Russian battleship Sinop
Encyclopedia
The Russian battleship Sinop (Russian: Синоп) was a pre-dreadnought battleship built for 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...
, being the third ship of the . She was named after the Russian victory at the Battle of Sinop
Battle of Sinop
The Battle of Sinop, or the Battle of Sinope, took place on 30 November 1853 at Sinop, a sea port in northern Anatolia, when Imperial Russian warships struck and annihilated a patrol force of Ottoman ships anchored in the harbor...
in 1853. The ship participated in the pursuit of the mutinous battleship in June 1905 and towed her back to 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....
from Constanța
Constanta
Constanța is the oldest extant city in Romania, founded around 600 BC. The city is located in the Dobruja region of Romania, on the Black Sea coast. It is the capital of Constanța County and the largest city in the region....
, Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
, where Potemkin had sought asylum. Several proposals were made for Sinops reconstruction with modern guns and better quality armor during the 1900s, but both were cancelled. She was converted to a gunnery training ship in 1910 before she became a guardship at Sevastopol and had her 12 inches (30 cm) guns removed in exchange for four single 8 inches (20 cm) guns in turrets. Sinop was refitted in 1916 with torpedo bulges to act as "mine-bumpers" for a proposed operation in the heavily mined Bosphorus. Both the 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....
s and the Whites
White movement
The White movement and its military arm the White Army - known as the White Guard or the Whites - was a loose confederation of Anti-Communist forces.The movement comprised one of the politico-military Russian forces who fought...
captured her during the Russian Civil War
Russian Civil War
The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...
after her engines were destroyed by the British in 1919. She was scrapped by the Soviets
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
beginning in 1922.
Design and development
Beam (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 68 in 11 in (21.01 m) 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 28 in 3 in (8.61 m) more than 28 inches (71 cm) than designed. Her displacement was 11310 long tons (11,491.5 t) at load, over 1200 LT (1,219.3 MT) more than her designed displacement of 10181 LT (10,344.4 t).
Sinop was the first large warship to use vertical triple expansion steam engines, having two 3-cylinder engines imported from Napier & Son
Napier & Son
D. Napier & Son Limited was a British engine and pre-Great War automobile manufacturer and one of the most important aircraft engine manufacturers in the early to mid-20th century...
of the United Kingdom. Fourteen cylindrical boilers
Boiler (steam generator)
A boiler or steam generator is a device used to create steam by applying heat energy to water. Although the definitions are somewhat flexible, it can be said that older steam generators were commonly termed boilers and worked at low to medium pressure but, at pressures above this, it is more...
provided steam to the engines. The engines had a total designed output of 9000 ihp, but they only produced 8888 ihp on trials and gave a top speed of 15 knots. At full load she carried 900 long tons (914.4 MT) of coal that provided her a range of 2800 nautical miles (5,185.6 km) at a speed of 10 knots (5.4 m/s) and 1367 nautical miles (2,531.7 km) at 14.5 knots (7.9 m/s).
She differed from her sisters mainly in the design of her gun mounts. Sinop had six 12 inches (305 mm) Obukhov Model 1877 30-caliber
Caliber (artillery)
In artillery, caliber or calibredifference in British English and American English spelling is the internal diameter of a gun barrel, or by extension a relative measure of the length....
guns mounted in twin barbette
Barbette
A barbette is a protective circular armour feature around a cannon or heavy artillery gun. The name comes from the French phrase en barbette referring to the practice of firing a field gun over a parapet rather than through an opening . The former gives better angles of fire but less protection...
mounts, two forward, side by side, and one aft. Each of the forward mounts could traverse 30° across the bow and 35° abaft the beam, or a total of 155°. The rear mount could traverse 202°. Their rate of fire was one round every four minutes, thirty-five seconds, including training time. Sixty rounds per gun were carried. The main guns were mounted very low, (only 4 in 6 in (1.37 m)) above the main deck, and caused extensive damage to the deck when fired over the bow or stern. The seven 6 inches (152 mm) Model 1877
6 inch 35 caliber naval gun 1877
6 inch 35 caliber naval gun 1877 was a 152 mm naval gun used by Russian Empire. The gun was used from 1887 as battleship secondary armament and cruiser armament. The gun was mostly replaced by newer 6 inch 45 caliber Canet gun 1892 by Russo-Japanese War, but was still used on some ships...
35-caliber guns were mounted on broadside pivot mounts in hull embrasures, except for one gun mounted in the stern in the hull. Six of the eight 47 millimetres (1.9 in) five-barreled revolving Hotchkiss gun
Hotchkiss gun
The Hotchkiss gun can refer to different products of the Hotchkiss arms company starting in the late 19th century. It usually refers to the 1.65-inch light mountain gun; there was also a 3-inch Hotchkiss gun...
s were mounted in small sponson
Sponson
Sponsons are projections from the sides of a watercraft, for protection, stability, or the mounting of equipment such as armaments or lifeboats, etc...
s that projected from the hull with the aftermost pair mounted in hull embrasures 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. Four 37 millimetres (1.5 in) five-barreled revolving Hotchkiss guns were mounted in the fighting top
Top (sailing ship)
On a traditional square rigged ship, the top is the platform at the upper end of each mast. This is not the masthead "crow's nest" of the popular imagination – above the mainmast is the main-topmast, main-topgallant-mast and main-royal-mast, so that the top is actually about 1/4 to 1/3 of the way...
. She carried seven above-water 14 inches (356 mm) 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, one tube forward on each side, able to bear on forward targets, two other tubes were mounted on each broadside fore and aft of the central citadel; the seventh tube was in the stern.
History
Sinop was named after the Russian victory in the Battle of SinopBattle of Sinop
The Battle of Sinop, or the Battle of Sinope, took place on 30 November 1853 at Sinop, a sea port in northern Anatolia, when Imperial Russian warships struck and annihilated a patrol force of Ottoman ships anchored in the harbor...
in 1853. She was built by the Russian Steam Navigation Company (RoPIT)
Russian Steam Navigation and Trading Company
The Russian Steam Navigation and Trading Company of Odessa was one of the biggest joint stock steamship companies in Imperial Russia. It was established in 1856 and ceased to exist in 1918 due to nationalization after the revolution in Russia...
at 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....
. She was laid down in late June 1883, launched on 1 June 1887, and completed in 1889. Sinop began her trials in the middle of 1889 and she had a boiler accident the following year that killed eight and severely burned 10 more. Her machinery was upgraded between 1899 and May 1904 with 20 new Belleville water-tube boiler
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...
s, but the ship suffered a boiler explosion in 1903 that left seven sailors badly burned. Plans for a radical reconstruction were made to be done while she was docked for replacement boilers. It involved cutting her down by one deck and replacing her armament with two twin-gun turrets equipped with 12-inch 40-caliber guns
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...
and ten 6-inch 45-caliber guns between the turrets in an armored citadel that used Krupp armor. However, this proved to be too expensive and was cancelled.
Sinop participated in the pursuit of the mutinous battleship in June 1905 and towed her back to Sevastopol from Constanța
Constanta
Constanța is the oldest extant city in Romania, founded around 600 BC. The city is located in the Dobruja region of Romania, on the Black Sea coast. It is the capital of Constanța County and the largest city in the region....
, Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
. In 1907 the Naval General Staff made a proposal for a radical reconstruction that was similar to the proposals to reconstruct her and her sister
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...
made before 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...
. This involved cutting her down by one deck and replacing her armament with two twin-gun turrets equipped with 12-inch 40-caliber guns and her compound armor replaced by Krupp armor. This new proposal differed from the older one in that eight 120 millimetres (4.7 in) guns replaced the ten 6-inch guns originally planned. This was also rejected as she still would have lacked the speed to stay with the main fleet and her armor was too obsolete to withstand modern high-explosive shell fire.
She was converted to a gunnery training ship in 1910 and had four 6-inch 45-caliber guns installed on her upper deck. Sinops 12-inch guns were removed in 1912 and she received four single 8 inches (20 cm) 50-caliber guns in turrets that were also mounted on the upper deck. The ship's original 6-inch 35-caliber guns were replaced with 45-caliber guns and two more were added in the Admiral's salon. Four more 47-mm guns were also added as were four machine gun
Machine gun
A machine gun is a fully automatic mounted or portable firearm, usually designed to fire rounds in quick succession from an ammunition belt or large-capacity magazine, typically at a rate of several hundred rounds per minute....
s. Her torpedo tubes were removed and Sinop also received a central fire control station. She spent World War I as a guardship at Sevastopol.
Sinop was refitted in Nikolaev
Mykolaiv
Mykolaiv , also known as Nikolayev , is a city in southern Ukraine, administrative center of the Mykolaiv Oblast. Mykolaiv is the main ship building center of the Black Sea, and, arguably, the whole Eastern Europe.-Name of city:...
with torpedo bulges to serve as 'mine-bumpers' in 1916 to allow her to lead other ships into the mined waters of the Bosphorus, but the operation was later cancelled. She was captured by the Germans in April 1918 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....
and was handed over to the Allies
Allies of World War I
The Entente Powers were the countries at war with the Central Powers during World War I. The members of the Triple Entente were the United Kingdom, France, and the Russian Empire; Italy entered the war on their side in 1915...
in November 1918. The British sabotaged her engines on 25 April 1919 as they abandoned the Whites
White movement
The White movement and its military arm the White Army - known as the White Guard or the Whites - was a loose confederation of Anti-Communist forces.The movement comprised one of the politico-military Russian forces who fought...
to prevent any use by the advancing 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....
s. Sinop therefore remained at Sevastopol for the duration of the Russian Civil War
Russian Civil War
The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...
, being captured by both sides as they occupied the city in turn, but was then abandoned by Wrangel's fleet
Wrangel's fleet
Wrangel's Fleet, the last remnant of the Black Sea Fleet of the Imperial Russian Navy, existed from 1920 until 1924. This squadron was a "White" unit during the Russian Civil War...
when it evacuated the Crimea
Crimea
Crimea , or the Autonomous Republic of Crimea , is a sub-national unit, an autonomous republic, of Ukraine. It is located on the northern coast of the Black Sea, occupying a peninsula of the same name...
in 1920. Although Russian archives say that Sinop was gradually scrapped from 1922, an underwater expedition under the leadership of Robert Ballard
Robert Ballard
Robert Duane Ballard is a former United States Navy officer and a professor of oceanography at the University of Rhode Island who is most noted for his work in underwater archaeology. He is most famous for the discoveries of the wrecks of the RMS Titanic in 1985, the battleship Bismarck in 1989,...
found a wreck that has been tentatively identified as Sinop upside down off not far from Sevastopol.