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Russian battleship Poltava (1911)
Encyclopedia
Poltava was the second of the s of the Imperial Russian Navy
built before World War I
. The Ganguts were the first class
of Russian dreadnought
s. She was named after the Russian victory over Charles XII of Sweden
in the Battle of Poltava
in 1709. She was completed during the winter of 1914–15, but was not ready for combat until mid-1915. Her role was to defend the mouth of the Gulf of Finland
against the Germans, who never tried to enter, so she spent her time training and providing cover for mine laying operations. She was laid up in 1918 for lack of trained crew and suffered a devastating fire the following year that almost gutted her. Many proposals were made to reconstruct or modernize her in different ways for the next twenty years, but none were carried out. While all this was being discussed she served as source of spare parts for her sister ship
s and was used as a barracks ship. She was finally struck from the Navy List in 1940 and scrapping began at a very leisurely rate. She was intentionally grounded in late 1941 to prevent her from being sunk in some inconvenient location by the Germans. She was re-floated in 1944 and scrapped beginning in 1949.
of 26.9 metres (88.3 ft) and a draft
of 8.99 metres (29.5 ft), 49 centimetres (1.6 ft) more than designed. Her displacement was 24800 tonne at load, over 1500 tonne more than her designed displacement of 23288 tonne.
Poltavas machinery was built by the Franco-Russian Works. Ten Parsons
steam turbine
s drove the four propellers. The engine rooms were located between turret
s three and four in three transverse compartments. The outer compartments each had a high-pressure ahead and reverse turbine for each wing propeller shaft. The central engine room had two each low-pressure ahead and astern turbines as well as two cruising turbines driving the two centre shafts. The engines had a total designed output of 42000 shp, but they produced 52000 shp during Poltavas full-speed trials on 21 November 1915 and gave a top speed of 24.1 knots. Twenty-five Yarrow
Admiralty-type small-tube boilers
provided steam to the engines at a designed working pressure of 17.5 atm (1,773.2 kPa; 257.2 psi). Each boiler was fitted with Thornycroft
oil sprayers for mixed oil/coal burning. They were arranged in two groups. The forward group consisted of two boiler rooms in front of the second turret, the foremost of which had three boilers while the second one had six. The rear group was between the second and third turrets and comprised two compartments, each with eight boilers. At full load she carried 1847.5 long tons (1,877.2 MT) of coal and 700 long tons (711.2 MT) of fuel oil
and that provided her a range of 3500 nautical miles (6,482 km) at a speed of 10 knots (19.6 km/h).
Her main armament consisted of a dozen Obukhovskii 12 inches (305 mm) Pattern 1907 52-calibre guns mounted in four triple turrets distributed the length of the ship. The Russians did not believe that super firing
turrets offered any advantage as they discounted the value of axial fire and believed that super firing turrets could not fire while over the lower turret because of muzzle blast
problems. They also believed that distributing the turrets, and their associated magazine
s, over the length of the ship improved the survivability of the ship. Sixteen 4.7 inches (119 mm) 50-calibre Pattern 1905 guns were mounted in casemate
s as the secondary battery intended to defend the ship against torpedo boat
s. She completed with only a single 3 inches (8 cm) 30-calibre Lender anti-aircraft
(AA) gun mounted on the quarterdeck. Other anti-aircraft guns were probably added during the course of World War I, but details are lacking.Conway's says that four 75 millimetres (3 in) were added to the roofs of the end turrets during the war. Four 17.7 inches (450 mm) submerged torpedo tube
s were mounted with three torpedo
es for each tube.
at Saint Petersburg
. She was laid down on 16 June 1909 and launched on 23 July 1911. At the end of October 1914 she was struck by her sister which jammed her kedge anchor
, damaged her hull and delayed her trials to late November 1914. She entered service on 30 December 1914 when she reached Helsingfors
and was assigned to the First Battleship Brigade of the Baltic Fleet
. However, gunnery and torpedo trials had to be postponed until mid-1915 because of the thick winter ice. She was the only ship of the class to perform a full-power speed trial, which she did in November 1915. She played a passive part in World War I as her role was to prevent the Germans from breaking into the Gulf of Finland
, something the Germans never even tried. She ran aground in June 1916, but suffered little damage. Her crew participated in the February Revolution
of 1917. She, and most of the Baltic Fleet, evacuated Helsingfors between 12 and 17 March 1918 despite the winter ice in the Gulf of Finland. Due to a shortage of crew she was placed into long-term conservation at Petrograd
in October 1918.
On 24 November 1919 a fire broke out in her forward boiler room and gutted much of her interior. She was henceforth used as a source of spare parts for her sisters
. Along with the Izmail she was considered for conversion to an aircraft carrier in 1924 for service in the Black Sea
, but this proved to be too ambitious and expensive given the state of the Soviet economy shortly after the end of the Russian Civil War. A more modest goal was to restore her to her original configuration and the Baltic Works actually began work in 1925, but exhausted the allotted funds on 15 February 1926 by which time she was estimated to be 46.5% complete. On 7 January 1926 she was given the name Frunze, after the recently deceased Bolshevik
military leader Mikhail Frunze
. Subsequent plans that focused on reconstructing her as a modernized equivalent to her sisters or even as a battlecruiser
, with one turret deleted to save weight, were considered, but finally abandoned on 23 January 1935 when all work was stopped. Kliment Voroshilov
approved one last plan to turn her into a floating battery, but the Baltic Works had no capacity to spare and this project was cancelled on 9 July 1939. During this period she was used as a barracks hulk while she was stripped for parts, until she was formally discarded 1 December 1940, after scrapping had already begun at a leisurely pace. After the German invasion she was towed to Kronstadt and run aground late July 1941 near the Leningrad Sea Canal. During the Siege of Leningrad
her hull was used as a base for small ships. She raised on 31 May 1944, towed to Leningrad
and scrap
ped beginning in 1949.
After World War II
two turrets and their guns were used to rebuild Coast Defence Battery 30 (Maksim Gor'kii I) in Sevastopol
. It remained in service with the Soviet Navy
through 1997.
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...
built before 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 Ganguts were the first class
Ship class
A ship class is a group of ships of a similar design. This is distinct from a ship-type, which might reflect a similarity of tonnage or intended use. For example, the is a nuclear aircraft carrier of the Nimitz class....
of Russian dreadnought
Dreadnought
The dreadnought was the predominant type of 20th-century battleship. The first of the kind, the Royal Navy's had such an impact when launched in 1906 that similar battleships built after her were referred to as "dreadnoughts", and earlier battleships became known as pre-dreadnoughts...
s. She was named after the Russian victory over Charles XII of Sweden
Charles XII of Sweden
Charles XII also Carl of Sweden, , Latinized to Carolus Rex, Turkish: Demirbaş Şarl, also known as Charles the Habitué was the King of the Swedish Empire from 1697 to 1718...
in the Battle of Poltava
Battle of Poltava
The Battle of Poltava on 27 June 1709 was the decisive victory of Peter I of Russia over the Swedish forces under Field Marshal Carl Gustav Rehnskiöld in one of the battles of the Great Northern War. It is widely believed to have been the beginning of Sweden's decline as a Great Power; the...
in 1709. She was completed during the winter of 1914–15, but was not ready for combat until mid-1915. Her role was to defend the mouth of 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...
against the Germans, who never tried to enter, so she spent her time training and providing cover for mine laying operations. She was laid up in 1918 for lack of trained crew and suffered a devastating fire the following year that almost gutted her. Many proposals were made to reconstruct or modernize her in different ways for the next twenty years, but none were carried out. While all this was being discussed she served as source of spare parts for 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 and was used as a barracks ship. She was finally struck from the Navy List in 1940 and scrapping began at a very leisurely rate. She was intentionally grounded in late 1941 to prevent her from being sunk in some inconvenient location by the Germans. She was re-floated in 1944 and scrapped beginning in 1949.
Design
Poltava was 180 metres (590.6 ft) long at the waterline and 181.2 metres (594.5 ft) long overall. She had a beamBeam (nautical)
The beam of a ship is its width at the widest point. Generally speaking, the wider the beam of a ship , the more initial stability it has, at expense of reserve stability in the event of a capsize, where more energy is required to right the vessel from its inverted position...
of 26.9 metres (88.3 ft) and a 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...
of 8.99 metres (29.5 ft), 49 centimetres (1.6 ft) more than designed. Her displacement was 24800 tonne at load, over 1500 tonne more than her designed displacement of 23288 tonne.
Poltavas machinery was built by the Franco-Russian Works. Ten Parsons
Parsons Marine Steam Turbine Company
Parsons Marine Steam Turbine Company was a British engineering company based in Wallsend, North England, on the River Tyne.-History:The company was founded by Charles Algernon Parsons in 1897 with £500,000 of capital, and specialised in building the steam turbine engines that he had invented for...
steam turbine
Steam turbine
A steam turbine is a mechanical device that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam, and converts it into rotary motion. Its modern manifestation was invented by Sir Charles Parsons in 1884....
s drove the four propellers. The engine rooms were located between turret
Turret
In architecture, a turret is a small tower that projects vertically from the wall of a building such as a medieval castle. Turrets were used to provide a projecting defensive position allowing covering fire to the adjacent wall in the days of military fortification...
s three and four in three transverse compartments. The outer compartments each had a high-pressure ahead and reverse turbine for each wing propeller shaft. The central engine room had two each low-pressure ahead and astern turbines as well as two cruising turbines driving the two centre shafts. The engines had a total designed output of 42000 shp, but they produced 52000 shp during Poltavas full-speed trials on 21 November 1915 and gave a top speed of 24.1 knots. Twenty-five Yarrow
Yarrow Shipbuilders
Yarrow Limited , often styled as simply Yarrows, was a major shipbuilding firm based in the Scotstoun district of Glasgow on the River Clyde...
Admiralty-type small-tube boilers
Water-tube boiler
A water tube boiler is a type of boiler in which water circulates in tubes heated externally by the fire. Fuel is burned inside the furnace, creating hot gas which heats water in the steam-generating tubes...
provided steam to the engines at a designed working pressure of 17.5 atm (1,773.2 kPa; 257.2 psi). Each boiler was fitted with Thornycroft
John I. Thornycroft & Company
John I. Thornycroft & Company Limited, usually known simply as Thornycroft was a British shipbuilding firm started by John Isaac Thornycroft in the 19th century.-History:...
oil sprayers for mixed oil/coal burning. They were arranged in two groups. The forward group consisted of two boiler rooms in front of the second turret, the foremost of which had three boilers while the second one had six. The rear group was between the second and third turrets and comprised two compartments, each with eight boilers. At full load she carried 1847.5 long tons (1,877.2 MT) of coal and 700 long tons (711.2 MT) of fuel oil
Fuel oil
Fuel oil is a fraction obtained from petroleum distillation, either as a distillate or a residue. Broadly speaking, fuel oil is any liquid petroleum product that is burned in a furnace or boiler for the generation of heat or used in an engine for the generation of power, except oils having a flash...
and that provided her a range of 3500 nautical miles (6,482 km) at a speed of 10 knots (19.6 km/h).
Her main armament consisted of a dozen Obukhovskii 12 inches (305 mm) Pattern 1907 52-calibre guns mounted in four triple turrets distributed the length of the ship. The Russians did not believe that super firing
Superfire
The idea of superfire is to locate two turrets in a row, one behind the other, but with the second turret located above the one in front so that the second turret could fire over the first...
turrets offered any advantage as they discounted the value of axial fire and believed that super firing turrets could not fire while over the lower turret because of muzzle blast
Muzzle flash
Muzzle blast is the term used to describe the release of high temperature, high pressure gases expelled from the muzzle of a firearm when it is discharged. Muzzle flash is the term used to describe the visible light of the muzzle blast. The blast and flash are caused by the combustion products of...
problems. They also believed that distributing the turrets, and their associated magazine
Magazine (artillery)
Magazine is the name for an item or place within which ammunition is stored. It is taken from the Arabic word "makahazin" meaning "warehouse".-Ammunition storage areas:...
s, over the length of the ship improved the survivability of the ship. Sixteen 4.7 inches (119 mm) 50-calibre Pattern 1905 guns were mounted in 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:...
s as the secondary battery intended to defend the ship against torpedo boat
Torpedo boat
A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval vessel designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs rammed enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes, and later designs launched self-propelled Whitehead torpedoes. They were created to counter battleships and other large, slow and...
s. She completed with only a single 3 inches (8 cm) 30-calibre Lender anti-aircraft
Anti-aircraft warfare
NATO defines air defence as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action." They include ground and air based weapon systems, associated sensor systems, command and control arrangements and passive measures. It may be to protect naval, ground and air forces...
(AA) gun mounted on the quarterdeck. Other anti-aircraft guns were probably added during the course of World War I, but details are lacking.Conway's says that four 75 millimetres (3 in) were added to the roofs of the end turrets during the war. Four 17.7 inches (450 mm) submerged torpedo tube
Torpedo tube
A torpedo tube is a device for launching torpedoes. There are two main types of torpedo tube: underwater tubes fitted to submarines and some surface ships, and deck-mounted units installed aboard surface vessels...
s were mounted with three torpedo
Torpedo
The modern torpedo is a self-propelled missile weapon with an explosive warhead, launched above or below the water surface, propelled underwater towards a target, and designed to detonate either on contact with it or in proximity to it.The term torpedo was originally employed for...
es for each tube.
Service
Poltava was built by the Admiralty ShipyardAdmiralty 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...
at 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...
. She was laid down on 16 June 1909 and launched on 23 July 1911. At the end of October 1914 she was struck by her sister which jammed her kedge anchor
Anchor
An anchor is a device, normally made of metal, that is used to connect a vessel to the bed of a body of water to prevent the vessel from drifting due to wind or current. The word derives from Latin ancora, which itself comes from the Greek ἄγκυρα .Anchors can either be temporary or permanent...
, damaged her hull and delayed her trials to late November 1914. She entered service on 30 December 1914 when she reached 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...
and was assigned to the First Battleship Brigade of the Baltic Fleet
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...
. However, gunnery and torpedo trials had to be postponed until mid-1915 because of the thick winter ice. She was the only ship of the class to perform a full-power speed trial, which she did in November 1915. She played a passive part in World War I as her role was to prevent the Germans from breaking into 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...
, something the Germans never even tried. She ran aground in June 1916, but suffered little damage. Her crew participated in the February Revolution
February 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...
of 1917. She, and most of the Baltic Fleet, evacuated Helsingfors between 12 and 17 March 1918 despite the winter ice in the Gulf of Finland. Due to a shortage of crew she was placed into long-term conservation at Petrograd
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 October 1918.
On 24 November 1919 a fire broke out in her forward boiler room and gutted much of her interior. She was henceforth used as a source of spare parts for her sisters
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...
. Along with the Izmail she was considered for conversion to an aircraft carrier in 1924 for service in the Black Sea
Black Sea
The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...
, but this proved to be too ambitious and expensive given the state of the Soviet economy shortly after the end of the Russian Civil War. A more modest goal was to restore her to her original configuration and the Baltic Works actually began work in 1925, but exhausted the allotted funds on 15 February 1926 by which time she was estimated to be 46.5% complete. On 7 January 1926 she was given the name Frunze, after the recently deceased 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....
military leader Mikhail Frunze
Mikhail Frunze
Mikhail Vasilyevich Frunze was a Bolshevik leader during and just prior to the Russian Revolution of 1917.-Life and Political Activity:Frunze was born in Bishkek, then a small Imperial Russian garrison town in the Kyrgyz part of Turkestan, to a Moldovan medical practitioner and his Russian wife...
. Subsequent plans that focused on reconstructing her as a modernized equivalent to her sisters or even as a battlecruiser
Battlecruiser
Battlecruisers were large capital ships built in the first half of the 20th century. They were developed in the first decade of the century as the successor to the armoured cruiser, but their evolution was more closely linked to that of the dreadnought battleship...
, with one turret deleted to save weight, were considered, but finally abandoned on 23 January 1935 when all work was stopped. Kliment Voroshilov
Kliment Voroshilov
Kliment Yefremovich Voroshilov , popularly known as Klim Voroshilov was a Soviet military officer, politician, and statesman...
approved one last plan to turn her into a floating battery, but the Baltic Works had no capacity to spare and this project was cancelled on 9 July 1939. During this period she was used as a barracks hulk while she was stripped for parts, until she was formally discarded 1 December 1940, after scrapping had already begun at a leisurely pace. After the German invasion she was towed to Kronstadt and run aground late July 1941 near the Leningrad Sea Canal. During the Siege of Leningrad
Siege of Leningrad
The Siege of Leningrad, also known as the Leningrad Blockade was a prolonged military operation resulting from the failure of the German Army Group North to capture Leningrad, now known as Saint Petersburg, in the Eastern Front theatre of World War II. It started on 8 September 1941, when the last...
her hull was used as a base for small ships. She raised on 31 May 1944, towed to Leningrad
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...
and scrap
Scrap
Scrap is a term used to describe recyclable and other materials left over from every manner of product consumption, such as parts of vehicles, building supplies, and surplus materials. Unlike waste, scrap has significant monetary value...
ped beginning in 1949.
After World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
two turrets and their guns were used to rebuild Coast Defence Battery 30 (Maksim Gor'kii I) in Sevastopol
Sevastopol
Sevastopol is a city on rights of administrative division of Ukraine, located on the Black Sea coast of the Crimea peninsula. It has a population of 342,451 . Sevastopol is the second largest port in Ukraine, after the Port of Odessa....
. It remained in service with the Soviet Navy
Soviet Navy
The Soviet Navy was the naval arm of the Soviet Armed Forces. Often referred to as the Red Fleet, the Soviet Navy would have played an instrumental role in a Warsaw Pact war with NATO, where it would have attempted to prevent naval convoys from bringing reinforcements across the Atlantic Ocean...
through 1997.