Sevastopol (battleship)

Normal displacement according to the project - 10 960 dl.t, real - 11 500 t.

Dimensions: the length between the perpendiculars is 108.7 m, along the waterline - 112.5 m, the largest - 114.3 m; width - 21.34 m; draft with bow - 7.6 m, stern - 7.9 m, full load actual - up to 8.6 m.

Reservation ( steel-nickel armor ): main belt 368–254 mm (at the lower edge 184–127 mm; Harvey armor in the central part), upper belt 127 mm, armored deck 51–76 mm, towers and barbets of the main caliber 254 mm, towers and barbets medium caliber 127 mm, wheelhouse 229 mm.

Armament: four 305/40 mm guns in two towers (58 rounds per barrel), twelve 152/45 mm Kane guns (four twin turret mounts and four guns in the battery ; 200 rounds per barrel); twelve 47-mm and 28 37-mm guns of Hotchkiss; two amphibious 63.5 mm Baranovsky guns ; two 457 mm and four 381 mm torpedo tubes ; 50 spheroconic min .

Actual machine power without boost 9368 ind.l. sec., the average test speed of 15.3 knots. Coal reserve is normal 700 or 900 tons, full 1050, 1200 or 1500 tons (data vary); cruising range of 10 knots with a reserve of 900 t - 2800 miles, 1200 t - 3750 miles, 15-knot with a full margin of 1750 miles.

Crew: 21–27 officers and 605–625 lower ranks.

Construction and testing

"Sevastopol" was started by construction in March 1892 in the old boathouse on Galerny Island. Construction was led by ship engineers E.P. Andrushchenko and N.I. Afanasyev. The official laying of all three ships of the Poltava type , as well as the conceptually earlier battleship Sisoy the Great, took place on May 7, 1892 (hereinafter the dates are given in the old style). The ceremony was attended by Emperor Alexander III , heir to the throne, Tsarevich Nikolai Aleksandrovich , the head of the Maritime Department, Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich .

The battleship was launched later than its sisterships - May 20, 1895. After completion, afloat in 1898, the ship moved to Kronstadt , where armor and artillery were installed.

October 16, 1899 "Sevastopol" went on official trials, which had to be interrupted due to a steering accident. He spent the winter in Libau , preparing for repeated trials. A three-hour test of the mechanisms on July 11, 1900 supposedly showed an average speed of 16.41 knots with a machine capacity of 9368 indicator liters. with. and a displacement of 11,249 tons. According to other sources, in a seven-hour test at the same power the battleship developed only 15.3 knots, which seems much more likely (perhaps the first digit made a mistake and 15.41 knots should be read): two other ships series developed more than 16 knots with a capacity of approximately 2000 liters. with. more than indicated for Sevastopol.

Prewar years

On October 3, 1900, Sevastopol began the transition from the Baltic to the Far East, occasionally intersecting with Poltava in foreign ports. The ship arrived in Port Arthur on March 31, 1901 and immediately began repairing the mechanisms, together with combat training. According to the report of the head of the squadron, Vice Admiral N. I. Skrydlov , Sevastopol’s vehicles were in a “poor condition”. Permanent repairs made it possible to maintain them in working condition, but no more.

In 1902, the ship went to Nagasaki , Yokohama and Tokyo , performing the function of the yacht of Grand Duke Boris . In the same year, he participated in the 600-mile test run of the squadron ships from Nagasaki to Port Arthur and was expected to be the last. An unexpected triumph for Sevastopol was torpedo fire, in which the battleship took first place.

In December 1903, 55 sailors from the landing company "Sevastopol" under the command of Lieutenant Klimov were sent to the Korean port of Chemulpo to guard the mission of the Russian envoy to Korea, real state adviser A. I. Pavlov . After the outbreak of war , the mission was canceled by order of the envoy, and under the protection of sailors, diplomats and their families boarded the French stationer Pascal . Subsequently, these sailors, together with the commander, were interned in Shanghai .

The initial period of the Russo-Japanese War

During the sudden Japanese attack on the squadron, which was on the outer roads of Port Arthur , the Sevastopol, commanded by Captain 1st Rank N.K. Chernyshev, was not injured. On the morning of January 27, he, along with other intact ships, participated in a 40-minute battle with the Japanese squadron, firing ten 305-mm and 65 152-mm high-explosive shells at the enemy and receiving three hits. A 6- or 8-inch shell that exploded in a second chimney smashed it into a third of a circle; the whaleboat was broken by fragments, two fans of the boiler room and a machine casing were broken. Two more shells, this time of small caliber, damaged the bridge in two places and pierced the fan under it. Two people were injured.

The next day, at the entrance to the harbor, a collision of Poltava and Sevastopol occurred, which did not, however, cause any significant damage.

On February 26, the Japanese first bombarded Port Arthur with cross - country fire, firing about 150 large shells. Among the slightly damaged ships was Sevastopol. On March 9, Russian battleships fought over an almost inconclusive firefight with the Japanese fleet, which again opened cross-country fire at the port and the city.

On March 13, during the evolution of the squadron, the battleship “Peresvet” hit his stern Sevastopol with his nose in the stern, damaging the skin and the right propeller. Vice-Admiral S. O. Makarov found guilty of the accident, the commander of Sevastopol, N. K. Chernyshev, and on March 16 appointed to his place captain 2nd rank N. O. von Essen , who had previously commanded the cruiser Novik . The absence of a dry dock forced the repair to be carried out afloat using a caisson, which only began after the death of S.O. Makarov , although the speed of the ship was limited to 10 knots. During the repair, they went over the right car (they managed to go over the left one before the war).

After the death of S. O. Makarov, the command of the squadron was temporarily taken over by the governor Admiral E.I. Alekseev , who raised the flag at Sevastopol (later the armored carrier Tsesarevich who completed the repair became the flagship of the new head of the squadron of Rear Admiral V.K. Vitgeft ). On April 2, during another shootout with Japanese ships, the machine of one of the 305-mm guns of the Sevastopol bow turret broke down, which was never repaired, but they didn’t have time to send the machine with the Sisoy the Great by rail to replace it.

During the repair, four 152-mm guns were removed from the ship. Two of them made up a battery at an altitude of “218 soot.” Of the Liaoteshan Peninsula, and two more were sent by rail to the Jinzhouskaya position, but quickly returned.

Battle of the Yellow Sea

On June 10, a full squadron (six armadillos and five cruisers , including one armadillo, and destroyers ) went to sea, intending to break into Vladivostok , but, departing not far from Port Arthur , met with a Japanese squadron of four armadillos , four armored and eight armored cruisers , not counting the obsolete ships and destroyers . The squadron chief V.K. Vitgeft decided to return, citing the absence of many Russian ships of a significant part of medium-caliber artillery removed to strengthen coastal defense. On the way to the external raid, Sevastopol deviated from the wiped fairway and at 21.35 the bow of the port side exploded in a mine. A lot of water penetrated through the hole of size 3.6 × 4 m, however, the detonation of the ammunition, as happened earlier with Petropavlovsk , did not happen. True, a fire broke out in the cellar of 152-mm shells, but it was quickly flooded with incoming water, which also flooded the neighboring coal pit. The ship received a roll to the port side at 5 °, which was hidden by the flooding of the starboard compartments. The ship under its own power reached the White Wolf Bay and anchored under the shore, where in complete darkness he avoided the attacks of Japanese destroyers. Losses of the team were limited to eleven wounded.

To repair the damage, on the advice of N. N. Kuteynikov, they used a caisson, which had previously been built to repair Retvizan . On the night of June 25–26, annealing of damaged cladding sheets caused a fire, which was extinguished with the help of the port vessel “Silach”, while two were killed and 28 people were injured. By July 25, the battleship entered service.

July 28 at 10.30 the squadron, releasing the trawling paravan , again went to sea; by this time, most of the previously removed 152 mm guns were installed in place. "Sevastopol" and "Poltava" , which had a full set of guns, closed the column of Russian battleships , marching at a speed of 12-13 knots with a SO course of 55 °. An hour later, the main forces of the Japanese appeared in the east. The forces of the opponents were almost the same as last time: the Russians did not have the Bayan armored cruiser , which was blown up by a mine and was being repaired at the dock, the Japanese had the 4th combat detachment of armored cruisers and the Asama armored cruiser , which joined their forces only towards the end of the battle.

The battle, known as the " battle in the Yellow Sea ", began at 12.20 at a distance of 80 cab. In the first phase, one shell hit the side armor of Sevastopol, but could not penetrate it. Towards the end of the battle, the battleship suffered more. The shell, which fell into the armor near the right aft 152-mm turret, disabled the electrical supply of ammunition, and they had to be fed manually through the upper deck, which led to a large number of shrapnel wounds. At 17.35, fires started on the ship, but they were quickly extinguished. There were hits in the conning tower, chimneys and the foremast.

When the flagship Tsesarevich failed, the commander of Sevastopol N.O. Essen decided to ram the enemy, but at that moment a shell damaged the steam pipes fell into the casing of the chimney, and the ship temporarily lost vapor in one of the boiler rooms, in As a result, the already low speed fell to 8 knots. As a result, the alleged ramming attempt failed, and the battleship, along with almost the entire squadron, returned to Port Arthur .

During the day, Sevastopol fired 78 305 mm and 323 152 mm shells (eleven 305 mm armor-piercing shells, 37 152 mm segmented by destroyers during their return to Port Arthur , the rest are high-explosive). From artillery, the ship lost one 152 mm and two 47 mm guns, from personnel - one dead from wounds and 61 wounded (including two officers).

Siege and Doom

Although a week after returning to Port Arthur, all serious damage to the ships was repaired, the squadron no longer made new attempts to break through or at least take action. Only N.O. Essen at the meeting on August 6 proposed to go to sea and try to sink, albeit at the cost of the death of all the remaining ships, at least one or two "Japanese" in order to facilitate the situation of the Second Pacific Squadron heading for the Far East. Nevertheless, the remaining participants in the meeting preferred to use all the remaining forces to defend the fortress, and actually turn the ships into floating batteries.

August 7 to repel the assault from Sevastopol, they brought a landing company of 180 people under the command of midshipmen Petrov and Buche; in the first battle, 11 of them died and 45 were injured. In addition, the crew of Sevastopol was responsible for the defense of Lyaoteshan (two batteries, one 210 mm, six 152 mm and 13 small guns, three searchlights and 123 servants). During the period from July 30 to August 9, 24 305 mm and 98 152 mm high-explosive and nine 152 mm segmented shells were fired, almost all on ground targets (only on August 9 the old Japanese battleship Fuso was fired).

On August 10, Sevastopol left the harbor to shell Japanese positions. There were only about 300 crew members on board, so the ammunition was raised in advance to the guns, and the cellars were thoroughly battened down.

Immediately upon entering the external raid, the armored cruisers Nissin and Kasuga , three cruisers of the Matsushima type , the old former Chinese battleship Chin Yen Guo , two gunboats , a ship and up to 28 destroyers were spotted. Four destroyers with trawls marched ahead of Sevastopol, two more behind them to mark the worn fairway with buoys. As soon as the Russian detachment moved forward, the Nissin and Kasuga opened fire at a distance of 90 cabs. From such a distance one could only get by accident. "Sevastopol" did not open fire, since its guns fired at a maximum of 70 cabs. After some time, the Japanese retreated to the Far.

At about 11 o’clock the destroyers and then the Sevastopol opened fire along the coast. Having fired seven 305 mm and 60 152 mm shells from a distance of about 35 cabs, the battleship silenced one of the batteries, numbering 8-10 guns. He himself during this time received a hit with a 120-mm shell, which exploded on the deck without serious consequences. By this time , the Nissin and Kasuga had returned and started shelling again, this time with cabin 75. Since now they were able to shoot, N.O. Essen decided to return to Port Arthur .

On the way back, having strayed from the fairway (which was facilitated by the strong current, which carried the buoys, and the small course of the battleship, which made it difficult to keep it on course), the Sevastopol was blown up by a mine, and again in the area of ​​the bow tower, although this time closer to the stern. Two coal pits, two cartridge chambers of 152 mm and 47 mm ammunition, and a main caliber charging cell were flooded. The ship fell heavily on its nose and stopped, but after an hour, still under enemy fire, it resumed movement and at 13.50 anchored in the Western basin. This exit was, in fact, the last active action of the Russian squadron.

Before the August assault was repulsed, Sevastopol, together with Poltava, stood on a firing position in the Eastern Basin, and only at the end of the month with the help of a caisson its repair was started. To protect against Japanese shells falling at a large angle, the upper deck was covered with a thick layer of slag covered with 13 mm steel sheets, and booms were installed along the sides.

Repair ended only on October 24. By that time, the Japanese had already begun shelling the city and port with 280-mm siege howitzers, and Sevastopol managed to get five hits with their shells, not counting smaller ones. One of the 305-mm cannons, standing on a faulty machine, was handed over to Poltava , in which such a gun was damaged by fragments. After the repair was completed, the battleship again participated in the cross-over firing on siege batteries, firing 63 305-mm shells from October 28 to November 16.

The next meeting was held on November 9, at which the possibility of going to sea was discussed for the last time, and it turned out that only Pobeda , Poltava and Sevastopol could go out, and the latter had not yet installed internal bulkheads in the area of ​​the closed hole, but the "Victory" almost no shells of the main caliber. An exit attempt was deemed meaningless.

On November 22, Poltava was the first to die, and by November 25, only Sevastopol remained operational of large ships. And only after that the head of the detachment (into which the squadron was renamed) R. N. Viren agreed to the battleship entering the external raid. At night, the ship moved to the White Wolf Bay, where it began to prepare for breaking the blockade, for which it was necessary to install dismantled 152-mm guns, despite the fact that at first there were only about 100 crew members on board. The next day, the crew was brought up to 300 people, anti-torpedo nets were installed, they started loading coal and ammunition, and they also began to build booms around the battleship . The regular nets did not protect the bow and stern, so the bow was protected by mounted nets, but the stern had to be left open. N.O. Essen suggested one of the coming nights to try to break into the sea and go on a connection with the 2nd Pacific Squadron, which at that time was in the Madagascar area.

The Japanese did not immediately notice the exit of Sevastopol, firing more than 300,280 mm shells at the place of its old parking lot on the morning of November 26. In the afternoon, when the weather cleared, he was finally discovered, and Admiral H. Togo decided to attack him with destroyers , holding on with the main forces south of Port Arthur .

On the night of November 27, six Japanese destroyers of the 9th and 15th detachments fired torpedoes, but from such a great distance that it went unnoticed. The next night the destroyers of the 10th, 14th, 15th and 20th divisions went on the attack, but they had to return due to the strong north wind. The attack on the night of November 29 was again prevented by bad weather, although three destroyers of the 15th detachment and two ships from the fencing party fired torpedoes from a distance on the Russian ship.

On the night of November 30, the Japanese switched to more decisive action. 7 destroyers of the 14th and 20th detachments, as well as two mine boats from the battleships Mikasa and Fuji, went on the attack; they were covered by the 10th destroyer detachment. The Russian ship was guarded by the gunboat "Brave" and seven destroyers - all that remained of the squadron. Bon was still not ready, and one of the torpedoes exploded in the bow mounted network, causing cracks in the underwater casing up to 0.9 m in length, which caused the submarine mine compartment to be flooded. Two Japanese destroyers and both boats were damaged. According to the Russian sailors, one destroyer was sunk by a 305-mm shell, although the Japanese did not recognize this, reporting only serious damage to the destroyer No. 64, which was towed to the base.

On the night of December 1, the Japanese decided to try to attack with the help of small destroyers (before that, relatively large ships with a displacement of 109-152 tons were used), which were part of the Third Squadron. The very first exit of the 10th, 6th and 12th detachment ended in loss: the destroyer No. 53 was blown up by a floating mine at the entrance to the White Wolf Bay and sank with the entire crew (three officers and 15 sailors). Torpedoes fired by the Japanese again passed by.

On the night of December 2, the Japanese threw into battle almost all the available forces: 2, 6, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15, 16 and 21 detachments consisting of 23 destroyers , as well as a mine boat with the Fuji . The attack began after the moon set, while it was snowing. About 30 torpedoes were fired, most of which exploded about bon and anti-torpedo networks. Again, from a near explosion, the bow lining was damaged. The boat from Pobeda, under the command of quartermaster Apalinov, seemed to be able to torpedo a Japanese destroyer , another - No. 42 - was sunk by a torpedo from the destroyer Angry , commanded by Lieutenant S. I. Dmitriev 5th. The destroyers No. 49, 56, 58, Aotaka, Kari, Tsubame and Hato also received damage. Sevastopol fired nine 305 mm and 41 152 mm shells per night. On the shore in the morning, 15 torpedoes were found, from which about one and a half tons of melinite and pyroxylin were recovered.

Only in the next attack, on the night of December 3, did the Japanese succeed. Nine destroyers of the 2nd, 14th and 21st squad made two hits on the airborne network, due to which the skin was damaged and a number of compartments were flooded. But the third torpedo turned out to be fatal, which fell into an unprotected stern. According to Japanese data, it was the steam boat torpedo from the armadillo Mikasa that hit the target. As a result of its explosion, the steering compartment and adjacent compartments were flooded. In addition, the Japanese managed to damage the torpedo destroyer Sentry , and the steam boat died in the explosion of a torpedo that hit the battleship . .

For all the attacks, the Japanese fired about 80 torpedoes, lost two destroyers (No. 42 and 53), and another 13 were seriously damaged (some of them were not put into operation until the end of the war).

The armadillo’s roll, despite counter-flooding, reached 8 degrees, but it, already unable to go to sea, continued to serve as a floating battery, and its commander was appointed head of the Liaoteshan defense department of the fortress. The last shooting at the enemy, "Sevastopol" carried out on December 19, and in the evening an order was received to flood the ships afloat in connection with the surrender of the fortress. The next day, the battleship , on which the steering wheel did not operate and there were only 40 crew members, was put into deep water and flooded at a depth of 50 meters with the help of the strongman Steamboat, where it remains to this day. All other large ships of the Russian squadron, with the exception of the Petropavlovsk mine that died in a mine, were raised and put into operation by the Japanese.

31 officers and 507 sailors from the Sevastopol team were captured. Mine officer Lieutenant Basov managed to save the St. Andrew flag, under which the battleship fought in battle on July 28. This flag was “in a completely battered form from enemy fragments, but, as a hero’s banner, it was decided to preserve it in memory of the valiant ship within the cradle of the Russian fleet - in the building of the Naval Cadet Corps”.

• 1892-1894 - S. A. Skryagin
• 1894 - 1st-rank captain K. S. Osteletsky
• 1894-1896 - G. R. Dicker
• 1896-1897 - Captain 1st Rank N. A. Haupt
• 1898-1901 - 1st-Class Captain A. A. Melnitsky
• 1902-1903 - Captain 1st Rank Theodosiev
• 1903-1904 - Captain 1st rank N.K. Chernyshev
• 03/17/1904 - 12/18/1904 - captain of the 2nd rank (then captain of the 1st rank) N.O. Essen

Orel Publishing House (Kherson, Ukraine) in the journal Paper Modeling No. 5 ^{[ when? ]} A prefabricated prefabricated ship model was launched at a scale of 1: 200.

• Suliga S.V. Armadillos of the Poltava type. - 1st ed. - M .: Technology youth, 1993. - 32 p.
• Suliga C.V. Ships of the Russo-Japanese War. - M .: Askold, 1993 .-- 58 p. - ISBN 5-86579-001-3 .
• A. B. Shirokorad. Naval artillery of the Russian fleet 1867-1922 (“Marine Collection” No. 2 of 1997)

• Drawings of squadron battleships of the type "Poltava" on the site Navarin.Ru
• Sevastopol in the Baltic (photo)
• A photo