Battleship Empress Maria blueprints. Battleship "Empress Maria"

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TRY TO REMOVE "MARIA" (one of the versions of the death of the battleship "Empress Maria" in 1916) Until now, the minds of historians and specialists are disturbed by the tragic death in 1916 of one of the strongest Russian warships - the Black Sea battleship "Empress Maria".

Russia's southern maritime borders coexisted with the Ottoman Empire for hundreds of years. Permanent wars forced the Russian tsars to keep modern warships in the Black Sea. In 1907, she 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. After 4 years, the southern neighbor ordered the construction of three newest 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 type. In 1911, the construction of 3 ships began at the Nikolaevsky Shipyards:

• "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 a 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 outer part of the ship and vital installations;
• Increased the elevation angle of the 305 mm guns;
• The appearance of 8 destroyers in Turkey forced to strengthen 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 in front. The length of the vessel was 168 m, the total carrying capacity was 24,500 tons. Viability was provided by 4 Parsons steam turbines and 20 Yarrow boilers. In the first tests, a maximum acceleration of 21.5 knots was achieved. To manage the ship required a staff of 1,200 people.

The main armor belt was sheathed with steel plates 262.5 mm thick. Turrets for 305 mm guns were covered with 250 mm sheet steel, the command cabin was armored with a 300 mm panel. These indicators exceeded the protection of the Sultan Osman I dreadnought under construction for the Ottoman Empire.

Construction of the ship "Emperor Alexander III"

The armament of battleships of the type "Empress Maria"

• Main caliber - 12 guns 305 mm. The equipment was located on 4 three-gun towers. The placement of the installations was similar to the arrangement at Sevastopol - in a linear manner. This ensured the operation of all gun equipment in cases where the enemy was on one side of the side. When the enemy appeared in front of or behind the vessel, only one three-gun installation could fire.
• Anti-mine artillery - 20 130-mm guns 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 in 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”

The beginning of the service - the first losses

In the context 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 forces were directed to the completion of the construction of at least one ship. The dates 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 command of the Black Sea Fleet.

On June 26, 1916, the first combat unit of the dreadnought type arrived in Odessa. After 3 days, she went 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 in the ownership of Turkey, but continued to lead them from Prussia. The appearance of the "Empress Maria" suspended the plans of the enemy. Now they rarely left the Bosphorus.

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

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

Service of other 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, it was decided to scuttle the battleship in order to evade its capture by German troops.

"Emperor Alexander III", later named "Will", first went to sea in 1917. After the signing of the Brest-Litovsk peace treaty, all warships based in Sevastopol were obliged to return to their native harbor, which at that moment was controlled by Germany. It was a period when great changes took place inside Russia - each ship independently made a decision about its future fate. Lenin gave the order to sink all the ships so as not to fall into the subordination of the enemy. The Volya crew voted to return to the Crimea. After some time, the city was occupied by the Volunteer Army. The ship once again changed its flag and name. This time it 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 stood for several years. Only in the 30s the ship was transported to Brest, where the French designers carefully studied it and handed it over for disassembly.

The fourth Black Sea battleship was launched in the second half of 1916. The revolution that began later and the internal disagreements of the new political system did not make it possible to complete the construction of 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 sent for scrapping.

All 4 Russian dreadnoughts, intended for patrolling in the Black Sea, had a difficult tragic fate. Completed combat units managed to show their qualities in World War I. By a fatal coincidence, a strong explosion occurred on the lead battleship. The commission of inquiry could not determine for certain the cause of the fire. It was assumed that this was not an accidental fire, but an intentional arson. A series of difficult events in the country and a frequent change of leadership did not allow the ships to adequately continue their service.

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

Ship history:
The decision to strengthen the Black Sea Fleet with new battleships was caused by Turkey's intention to acquire three modern Dreadnought-class battleships abroad, which would immediately provide them with overwhelming superiority in the Black Sea. To maintain the balance of power, the Russian Naval Ministry insisted on the urgent strengthening of the Black Sea Fleet.

To speed up the construction of battleships, the architectural type and the most important design decisions were made mainly on the basis of the experience and model of the four Sevastopol-class battleships laid down in 1909 in St. Petersburg.

battleships "Sevastopol" and "Poltava" in the campaign

This approach made it possible to significantly speed up the process of developing strategic and tactical tasks for new battleships for the Black Sea. The Black Sea battleships also adopted such advantages as three-gun turrets, which are rightfully considered an outstanding achievement of domestic technology.

3-gun turret for 305 mm main battery guns

The bet was made on the broad attraction of banking capital and private entrepreneurship. The construction of dreadnoughts (and other ships of the Black Sea program) was entrusted to two private factories in Nikolaev (ONZiV and Russud)

Preference was given to the Russud project, which "with the permission" of the Naval Ministry was led by a group of prominent naval engineers who were in active service. As a result, Russud received an order for two ships, the third (according to his drawings) was ordered to build ONZiV.
Empress Maria Feodorovna Romanova (wife of Alexander III)

On June 11, 1911, simultaneously with the official laying ceremony, new ships were added to the lists of the fleet under the names "Empress Maria", "Emperor Alexander III" and "Empress Catherine the Great". In connection with the decision to equip the lead ship as a flagship, all ships of the series were ordered by the Minister of the Navy I.K. Grigorovich was ordered to be called ships of the type "Empress Maria".

Ivan Konstantinovich Grigorovich

The design of the hull and the armor system of the "Chernomorets" basically corresponded to the project of the Baltic dreadnoughts, but were partially finalized. The Empress Maria had 18 main transverse watertight bulkheads. Twenty triangular-type water-tube boilers fed turbine units powered by four propeller shafts with brass screws 2.4 m in diameter (rotation speed at 21-knot speed 320 rpm). The total power of the ship's power plant was 1840 kW.

According to the contract dated March 31, 1912, signed by the Naval Ministry with the Russud plant, the Empress Maria should have been launched no later than July. The complete readiness of the ship (presentation for acceptance tests) was planned by August 20, 1915, four more months were allotted for the tests themselves. Such a high pace, not inferior to the pace of advanced European enterprises, was almost sustained: the plant, which continued to be built, launched the ship on October 6, 1913. The approaching wartime forced, despite the sad experience of the past, to develop working drawings simultaneously with the construction of ships.

Alas, the course of work was affected not only by the growing pains of the factories that built such large ships for the first time, but also by the “improvements” so characteristic of domestic shipbuilding already in the course of construction, which led to an over-design overload that exceeded 860 tons. As a result, in addition to an increase in draft by 0.3 m, an annoying trim on the nose was also formed. In other words, the ship "sat like a pig." Luckily, some constructive raising of the deck in the bow covered this up. A lot of excitement was also delivered by the order in England for turbines, auxiliary mechanisms, propeller shafts and stern tube devices, placed at the John Brown plant by the Russud society. There was a smell of gunpowder in the air, and it was only by a lucky chance that the Empress Maria managed to get her turbines in May 1914, delivered by an English steamer that had slipped through the straits.

A noticeable failure in counterparty deliveries by November 1914 forced the ministry to agree to new deadlines for the ships: "Empress Maria" in March-April 1915. All forces were thrown into the speedy introduction of "Maria" into operation. For her, by agreement of the construction plants, the machine tools of 305 mm guns and the electrical equipment of the towers received from the Putilov factory were transferred.

According to the wartime staffing approved on January 11, 1915, 30 conductors and 1135 lower ranks (of which 194 were extra-conscripts) were assigned to the command of Empress Maria, who were combined into eight ship companies. In April-July, 50 more people were added by new orders of the fleet commander, and the number of officers was brought up to 33.

And then came that unique day, always overflowing with special troubles, when the ship, starting an independent life, leaves the factory embankment.

By the evening of June 23, 1915, after the consecration of the ship, having raised a flag, a guis and a pennant sprinkled with holy water over the Ingul raid, "Empress Maria" began a company. In the dead of night on June 25, apparently in order to pass the river before dark, they took off the moorings, and at 4 o'clock in the morning the battleship set sail. In readiness to repel a mine attack, having passed the Adzhigol lighthouse, the ship entered the Ochakovsky roadstead. The next day they conducted test firing, and on June 27, under the protection of aviation, destroyers and minesweepers, the battleship arrived in Odessa. At the same time, the main forces of the fleet, having formed three lines of cover (up to the Bosphorus !!!), kept at sea.

Having received 700 tons of coal, on the afternoon of June 29, "Empress Maria" went to sea after the cruiser "Memory of Mercury" and at 5 o'clock in the morning on June 30 met with the main forces of the fleet...

Slowly, in the consciousness of her own greatness and significance of the moment, the "Empress Maria" entered the Sevastopol raid on the afternoon of June 30, 1915. And the jubilation that engulfed the city and the fleet that day was probably akin to the general joy of those happy days of November 1853, when, after a brilliant victory at Sinop, she returned to the same raid under the flag of P.S. Nakhimov 84-gun "Empress Maria".

The entire fleet was looking forward to the moment when the Empress Maria, having gone out to sea, would sweep out the pretty tired "Goeben" and "Breslau" beyond its borders. Already with these expectations, "Maria" was assigned the role of the first favorite of the fleet.

In August there was a change of commanders. Prince Trubetskoy was appointed head of the mine brigade, and Captain 1st Rank Kuznetsov took command of the Empress Maria. The commander of the ill-fated battleship, Captain 1st Rank Ivan Semenovich Kuznetsov, was put on trial. The verdict on his punishment was to take effect after the end of the war. But the revolution broke out, and the sailors pronounced their verdict: the former commander of the Empress Maria, without trial or investigation, along with other officers of the Black Sea Fleet, was shot on December 15, 1917 on Malakhov Hill. In the same place and buried knows where.

What changes in the balance of forces at sea did the entry into service of the Empress Maria make, how did it change with the outbreak of the war, and what effect did it have on the construction of the following ships? The extremely threatening situation before the war, when the appearance of Turkish dreadnoughts, already equipped in England for sailing, was expected in the Black Sea, remained tense even after England did not release the ships ordered by the Turks. A new and already real danger was now posed by the German battlecruiser Goeben and the cruiser Breslau, whether because of the political maneuvers of the British Admiralty or because of their phenomenal luck, who managed to fool the allied Anglo-French naval forces and broke into the Dardanelles.

battlecruiser Goeben

Normal displacement 22,979 tons, total 25,400 tons. Waterline length 186 m, maximum length 186.6 m, width 29.4 m (including anti-mine nets 29.96 m), draft 8.77 m (bow) and 9, 19 m (stern), average draft 9.0 m, side height along the midship frame 14.08 m.
The power plant consisted of 2 sets of steam turbines Parsons (Parsons) with direct transmission to the shaft, located in three compartments. High-pressure turbines (rotor diameter 1900 mm) were located in two bow compartments and rotated the outer propeller shafts. Low-pressure turbines (rotor 3050 mm) were located in the aft compartment and rotated the internal shafts. The ships were equipped with 24 Marine-Schulz-Tornycroft water-tube boilers with small-diameter tubes and an operating steam pressure of 16 atm. The total design capacity of the ship's installations is 63296 kW / 76795 hp.

Armament: Main caliber artillery - 5 x 2 x 280 / 50 mm guns (810 rounds), gun inclination angles from -8 to 13.5 °, firing range - 18.1 miles. The towers of the main caliber were placed in a diagonal pattern. The starboard turret looked forward with guns, and the left side turret looked into the stern. Each of them had a firing sector of 180 ° on the near side and 125 ° on the opposite side. The elevation of the trunnions of the guns above the load waterline: bow tower 8.78 m, onboard 8.43 m, stern 8.60 and 6.23 m. Ammunition - 81 armor-piercing shells for each gun. The mechanism for turning the turrets and vertical aiming of the guns is electric.

Medium-caliber artillery - 10 150/45-mm guns. Ammunition 1800 shells, firing range up to 13.5 miles. Anti-mine and anti-aircraft artillery - 12 88/45-mm guns. Ammunition 3000 shells. Later, instead of four 88-mm, 4 22-pound anti-aircraft guns were installed; and since 1916, all 88-mm guns (except for anti-aircraft guns) were dismantled. Torpedo tubes (500 mm): 1 in the bow, 2 on the sides, 1 in the stern; ammunition 11 torpedoes. The cruiser was equipped with Zeiss rangefinders. In 1914 correction posts were installed on the ship at the tops of the masts.

Now the "Empress Maria" eliminated this advantage, and the entry into service of subsequent battleships gave a clear advantage to the Black Sea Fleet. The priorities and pace of building ships have also changed. With the outbreak of the war, the need for destroyers, submarines and landing craft necessary for the future Bosphorus operation became especially acute. Their order slowed down the construction of battleships.

"Empress Maria" in Sevastopol

On the "Empress Maria" they tried their best to speed up the program of acceptance tests that had begun with the departure from Nikolaev. Of course, we had to turn a blind eye to many things and, relying on the obligations of the plant, to postpone the elimination of imperfections for a while after the official acceptance of the ship. So, a lot of criticism was caused by the air-refrigeration system of the ammunition cellars. It turned out that all the "cold" that was regularly produced by the "refrigeration machines" was absorbed by the warming up electric motors of the fans, which, instead of the theoretical "cold", drove their heat into the ammunition cellars. The turbines also made us worry, but there were no significant problems.

On July 9, the battleship was brought into the dry dock of the Sevastopol port for inspection and painting of the underwater part of the hull. At the same time, the clearances in the bearings of the stern tubes and propeller shaft brackets were measured. Ten days later, when the ship was in the dock, the commission began testing underwater torpedo tubes. After the withdrawal of the battleship from the dock, the devices were tested by shooting. All of them were accepted by the commission.

On August 6, 1915, the battleship Empress Maria went to sea to test anti-mine caliber artillery. On board was the commander of the Black Sea Fleet A.A. Eberhard.

Andrey Avgustovich Ebergard

Firing from 130-mm guns was carried out on the move 15 - 18 knots and ended successfully. On August 13, the selection committee met on board the battleship to test the mechanisms. The battleship took off from the barrel and went to sea. The average draft of the ship was 8.94 meters, which corresponded to a displacement of 24,400 tons. By 4 o'clock in the afternoon, the number of revolutions of the turbines was brought up to 300 per minute and they began a three-hour test of the ship at full speed. The battleship made tacks between Cape Ai-Todor and Mount Ayu-Dag, at a distance of 5 - 7 miles from the coast in deep water. At 7 pm, full-speed testing of the mechanisms was completed and on August 15 at 10 am the battleship returned to Sevastopol. The commission noted that during the 50 hours of continuous operation, the main and auxiliary mechanisms operated satisfactorily and the commission found it possible to accept them into the treasury. In the period from August 19 to 25, the commission accepted torpedo tubes, all ship systems, drainage facilities and capstan devices into the treasury.

By August 25, acceptance tests were completed, although the development of the ship continued for many more months. At the direction of the fleet commander, in order to combat the trim on the nose, the ammunition of two bow towers (from 100 to 70 shots) and the bow group of 130 mm guns (from 245 to 100 shots) had to be reduced.

Everyone knew that with the entry into service of Empress Maria, the "Goeben" would not leave the Bosporus without extreme need. The fleet was able to systematically and on a larger scale solve its strategic tasks. At the same time, for operational operations at sea, while maintaining the administrative brigade structure, several mobile temporary formations were formed, called maneuver groups. The first included "Empress Maria" and the cruiser "Cahul" with destroyers allocated for their protection. Such an organization made it possible (with the involvement of submarines and aircraft) to carry out a more effective blockade of the Bosphorus.

armored cruiser "Cahul"

Technical data:

Year of launching - May 2, 1902
Length - 134.1 m Beam - 16.6 m Draft - 6.8 m Displacement - 7070 tons
Engine power - 19500 hp
Speed ​​- 21 knots
Armament - 12-152 mm, 12-75 mm, 2-64 mm, 4 machine guns, 2 torpedo tubes
Personnel - 565 people
Reservation - 35-70 mm armored deck, 140 mm conning tower, 127 mm turrets, 102 mm casemates
Ships of the same type: Bogatyr, Oleg, Ochakov

Only in September-December 1915, maneuver groups went out to the enemy’s shores ten times and spent 29 days at sea: the Bosphorus, Zunguldak, Novorossiysk, Batum, Trebizond, Varna, Constanta, along all the shores of the Black Sea, one could then see a long and squat creeping on the water silhouette of a formidable battleship.

And yet the capture of "Goeben" remained the blue dream of the entire crew. More than once, the officers of "Maria" had to remember with an unkind word the leaders of Genmore, together with Minister A.S. Voevodsky, who cut off at least 2 nodes of the course at their ship when drawing up the design assignment, which left no hope for the success of the chase.

Information about the exit of the Breslau for a new sabotage near Novorossiysk was received on July 9, and the new commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Vice Admiral A.V. Kolchak immediately went to sea on the Empress Maria.

Alexander Vasilievich Kolchak

Black Sea squadron

Everything worked out for the best. The Breslau's course and exit time were known, the interception point was calculated without error. The seaplanes escorting the Maria successfully bombed the UB-7 submarine that was guarding her exit, preventing her from attacking, the destroyers ahead of the Maria intercepted the Breslau at the intended point and tied it up in battle.

seaplane "Voisin" over "Maria"

The hunt unfolded according to all the rules. The destroyers stubbornly pressed the German cruiser, which was trying to leave, to the shore, the "Kahul" relentlessly hung on its tail, frightening the Germans with its own, however, volleys that did not reach. "Empress Maria", which had developed full speed, had only to choose the moment for the right volley. But either the destroyers were not ready to take on the adjustment of the Mary’s fire, or the shells of the reduced ammunition load of the bow turret were protected on it, not risking throwing them at random into the smoke screen that the Breslau immediately wrapped itself in when the shells fell dangerously close, but that decisive salvo that could have covered the Breslau did not work. Forced to desperately maneuver (the machines, as the German historian wrote, were already at the limit of endurance), the Breslau, despite its 27-knot speed, steadily lost in the distance traveled in a straight line, which decreased from 136 to 95 cables. Saved by chance flown squall. Hiding behind a veil of rain, the Breslau literally slipped out of the ring of Russian ships and, clinging to the shore, slipped into the Bosphorus.

Cruiser Breslau

Displacement 4480 tons, turbine power 29 904 liters. s., speed 27.6 knots. Length between perpendiculars 136 m, width 13.3, average depression 4.86 m.
Reservations: belt 70 mm, deck 12.7, guns 102 mm.
Armament: 12 - 105-mm guns and 2 torpedo tubes.
The series consisted of four ships, differing in the number of screws: Breslau - 4 screws, Strasbourg - 2 screws, Magdeburg and Stralsund - 3 screws each.

In October 1916, all of Russia was shocked by the news of the death of the newest battleship of the Russian fleet, the Empress Maria. On October 20, about a quarter of an hour after the morning rise, the sailors who were in the area of ​​​​the first tower of the battleship Empress Maria, which was standing along with other ships in the Sevastopol Bay, heard the characteristic hiss of burning gunpowder, and then saw smoke and flames coming out of the embrasures of the tower, necks and fans located near it. A fire alarm was sounded on the ship, the sailors smashed the fire hoses and began to flood the turret compartment with water. At 06:20, the ship was rocked by a strong explosion in the area of ​​the cellar of 305-mm charges of the first turret. A column of flame and smoke shot up to a height of 300 m.

When the smoke cleared, a terrible picture of destruction became visible. The explosion tore out a section of the deck behind the first tower, demolished the conning tower, bridge, bow tube and foremast. A hole formed in the ship's hull behind the tower, from which pieces of twisted metal stuck out, flames and smoke were beaten out. Many sailors and non-commissioned officers who were in the bow of the ship were killed, seriously wounded, burned and thrown overboard by the force of the explosion. The steam line of auxiliary mechanisms was interrupted, fire pumps stopped working, electric lighting was turned off. A series of smaller explosions followed. On the ship, orders were given to flood the cellars of the second, third and fourth towers, and fire hoses were received from the port craft that approached the battleship. The firefighting continued. The ship was towed around with a lag in the wind.

By 7 o'clock in the morning the fire began to subside, the ship was on an even keel, it seemed that she would be saved. But two minutes later there was another explosion, more powerful than the previous ones. The battleship began to quickly sink forward and list to starboard. When the bow and cannon ports went under water, the battleship, having lost its stability, capsized keel up and sank at a depth of 18 m in the bow and 14.5 m in the stern with a slight trim on the bow. The mechanical engineer midshipman Ignatiev, two conductors and 225 sailors died.

The next day, October 21, 1916, a special commission to investigate the causes of the sinking of the battleship Empress Maria, chaired by Admiral N. M. Yakovlev, departed by train from Petrograd to Sevastopol. One of its members was appointed General for assignments under the Minister of the Sea A. N. Krylov. For a week and a half of work, all the surviving sailors and officers of the battleship "Empress Maria" passed before the commission. It was found that the cause of the death of the ship was a fire that broke out in the bow cellar of 305-mm charges and resulted in an explosion of gunpowder and shells in it, as well as an explosion in the cellars of 130-mm guns and combat charging compartments of torpedoes. As a result, the side was destroyed and the kingstones for flooding the cellars were torn off, and the ship, having large damage to the decks and watertight bulkheads, sank. It was impossible to prevent the death of the ship after damage to the outer side by balancing the roll and trim by filling other compartments, since this would take a considerable amount of time.

the bottom of the “Empress Maria” (behind “Cahul”)

Having considered the possible causes of a fire in the cellar, the commission settled on the three most likely: spontaneous combustion of gunpowder, negligence in handling fire or gunpowder itself, and, finally, malicious intent. The conclusion of the commission stated that “it is not possible to come to an accurate and evidence-based conclusion, one has only to assess the likelihood of these assumptions ...”. Spontaneous combustion of gunpowder and careless handling of fire and gunpowder were considered unlikely. At the same time, it was noted that on the battleship "Empress Maria" there were significant deviations from the requirements of the charter regarding access to artillery cellars. During the stay in Sevastopol, representatives of various factories worked on the battleship, and their number reached 150 people daily. Work was also carried out in the shell cellar of the first tower - they were carried out by four people from the Putilov factory. There was no family roll call of the artisans, but only the total number of people was checked. The commission did not rule out the possibility of "malicious intent", moreover, noting the poor organization of service on the battleship, she pointed out "the relatively easy possibility of bringing malicious intent to execution."

Recently, the version of “malicious intent” has been further developed. In particular, in the work of A. Elkin it is stated that at the Russud plant in Nikolaev, during the construction of the battleship Empress Maria, German agents acted, at the direction of which the ship was sabotaged. However, many questions arise. For example, why was there no sabotage on the Baltic battleships? After all, the eastern front was then the main one in the war of warring coalitions. In addition, the Baltic battleships entered service earlier, and the access regime for them was hardly more stringent when they left Kronstadt at the end of 1914 half-finished with a large number of factory workers on board. Yes, and the German spy agency in the capital of the empire, Petrograd, was more developed. What could give the destruction of one battleship in the Black Sea? Partially facilitate the actions of "Goeben" and "Breslau"? But by that time, the Bosphorus was reliably blocked by Russian minefields and the passage of German cruisers through it was considered unlikely. Therefore, the version of “malicious intent” cannot be considered definitively proven. The mystery of the “Empress Maria” is still waiting to be unraveled.

The death of the battleship "Empress Maria" caused a great resonance throughout the country. The Maritime Ministry began to develop urgent measures to raise the ship and put it into operation. The proposals of Italian and Japanese specialists were rejected due to the complexity and high cost. Then A. N. Krylov, in a note to the commission for considering projects for raising the battleship, proposed a simple and original method.

Alexey Nikolaevich Krylov

It provided for lifting the battleship up with a keel by gradually displacing water from the compartments with compressed air, entering the dock in this position and sealing all damage to the side and deck. Then it was proposed to bring the completely sealed ship to a deep place and turn it over, filling the compartments of the opposite side with water.

The ship engineer Sidensner, a senior shipbuilder of the Sevastopol port, undertook the execution of the project by A. N. Krylov. By the end of 1916, the water from all the stern compartments was squeezed out by air, and the stern floated to the surface. In 1917, the entire hull surfaced. In January-April 1918, the ship was towed closer to the shore and the remaining ammunition was unloaded. Only in August 1918, the port tugs "Vodoley", "Fit" and "Elizaveta" took the battleship to the dock.

The 130-mm artillery, part of the auxiliary mechanisms and other equipment were removed from the battleship, the ship itself remained in the dock in the keel up position until 1923. For more than four years, the wooden cages on which the hull rested rotted. Due to the redistribution of the load, cracks appeared in the sole of the dock. “Maria” was brought out and stranded at the exit from the bay, where she stood keel up for another three years. In 1926, the battleship's hull was again docked in the same position, and in 1927 it was finally dismantled.

at the dock

The work was carried out by EPRON.

When the battleship capsized during the catastrophe, the multi-ton turrets of the ship's 305-mm guns fell off the battle pins and sank. Shortly before the Great Patriotic War, these towers were raised by the Epronians, and in 1939 the 305-mm battleship guns were installed near Sevastopol on the famous 30th battery, which was part of the 1st coastal defense artillery division.

The battery heroically defended Sevastopol, on June 17, 1942, during the last assault on the city, it fired at the fascist hordes that had broken through into the Belbek valley. Having used up all the shells, the battery fired blank charges, holding back the onslaught of the enemy until June 25.

latest battery protector

So, more than a quarter of a century after firing at the Kaiser cruisers Goeben and Breslau, the guns of the battleship Empress Maria spoke again, raining down 305-mm shells now on the Nazi troops.

Tactical and technical data of battleships of the type "Empress Maria"

The history of the naval forces of different countries of the world is full of mysteries. Such a complex machine as a warship is saturated with equipment, weapons and machines, improper handling of which can lead to the death of the ship. But this still does not explain everything. The catastrophe 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 the investigation and finding out the causes are extremely difficult. So it was with the Japanese ships Fuso, Kongo, Mutsu, Yamato, the American dreadnought Arizona, the Italian cruiser Roma, the Soviet Marat, the English Barham and Hood. In the post-war period, the martyrology was replenished with Novorossiysk. The death of the battleship "Empress Maria" in October 1916 can be attributed to hard-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 the national 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 an asynchronous motor and wireless communication. 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" became the first of them. "Empress Catherine the Great" and "Emperor Alexander III" as a whole repeated his constructive 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 head unit was launched. It happened just in time. The world war, which seemed to start suddenly with shots that thundered in Sarajevo, was not really a surprise. Battleships of the type "Empress Maria" significantly leveled the balance of power in the proposed maritime theater of operations. The Russian fleet healed Tsushima wounds.

Porphyritic 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 after the living, healthy at that time widow of Alexander III, nee Danish princess Louise Sophia Frederica Dagmar, who became a real Russian patriot, by the way, despite her foreign origin. However, this has already happened, suffice it to recall Catherine the Great, whose name was given to another battleship of the same type. Without a doubt, this woman deserved such an honor, 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 Feodorovna is tragic, she died in her homeland, in Denmark (1928), at the same time being in exile and personifying the share of all those Russians who happened to eat the bitter bread of a foreign land, "without leaving 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 all respects. He was moving rapidly, developing a speed of almost 24 knots (about 40 km / h) when loading 2 thousand tons of coal and 600 tons of fuel oil, he had an autonomy of eight days, the team consisted of 1260 sailors and officers. The power plant is a turbine type, it consisted of two machines of 10,000 liters each. with.

Battleships are a special type of naval equipment, they are distinguished by a high level of artillery armament. Four gun turrets were equipped with three 12-inch guns (each produced by the famous one. In addition to the main caliber, an auxiliary one 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 ahead and take into account the growing threat of air attack.There was another design feature that distinguished the battleship Empress Maria.Drawings of superstructures were drawn up taking into account the maximum increase in the firing sector, so the power of the volley did not depend much on the angle of the target in relation to the course.

The exits of the torpedo tubes were located below the waterline, which was a revolutionary achievement at the time. A layer of armor 250 mm thick encircled the hull, and the deck was also protected by it. The ship's power 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 perform combat missions even in our time.

How the battleship fought

In the autumn of 1915, the intensity of naval battles in the Black Sea reached its peak. Turkey, 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 was in charge of naval operations. All new sunken 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 with difficulty broke away from the Russian battleship, having received multiple damage. During the whole of 1916, another German raider, "Gabin", only three times ventured into the Black Sea basin from the Bosphorus Strait, and then only briefly and unsuccessfully. From her last trip to the Sevastopol Bay, the battleship Empress Maria returned on October 6, 1916.

Victims and survivors

Unlike many others, this majority of the team managed to survive. According to various sources, from 1260 crew members immediately died from 152 to 216 people. The number of wounded and burned people ranged from one and a half hundred to 232 people. Despite the urgent medical care provided, another 150 sailors died in hospitals. Thus, the death of the battleship "Empress Maria" resulted in the death of three hundred and fifty people (according to the maximum estimate), which is approximately 28% of the entire crew. There could have been many more victims, but, fortunately, almost all the sailors who were not on duty participated in the prayer service that took place on the aft deck. As they say, God saved.

eyewitness testimony

What happened on the battleship in the early morning of October 7 was told by the surviving crew members. 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 foremast, forward tube and conning tower were blown off the ground by the very first explosion. But the main reason why the struggle for life turned out to be useless was the destruction of the hull, expressed in the rupture of the side to a level below the waterline, after which the outboard water began to flow into the compartments. The fire, meanwhile, continued. In a matter of minutes, the commander of the Black Sea Fleet arrived on the ship to supervise the rescue operations, fire boats and tugboats arrived in time, but nothing could be done. Less than an hour later, ammunition detonated in the cellar of the bow turret, several more explosions were heard, the battleship received negative buoyancy, overkill rolled over and sank.

Fight for survival

The sailors throughout the disaster acted in accordance with the Charter and performed their duties as ordered by the staffing table. 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 adjacent to them. They immediately reported to their immediate supervisor about what was happening, managed to unroll fire hoses and supplied water. It only took two minutes. The sailors who were replaced after the watch were washing themselves before resting, all of them were burned by the hellish flame of the explosion. The power supply was interrupted, the light went out. Explosions continued (there were 25 of them in total), shells of 130-mm caliber were detonated. Meanwhile, on the orders of the senior mechanical engineer, midshipman Ignatiev tried to start fire pumps. He did not succeed, 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 interred ...

Version master: accident

People tend to look for clues to everything inexplicable. The more mysterious the circumstances, the more complicated and confusing they are usually interpreted. Therefore, the official version of the commission of inquiry that the explosion on the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet occurred due to self-ignition of ethereal powder vapors caused disappointment for many. However, it most likely was. The shells, along with the caps, were in the barrels for a long time, especially when the battleship was hunting for the Gaben, and this could provoke a detonation. But there is another version, according to which the mysterious death of the battleship "Empress Maria" did not happen 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 have prevented an infiltrator from planting a micro-fuse in the cellar, similar to the one found on the Italian dreadnought "Leonardo da Vinci" in the summer of 1915? Moreover, many hatches were not locked. Another fact speaks at first glance in favor of espionage wrecking: in 1933, the NKVD neutralized the residency of German intelligence, headed by a certain Verman. According to the arrested person, he was recruited before the revolution. And he was interested in the achievements of Russian military electrical engineering, including the schemes of the Empress Maria. The Chekists did not pay attention to this at that time. Whether Verman was a spy is unknown, then people confessed to anything.

The ship was cut up 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 homeland of the naval commander - in the Smolensk region. Another skillfully executed layout - on a large scale - adorns the exposition of the Nikolaev Museum of the History of Shipbuilding and the Fleet.