Andrei Pervozvanny class battleship
Encyclopedia
The Andrey Pervozvanny class were a pair of predreadnought battleships built in the mid-1900s for the Baltic Fleet
of the Imperial Russian Navy
. They were conceived by the Naval Technical Committee in 1903 as an incremental development of the Borodino class
battleships with increased displacement and heavier secondary armament
. Work on the lead ship
, Andrey Pervozvanny
(Saint Andrew
), commenced at the New Admiralty
, Saint Petersburg
in March 1904; Imperator Pavel I
trailed by six months.
The disastrous experiences of the Russo-Japanese War
led to countless redesigns, change orders and delays in construction. After the completion of Andrey Pervozvanny its builders identified seventeen distinct stages of her design. Andrey Pervozvanny was launched in October 1906 but subsequent alterations delayed completion until 1911. Almost all of her hull was armored, albeit thinly; redesign and refinement of protective armor continued until 1912. The ship's artillery mixed novel quick-firing
long range 8-inch guns with obsolescent 12-inch 40 caliber
main guns. The Andrey Pervozvanny class battleships became the only battleships of the Old World
fitted with lattice mast
s, which were replaced with conventional masts at the beginning of World War I
. The imposing ships, the largest in the Russian Navy until the completion of the Gangut class dreadnoughts
,Largest combatants by displacement until the completion of Gangut class battleships
in 1914. The earlier Rossia, Gromoboi and Rurik II surpassed Andrey Pervozvanny in length but had significantly lesser displacement. Prior to Gangut class, Russian Navy's largest ship by displacement was the non-combatant transport Anadyr at 19,000 tonnes. – Melnikov 2003, p. 46. were obsolete from the start: by the time of their sea trial
s the Royal Navy
had already launched the Orion class
super-dreadnoughts.
In the first year of the World War I
Andrey Pervozvanny and Imperator Pavel I comprised the battle core of the Baltic Fleet. For most of the war they remained moored in the safety of Sveaborg
and Helsingfors
.Suomenlinna
(former Sveaborg) is now part of the city of Helsinki
(former Helsingfors). Sveaborg and Helsingfors were two separate bases of the Imperial Russian Navy. Idle, demoralized enlisted men subscribed to Bolshevik ideology and on took control of the ships in a violent mutiny. The battleships survived the Ice Cruise of 1918
, and Andrey Pervozvanny later ruthlessly gunned down the Krasnaya Gorka fort
mutiny of 1919. After the Kronstadt rebellion
the Bolshevik government lost interest in maintaining the battleships, and they were laid up in November–December 1923.
opened preliminary hearings on the new 20-year shipbuilding program. Numerical part of the program, drafted by Nikolai Essen
,Captain of Second Rank (equivalent to Commander
) in 1903. was accepted without much discussion. Nicholas II
approved financing, but the NTC had no design proposals for the new ships, and no firm ideas about their combat tactics and performance targets.
In January 1903 the NTC reviewed three possible strategies for the new battleships. The first relied on building more Borodino class battleships
, which were perceived as the state of the art in naval architecture
. The second strategy called for enlarging the Borodino, improving its protection and stability, and replacing 6-inch secondary armament with 8-inch quick-firing guns. The third strategy proposed development of a radically new battleship type, superior to any foreign adversary. This proposal could potentially evolve into an all-big-gun battleship, but the NTC ruled it out from the start. The Navy tacticians saw no need in increasing the number of 12-inch guns: they were perceived as a coup de grâce
weapon that should be engaged after the quick-firing
secondary artillery
had reduced the enemy to a floating bonfire.
As-is copying of the Borodino class was deemed unsafe: Borodino
and her sister ship
s, then nearing completion, turned out overloaded by at least six hundred tons. The NTC conservatively chose the middle road: enlarging the Borodino. Dubasov parted with ambitions and approved construction of a perfectly conventional battleship displacing 16,500 tonnes, armed with four 12-inch main guns and 8-inch secondary guns. Nicholas II, determined to expand the Navy, endorsed Dubasov's choice without reviewing it in depth of which he was not capable anyway. Displacement of 16,500 tonnes effectively became a law, a universal constraint that ruled over any engineering and tactical considerations and that was never met in practice owing to poor design and project management.
and lower the freeboard
, sacrificing seagoing to the displacement constraint. Gun placement was simplified, and became inferior to the Borodino class.The Borodino class battleships, in line with Louis-Émile Bertin
's proposal, could fire five turrets (one 12-inch and four 6-inch) against abeam targets. The new "improved" battleship could only fire one 12-inch and two 8-inch turrets. – Melnikov 2003, p. 11.
In March–April 1903 the NTC's consultants reviewed the drafts of the hull and found it to be superior to Navarin and Poltava but inferior to the original Borodino. Dmitry Skvortsov (1859–1910), the builder of Borodino, warned about unacceptable drag
of the proposed shape. Alexey Krylov, then chief of the Navy's ship model basin
, performed towed scale model test and came to the same conclusion. Krylov, who was preparing for a sea voyage to Port Arthur to pursue his own academic interests, did not blow the whistle
. After the October Revolution
Krylov wrote that the hull of Andrey Pervozvanny was so poorly shaped that it required twice as much engine power as more efficient hulls, but in 1903 he kept this conclusion to himself and submitted a critical but very carefully written report.
Krylov's planned departure forced the NTC to hasten official approval of the drafts. Their presentation on ended in an embarrassment: the NTC intended to award the contract for one of two new ships to Baltic Shipyard
, but did not even inform its master builder Sergey Ratnik about the project's existence. Ratnik, the builder of Alexander III
and Suvorov
, was confident that the new design was inferior to its predecessors. It had no displacement reserve compared to 246 tonnes of Borodino class and the British standard of at least 4% of standard displacement. The NTC overruled his objections and approved the draft for construction.
In the end of July Ratnik appealed to the NTC again, arguing that the mechanisms and systems overlooked by the designers will add five to six hundred tons to the ship's weight. The NTC dismissed his complaint and proceeded with the flawed design. In line with Russian practice of the period, it was a collective work signed off by a ring of designers and bureaucrats. No one dared to take the lead and assume full responsibility.
, Baltic Shipyard was instructed to trail behind the New Admiralty.
Admiral Rodionov, chief of the Department of Construction, estimated that the lead ship could be launched in the spring of 1906 and be ready for a shooting practice in the spring of 1907.Rodionov earned his shipbuilding experience at the French shipyards of Toulon
and overestimated the efficiency of Russian yards. By the end of 1903 this schedule was already broken by a confusion over working drawings. Both master builders (Skvortsov for the New Admiraly and Ratnik for Baltic Shipyard) complained about poorly executed drafts. Ratnik noticed that the bilge keel
s added by the NTC did not fit into existing drydocks of his yard. He again alerted the admirals of the inevitable overload and demanded redesign of belt armor
to match the expected rise in waterline
level. According to Skvortsov, the proposed technology called for unnecessary breaks in construction schedule because deck armor could only be ordered and made to measure after completion of underlying structure. He proposed replacement of armor deck with softer steel which could be cut on site, saving a whole year of idle time, but the NTC insisted on following the original plan.
Actual work on Andrey Pervozvanny commenced on March 2, 1904; work in Imperator Pavel I commenced on October 14, 1904. Contracts for steel were awarded to Putilov
(structural steel) and Izhorsky Plant (armor plates). Coal-firing boilers and steam engine
s were ordered from the Franco-Russian Plant of St. Petersburg.The Franco-Russian Plant hailed back to Baird Works founded in 1792 by Charles Baird
. After the 1917 revolution it was renamed Marti Shipyard, in 1937 it became Plant 194, and in 1972 it merged into Admiralty Shipyard
. In an inexplicable twist of the NTC bureaucracy, engines for two sister ships were ordered to different specifications. They turned out extremely inefficient compared to the French engines of Tsesarevich.The French system of feedwater heater
s was installed on Borodino but omitted from her sistership Slava and was not even considered for Andrey Pervozvanny class. The Navy realized the full extent of the problem only after the 1913 voyage to England. – Melnikov 2003, p. 51.
By this time all active admirals who could intervene and call the NTC to answer were either killed in the opening stages of the Russo-Japanese War
or heading to the Battle of Tsushima
. Skvortsov continued to fight the NTC chaos alone. In October–December 1904 he persuaded the NTC to replace practically useless hand-cranked firefighting pumps with Worthington steam pumps
He argued that the arrangement of bilge pump
s of different capacities, favored by the NTC, was inadequate to the purpose, and persuaded the designers to use standard 500 tonne-per-hour pumps. These small improvements did not change the already obsolete design, and construction proceeded at a slow pace, frequently interrupted by redesign proposals, change order
s, rework and inevitable delays. After the completion of Andrey Pervozvanny its builders identified seventeen distinct stages of its design.
In line with Russian tradition Andrey Pervozvanny was formally laid down
in May 1905, after more than a year of construction work. The ceremony coincided with the beginning of a six-month hiatus (May–October 1905) caused by the 1905 Russian Revolution. It became the last of its kind for a whole generation of naval bureaucracy: none of the admirals present ever laid down or launched another ship. Dubasov became the Governor-General
of Moscow
, and de facto retired after an assassination attempt in April 1906. Admiral Kuzmich, the newly appointed Chief of the Port of Saint Petersburg, was killed by terrorists in May 1906. General Admiral
Grand Duke Alexey
, Chief of the Ministry of the Navy Fyodor Avelan and Chief Inspector of the NTC Nikolay Kuteinikov, blamed for the losses of the Russo-Japanese War, retired in the summer of 1905. Baltic Shipyard
cancelled the laying-down ceremony of Imperator Pavel I altogether: officially, Pavel was laid down and launched on the same date, .
in April 1904, which was blamed on a detonation of its naval mine
magazines, compelled the NTC to reconsider the use of mines. Russian battleships carried their own stock of naval mines to protect themselves at anchorage, even when accompanied by minelayers and destroyers (as was the case with Petropavlovsk). The NTC hastily stopped the practice, banning mines from new ships and demanding "safe handling" from the rest of the Navy. Later the NTC banned mines from the battleships altogether; the function was delegated to cruisers and destroyers. In December 1904 the NTC also agreed to strip the new battleships of their stern torpedo tubes, but kept the bow and side-firing tubes. In the summer of 1905 torpedo armament was reduced to only two side-firing tubes.
In 1905 the NTC flooded Skvortsov with a chain of conflicting and poorly formulated change orders influenced by war-time experience. The war demonstrated the uselessness of keeping small-calibre guns on capital ships; in May 1905 the NTC removed the 47-mm guns but instead added equally useless 75-mm guns in an upper deck casemate
. The 75-mm guns were replaced with 120-mm guns in another round of redesign. Concentration of larger guns in the central citadel compelled the NTC to redesign the middle 8-inch guns, moving them one deck above their original placement. Another war reality, loss of control after direct hits against the bridge or the conning tower
, caused the addition of a second conning tower. All hull porthole
s were replaced with solid armor, making Andrey Pervozvanny and Imperator Pavel I the least comfortable even for commissioned officers. These changes inevitably added more steel to an already overloaded ship; the NTC compensated overload with "optimization" of turret armor, further delaying completion.
By September 1905 all involved parties realized that the project had no chances of meeting the 16,500 maximum displacement, worse, the overload increased hull draft
above the maximum depth of the Suez Canal
. The NTC urgently commissioned Krylov to redesign the hull, making it wider but shallower. This theoretical work was still in progress when the NTC received the specifications for the new British Lord Nelson class battleships
and the Dreadnought
. The NTC considered arming Andrey Pervozvanny with 10-inch secondary artillery along the lines of Lord Nelson but eventually shelved the proposal.
upward, effectively armoring the whole freeboard surface. Skvortsov compensated the added weight with the removal of two 8-inch gun turrets and yet another redesign of the remaining turrets. The NTC, scared by the losses at Tsushima, approved the proposal. They were not yet aware of the effectiveness of counter-flooding system of the Borodino class battleships. Counter-flooding enabled survival of Oryol
but her crewmen were still held prisoners in Japan. Their experience materialized in a counter-flooding system designed by Skvortsov in the summer of 1906.
In October 1905 Krylov compiled a report on the Tsushima experience and recommended a sunstantial redesign of hull armor and counter-flooding system. He advised to increase upper hull armor to 6 in (152 mm) but the NTC discarded the proposal as too radical. The NTC formulated their own proposal in November 1906, when the hulls were already launched. It required virtual demolition of the hull above the waterline and rebuilding it anew. Skvortsov fiercely objected and the NTC reluctantly shelved their plans. The accepted changes were limited to reinforcement of casemate decks and boiler compartments, which were not complete until January 1908. The engines were installed in the summer of 1908, armor plates deliveries continued until March 1910. The central citadel remained incomplete and unarmored until the installation of the 8-inch guns, which were delivered in the spring of 1910.
, launched in 1900. Noviks experience was negative: a single mast severely limited its ability to communicate flag signals
. Her successors, the Izumrud class cruisers
, were built with three masts but in 1905 the NTC returned to the old idea and ordered Admiral Makarov
with a single mast. Plans to fit Andrey Pervozvanny with a single mast did not materialize although the NTC regularly raised this proposal until the outbreak of World War I.
Assessment of the damage incurred in the Battle of the Yellow Sea
led the NTC to another incorrect conclusion. The NTC tacticians noted that a single artillery hit in the mast of Tsesarevich nearly knocked it down; a fallen mast would, most likely, disable the secondary artillery turrets of its central citadel. Lattice masts, introduced with the American South Carolina class battleships
, seemed to be a robust solution. However, they required substantial deck area to fit their wide bases. Instead of clearing deck space, the NTC designed the masts too narrow to be stable. Instead of Shukhov's hyperboloid profile, their structural beams were arranged in a weaker conical shape
. Their deficiency was evident from the start, but the Navy needed something new to disspell the curse of Tsushima, and eagerly accepted the flawed novelty.
Andrey Pervozvanny and Imperator Pavel I became the first and only Russian battleships built with lattice masts.The Gangut class battleships
were initially designed with lattice masts but completed with conventional masts – Melnikov 2003, p. 24. These masts, installed in 1910, turned out unstable and prone to vibration. They took up precious upper deck space, forcing the sailors to crouch under the beams; they were regularly overheated by exhaust fumes, making the signaller
s work unbearable. Despire these drawbacks the captain of Andrey Pervozvanny fiercely defended them and objected to all alternatives proposed by the NTC. On the day when Austria-Hungary
declared war against Russia the captain of Imperator Pavel I, who held an opposite opinion, volunteered to replace the masts in three days. Fleet commander Nikolai Essen
concurred, and by the middle of August 1914 the old lattice masts were largely gone. Both ships retained the lower baskets of their masts, cut at different heights.
of the Baltic Fleet. The decision permitted the Navy to bring their crews to full strength. In the end of July Andrey Pervozvanny sailed to its sea trial
s with 583 men on board, Imperator Pavel I sailed to her trials in September–October with even fewer men. As predicted by theory, they turned out very "wet" ships even in calm seas. At 17 knots (33.3 km/h) bow wave
s swept over all open decks and flooded the lookout cupolas and optical sights of main gun turrets, effectively prohibiting fire at high speed. Ivan Bubnov
recommended fitting Andreys protruding bow ram
with a scoop-shaped fairing, which would decrease bow wave height from 22 to 14 feet (4.3 m) and eliminate flooding, but the NTC shelved the proposal.
The powerplants of both ships performed well at the speed trials, but post-trial examination of Imperator Pavel I revealed unacceptable defects of its Belleville boilers, engine cylinders and crankshaft bearings. The NTC had no funds to replace defective boilers and postponed the repairs until the next year. The ships returned into the drydocks of Kronstadt
. Their captains hoped to install all missing guns and equipment in time for the 1911 navigation. This did not happen: the Navy committed all available financing to the dreadnought program
; Andrey Pervozvanny and Imperaror Pavel I were not properly completed until the autumn of 1912.
was crippled by shortage of personnel. Absence of proper porthole
s and limited capacity of electrical fans made living conditions unbearable, thus commissioned officers evaded transfer to the "ugly sisters" at all costs. The NTC seriously considered cutting portholes through the armor, but found it too expensive to be done. The enlisted men sabotaged the system by jamming the fan switches in "on" position, which caused frequent electrical failures. The Navy "fixed the problem" by building steel lockers around the switchesIn the end of 1911 Imperator Pavel I ordered 105 steel lockers for protecting electrical switches from unauthorized access. – Melnikov 2005, p. 22. but could not contain the discontent of the sailors.
On officers of Imperator Pavel I received first warnings of a mounting conspiracy among enlisted men, who allegedly planned an open mutiny on the night of July 24–25. In the few days preceding the strike the sailors openly disobeyed and taunted their officers but refrained from violence. Only a minority of the enlisted men (around 160) subscribed to the mutiny; the majority remained loyal and kept the officers informed. On July 24 the ringleaders were arrested, more arrests followed throughout July and August. 53 sailors of Imperator Pavel I were sentenced to terms ranging from six months to sixteen years.In addition to 53 men from Imperator Pavel I, the government prosecuted 23 men from Tsesarevich and 13 men from Rurick. – Melnikov 2005, p. 27. These two ships have already seen mass disobedience and mass arrests in April 1912. – Melnikov 2003, p. 42. Attempts to spread the mutiny to Andrey Pervozvanny were foiled at the very beginning.
By August 1913 the battleships were deemed safe, in all senses, for their farthest voyage ever, to England and France. Yet the ships again harbored active Bolshevik
militants – the future Red Army
commander Pavel Dybenko
, the future chief of the Red Black Sea Fleet
and naval historian Nikolay Izmaylov and the future chief of the whole Red Navy Ivan Sladkov. In October 1916 the crew of Imperator Pavel I, demoralized by boredom and Bolshevik propaganda, refused to obey orders and demanded better rations and easing of service. The Navy preferred to appease the sailors, and the ringleaders escaped punishment. Fifteen years later Leonid Sobolev, former officer of Imperator Pavel I, described the explosive environment and Bolshevik propaganda on board of his ship in The Big Refit; in an act of self-censorship he changed the name of his "lead character" to Generalissimus Suvorov.English translation: Sobolev, Leonid (2001). The Big Refit. Lightning Source Inc. ISBN 1589634012. , Kapitalny Remont, 1932, amended edition: 1962. Sobolev, born in 1898, joined the crew in 1918 as a junior officer and was soon promoted to captain's mate. He made a swift career in Soviet literary establishment, writing primarily on naval subjects. – Melnikov 2005, p. 31.
visited the Baltic with Queen Mary
, Princess Royal
and New Zealand
in June 1914. The joint fleet review began on . – Melnikov 2003, p. 54. FrenchPresident of France Raymond Poincaré
visited Saint Petersburg in July 1914 accompanied by Jean Bart
, France
and a host of destroyers. The fleet review in the mouth of the Neva River
was held on July 21, 1914. – Melnikov 2003, p. 55. and DutchDutch cruiser Zeeland visited Saint Petersburg in the middle of July 1914. – Melnikov 2003, p. 55. forces in the Gulf of Finland
. Sweden
had not yet declared its neutrality
, and on Imperator Pavel I, Rurick, Slava
and Tsesarevich sailed out to Stockholm
to intimidate the Swedes. The diplomats called the fleet back, and Imperator Pavel I missed her chance to score her first kill against a weak German scouting flotilla operating in the same area. In August–September the battleships actively sailed north of the Gulf of Riga
but failed to intercept Augsburg
and Blücher
.
The sinking of Pallada on effectively put both Andrey Pervozvanny class ships out of action for the rest of the war. All battleships were ordered to return to safety of Finnish bases and stay there until the Navy could cope with the submarine threat. Slava and Tsesarevich returned to action in the Battle of the Gulf of Riga
but Imperator Pavel I remained moored in Helsingfors. Andrey Pervozvanny was called out for active operations twice, in April and November 1916. The first operation, a raid on a German convoy near the Swedish coast, was a moderate success; the second ended in a humiliating retreat after Rurick struck a naval mine
laid by UC 27
.
both battleships were moored in Helsinki
. The enlisted men, demoralized by idle life and revolutionary propaganda, have already been organized for a mutiny by a well-entrenched core of conspirators. Exact history of the fleet revolt has been sanitized by Soviet historiography
in the wake of the Kronstadt rebellion
. It is known that the revolt of was coordinated from Imperator Pavel I. Sailors of Imperator Pavel I took control of the ship, killed the officers who stood in their way and signalled instructions to other ships. The two battleships accounted for the majority of casualties of this day. The captain of Imperator Pavel I did not even try to subdue the sailors and save his officers; he survived the mutiny and was killed by the Cheka
in 1921. Captain of Andrey Pervozvanny, on the contrary, opposed the revolt; he survived in emigration until 1952. The commander of the battleship squadron refused to confront the sailors and was killed on shore.
The enlisted men almost completely subscribed to communism: by the end of April 520 sailors of Imperator Pavel I were carrying Bolshevik party cards. On Imperator Pavel I was renamed Respublika. The ship provided quarters to civilian Bolshevik functionaries who felt unsafe among the ethnic Finns of Helsinki. The disorganized crew demonstrated formal allegiance to the Russian Provisional Government
and even sailed out for a gunnery practice on orders from Alexander Kerensky
. In August 1917 Respublika escorted Slava
to her last station at Moon Sound
. Slava perished during Operation Albion
, but neither Respublika nor Andrey Pervozvanny dared to rescue her.
In April 1918 the two battleships fled from hostile Helsinki, the Ice Cruise
to Kronstadt became their last voyage. Respublika was hulked in September 1918 and saw no action ever. Andrey Pervozvanny, although neglected by its revolutionary crew, remained in active service. In June 1919 Andrey, captained by Lev Galler
, and Petropavlovsk gunned downed the rebels of the Krasnaya Gorka fort
. The British fleet, which was cruising nearby, did not do anything to support the anti-Bolshevik mutiny. Two months later, August 16, 1919, the British raided the harbor of Kronstadt with a joint air and torpedo boat strike. One torpedo hit Andrey Pervozvanny armor belt, killing one sailor and flooding an isolated watertight compartment. Repairs continued slowly until the Kronstadt rebellion
of 1921 and completely stopped after its suppression. The Bolshevik government had no interest in resurrecting the troublesome capital ships. Both Andrey Pervozvanny class battleships were sent to the breaker's yard in November–December 1923.Scrapping of Respublika (former Imperator Pavel I) was authorized in 1922 but did not begin until November 22, 1923. Scrapping of Andrey Pervozvanny began December 16, 1923. – Melnikov 2003, p. 96.
Baltic Fleet
The Twice Red Banner Baltic Fleet - is the Russian Navy's presence in the Baltic Sea. In previous historical periods, it has been part of the navy of Imperial Russia and later the Soviet Union. The Fleet gained the 'Twice Red Banner' appellation during the Soviet period, indicating two awards of...
of the Imperial Russian Navy
Imperial Russian Navy
The Imperial Russian Navy refers to the Tsarist fleets prior to the February Revolution.-First Romanovs:Under Tsar Mikhail Feodorovich, construction of the first three-masted ship, actually built within Russia, was completed in 1636. It was built in Balakhna by Danish shipbuilders from Holstein...
. They were conceived by the Naval Technical Committee in 1903 as an incremental development of the Borodino class
Borodino class battleship
The five Borodino-class battleships were pre-dreadnoughts built between 1899 and 1905 for the Imperial Russian Navy...
battleships with increased displacement and heavier secondary armament
Battleship secondary armament
The secondary armament of a capital ship are smaller, faster-firing weapons that are typically effective at a shorter range than the main weapons...
. Work on the lead ship
Lead ship
The lead ship or class leader is the first of a series or class of ships all constructed according to the same general design. The term is applicable military ships and larger civilian craft.-Overview:...
, Andrey Pervozvanny
Russian battleship Andrei Pervozvanny
Andrei Pervozvanny was a predreadnought battleship built for the Imperial Russian Navy during the mid-1900s. The ship's construction was seriously extended by design changes as a result of the Russo-Japanese War and labor unrest after the 1905 Revolution, and she took nearly six years to build...
(Saint Andrew
Saint Andrew
Saint Andrew , called in the Orthodox tradition Prōtoklētos, or the First-called, is a Christian Apostle and the brother of Saint Peter. The name "Andrew" , like other Greek names, appears to have been common among the Jews from the 3rd or 2nd century BC. No Hebrew or Aramaic name is recorded for him...
), commenced at the New Admiralty
Admiralty Shipyard
The Admiralty Shipyard is one of the oldest and largest shipyards in Russia, located in Saint Petersburg. The shipyard's building ways can accommodate ships of up to , 250 meters in length and 35 meters in width...
, Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
in March 1904; Imperator Pavel I
Russian battleship Imperator Pavel I
Imperator Pavel I was a predreadnought battleship built for the Imperial Russian Navy in the mid-1900s. The ship's construction was seriously extended by design changes as a result of the Russo-Japanese War and labor unrest after the 1905 Revolution and she took nearly six years to build...
trailed by six months.
The disastrous experiences of the Russo-Japanese War
Russo-Japanese War
The Russo-Japanese War was "the first great war of the 20th century." It grew out of rival imperial ambitions of the Russian Empire and Japanese Empire over Manchuria and Korea...
led to countless redesigns, change orders and delays in construction. After the completion of Andrey Pervozvanny its builders identified seventeen distinct stages of her design. Andrey Pervozvanny was launched in October 1906 but subsequent alterations delayed completion until 1911. Almost all of her hull was armored, albeit thinly; redesign and refinement of protective armor continued until 1912. The ship's artillery mixed novel quick-firing
Quick-firing gun
A quick-firing gun is an artillery piece, typically a gun or howitzer, which has several characteristics which taken together mean the weapon can fire at a fast rate...
long range 8-inch guns with obsolescent 12-inch 40 caliber
Russian 12 inch 40 caliber naval gun
The 12 inch 40 caliber naval gun was the standard main weapon of the pre-dreadnought battleships of the Imperial Russian Navy. Sixty-eight guns of the first production run were built in 1895–1906 by the Obukhov Works in Saint Petersburg...
main guns. The Andrey Pervozvanny class battleships became the only battleships of the Old World
Old World
The Old World consists of those parts of the world known to classical antiquity and the European Middle Ages. It is used in the context of, and contrast with, the "New World" ....
fitted with lattice mast
Lattice mast
Lattice masts, or cage masts, are a type of observation mast common on major warships in the early 20th century. They were used most prominently on American dreadnought battleships and armored cruisers of the World War I era. Observation posts were mounted on the masts and used to direct the fire...
s, which were replaced with conventional masts at the beginning of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. The imposing ships, the largest in the Russian Navy until the completion of the Gangut class dreadnoughts
Gangut class battleship
The Gangut-class battleships were the first dreadnoughts begun for the Imperial Russian Navy before World War I. They had a convoluted design history involving several British companies, evolving requirements, an international design competition, and foreign protests...
,Largest combatants by displacement until the completion of Gangut class battleships
Gangut class battleship
The Gangut-class battleships were the first dreadnoughts begun for the Imperial Russian Navy before World War I. They had a convoluted design history involving several British companies, evolving requirements, an international design competition, and foreign protests...
in 1914. The earlier Rossia, Gromoboi and Rurik II surpassed Andrey Pervozvanny in length but had significantly lesser displacement. Prior to Gangut class, Russian Navy's largest ship by displacement was the non-combatant transport Anadyr at 19,000 tonnes. – Melnikov 2003, p. 46. were obsolete from the start: by the time of their sea trial
Sea trial
A sea trial is the testing phase of a watercraft . It is also referred to as a "shakedown cruise" by many naval personnel. It is usually the last phase of construction and takes place on open water, and can last from a few hours to many days.Sea trials are conducted to measure a vessel’s...
s the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
had already launched the Orion class
Orion class battleship
The Orion class battleships were four super-dreadnoughts — the first ships of that type — of the Royal Navy. The lead ship, , was launched in 1910. They were the first Royal Navy dreadnoughts to have all their main guns in the centreline, although the U.S. South Carolina class had this advanced...
super-dreadnoughts.
In the first year of the World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
Andrey Pervozvanny and Imperator Pavel I comprised the battle core of the Baltic Fleet. For most of the war they remained moored in the safety of Sveaborg
Suomenlinna
Suomenlinna, until 1918 Viapori , or Sveaborg , is an inhabited sea fortress built on six islands , and which now forms part of the city of Helsinki, the capital of Finland.Suomenlinna is a UNESCO World Heritage site and popular with both tourists and locals, who...
and Helsingfors
Helsinki
Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...
.Suomenlinna
Suomenlinna
Suomenlinna, until 1918 Viapori , or Sveaborg , is an inhabited sea fortress built on six islands , and which now forms part of the city of Helsinki, the capital of Finland.Suomenlinna is a UNESCO World Heritage site and popular with both tourists and locals, who...
(former Sveaborg) is now part of the city of Helsinki
Helsinki
Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...
(former Helsingfors). Sveaborg and Helsingfors were two separate bases of the Imperial Russian Navy. Idle, demoralized enlisted men subscribed to Bolshevik ideology and on took control of the ships in a violent mutiny. The battleships survived the Ice Cruise of 1918
Ice Cruise of the Baltic Fleet
Ice Cruise of the Baltic Fleet was an operation which transferred the ships of the Baltic Fleet of the Imperial Russian Navy from their bases at Tallinn and Helsinki to Kronstadt in 1918, caused by the possible threat to those bases from the final German offensives against Russia during World War...
, and Andrey Pervozvanny later ruthlessly gunned down the Krasnaya Gorka fort
Krasnaya Gorka fort
Krasnaya Gorka is a coastal artillery fortress west of Lomonosov, Russia on the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland, opposite Kotlin Island and the Baltic Fleet's base at Kronshtadt...
mutiny of 1919. After the Kronstadt rebellion
Kronstadt rebellion
The Kronstadt rebellion was one of many major unsuccessful left-wing uprisings against the Bolsheviks in the aftermath of the Russian Civil War...
the Bolshevik government lost interest in maintaining the battleships, and they were laid up in November–December 1923.
Choice of strategy
Construction of the five Borodino class battleships marked the end of the 1881 shipbuilding program of the Imperial Navy. In 1902 the Naval Technical Committee (NTC) chaired by Vice Admiral Fyodor DubasovFyodor Dubasov
Admiral Fyodor Vasilyevich Dubasov was the governor general of Moscow from November 24, 1905 to July 5, 1906....
opened preliminary hearings on the new 20-year shipbuilding program. Numerical part of the program, drafted by Nikolai Essen
Nikolai Essen
Nikolai Ottovich Essen was a Russian naval commander and admiral from the Baltic German Essen family. For more than two centuries his ancestors had served in the Navy, and seven had been awarded the Order of St...
,Captain of Second Rank (equivalent to Commander
Commander
Commander is a naval rank which is also sometimes used as a military title depending on the individual customs of a given military service. Commander is also used as a rank or title in some organizations outside of the armed forces, particularly in police and law enforcement.-Commander as a naval...
) in 1903. was accepted without much discussion. Nicholas II
Nicholas II of Russia
Nicholas II was the last Emperor of Russia, Grand Prince of Finland, and titular King of Poland. His official short title was Nicholas II, Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias and he is known as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer by the Russian Orthodox Church.Nicholas II ruled from 1894 until...
approved financing, but the NTC had no design proposals for the new ships, and no firm ideas about their combat tactics and performance targets.
In January 1903 the NTC reviewed three possible strategies for the new battleships. The first relied on building more Borodino class battleships
Borodino class battleship
The five Borodino-class battleships were pre-dreadnoughts built between 1899 and 1905 for the Imperial Russian Navy...
, which were perceived as the state of the art in naval architecture
Naval architecture
Naval architecture is an engineering discipline dealing with the design, construction, maintenance and operation of marine vessels and structures. Naval architecture involves basic and applied research, design, development, design evaluation and calculations during all stages of the life of a...
. The second strategy called for enlarging the Borodino, improving its protection and stability, and replacing 6-inch secondary armament with 8-inch quick-firing guns. The third strategy proposed development of a radically new battleship type, superior to any foreign adversary. This proposal could potentially evolve into an all-big-gun battleship, but the NTC ruled it out from the start. The Navy tacticians saw no need in increasing the number of 12-inch guns: they were perceived as a coup de grâce
Coup de grâce
The expression coup de grâce means a death blow intended to end the suffering of a wounded creature. The phrase can refer to the killing of civilians or soldiers, friends or enemies, with or without the consent of the sufferer...
weapon that should be engaged after the quick-firing
Quick-firing gun
A quick-firing gun is an artillery piece, typically a gun or howitzer, which has several characteristics which taken together mean the weapon can fire at a fast rate...
secondary artillery
Battleship secondary armament
The secondary armament of a capital ship are smaller, faster-firing weapons that are typically effective at a shorter range than the main weapons...
had reduced the enemy to a floating bonfire.
As-is copying of the Borodino class was deemed unsafe: Borodino
Russian battleship Borodino
The Borodino was the class leader of the , and the second ship of her class to be completed. The ship was named after the 1812 Battle of Borodino. Borodino was lost at the Battle of Tsushima on 27 May 1905 due to explosions set off by a Japanese shell hitting a 6-inch magazine...
and her sister ship
Sister ship
A sister ship is a ship of the same class as, or of virtually identical design to, another ship. Such vessels share a near-identical hull and superstructure layout, similar displacement, and roughly comparable features and equipment...
s, then nearing completion, turned out overloaded by at least six hundred tons. The NTC conservatively chose the middle road: enlarging the Borodino. Dubasov parted with ambitions and approved construction of a perfectly conventional battleship displacing 16,500 tonnes, armed with four 12-inch main guns and 8-inch secondary guns. Nicholas II, determined to expand the Navy, endorsed Dubasov's choice without reviewing it in depth of which he was not capable anyway. Displacement of 16,500 tonnes effectively became a law, a universal constraint that ruled over any engineering and tactical considerations and that was never met in practice owing to poor design and project management.
Objections and compromise
After obtaining the tsar's signature Dubasov and Pavel Tyrtov discussed the configuration with chief executives of state-owned shipyards. The conference agreed to arm the new ships with proven but already obsolescent 12-inch/40-calibre main guns and 8-inch/50-calibre secondary guns that had yet to be designed and built. Upgrade of the main guns to 50-calibre barrel length was not even considered: Tyrtov made it clear that the matters of armament are clearly subordinate to keeping displacement within the limit. In March 1903 Tyrtov agreed to remove the forecastleForecastle
Forecastle refers to the upper deck of a sailing ship forward of the foremast, or the forward part of a ship with the sailors' living quarters...
and lower the freeboard
Freeboard
Freeboard may refer to:* Freeboard , the height of a ship's deck above the water level.* Freeboard , a six-wheeled skateboard designed to act like a snowboard....
, sacrificing seagoing to the displacement constraint. Gun placement was simplified, and became inferior to the Borodino class.The Borodino class battleships, in line with Louis-Émile Bertin
Louis-Émile Bertin
Louis-Émile Bertin was a French naval engineer, one of the foremost of his time, and a proponent of the "Jeune École" philosophy of using light, but powerfully armed warships instead of large battleships.-Early life:...
's proposal, could fire five turrets (one 12-inch and four 6-inch) against abeam targets. The new "improved" battleship could only fire one 12-inch and two 8-inch turrets. – Melnikov 2003, p. 11.
In March–April 1903 the NTC's consultants reviewed the drafts of the hull and found it to be superior to Navarin and Poltava but inferior to the original Borodino. Dmitry Skvortsov (1859–1910), the builder of Borodino, warned about unacceptable drag
Drag (physics)
In fluid dynamics, drag refers to forces which act on a solid object in the direction of the relative fluid flow velocity...
of the proposed shape. Alexey Krylov, then chief of the Navy's ship model basin
Ship model basin
A ship model basin may be defined as one of two separate yet related entities, namely:* a physical basin or tank used to carry out hydrodynamic tests with ship models, for the purpose of designing a new ship, or refining the design of a ship to improve the ship's performance at sea;* the...
, performed towed scale model test and came to the same conclusion. Krylov, who was preparing for a sea voyage to Port Arthur to pursue his own academic interests, did not blow the whistle
Whistleblower
A whistleblower is a person who tells the public or someone in authority about alleged dishonest or illegal activities occurring in a government department, a public or private organization, or a company...
. After the October Revolution
October Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
Krylov wrote that the hull of Andrey Pervozvanny was so poorly shaped that it required twice as much engine power as more efficient hulls, but in 1903 he kept this conclusion to himself and submitted a critical but very carefully written report.
Krylov's planned departure forced the NTC to hasten official approval of the drafts. Their presentation on ended in an embarrassment: the NTC intended to award the contract for one of two new ships to Baltic Shipyard
Baltic Shipyard
The Baltic Shipyard is one of the oldest shipyards in Russia. It is located in Saint Petersburg in the south-western part of the Vasilievsky Island. It is one of the three shipyards active in Saint Petersburg...
, but did not even inform its master builder Sergey Ratnik about the project's existence. Ratnik, the builder of Alexander III
Russian battleship Imperator Aleksander III (1901)
The Imperator Alexandr III was a of the Russian Imperial Navy, the first ship of its class to be completed. It was named after Tsar Alexander III. Some naval architects regard the Borodino-class as being among the worst battleships ever built...
and Suvorov
Russian battleship Knyaz Suvorov
The Knyaz Suvorov was a pre-dreadnought battleship of the Russian Imperial Navy, built by Baltic Works, St Petersburg. Laid down in July 1901, she was launched in September 1902 and completed in September 1904. This ship was named after the 18th-century Russian general Alexander Suvorov. Her...
, was confident that the new design was inferior to its predecessors. It had no displacement reserve compared to 246 tonnes of Borodino class and the British standard of at least 4% of standard displacement. The NTC overruled his objections and approved the draft for construction.
In the end of July Ratnik appealed to the NTC again, arguing that the mechanisms and systems overlooked by the designers will add five to six hundred tons to the ship's weight. The NTC dismissed his complaint and proceeded with the flawed design. In line with Russian practice of the period, it was a collective work signed off by a ring of designers and bureaucrats. No one dared to take the lead and assume full responsibility.
Commencement
In August 1903 the NTC finalized its drafts with only marginal improvements. On the Ministry of the Navy awarded construction contracts to the New Admiralty of the Port of Saint Petersburg (Andrey Pervozvanny) and Baltic Shipyard (Imperator Pavel I). The new projects were officially christened on August 22. Andrey automatically assumed the role of the lead shipLead ship
The lead ship or class leader is the first of a series or class of ships all constructed according to the same general design. The term is applicable military ships and larger civilian craft.-Overview:...
, Baltic Shipyard was instructed to trail behind the New Admiralty.
Admiral Rodionov, chief of the Department of Construction, estimated that the lead ship could be launched in the spring of 1906 and be ready for a shooting practice in the spring of 1907.Rodionov earned his shipbuilding experience at the French shipyards of Toulon
Toulon
Toulon is a town in southern France and a large military harbor on the Mediterranean coast, with a major French naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur region, Toulon is the capital of the Var department in the former province of Provence....
and overestimated the efficiency of Russian yards. By the end of 1903 this schedule was already broken by a confusion over working drawings. Both master builders (Skvortsov for the New Admiraly and Ratnik for Baltic Shipyard) complained about poorly executed drafts. Ratnik noticed that the bilge keel
Bilge keel
A bilge keel is used to reduce the hull's tendency to roll. Bilge keels are employed in pairs . A ship may have more than one bilge keel per side, but this is rare. Bilge keels increase hydrodynamic resistance to rolling, making the ship roll less...
s added by the NTC did not fit into existing drydocks of his yard. He again alerted the admirals of the inevitable overload and demanded redesign of belt armor
Belt armor
Belt armor is a layer of heavy metal armor plated on to or within outer hulls of warships, typically on battleships, battlecruisers and cruisers, and on aircraft carriers converted from those types of ships....
to match the expected rise in waterline
Waterline
The term "waterline" generally refers to the line where the hull of a ship meets the water surface. It is also the name of a special marking, also known as the national Load Line or Plimsoll Line, to be positioned amidships, that indicates the draft of the ship and the legal limit to which a ship...
level. According to Skvortsov, the proposed technology called for unnecessary breaks in construction schedule because deck armor could only be ordered and made to measure after completion of underlying structure. He proposed replacement of armor deck with softer steel which could be cut on site, saving a whole year of idle time, but the NTC insisted on following the original plan.
Actual work on Andrey Pervozvanny commenced on March 2, 1904; work in Imperator Pavel I commenced on October 14, 1904. Contracts for steel were awarded to Putilov
Kirov Plant
The Kirov Plant Kirov Factory or Leningrad Kirov Plant is a major Russian machine-building plant in St. Petersburg, Russia....
(structural steel) and Izhorsky Plant (armor plates). Coal-firing boilers and steam engine
Steam engine
A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid.Steam engines are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separate from the combustion products. Non-combustion heat sources such as solar power, nuclear power or geothermal energy may be...
s were ordered from the Franco-Russian Plant of St. Petersburg.The Franco-Russian Plant hailed back to Baird Works founded in 1792 by Charles Baird
Charles Baird (engineer)
Charles Baird was a Scottish engineer who played an important part in the industrial and business life of 19th century St. Petersburg...
. After the 1917 revolution it was renamed Marti Shipyard, in 1937 it became Plant 194, and in 1972 it merged into Admiralty Shipyard
Admiralty Shipyard
The Admiralty Shipyard is one of the oldest and largest shipyards in Russia, located in Saint Petersburg. The shipyard's building ways can accommodate ships of up to , 250 meters in length and 35 meters in width...
. In an inexplicable twist of the NTC bureaucracy, engines for two sister ships were ordered to different specifications. They turned out extremely inefficient compared to the French engines of Tsesarevich.The French system of feedwater heater
Feedwater heater
A feedwater heater is a power plant component used to pre-heat water delivered to a steam generating boiler. Preheating the feedwater reduces the irreversibilities involved in steam generation and therefore improves the thermodynamic efficiency of the system...
s was installed on Borodino but omitted from her sistership Slava and was not even considered for Andrey Pervozvanny class. The Navy realized the full extent of the problem only after the 1913 voyage to England. – Melnikov 2003, p. 51.
By this time all active admirals who could intervene and call the NTC to answer were either killed in the opening stages of the Russo-Japanese War
Russo-Japanese War
The Russo-Japanese War was "the first great war of the 20th century." It grew out of rival imperial ambitions of the Russian Empire and Japanese Empire over Manchuria and Korea...
or heading to the Battle of Tsushima
Battle of Tsushima
The Battle of Tsushima , commonly known as the “Sea of Japan Naval Battle” in Japan and the “Battle of Tsushima Strait”, was the major naval battle fought between Russia and Japan during the Russo-Japanese War...
. Skvortsov continued to fight the NTC chaos alone. In October–December 1904 he persuaded the NTC to replace practically useless hand-cranked firefighting pumps with Worthington steam pumps
Henry Rossiter Worthington
Henry Rossiter Worthington was an American mechanical engineer. He had several inventions leading to the perfection of the direct steam pump , patented the duplex steam pump , and built the first duplex waterworks engine, widely adopted and used for more than 75 years...
He argued that the arrangement of bilge pump
Bilge pump
A bilge pump is a water pump used to remove bilge water. Since fuel can be present in the bilge, electric bilge pumps are designed to not cause sparks. Electric bilge pumps are often fitted with float switches which turn on the pump when the bilge fills to a set level. Since bilge pumps can fail,...
s of different capacities, favored by the NTC, was inadequate to the purpose, and persuaded the designers to use standard 500 tonne-per-hour pumps. These small improvements did not change the already obsolete design, and construction proceeded at a slow pace, frequently interrupted by redesign proposals, change order
Change order
In project management, a change order is a component of the change management process whereby changes in the Scope of Work agreed to by the Owner, Contractor and Architect are implemented....
s, rework and inevitable delays. After the completion of Andrey Pervozvanny its builders identified seventeen distinct stages of its design.
In line with Russian tradition Andrey Pervozvanny was formally laid down
Keel
In boats and ships, keel can refer to either of two parts: a structural element, or a hydrodynamic element. These parts overlap. As the laying down of the keel is the initial step in construction of a ship, in British and American shipbuilding traditions the construction is dated from this event...
in May 1905, after more than a year of construction work. The ceremony coincided with the beginning of a six-month hiatus (May–October 1905) caused by the 1905 Russian Revolution. It became the last of its kind for a whole generation of naval bureaucracy: none of the admirals present ever laid down or launched another ship. Dubasov became the Governor-General
Governor-General
A Governor-General, is a vice-regal person of a monarch in an independent realm or a major colonial circonscription. Depending on the political arrangement of the territory, a Governor General can be a governor of high rank, or a principal governor ranking above "ordinary" governors.- Current uses...
of Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, and de facto retired after an assassination attempt in April 1906. Admiral Kuzmich, the newly appointed Chief of the Port of Saint Petersburg, was killed by terrorists in May 1906. General Admiral
General Admiral
General admiral was a Danish, Dutch, German, Russian, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish naval rank. Its historic origin is a title high military or naval dignitaries of early modern Europe sometimes held, for example the commander-in-chief of the Dutch Republic's navy .-Third Reich:In the German...
Grand Duke Alexey
Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich of Russia
Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich of Russia was the sixth child and the fourth son of Alexander II of Russia and his first wife Maria Alexandrovna . Destined to a naval career, Alexei Alexandrovich started his military training at the age of 7...
, Chief of the Ministry of the Navy Fyodor Avelan and Chief Inspector of the NTC Nikolay Kuteinikov, blamed for the losses of the Russo-Japanese War, retired in the summer of 1905. Baltic Shipyard
Baltic Shipyard
The Baltic Shipyard is one of the oldest shipyards in Russia. It is located in Saint Petersburg in the south-western part of the Vasilievsky Island. It is one of the three shipyards active in Saint Petersburg...
cancelled the laying-down ceremony of Imperator Pavel I altogether: officially, Pavel was laid down and launched on the same date, .
Influence of the Russo-Japanese War
The sinking of PetropavlovskRussian battleship Petropavlovsk (1897)
The Petropavlovsk was the lead ship of the Petropavlovsk class of battleships built for the Imperial Russian Navy. During the Russo-Japanese War, Petropavlovsk was a flagship of the First Pacific Squadron, taking part in battles against the Imperial Japanese Navy. On March 31, 1904, the battleship...
in April 1904, which was blamed on a detonation of its naval mine
Naval mine
A naval mine is a self-contained explosive device placed in water to destroy surface ships or submarines. Unlike depth charges, mines are deposited and left to wait until they are triggered by the approach of, or contact with, an enemy vessel...
magazines, compelled the NTC to reconsider the use of mines. Russian battleships carried their own stock of naval mines to protect themselves at anchorage, even when accompanied by minelayers and destroyers (as was the case with Petropavlovsk). The NTC hastily stopped the practice, banning mines from new ships and demanding "safe handling" from the rest of the Navy. Later the NTC banned mines from the battleships altogether; the function was delegated to cruisers and destroyers. In December 1904 the NTC also agreed to strip the new battleships of their stern torpedo tubes, but kept the bow and side-firing tubes. In the summer of 1905 torpedo armament was reduced to only two side-firing tubes.
In 1905 the NTC flooded Skvortsov with a chain of conflicting and poorly formulated change orders influenced by war-time experience. The war demonstrated the uselessness of keeping small-calibre guns on capital ships; in May 1905 the NTC removed the 47-mm guns but instead added equally useless 75-mm guns in an upper deck casemate
Casemate
A casemate, sometimes rendered casement, is a fortified gun emplacement or armored structure from which guns are fired. originally a vaulted chamber in a fortress.-Origin of the term:...
. The 75-mm guns were replaced with 120-mm guns in another round of redesign. Concentration of larger guns in the central citadel compelled the NTC to redesign the middle 8-inch guns, moving them one deck above their original placement. Another war reality, loss of control after direct hits against the bridge or the conning tower
Conning tower
A conning tower is a raised platform on a ship or submarine, often armored, from which an officer can con the vessel; i.e., give directions to the helmsman. It is usually located as high on the ship as practical, to give the conning team good visibility....
, caused the addition of a second conning tower. All hull porthole
Porthole
A porthole is a generally circular, window used on the hull of ships to admit light and air. Porthole is actually an abbreviated term for "port hole window"...
s were replaced with solid armor, making Andrey Pervozvanny and Imperator Pavel I the least comfortable even for commissioned officers. These changes inevitably added more steel to an already overloaded ship; the NTC compensated overload with "optimization" of turret armor, further delaying completion.
By September 1905 all involved parties realized that the project had no chances of meeting the 16,500 maximum displacement, worse, the overload increased hull draft
Draft (hull)
The draft of a ship's hull is the vertical distance between the waterline and the bottom of the hull , with the thickness of the hull included; in the case of not being included the draft outline would be obtained...
above the maximum depth of the Suez Canal
Suez Canal
The Suez Canal , also known by the nickname "The Highway to India", is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. Opened in November 1869 after 10 years of construction work, it allows water transportation between Europe and Asia without navigation...
. The NTC urgently commissioned Krylov to redesign the hull, making it wider but shallower. This theoretical work was still in progress when the NTC received the specifications for the new British Lord Nelson class battleships
Lord Nelson class battleship
The Lord Nelson class was a two-ship class of pre-dreadnought battleships built by the Royal Navy between 1905 and 1908. Although they were the last British pre-dreadnoughts, both were completed and commissioned after HMS Dreadnought had entered service. and were serving in the Channel Fleet when...
and the Dreadnought
HMS Dreadnought (1906)
HMS Dreadnought was a battleship of the British Royal Navy that revolutionised naval power. Her entry into service in 1906 represented such a marked advance in naval technology that her name came to be associated with an entire generation of battleships, the "dreadnoughts", as well as the class of...
. The NTC considered arming Andrey Pervozvanny with 10-inch secondary artillery along the lines of Lord Nelson but eventually shelved the proposal.
Armor
In June 1905 the NTC finally approved Skvortsov's proposal to decrease deck armor, saving 130 tonnes of gross weight. This was only a prelude to a major redesign of the ships's protection scheme. In August 1905 Krylov and Skvortsov independently raised concerns about the ship's stability in combat. Skvortsov wrote that although the maximum roll angle was set at a respectable 30°, combat damage would reduce it to an unacceptably low 15°. The only solution, he wrote, was to extend belt armorBelt armor
Belt armor is a layer of heavy metal armor plated on to or within outer hulls of warships, typically on battleships, battlecruisers and cruisers, and on aircraft carriers converted from those types of ships....
upward, effectively armoring the whole freeboard surface. Skvortsov compensated the added weight with the removal of two 8-inch gun turrets and yet another redesign of the remaining turrets. The NTC, scared by the losses at Tsushima, approved the proposal. They were not yet aware of the effectiveness of counter-flooding system of the Borodino class battleships. Counter-flooding enabled survival of Oryol
Japanese battleship Iwami
Japanese battleship Iwami was one of eight Russian pre-dreadnought battleships captured by the Imperial Japanese Navy during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905. It was built as the Russian battleship Oryol , and was commissioned into the Imperial Russian Navy's Baltic Fleet...
but her crewmen were still held prisoners in Japan. Their experience materialized in a counter-flooding system designed by Skvortsov in the summer of 1906.
In October 1905 Krylov compiled a report on the Tsushima experience and recommended a sunstantial redesign of hull armor and counter-flooding system. He advised to increase upper hull armor to 6 in (152 mm) but the NTC discarded the proposal as too radical. The NTC formulated their own proposal in November 1906, when the hulls were already launched. It required virtual demolition of the hull above the waterline and rebuilding it anew. Skvortsov fiercely objected and the NTC reluctantly shelved their plans. The accepted changes were limited to reinforcement of casemate decks and boiler compartments, which were not complete until January 1908. The engines were installed in the summer of 1908, armor plates deliveries continued until March 1910. The central citadel remained incomplete and unarmored until the installation of the 8-inch guns, which were delivered in the spring of 1910.
Masts
The original 1903 design provided each ship with two conventional hollow cylinder masts. During the war the NTC incorrectly assumed that a ship with only one mast would be less conspicuous in combat.The NTC tacticians assumed that the enemy will not be able to estimate heading of a ship with a single mast as easily as was the case with two-mast ships. In reality the difference, if it ever existed, was marginal. – Melnikov 2003, p. 24. The proposal has already been tested on the NovikRussian cruiser Novik (1900)
Novík was a protected cruiser in the Imperial Russian Navy, built by Schichau shipyards in Elbing near Danzig, Germany.-Background:Novik was a very fast ship for the time, but smaller than most contemporary cruisers, and perhaps a forerunner of later light cruisers...
, launched in 1900. Noviks experience was negative: a single mast severely limited its ability to communicate flag signals
Flag signals
Flag signals can mean any of various methods of using flags or pennants to send signals. Flags may have individual significance as signals, or two or more flags may be manipulated so that their relative positions convey symbols...
. Her successors, the Izumrud class cruisers
Izumrud class cruiser
The Izumrud-class were a group of two protected cruisers built for the Imperial Russian Navy....
, were built with three masts but in 1905 the NTC returned to the old idea and ordered Admiral Makarov
Russian cruiser Admiral Makarov (1906)
Admiral Makarov was the second of the four armoured cruisers built for the Imperial Russian Navy in France during the mid-1900s. While initially assigned to the Baltic Fleet, the ship was detached to the Mediterranean several times before the start of World War I in 1914...
with a single mast. Plans to fit Andrey Pervozvanny with a single mast did not materialize although the NTC regularly raised this proposal until the outbreak of World War I.
Assessment of the damage incurred in the Battle of the Yellow Sea
Battle of the Yellow Sea
The Battle of the Yellow Sea was a major naval engagement of the Russo-Japanese War, fought on 10 August 1904. In the Russian Navy, it was referred to as the Battle of 10 August. The battle foiled an attempt by the Russian fleet at Port Arthur to break out and form up with counterparts from...
led the NTC to another incorrect conclusion. The NTC tacticians noted that a single artillery hit in the mast of Tsesarevich nearly knocked it down; a fallen mast would, most likely, disable the secondary artillery turrets of its central citadel. Lattice masts, introduced with the American South Carolina class battleships
South Carolina class battleship
The United States Navy's South Carolina class consisted of two battleships: and , both of which were launched in 1908. These were among the first warships built with armament organized on the "all-big gun" and the first American battleships of the type...
, seemed to be a robust solution. However, they required substantial deck area to fit their wide bases. Instead of clearing deck space, the NTC designed the masts too narrow to be stable. Instead of Shukhov's hyperboloid profile, their structural beams were arranged in a weaker conical shape
Cone (geometry)
A cone is an n-dimensional geometric shape that tapers smoothly from a base to a point called the apex or vertex. Formally, it is the solid figure formed by the locus of all straight line segments that join the apex to the base...
. Their deficiency was evident from the start, but the Navy needed something new to disspell the curse of Tsushima, and eagerly accepted the flawed novelty.
Andrey Pervozvanny and Imperator Pavel I became the first and only Russian battleships built with lattice masts.The Gangut class battleships
Gangut class battleship
The Gangut-class battleships were the first dreadnoughts begun for the Imperial Russian Navy before World War I. They had a convoluted design history involving several British companies, evolving requirements, an international design competition, and foreign protests...
were initially designed with lattice masts but completed with conventional masts – Melnikov 2003, p. 24. These masts, installed in 1910, turned out unstable and prone to vibration. They took up precious upper deck space, forcing the sailors to crouch under the beams; they were regularly overheated by exhaust fumes, making the signaller
Signaller
In the armed forces, a signaller or signaleer is a specialist soldier or seaman or airman responsible for military communications. Signallers, aka Combat Signallers or signalmen or women, are commonly employed as radio or telephone operators, relaying messages for field commanders at the front line...
s work unbearable. Despire these drawbacks the captain of Andrey Pervozvanny fiercely defended them and objected to all alternatives proposed by the NTC. On the day when Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
declared war against Russia the captain of Imperator Pavel I, who held an opposite opinion, volunteered to replace the masts in three days. Fleet commander Nikolai Essen
Nikolai Essen
Nikolai Ottovich Essen was a Russian naval commander and admiral from the Baltic German Essen family. For more than two centuries his ancestors had served in the Navy, and seven had been awarded the Order of St...
concurred, and by the middle of August 1914 the old lattice masts were largely gone. Both ships retained the lower baskets of their masts, cut at different heights.
Operational history
| Timeline of construction and commissioning (Dates in Julian (Old Style) calendar) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Ship | Russian battleship Andrei Pervozvanny Andrei Pervozvanny was a predreadnought battleship built for the Imperial Russian Navy during the mid-1900s. The ship's construction was seriously extended by design changes as a result of the Russo-Japanese War and labor unrest after the 1905 Revolution, and she took nearly six years to build... |
Russian battleship Imperator Pavel I Imperator Pavel I was a predreadnought battleship built for the Imperial Russian Navy in the mid-1900s. The ship's construction was seriously extended by design changes as a result of the Russo-Japanese War and labor unrest after the 1905 Revolution and she took nearly six years to build... |
| Construction authorized | |
|
| Christening | |
|
| Construction commenced | |
|
| Laying down ceremony | |
|
| Launched | |
|
| Commissioned to reserve fleet | |
|
| Speed trials | |
|
| Gunnery trials | (incomplete) |
|
| Commissioned to active fleet | |
|
Trials and completion
In June 1910 both ships, still missing their 8-inch artillery, were commissioned into the Armed ReserveReserve fleet
A reserve fleet is a collection of naval vessels of all types that are fully equipped for service but are not currently needed, and thus partially or fully decommissioned. A reserve fleet is informally said to be "in mothballs" or "mothballed"; an equivalent expression in unofficial modern U.S....
of the Baltic Fleet. The decision permitted the Navy to bring their crews to full strength. In the end of July Andrey Pervozvanny sailed to its sea trial
Sea trial
A sea trial is the testing phase of a watercraft . It is also referred to as a "shakedown cruise" by many naval personnel. It is usually the last phase of construction and takes place on open water, and can last from a few hours to many days.Sea trials are conducted to measure a vessel’s...
s with 583 men on board, Imperator Pavel I sailed to her trials in September–October with even fewer men. As predicted by theory, they turned out very "wet" ships even in calm seas. At 17 knots (33.3 km/h) bow wave
Bow wave
A bow wave is the wave that forms at the bow of a ship when it moves through the water. As the bow wave spreads out, it defines the outer limits of a ship's wake. A large bow wave slows the ship down, poses a risk to smaller boats, and in a harbor can cause damage to shore facilities and moored ships...
s swept over all open decks and flooded the lookout cupolas and optical sights of main gun turrets, effectively prohibiting fire at high speed. Ivan Bubnov
Ivan Bubnov
Ivan Grigoryevich Bubnov was a Russian marine engineer and designer of submarines for the Imperial Russian Navy.Bubnov was born in Nizhny Novgorod and graduated from the Marine Engineering College in Kronstadt in 1891. He graduated from the Nikolayev Marine Academy in 1896...
recommended fitting Andreys protruding bow ram
Naval ram
A naval ram was a weapon carried by varied types of ships, dating back to antiquity. The weapon consisted of an underwater prolongation of the bow of the ship to form an armoured beak, usually between six and twelve feet in length...
with a scoop-shaped fairing, which would decrease bow wave height from 22 to 14 feet (4.3 m) and eliminate flooding, but the NTC shelved the proposal.
The powerplants of both ships performed well at the speed trials, but post-trial examination of Imperator Pavel I revealed unacceptable defects of its Belleville boilers, engine cylinders and crankshaft bearings. The NTC had no funds to replace defective boilers and postponed the repairs until the next year. The ships returned into the drydocks of Kronstadt
Kronstadt
Kronstadt , also spelled Kronshtadt, Cronstadt |crown]]" and Stadt for "city"); is a municipal town in Kronshtadtsky District of the federal city of St. Petersburg, Russia, located on Kotlin Island, west of Saint Petersburg proper near the head of the Gulf of Finland. Population: It is also...
. Their captains hoped to install all missing guns and equipment in time for the 1911 navigation. This did not happen: the Navy committed all available financing to the dreadnought program
Gangut class battleship
The Gangut-class battleships were the first dreadnoughts begun for the Imperial Russian Navy before World War I. They had a convoluted design history involving several British companies, evolving requirements, an international design competition, and foreign protests...
; Andrey Pervozvanny and Imperaror Pavel I were not properly completed until the autumn of 1912.
Mutinies
Andrey Pervozvanny and Imperator Pavel I saw very limited seagoing service in the summer seasons on 1910, 1911 and 1912; the few voyages within the Russian Baltic waters were trials, rather than active duty. Their combat readinessCombat readiness
Combat readiness is a condition of the armed forces and their constituent units and formations, warships, aircraft, weapon systems or other military technology and equipment to perform during combat military operations, or functions consistently with the purpose for which they are organised or...
was crippled by shortage of personnel. Absence of proper porthole
Porthole
A porthole is a generally circular, window used on the hull of ships to admit light and air. Porthole is actually an abbreviated term for "port hole window"...
s and limited capacity of electrical fans made living conditions unbearable, thus commissioned officers evaded transfer to the "ugly sisters" at all costs. The NTC seriously considered cutting portholes through the armor, but found it too expensive to be done. The enlisted men sabotaged the system by jamming the fan switches in "on" position, which caused frequent electrical failures. The Navy "fixed the problem" by building steel lockers around the switchesIn the end of 1911 Imperator Pavel I ordered 105 steel lockers for protecting electrical switches from unauthorized access. – Melnikov 2005, p. 22. but could not contain the discontent of the sailors.
On officers of Imperator Pavel I received first warnings of a mounting conspiracy among enlisted men, who allegedly planned an open mutiny on the night of July 24–25. In the few days preceding the strike the sailors openly disobeyed and taunted their officers but refrained from violence. Only a minority of the enlisted men (around 160) subscribed to the mutiny; the majority remained loyal and kept the officers informed. On July 24 the ringleaders were arrested, more arrests followed throughout July and August. 53 sailors of Imperator Pavel I were sentenced to terms ranging from six months to sixteen years.In addition to 53 men from Imperator Pavel I, the government prosecuted 23 men from Tsesarevich and 13 men from Rurick. – Melnikov 2005, p. 27. These two ships have already seen mass disobedience and mass arrests in April 1912. – Melnikov 2003, p. 42. Attempts to spread the mutiny to Andrey Pervozvanny were foiled at the very beginning.
By August 1913 the battleships were deemed safe, in all senses, for their farthest voyage ever, to England and France. Yet the ships again harbored active Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
militants – the future Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
commander Pavel Dybenko
Pavel Dybenko
Pavel Efimovich Dybenko was a Russian revolutionary and a leading Soviet officer.- Until the military service :...
, the future chief of the Red Black Sea Fleet
Black Sea Fleet
The Black Sea Fleet is a large operational-strategic sub-unit of the Russian Navy, operating in the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea since the late 18th century. It is based in various harbors of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov....
and naval historian Nikolay Izmaylov and the future chief of the whole Red Navy Ivan Sladkov. In October 1916 the crew of Imperator Pavel I, demoralized by boredom and Bolshevik propaganda, refused to obey orders and demanded better rations and easing of service. The Navy preferred to appease the sailors, and the ringleaders escaped punishment. Fifteen years later Leonid Sobolev, former officer of Imperator Pavel I, described the explosive environment and Bolshevik propaganda on board of his ship in The Big Refit; in an act of self-censorship he changed the name of his "lead character" to Generalissimus Suvorov.English translation: Sobolev, Leonid (2001). The Big Refit. Lightning Source Inc. ISBN 1589634012. , Kapitalny Remont, 1932, amended edition: 1962. Sobolev, born in 1898, joined the crew in 1918 as a junior officer and was soon promoted to captain's mate. He made a swift career in Soviet literary establishment, writing primarily on naval subjects. – Melnikov 2005, p. 31.
World War I
In June–July 1914 both ships represented the Empire in joint naval reviews with friendly British,Sir David BeattieDavid Beatty, 1st Earl Beatty
Admiral of the Fleet David Richard Beatty, 1st Earl Beatty, GCB, OM, GCVO, DSO was an admiral in the Royal Navy...
visited the Baltic with Queen Mary
HMS Queen Mary
HMS Queen Mary was a battlecruiser built by the British Royal Navy before World War I, the sole member of her class. She was similar to the s, though she differed in details from her half-sisters. She was the last battlecruiser completed before the war and participated in the Battle of Heligoland...
, Princess Royal
HMS Princess Royal (1911)
HMS Princess Royal was the second of two s built for the Royal Navy before World War I. Designed in response to the s of the German Navy, the ships significantly improved on the speed, armament, and armour of the preceding...
and New Zealand
HMS New Zealand (1911)
HMS New Zealand was one of three s built for the defence of the British Empire. Launched in 1911, the ship's construction was funded by the government of New Zealand as a gift to Britain, and she was commissioned into the Royal Navy in 1912...
in June 1914. The joint fleet review began on . – Melnikov 2003, p. 54. FrenchPresident of France Raymond Poincaré
Raymond Poincaré
Raymond Poincaré was a French statesman who served as Prime Minister of France on five separate occasions and as President of France from 1913 to 1920. Poincaré was a conservative leader primarily committed to political and social stability...
visited Saint Petersburg in July 1914 accompanied by Jean Bart
French battleship Jean Bart (1911)
Jean Bart was the second ship of the s, the first dreadnoughts built for the French Navy. She was completed before World War I as part of the 1910 naval building programme. She spent the war in the Mediterranean and helped to sink the Austro-Hungarian protected cruiser on 16 August 1914...
, France
French battleship France
France was the last ship of the s, the first dreadnoughts built for the French Navy. She was completed just before World War I as part of the 1911 naval building programme. She spent the war in the Mediterranean, covering the Otranto Barrage in the Adriatic...
and a host of destroyers. The fleet review in the mouth of the Neva River
Neva River
The Neva is a river in northwestern Russia flowing from Lake Ladoga through the western part of Leningrad Oblast to the Neva Bay of the Gulf of Finland. Despite its modest length , it is the third largest river in Europe in terms of average discharge .The Neva is the only river flowing from Lake...
was held on July 21, 1914. – Melnikov 2003, p. 55. and DutchDutch cruiser Zeeland visited Saint Petersburg in the middle of July 1914. – Melnikov 2003, p. 55. forces in the Gulf of Finland
Gulf of Finland
The Gulf of Finland is the easternmost arm of the Baltic Sea. It extends between Finland and Estonia all the way to Saint Petersburg in Russia, where the river Neva drains into it. Other major cities around the gulf include Helsinki and Tallinn...
. Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
had not yet declared its neutrality
Swedish neutrality
Swedish neutrality refers to Sweden's policy of neutrality in armed conflicts, which has been in effect since the early 19th century. The policy originated largely as a result of Sweden's involvement in the Napoleonic Wars during which over a third of the country's territory was lost, including the...
, and on Imperator Pavel I, Rurick, Slava
Russian battleship Slava
Slava was a pre-dreadnought battleship of the Imperial Russian Navy, the last of the five s. Commissioned too late to participate in the Battle of Tsushima during the Russo-Japanese War, she survived while all of her sister ships were either sunk during the battle or surrendered to the Imperial...
and Tsesarevich sailed out to Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
to intimidate the Swedes. The diplomats called the fleet back, and Imperator Pavel I missed her chance to score her first kill against a weak German scouting flotilla operating in the same area. In August–September the battleships actively sailed north of the Gulf of Riga
Gulf of Riga
The Gulf of Riga, or Bay of Riga, is a bay of the Baltic Sea between Latvia and Estonia. According to C.Michael Hogan, a saline stratification layer is found at a depth of approximately seventy metres....
but failed to intercept Augsburg
SMS Augsburg
The SMS Augsburg was a Kolberg class light cruiser of the German Kaiserliche Marine. Named after the city of Augsburg, she was laid down at the Kaiserliche Werft Kiel in 1908, launched on 10 July 1909 and commissioned 1 November 1910....
and Blücher
SMS Blücher
SMS Blücher was the last armored cruiser to be built by the German Imperial Navy . She was designed to match what German intelligence incorrectly believed to be the specifications of the British s...
.
The sinking of Pallada on effectively put both Andrey Pervozvanny class ships out of action for the rest of the war. All battleships were ordered to return to safety of Finnish bases and stay there until the Navy could cope with the submarine threat. Slava and Tsesarevich returned to action in the Battle of the Gulf of Riga
Battle of the Gulf of Riga
The Battle of the Gulf of Riga was a World War I naval operation of the German High Seas Fleet against the Russian Baltic Fleet in the Gulf of Riga in the Baltic Sea in August 1915...
but Imperator Pavel I remained moored in Helsingfors. Andrey Pervozvanny was called out for active operations twice, in April and November 1916. The first operation, a raid on a German convoy near the Swedish coast, was a moderate success; the second ended in a humiliating retreat after Rurick struck a naval mine
Naval mine
A naval mine is a self-contained explosive device placed in water to destroy surface ships or submarines. Unlike depth charges, mines are deposited and left to wait until they are triggered by the approach of, or contact with, an enemy vessel...
laid by UC 27
SM UC-27
SM UC-27 was a German Type UC II minelaying submarine or U-boat in the German Imperial Navy during World War I. The U-boat was ordered on 29 August 1915 and was launched on 28 June 1916...
.
Revolution
During the outbreak of the February RevolutionFebruary Revolution
The February Revolution of 1917 was the first of two revolutions in Russia in 1917. Centered around the then capital Petrograd in March . Its immediate result was the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, the end of the Romanov dynasty, and the end of the Russian Empire...
both battleships were moored in Helsinki
Helsinki
Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...
. The enlisted men, demoralized by idle life and revolutionary propaganda, have already been organized for a mutiny by a well-entrenched core of conspirators. Exact history of the fleet revolt has been sanitized by Soviet historiography
Soviet historiography
Soviet historiography is the methodology of history studies by historians in the Soviet Union . In the USSR, the study of history was marked by alternating periods of freedom allowed and restrictions imposed by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , and also by the struggle of historians to...
in the wake of the Kronstadt rebellion
Kronstadt rebellion
The Kronstadt rebellion was one of many major unsuccessful left-wing uprisings against the Bolsheviks in the aftermath of the Russian Civil War...
. It is known that the revolt of was coordinated from Imperator Pavel I. Sailors of Imperator Pavel I took control of the ship, killed the officers who stood in their way and signalled instructions to other ships. The two battleships accounted for the majority of casualties of this day. The captain of Imperator Pavel I did not even try to subdue the sailors and save his officers; he survived the mutiny and was killed by the Cheka
Cheka
Cheka was the first of a succession of Soviet state security organizations. It was created by a decree issued on December 20, 1917, by Vladimir Lenin and subsequently led by aristocrat-turned-communist Felix Dzerzhinsky...
in 1921. Captain of Andrey Pervozvanny, on the contrary, opposed the revolt; he survived in emigration until 1952. The commander of the battleship squadron refused to confront the sailors and was killed on shore.
The enlisted men almost completely subscribed to communism: by the end of April 520 sailors of Imperator Pavel I were carrying Bolshevik party cards. On Imperator Pavel I was renamed Respublika. The ship provided quarters to civilian Bolshevik functionaries who felt unsafe among the ethnic Finns of Helsinki. The disorganized crew demonstrated formal allegiance to the Russian Provisional Government
Russian Provisional Government
The Russian Provisional Government was the short-lived administrative body which sought to govern Russia immediately following the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II . On September 14, the State Duma of the Russian Empire was officially dissolved by the newly created Directorate, and the country was...
and even sailed out for a gunnery practice on orders from Alexander Kerensky
Alexander Kerensky
Alexander Fyodorovich Kerensky was a major political leader before and during the Russian Revolutions of 1917.Kerensky served as the second Prime Minister of the Russian Provisional Government until Vladimir Lenin was elected by the All-Russian Congress of Soviets following the October Revolution...
. In August 1917 Respublika escorted Slava
Russian battleship Slava
Slava was a pre-dreadnought battleship of the Imperial Russian Navy, the last of the five s. Commissioned too late to participate in the Battle of Tsushima during the Russo-Japanese War, she survived while all of her sister ships were either sunk during the battle or surrendered to the Imperial...
to her last station at Moon Sound
Moonsund archipelago
West Estonian archipelago is a group of Estonian islands, around Väinameri, located in the Baltic Sea. The total area is about .- References :...
. Slava perished during Operation Albion
Operation Albion
Operation Albion was the German land and naval operation in September-October 1917 to invade and occupy the Estonian islands of Saaremaa , Hiiumaa and Muhu , then part of the Russian Republic...
, but neither Respublika nor Andrey Pervozvanny dared to rescue her.
In April 1918 the two battleships fled from hostile Helsinki, the Ice Cruise
Ice Cruise of the Baltic Fleet
Ice Cruise of the Baltic Fleet was an operation which transferred the ships of the Baltic Fleet of the Imperial Russian Navy from their bases at Tallinn and Helsinki to Kronstadt in 1918, caused by the possible threat to those bases from the final German offensives against Russia during World War...
to Kronstadt became their last voyage. Respublika was hulked in September 1918 and saw no action ever. Andrey Pervozvanny, although neglected by its revolutionary crew, remained in active service. In June 1919 Andrey, captained by Lev Galler
Lev Galler
Lev Mikhailovich Galler was a Soviet military leader and admiral.Galler was born into a family of a military engineer and joined the Baltic Fleet on completing the Naval school in 1905...
, and Petropavlovsk gunned downed the rebels of the Krasnaya Gorka fort
Krasnaya Gorka fort
Krasnaya Gorka is a coastal artillery fortress west of Lomonosov, Russia on the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland, opposite Kotlin Island and the Baltic Fleet's base at Kronshtadt...
. The British fleet, which was cruising nearby, did not do anything to support the anti-Bolshevik mutiny. Two months later, August 16, 1919, the British raided the harbor of Kronstadt with a joint air and torpedo boat strike. One torpedo hit Andrey Pervozvanny armor belt, killing one sailor and flooding an isolated watertight compartment. Repairs continued slowly until the Kronstadt rebellion
Kronstadt rebellion
The Kronstadt rebellion was one of many major unsuccessful left-wing uprisings against the Bolsheviks in the aftermath of the Russian Civil War...
of 1921 and completely stopped after its suppression. The Bolshevik government had no interest in resurrecting the troublesome capital ships. Both Andrey Pervozvanny class battleships were sent to the breaker's yard in November–December 1923.Scrapping of Respublika (former Imperator Pavel I) was authorized in 1922 but did not begin until November 22, 1923. Scrapping of Andrey Pervozvanny began December 16, 1923. – Melnikov 2003, p. 96.
Sources
- Afonin, N. N.; Kuznetsov, L. A. (1996, in Russian). Lineyny korabl "Andrey Pervozvanny" (Линейный корабль "Андрей Первозванный"). Sain Petersburg: Gangut. ISBN 5858751083.
- Gutthridge, L. F. (2006). Mutiny: A History of Naval Insurrection. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1591143489.
- Melnikov, R. M. (2003, in Russian). Lineyny korabl "Andrey Pervozvanny" (1906–1925) (Линейный корабль "Андрей Первозванный" (1906–1925)). Saint Petersburg: Korabli i srazheniya. (no ISBN)
- Melnikov, R. M. (2005, in Russian). Lineyny korabl "Imperator Pavel I" (1906–1925) (Линейный корабль "Император Павел I" (1906–1925)). Samara: ANO Istflot. ISBN 5988300138.
- Morison, S. L.; Morison, S. E.; Polmar, N. (2003). The American Battleship. Zenith. ISBN 0760309892.
- Shirokorad, A. B. (1997, in Russian). Korabelnaya artilelleriya Rossiyskogo flota 1867–1922. (Корабельная артиллерия Российского флота. 1867–1922). Morskaya Kollekciya, No. 2 (14), 1997, pp. 1–42.