Model of the battleship Empress Maria. Battleships of the Empress Maria type. Modernization and refurbishment

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TRY TO REMOVE “MARY” (one of the versions of the death of the battleship “Empress Maria” in 1916) Until now, the minds of historians and specialists are haunted by the tragic death in 1916 of one of the strongest Russian warships - the Black Sea battleship “Empress Maria”. The secret

The history of the navies of different countries of the world is full of mysteries. Such a complex machine as a warship is full of equipment, weapons and machines, the improper handling of which can lead to the death of the ship. But this still does not explain everything. The disaster is most often so fleeting and large-scale that there is no one to tell about all its circumstances. The wreckage is a pile of twisted metal, usually lying at the bottom, so conducting an investigation and determining the causes is extremely difficult. This was the case with the Japanese ships Fuso, Kongo, Mutsu, Yamato, the American dreadnought Arizona, the Italian cruiser Roma, the Soviet Marat, and the English Barham and Hood. In the post-war period, the martyrology was replenished with “Novorossiysk”. The sinking of the battleship Empress Maria in October 1916 can easily be attributed to difficult-to-explain historical facts.

Series of the best battleships

Contrary to popular belief, the origin of which can be explained by the specific approach of Soviet party leaders to Russian pre-revolutionary history, the Russian Empire was not a backward country. The discoveries of our scientists have forever entered the treasury of world science. Russian electrical engineers developed the world's first three-phase power supply systems, invented the asynchronous motor and wireless communications. All these achievements found their application in the design of new ships of the Imperial Navy, launched into series in 1911. There were three of them: the battleship Empress Maria was the first of them. “Empress Catherine the Great” and “Emperor Alexander III” generally repeated his design solutions, although, as is most often the case, they were built taking into account new ideas that emerged during the production process. Already in the spring of 1914, the lead unit was launched. It couldn't have happened at a better time. The world war, which began seemingly suddenly with shots fired in Sarajevo, was not really a surprise. Battleships of the Empress Maria type significantly equalized the balance of power in the proposed naval theater of operations. The Russian fleet was healing Tsushima wounds.

Porphyry-bearing name

A series of ships received the names of royal persons of the Russian State. It is interesting that only the battleship “Empress Maria” of the Black Sea Fleet was named in honor of the living widow of Alexander III at that time, née Danish princess Louise Sophia Frederica Dagmar, who became a real Russian patriot, by the way, despite her foreign origin. However, this has already happened; just remember Catherine the Great, whose name was given to another battleship of the same type. Without a doubt, this woman deserved such an honor, and besides, she was the mother of Nicholas II. Her role in Russian history is great, and her strength of character, kindness and righteousness of life successfully competed with external beauty.

The fate of Maria Fedorovna is tragic; she died in her homeland, Denmark (1928), while at the same time being in exile and personifying the fate of all those Russians who had the opportunity to eat the bitter bread of a foreign land, “leaving no crusts.” And before that, she lost dear and close people: two sons, a daughter-in-law, four granddaughters and a grandson.

Ship characteristics

The battleship Empress Maria was an outstanding ship in every respect. It moved rapidly, developing a speed of almost 24 knots (about 40 km/h) while loading 2 thousand tons of coal and 600 tons of fuel oil, had an autonomy of eight days, and the crew consisted of 1260 sailors and officers. The power plant was turbine type, it consisted of two engines of 10,000 liters each. With.

Battleships are a special type of naval equipment; they are distinguished by a high level of artillery armament. The four gun turrets were equipped with three 12-inch guns (manufactured by the famous one. In addition to the main caliber, a auxiliary caliber was also presented, in the amount of 32 pieces. These guns had various purposes, including anti-aircraft guns, which indicated the ability of Russian engineers to think forward and take into account the growing threat of air attack. There was another design feature that distinguished the battleship "Empress Maria". The superstructure drawings were drawn up taking into account the maximum increase in the firing sector, so the power of the salvo depended little on the angle of the target in relation to the course.

The torpedo tube exits were located below the waterline, which was a revolutionary achievement at the time. The hull was surrounded by a layer of armor 250 mm thick, and the deck was also protected by it. The ship's electrical supply system also deserves special mention. The battleship Empress Maria was powered by six dynamos (today they are called generators). All heavy mechanisms were rotated by electric motors, in particular, there were 22 of them on each artillery tower.

Such a ship could carry out combat missions even in our time.

How the battleship fought

In the fall of 1915, the intensity of naval battles in the Black Sea reached its peak. Türkiye, an ally of Austria-Hungary, showed regional activity, and the German submarine fleet behaved no less aggressively. In response, the Black Sea Fleet subjected the ports of the northern Ottoman coast - Eregli, Kilimli, Zunguldak and Kozlu - to artillery bombardment. On the flagship battleship, Maria, Admiral Kolchak controlled naval operations. More and more sunk enemy ships appeared on the team's account. The German cruiser Breslau, rushing to the aid of the Turkish fleet, was unable to complete its task in February and had difficulty breaking away from the Russian battleship, receiving multiple damage. Throughout 1916, another German raider, the Gaben, only three times ventured into the Black Sea basin from the Bosphorus Strait, and then only briefly and unsuccessfully. The battleship Empress Maria returned from her last trip to Sevastopol Bay on October 6, 1916.

Victims and survivors

Unlike many others, most of this team managed to survive. Of the 1,260 crew members, according to various sources, from 152 to 216 people died immediately. The number of wounded and burned ranged from one and a half hundred to 232 people. Despite the urgent medical assistance provided, another one and a half hundred sailors died in hospitals. Thus, the death of the battleship Empress Maria resulted in the death of three hundred and fifty people (at the maximum estimate), which is approximately 28% of the entire crew. There could have been many more casualties, but, fortunately, almost all the sailors who were not on watch duty participated in the prayer service that took place on the aft deck. As they say, God saved.

Eyewitness testimony

The surviving crew members spoke about what happened on the battleship in the early morning of October 7. In a sense, the whole of Sevastopol, awakened by a terrible roar, can be called a witness. People who accidentally saw the whole picture of the disaster from the shore and other ships of the Black Sea Fleet claim that the first explosion tore off the foremast, forward funnel and conning tower. But the main reason why the struggle for life turned out to be useless was the destruction of the hull, which resulted in the rupture of the side to a level below the waterline, after which sea water began to flow into the compartments. Meanwhile, the fire continued. In a matter of minutes, the commander of the Black Sea Fleet arrived on the ship to lead the rescue efforts, fire boats and tugboats arrived, but nothing could be done. Less than an hour later, ammunition detonated in the cellar of the bow tower, several more explosions were heard, the battleship received negative buoyancy, the overkill turned over and sank.

The fight for survivability

Throughout the entire disaster, the sailors acted in accordance with the Charter and performed their duties as prescribed by the staffing schedule. At 7:20, the sailors of the fourth casemate, who were on watch, noticed a strange hissing coming from behind the partition of the cellar of the bow tower next to them. They immediately reported to their immediate superior what was happening, managed to unroll the fire hoses and supplied water. It only took two minutes. The sailors who had been relieved after the watch were washing themselves before resting; all of them were burned by the hellish flames of the explosion. The power supply was interrupted and the lights went out. The explosions continued (25 of them occurred in total), and 130-mm caliber shells detonated. Meanwhile, on the orders of the senior mechanical engineer, midshipman Ignatiev tried to start the fire pumps. He failed, and the brave sailor died. An attempt to flood the cellars of the second bow tower to create a water barrier was also unsuccessful; there was simply not enough time for this. Realizing that everyone could not be saved, the commanders gave the command to the sailors to leave, while they themselves remained to certain death, trying to fulfill their duty. After the ship was raised, the remains of the heroes were found and buried...

Main version: accident

People tend to look for answers to everything inexplicable. The more mysterious the circumstances, the more complex and confusing they are usually interpreted. Therefore, the official version of the investigative commission that the explosion on the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet occurred due to the spontaneous combustion of ethereal powder vapors was disappointing to many. Nevertheless, most likely it was so. The shells, along with caps, were in the barrels for a long time, especially when the battleship was hunting for the Gaben, and this could provoke detonation. But there is another version, according to which the mysterious death of the battleship Empress Maria did not occur by chance.

German spies

Some circumstances also speak in favor of the “sabotage” hypothesis. The ship was undergoing repairs, access control was weak, and what could prevent an infiltrator from planting a microfuse in the cellar, similar to the one discovered on the Italian dreadnought Leonardo da Vinci in the summer of 1915? Moreover, many of the hatches were not locked. Another fact, at first glance, speaks in favor of espionage sabotage: in 1933, the NKVD authorities neutralized the German intelligence station headed by a certain Wehrmann. According to the arrested man, he was recruited even before the revolution. And he was interested in the achievements of Russian military electrical engineering, including the “Empress Maria” circuits. The security officers did not pay attention to this then. It is unknown whether Verman was a spy; then people admitted to anything.

The ship was cut for scrap in 1926. All that remains is the memory of what the battleship Empress Maria was like. There is a model of it in the Nakhimov Museum, in the naval commander’s homeland - in the Smolensk region. Another skillfully executed model - on a large scale - adorns the exhibition of the Nikolaev Museum of the History of Shipbuilding and the Navy.

The southern sea borders of Russia were adjacent to the Ottoman Empire for hundreds of years. Permanent wars forced the Russian tsars to keep modern warships in the Black Sea. In 1907, it bought two battleships and eight destroyers from European countries. New ships with existing old ones created a real threat to the Crimean coast of Russia. Four years later, the southern neighbor ordered the construction of three new dreadnoughts. Nicholas II had to respond to the buildup of naval forces from a potential enemy.

At the first stage, the Admiralty planned the production of three new battleships of the Empress Maria class. In 1911, the construction of 3 ships began on the Nikolaevsky ropes:

• "Empress Maria";

A few years later, after the launch of the first samples, the fourth similar ship “” was laid down.

Design and main parameters

Battleships of the "" project were built at shipbuilding yards in the northern regions of the country. Their design was taken as the basis for the development of dreadnoughts for the Black Sea Fleet. However, there were some differences:

• The maximum speed was reduced to 21 knots;
• Strengthened the protection of the external part of the ship and vital installations;
• The elevation angle of the 305 mm guns was increased;
• The appearance of 8 destroyers in Turkey forced the strengthening of mine-anti-mine artillery - 16 120-mm guns were replaced by 20 units of 130-mm equipment.

The hull of the Black Sea dreadnoughts consisted of 3 types of steel. The deck had a slight rise at the front. The length of the vessel was 168 m, the total carrying capacity was 24,500 tons. Viability was ensured by 4 Parsons steam turbines and 20 Yarrow boilers. In the first tests, a maximum acceleration of 21.5 knots was achieved. A staff of 1,200 people was required to operate the ship.

The main armor belt was lined with steel plates 262.5 mm thick. The turrets for the 305 mm guns were covered with 250 mm sheet steel, and the command cabin was armored with a 300 mm panel. These indicators exceeded the protection of the dreadnought Sultan Osman I, which was being built for the Ottoman Empire.

Construction of the ship “Emperor Alexander III”

Armament of battleships of the "Empress Maria" class

• The main caliber is 12 305 mm guns. The equipment was located on 4 three-gun turrets. The placement of installations was similar to the arrangement on Sevastopol - in a linear order. This ensured the operation of all gun equipment in cases where the enemy was on one side of the ship. When the enemy appeared in front or behind the ship, only one three-gun installation could fire.
• Anti-mine artillery - 20 130-mm cannons with a barrel length of 55 calibers, located in casemates.
• Anti-aircraft artillery - 8 75 mm guns;
• Torpedo launchers – 4 onboard 450 mm systems.

If you compare the Russian dreadnought with the battleship under construction for Turkey, you can see that the number of weapons of the Ottoman Empire exceeded the number of guns in the Empress Maria. However, the Russian ship was superior to the enemy ship in terms of firing range.

Model “Empress Maria”

Model “Empress Catherine the Great”

Beginning of service - first losses

In the conditions of the outbreak of World War I, it was necessary to ensure the presence of a Russian dreadnought in the Black Sea as soon as possible. All efforts were aimed at completing the construction of at least one ship. The deadlines were shifted due to delays in the supply of additional equipment. Despite the lag and minor problems, the battleship Empress Maria was placed at the disposal of the Black Sea Fleet command.

On June 26, 1916, the first dreadnought-type combat unit arrived in Odessa. After 3 days, she went out to the open sea, where the enemy battleship Goeben and the cruiser Breslau were already located - both German-built with a German crew on board. The ships were acquired into Turkish ownership, but they continued to be managed from Prussia. The appearance of the "Empress Maria" stopped the enemy's plans. Now they rarely left the Bosphorus Strait.

On July 9 of the same year, information was received that the Breslau had gone to sea. The fleet commander, Vice Admiral Kolchak, who was on the Empress Maria, personally led the operation. Together with a squadron of destroyers, he set out to intercept. Aviation supported the fleet from the air - it stopped an attack from an enemy submarine. It seemed that the German-Turkish ship had no chance. However, sudden bad weather allowed Breslau to escape pursuit and return to the Bosporus.

On an October morning in 1916, a tragic event occurred. The ship's crew witnessed a fire in the hangar area with shells for main caliber guns. A few minutes later, an explosion occurred, killing a large number of people and mutilating part of the ship. After the second explosion, the battleship turned over and sank.

Service of the remaining dreadnoughts

The dreadnought Empress Catherine the Great entered service in the fall of 1916. He took part in several military operations. However, in the spring of 1918, a decision was made to scuttle the battleship in order to evade its capture by German troops.

"Emperor Alexander III", which later received the name "Volya", first went to sea in 1917. After the signing of the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty, all warships based in Sevastopol were required to return to their home harbor, which at that moment was controlled by Germany. This was a period when great changes were taking place within Russia - each ship independently made decisions about its future fate. Lenin gave the order to scuttle all ships so as not to fall into the hands of the enemy. The Volya crew voted to return to Crimea. After some time, the city was occupied by the Volunteer Army. The ship once again changed its flag and name. This time she was named "General Alekseev" and was the flagship of the White Fleet. After numerous skirmishes with the Reds, the dreadnought began evacuation - first to Turkey, then to Tunisia, where it remained for several years. Only in the 30s the ship was transported to Brest, where French designers carefully studied it and sent it for disassembly.

The fourth Black Sea battleship was launched in the second half of 1916. The subsequent revolution and internal disagreements of the new political system did not make it possible to complete the ship. At the same time, they also did not forget to rename it - in the spring of 1917 it became “Democracy”. A few years later, the unfinished ship was scrapped.

All 4 Russian dreadnoughts, intended for patrolling in the Black Sea, had a difficult and tragic fate. The completed combat units were able to demonstrate their qualities in World War I. By a fateful coincidence, a powerful explosion occurred on the lead battleship. The investigative commission was never able to determine for certain the cause of the fire. It was assumed that this was not an accidental fire, but a deliberate arson. A series of difficult events in the country and frequent changes in leadership did not allow the ships to continue their service with dignity.

An interesting fact is that the Turkish battleships, rumors about which became the reason for the construction of Russian dreadnoughts of the Empress Maria class, were never delivered to Constantinople. Due to the outbreak of World War I, Great Britain broke the contract and refused to supply powerful ships to the ally of its main enemy, Germany.

Battleships of the "Empress Maria" class

Construction and service

Total information

Booking

Armament

Built ships

Battleships of the "Empress Maria" class- a type consisting of four dreadnoughts of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Empire and the USSR. Three ships were fully completed; the Emperor Nicholas I was not completed. The lead ship of the series "Empress Maria" sank on October 7, 1916 as a result of the explosion of artillery magazines, "Empress Catherine the Great" was sunk on June 18, 1918 during the advance of German troops, the battleship "Emperor Alexander III" served as part of the Volunteer Army, dismantled in 1936 , “Emperor Nicholas I” was not finished and was scrapped in 1927.

History of creation

Prerequisites

HMS Erin, battleship type Reshadiye

The traditional and, in fact, the only possible enemy of Russia in the Black Sea was the Ottoman Empire. The overwhelming superiority over the once mighty power was established back in the era of sailing ships. However, by 1910 the situation had changed. In Europe, two blocs of opposing powers were emerging. The Ottoman Empire could significantly strengthen one or another bloc and it was hardly worth expecting its annexation to Russia. Turkey entered the war after it began, but preparations for it began in the collapsing Ottoman Empire in 1910. The Empire's fleet was strengthened by two obsolete pre-dreadnought battleships Branderburg, purchased in Germany, as well as eight modern destroyers (four each were purchased in Germany and France). Such a strengthening of the Turkish fleet could not go unnoticed. However, the determining factor in the development of new ships for the Russian fleet was, of course, dreadnoughts.

HMS Agincourt

Only four years have passed since its creation HMS Dreadnought. World powers feverishly began to build new dreadnought battleships. Türkiye, of course, did not have the opportunity to either develop or build such ships. Therefore, negotiations with English firms began in 1910 and successfully ended in 1911 Vickers And Armstrong. They were supposed to build three modern battleships for the Ottoman Empire. These were two ships of the type Reshadiye, which were essentially copies of British battleships of the type George V. They also carried 10 343 mm main guns, but received 150 mm guns as secondary artillery instead of the 100 mm guns on the British ships. Another ship HMS Agincourt, was purchased at the end of 1913 ready-made.

The ships built at the Russud plant each had 18 main transverse watertight bulkheads, and the Catherine II had three more (a total of 150 frame frames per ship). The battleships had three armored decks. In the middle part of the hull, the bulkheads reached the middle one, and at the ends - to the upper deck. The upper deck itself was almost completely flat (the elevation at the ends was no more than 0.6 meters), it was covered with 50 mm boards. ] the ship was also provided with a double and triple bottom and longitudinal bulkheads: two bulkheads in the turbine compartments and one in the center plane in the condenser compartment. The armored hold bulkhead present on the Sevastopol was removed. The battleships did not have mine protection; the ships were protected only by double and triple bottoms and thin longitudinal bulkheads.

Four grades of steel were used in the hull design:

• high resistance (turret reinforcements, up to 72 kgf/mm², elongation of at least 16%);
• increased resistance (keel beam, stringers, longitudinal beams, outer cladding, floras and brackets, up to 63 kgf/mm², elongation of at least 18%);
• mild shipbuilding steel (42 kgf/mm², tensile strength of at least 20%);
• armor steel (armored decks, bulkheads, beams).

Auxiliary equipment, crew

Propellers "Nicholas I"

The ships were equipped with six turbogenerators serving two dynamos. One of them produced alternating current (50 Hz, 220 V), one - direct current. Total power - 1840 kW. The main electrical network of battleships used alternating current. Direct current was required for large units - main-caliber tower drives, cranes, powerful searchlights (“Empress Maria” and “Alexander” - four 90-cm, two 120-cm, “Ekaterina” - six 90-cm, “Nicholas” four 110-cm cm and two 90 cm). The ships were equipped with radio stations with a power of 2 and 10 kW. The watercraft were represented by pairs of boats: motor boats 12.8 meters long, 12.2-meter steam boats, rowing longboats (with and without engines), rowing whaleboats and yawls, 5-meter boats. The descent was carried out using cranes.

The battleships had two balance rudders. The steering wheels consisted of forged steel stocks and ribs, and the space between them was filled with tarred wooden beams. The outer parts of the propeller shafts were supported by four cast steel brackets. The maximum rudder angle should have been 35° per side. The battleships were driven by four brass propellers. The ships had two main and one spare anchors in the bow (weight 7993 kg, chain length 274 m, caliber 76.7 mm), and one stern anchor (2664 kg, 183 meters).

The battleships' crew consisted of 1,220 people, including 33 officers. The larger Nicholas I required 46 more sailors.

Power plant and driving performance

Section of “Nicholas I” through the engine room

Ships built at the plant "Russud", received turbines from an English company John Brown. Factory ONZiV manufactured turbines on its own, involving company employees Vickers. The turbines had a power of 5333 hp. each. They consisted of fifteen successive stages, which made it possible to increase the steam pressure more and more (initial operating pressure - 11.3 atm.). All turbines were assembled into two engine rooms. This division was consistent with the division of the shafts. The battleships had four shafts. Each engine room drove one shaft with high-pressure turbines and one shaft with low-pressure turbines. The rotation of the shafts could be carried out in both directions. The total turbine power required to achieve the design speed of 20.5 knots was 21,000 hp. and required a turbine speed of 300 rpm. In forced mode, the power increased to 26,000 hp, the speed increased to 320 rpm, and the speed increased to approximately 21.5 knots. During testing, the Catherine the Great power plant was able to develop a power of 33,000 hp.

The boiler plant was divided into five sections of four Yarrow-type water tube boilers. The boilers were supplied by the Kharkov Locomotive Plant. Eight boilers were installed in the bow of the battleships. They were located between the first and second towers, where a chimney was also installed. Twelve more boilers were installed, as was another chimney, between the middle towers. Steam pressure in boilers is 17.5 atm. Heating surface area – 6800 sq.m. The boilers were heated primarily with coal, with oil serving as a backup fuel. Coal consumption in normal operating mode of the power plant is 0.8 kg/hp/hour. The same consumption was provided for by mixed heating, in which 40% was oil. Coal pits were located in all, except the very first, boiler compartments, on the lower deck throughout the boiler compartments, between the longitudinal bulkheads and double bottom (also throughout the compartments), and above the bevels of the armored bulkhead, up to the side throughout the boiler compartments and middle towers. The coal reserve was 1730-2340 tons (Nikolai was supposed to carry up to 3560 tons), oil - 430-640 tons. Maximum cruising range is 3,000 miles at 12 knots and 1,640 miles at top speed.

Booking

Reservation scheme for "Empress Maria"

Battleships used cemented armor. The main armor belt reached a thickness of 262.5 mm in the citadel area. In front of her, the belt continued with a thickness of 217 mm, behind - 175 mm. Toward the nose, the armor decreased first to 125 mm, then to 75 mm. In the stern, the armor was reduced to 125 mm. The height of the armor belt was 5.25 meters, of which 3.5 meters were above the waterline. A 75-mm wooden layer was installed between the hull and the armor plates. The abeam of the citadel was protected by 50 mm armor in front and 100 mm in the rear. This made the artillery magazines of the outermost guns poorly protected when fired from the bow or stern. The upper armor belt had a thickness of 125 mm. At the bow end, after the casemates of the auxiliary guns, the thickness decreased to 75 mm; the aft end was not protected by the upper belt. The forward casemates had 25 mm armor abeam, and an additional 25 mm between each pair of casemates. Inside the hull, behind the armor belt, there was an armored bulkhead 50 mm thick. The turrets of the main caliber guns were protected by 250 mm frontal and side armor and 305 mm rear armor, the roof of the turrets was 100 mm thick. The gun mantlets were 50 mm thick and were also separated by 25 mm bulkheads inside the turret. The barbettes had 250 mm protection, which was reduced to 150 mm for the outer turrets and 125 mm for the inner turrets under the upper deck. The front and rear conning towers had 300 mm sides and a 250 mm roof. The structure supporting the conning tower was protected by 250 mm of armor, which reduced to 100 mm below the upper deck. The wiring pipes between the conning towers and the central post were protected by 75 mm armor, the exhaust pipes - 22 mm. The thickness of the upper deck was 37.5 mm, at the aft end - 6 mm. The deck was covered with 50 mm pine flooring. The middle deck had 25 mm above the protected citadel and at the bow end, 37.5 mm outside the citadel at the aft end, and 19 mm above the tiller compartment and between the side and the longitudinal armored bulkheads. The lower deck was mostly 25mm. In addition to the aft end, the lower deck continued with 50 mm bevels to the sides; at the aft end the deck was horizontal 50 mm. Underwater protection was not provided, except for the presence of a double or triple bottom. "Nicholas I" had reinforced armor. The maximum protection of the citadel has increased to 270 mm. The protection of the bow in the lower part reached 200 mm from frames 12 to 27 and 100 mm in front of frame 12. This protection was followed by another 100 mm belt, and 75 mm of protection was provided from the middle to upper deck. In the stern from frame 128 to 175 there was a 175 mm belt. The upper deck was covered with 35 mm armor, the middle one reached 63 mm between the longitudinal bulkheads. The lower deck provided 35 mm protection in the stern and 75 mm bevels amidships. In the bow - 63 mm. The longitudinal armored bulkheads reached 75 mm between the middle and lower decks and 25 mm above the middle deck. In the frontal projection, a 75-mm traverse was installed on frame 12. The towers had 300 mm armor in the forehead and 200 mm on the walls and roof. The protection of the shell feed pipes reached 300 mm. The conning tower was protected by 400 mm of armor on the sides and 250 mm on the roof.

Fire control

Conning tower diagram

The fire control system was based on two 6-meter rangefinders and a mechanical counting device. Rangefinders were installed above the conning tower in the bow and on the aft conning tower (spare). The fire control post was located in the forward conning tower. Here, rangefinder readings, received with a period of up to five seconds, were processed by a domestically produced calculating machine. The machine calculated the distance to the target, which was then adjusted by the navigator to take into account the movement of the target during the flight of the projectile. The fire manager translated these data directly into the angles of rotation and elevation of the guns, taking into account the correction for wind and the deflection of the projectile caused by its rotation. Data on the angles of rotation and elevation were transmitted, respectively, to the aiming posts of the turret itself and each gun, while the displacement of the turrets relative to the rangefinder was taken into account. The shot was fired at zero roll, and the descent was carried out automatically. An adjustment crew of three people was placed on the foremast above the conning tower. The turrets were equipped with their own sighting devices and could fire autonomously. The same applies to auxiliary caliber guns: they also received firing data from the central post, but had the ability to fire independently.

Armament

Main caliber

Three-gun turrets on the Sevastopol

The main caliber of the battleships was represented by twelve 304.8-mm guns from the Obukhov plant, assembled into four turrets with a linear, single-level layout. These were the most powerful Russian-made guns installed on domestic ships. The barrel length was 52 calibers (15850 mm), weight - 50.7 tons. The valve is piston. The initial velocity of the projectile is about 762 m/s. The single-level arrangement of the towers imposed restrictions on the firing sector: for the first tower - 0-165°, for the second - 30-170°, for the third - 10-165° and for the fourth - 30-180° on both sides, at smaller angles as forward , and three towers fired back and forth. The turret traverse speed is 3.2 degrees per second, the gun depression speed is 3-4 degrees per second, the mass is 858.3 tons. Loading was carried out at an elevation angle from -5 to 15 degrees. Rate of fire - up to 2 rounds per minute. A shell and two half-charges were used for the shot. An electric drive was used to load and lift the shells, although manual loading was also provided.

Characteristics of main caliber guns and turrets

1 The front and rear turrets had some of their ammunition in spare magazines
2 Penetration of vertical and horizontal armor

Diagram of the main caliber turrets

Auxiliary artillery

Auxiliary artillery consisted of 20 55-caliber 130 mm guns. The guns were steel, rifled, with Vellin type piston bolts, and were placed on machines with a central pin. The compressor of each implement is hydraulic, the knurl is spring-loaded. The lifting mechanism is sectoral. Worm type rotary mechanism. Each weapon was enclosed in a separate casemate. Most of the guns (12) were concentrated in the bow of the battleship. Vertical and horizontal guidance was done manually.

Characteristics of auxiliary caliber guns

1 The ammunition capacity of the forward guns of the ships of the Russud plant was reduced to 100 due to overload

Flak

Air defense on the ships was poorly implemented. Anti-aircraft artillery was represented by 4 75-mm guns of the 1892 model, converted into anti-aircraft ones. The elevation angle of these guns reached 50 degrees, the maximum height accessible to the guns was 4900 meters, the maximum range of destruction of aircraft was 6500 meters. The rate of fire was 12-15 rounds per minute, the mass of the shrapnel projectile was 4.91 kg, and the initial speed was 747 m/s. "Emperor Alexander III" had improved 76.2 mm guns, which, with a lower rate of fire, significantly increased the firing range. At first it was planned to install four 64-mm anti-aircraft guns on Nicholas I, then they were replaced in the project with new, not yet ready 102-mm, and four 7.92-mm machine guns.

Mine and torpedo weapons

Longitudinal section of a Whitehead torpedo.

The battleships were equipped with four 450 mm underwater torpedo tubes. The torpedoes were manufactured according to Whitehead's design under license in Russia at the Obukhov plant and the Lessner plant. Torpedo length 5.58 m, weight 810 kg, explosive weight 100 kg. Torpedo tubes were installed in the area of ​​the bow turret stores, two on each side.

Modernization and refurbishment

One of the disadvantages of battleships was their unsuitability for modernization. Two ships built at the factory "Russud", was initially overloaded in the bow, and it was impossible to install additional equipment on them. Although the ships of the factory ONZiV in this regard, they were designed better; their reserve for modernization was also insignificant. The quick death of the Empress Maria did not allow changes to be made in its design. "Emperor Alexander III" lost two forward auxiliary 130-mm guns and received improved anti-aircraft guns during construction. "Empress Catherine the Great" received a smaller supply of shells for bow guns of both calibers compared to the project.

Service history

Comparison with contemporaries

It is advisable to compare battleships with their predecessors - ships of the Sevastopol type, as well as with linear forces that the Ottoman Empire and Germany had or expected to have. Even taking into account the fact that ships for the Ottoman Empire were built by Great Britain, which at that time was leading in the naval arms race, Russian ships look competitive. Their main drawback is the small caliber of their guns. British battleships by that time were switching to guns with a caliber of about 14 inches. This was to be offset by the number of Russian 12-inch guns. Russian battleships also had powerful armor that reliably protected not only the citadel, but almost the entire ship. Their main disadvantages are low speed and overload, which resulted in poor seaworthiness and the inability to modernize the ships.

Comparison with other battleships

After the Russo-Japanese War, the Black Sea Fleet retained all of its warships. It consisted of 8 battleships built in 1889-1904, 3 cruisers, 13 destroyers. There were two more battleships under construction - “Eustathius” and “John Chrysostom”.

However, reports that Turkey is going to significantly strengthen its fleet (including with dreadnoughts) required Russia to take adequate measures. In May 1911, Emperor Nicholas II approved a program for the renewal of the Black Sea Fleet, which included the construction of three battleships of the Empress Maria class.

“Gangut” was chosen as a prototype, but taking into account the peculiarities of the theater of operations, the project was thoroughly reworked: the proportions of the hull were made more complete, the power of the mechanisms was reduced, but the armor was significantly strengthened, the weight of which now reached 7045 tons (31% of the design displacement versus 26% at “ Gangut).

Reducing the length of the hull by 13 meters made it possible to reduce the length of the armor belt and thereby increase its thickness. Moreover, the size of the armor plates was adjusted to the pitch of the frames - so that they served as an additional support that prevented the plates from being pressed into the hull. The armor of the main battery towers has become significantly more powerful: walls - 250 mm (instead of 203 mm), roof - 125 mm (instead of 75 mm), barbette - 250 mm (instead of 150 mm). An increase in width with the same draft as the Baltic battleships should have led to increased stability, but this did not happen due to the overloading of the ships.

These battleships received new 130-mm cannons with a length of 55 calibers (7.15 m) with excellent ballistic characteristics, the production of which was mastered by the Obukhov plant. The artillery of the Civil Code was no different from the Ganguts. However, the turrets had a slightly larger capacity due to a more convenient arrangement of mechanisms and were equipped with optical rangefinders in armored tubes, which ensured autonomous firing of each turret.

Due to a decrease in the power of the mechanisms (and speed), the power plant has undergone some changes. It consisted of high and low pressure Parsons turbines located in five compartments between the third and fourth towers. The boiler plant consisted of 20 triangular water tube boilers of the Yarrow type, installed in five boiler rooms. The boilers could be heated with either coal or oil.

The normal fuel supply has increased slightly. But the Black Sea dreadnoughts suffered more from overload than their Baltic counterparts. The matter was aggravated by the fact that, due to an error in the calculations, the Empress Maria received a noticeable trim on the bow, which further worsened the already poor seaworthiness. In order to somehow improve the situation, it was necessary to reduce the ammunition of the two bow main caliber turrets (up to 70 rounds instead of 100 according to the standard), the bow group of mine artillery (100 rounds instead of 245), and shorten the starboard anchor chain. On the Emperor Alexander III, for the same purpose, two bow 130-mm guns were removed and their ammunition magazines were eliminated.

During the war, the Black Sea dreadnoughts were used quite actively (mainly to cover the actions of maneuverable tactical groups), but only one of them, the Empress Catherine the Great, was in real battle, which met the German-Turkish battle cruiser Goeben in December 1915. The latter used his advantage in speed and went into the Bosphorus from under the volleys of the Russian battleship.

The fate of all Black Sea dreadnoughts was unhappy. The most famous and at the same time the most mysterious tragedy occurred on the morning of October 7, 1916, on the internal roadstead of Sevastopol. A fire in the artillery magazines and the resulting series of powerful explosions turned the Empress Maria into a pile of twisted iron. At 7.16 am the battleship turned upside down and sank. The disaster killed 228 crew members.

In 1918 the ship was raised. The 130-mm artillery, some of the auxiliary mechanisms and other equipment were removed from it, and the hull stood in the dock with its keel up for 8 years. In 1927, the Empress Maria was finally dismantled. The main battery towers, which fell off when they overturned, were raised by Epronovites in the 30s. In 1939, the battleship's guns were installed on the 30th battery near Sevastopol.

The battleship "Ekaterina II" outlived her brother (or sister?) by less than two years. Renamed “Free Russia”, it sank in Novorossiysk, having received four torpedoes from the destroyer “Kerch” during the sinking (by order of V.I. Lenin) of part of the squadron ships with its own crews.

“Emperor Alexander III” entered service in the summer of 1917 already under the name “Volya” and soon “went from hand to hand”: the St. Andrew’s flag on the gaff of its mast was replaced by the Ukrainian one, then by the German, English and again St. Andrew’s, when Sevastopol was in the hands of the Volunteer Army . Renamed again, this time to “General Alekseev,” the battleship remained the flagship of the White Fleet on the Black Sea until the end of 1920, and then went to Bizerte with Wrangel’s squadron. There in 1936 it was dismantled for metal.

The French kept the 12-inch guns of the Russian dreadnought, and in 1939 they donated them to Finland. The first 8 guns reached their destination, but the last 4 arrived in Bergen almost simultaneously with the start of Hitler's invasion of Norway. This is how they came to the Germans, who used them to create the Atlantic Wall, equipping them with the Mirus battery on the island of Guernsey. In the summer of 1944, these 4 guns opened fire on Allied ships for the first time, and in September they scored a direct hit on an American cruiser. The remaining 8 guns went to units of the Red Army in Finland in 1944 and were “repatriated” to their homeland. One of them has been preserved as a museum exhibit at the Krasnaya Gorka fort.