Fidonisy-class Destroyer

The ''Fidonisy'' class, also known as the ''Kerch'' class, were a group of eight destroyers built for the Black Sea Fleet of the Imperial Russian Navy during World War I. They participated in World War I, the Russian Civil War, and World War II.

Design and description

In early 1914, several months before the beginning of World War I, the construction of a third series of eight destroyers based on ''Novik'' for the Black Sea Fleet was proposed by the Naval Ministry in response to a perceived strengthening of the Ottoman Navy. This was approved by Nicholas II on 24 June after the destroyers had received names in honor of the victories of Admiral Fyodor Ushakov on 16 June. The ''Fidonisy''-class ships were ultimately built as an improved version of the with an additional gun. Naval historian Siegfried Breyer considered the class to be the least successful of ''Novik''s successors.

The ships had an overall length of , had a beam of , and a draught of at deep load. They normally displaced and at full load.Breyer, p. 64 Their crew consisted of 136 officers and ratings.

They were powered by two Parsons direct-drive steam turbines, each driving one propeller shaft,Verstyuk & Gordeev, p. 100 using steam provided by five Thornycroft boilers that operated at a pressure of Apalkov, p. 137 and a temperature of . The turbines, rated at , were intended to give a maximum speed of , although they reportedly averaged about in service. The destroyers carried a maximum of of fuel oil although the ships varied widely in their endurance, ranging from at () to at ().

Armament

The ''Fidonisy'' class were armed with four 60-calibre 102 mm Pattern 1911 Obukhov guns, one on the forecastle and three aft; one of these latter guns was superfiring over the other two. The guns had a rate of fire of 12–15 rounds per minute. They fired a shell out to a range of at an elevation of +30°. Each ship stowed 150 rounds per gun.

Anti-aircraft armament varied between ships. The first four were completed either with a pair of 39-calibre "pom-pom" guns or 58-calibre Hotchkiss guns. The second batch of four were fitted with a single 30-calibre Lender gun.Verstyuk & Gordeev, p. 116 The "pom-pom" fired its shells at a rate of 300 rounds per minute, out to at an elevation of +45°. The muzzle velocity of the Hotchkiss gun gave its shells a range of at an elevation of +21°. The Lender gun's muzzle velocity of gave it a range of with its shell. It had a practical rate of fire of 10–12 rounds per minute.

The ships were also armed with a dozen torpedo tubes in four triple mounts amidships.Budzbon 1984, p. 311 They probably most often used the M1912 torpedo which had a warhead. It had three speed/range settings: at ; at and at . The ships could also carry 80 mines.

Ships

The ships were ordered on 17 March 1915 and all eight were built in the Russud Shipyard in Nikolaev.

Service

Only ''Fidonisy'' was completed in time to participate in combat, helping to sink some Turkish sailing ships in October 1917, before the navy ceased offensive operations against the Central Powers in response to the Bolshevik Decree on Peace in early November before a formal Armistice was signed the next month.Greger, pp. 64–65

References

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{{WWII Soviet ships

Destroyer classes
Destroyers of the Imperial Russian Navy
Wrangel's fleet
Destroyers of the Soviet Navy