slipway (the weight of the assembled structures was 6 tons each). In the assembly were frames , beams and transverse bulkheads . On the destroyer S-112, ahead of S-116 and S-118, in addition to keel sheets, frames (from No. 21 to No. 134) were installed, as well as the main transverse bulkheads with a total weight of 17.7 tons. For S-117, horizontal and vertical keels and frames were in operation. By March 15, 2/3 of the outer skin was assembled on S-112, brackets and mortars of the propeller shafts were fitted in places (the weight of the hull structures reached already 73.3 tons of metal). On the case No. 116, frames were installed together with part of the transverse bulkheads (17.8 tons of metal). Part of the frames and bulkheads was installed on the building No. 118, frames with flora were riveted on the building No. 117. By April 1, 1905, the S-112 hull was assembled together with the deck (metal weight reached 113 tons). On the S-117 case, frames were riveted with flora , and also part of the transverse bulkheads was riveted ^[11] .

Enclosure Design

Weight load

• According to the initial draft :
  • hull - 178 metric tons;
  • auxiliary mechanisms - 17 tons;
  • team with property, inventory, stocks - 24 tons;
  • boilers and main machines - 153 tons;
  • artillery with a combat stock of 20 tons;
  • mine weapons and mines - 10 tons;
  • coal - 168 tons;
    • In total - 570 tons.

• On the final draft :
  • hull - 183 metric tons;
  • auxiliary mechanisms - 22 tons;
  • team with property, inventory, stocks - 32 tons;
  • boilers and main machines - 153 tons;
  • artillery with a combat stock of 25 tons;
  • mine weapons and mines - 10 tons;
  • coal - 168 tons;
    • In total - ≈602 tons.

Main power plant

Armament

• Melnikov R. M. Volunteer class destroyers. - Naval collection. - SPb. , 1999. - (“Warships of the world”).