The ''Petropavlovsk'' class, sometimes referred to as the ''Poltava'' class, was a group of three
pre-dreadnought battleship
Pre-dreadnought battleships were sea-going battleships built between the mid- to late- 1880s and 1905, before the launch of in 1906. The pre-dreadnought ships replaced the ironclad battleships of the 1870s and 1880s. Built from steel, protec ...
s built for the
Imperial Russian Navy
The Imperial Russian Navy () operated as the navy of the Russian Tsardom and later the Russian Empire from 1696 to 1917. Formally established in 1696, it lasted until dissolved in the wake of the February Revolution of 1917. It developed from ...
during the 1890s. They were transferred to the
Pacific Squadron
The Pacific Squadron was part of the United States Navy squadron stationed in the Pacific Ocean in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Initially with no United States ports in the Pacific, they operated out of storeships which provided naval s ...
shortly after their completion in 1899–1900 and were based at
Port Arthur before the start of the
Russo-Japanese War
The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...
of 1904–1905. All three ships participated in the
Battle of Port Arthur
The of 8–9 February 1904 marked the commencement of the Russo-Japanese War. It began with a surprise night attack by a squadron of Japanese destroyers on the neutral Russian fleet anchored at Port Arthur, Manchuria, and continued with an e ...
on the second day of the war. sank two months after the war began after striking one or more
mines laid by the Japanese. Her two
sister ships, and , took part in the
Battle of the Yellow Sea
The Battle of the Yellow Sea ( ja, 黄海海戦, Kōkai kaisen; russian: Бой в Жёлтом море) was a major naval battle of the Russo-Japanese War, fought on 10 August 1904. In the Russian Navy, it was referred to as the Battle of 10 A ...
in August 1904 and were sunk or
scuttled
Scuttling is the deliberate sinking of a ship. Scuttling may be performed to dispose of an abandoned, old, or captured vessel; to prevent the vessel from becoming a navigation hazard; as an act of self-destruction to prevent the ship from being ...
during the final stages of the
siege of Port Arthur
The siege of Port Arthur ( ja, 旅順攻囲戦, ''Ryojun Kōisen''; russian: link=no, Оборона Порт-Артура, ''Oborona Port-Artura'', August 1, 1904 – January 2, 1905) was the longest and most violent land battle of the Russ ...
in early 1905.
''Poltava'' was
salvaged after the Japanese captured Port Arthur and incorporated into the
Imperial Japanese Navy
The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrend ...
. The ship, renamed ''Tango'' in Japanese service, participated in the
Battle of Tsingtao
The siege of Tsingtao (or Tsingtau) was the attack on the German port of Tsingtao (now Qingdao) in China during World War I by Japan and the United Kingdom. The siege was waged against Imperial Germany between 27 August and 7 November 191 ...
in late 1914, during
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. She was sold back to the Russians in 1916 and renamed ''Chesma'' as her original name was in use by another battleship. The ship became the
flagship of the Russian
Arctic Flotilla in 1917, and her crew supported the
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...
s later that year. ''Chesma'' was seized by the British in early 1918 when they
intervened in the
Russian Civil War
{{Infobox military conflict
, conflict = Russian Civil War
, partof = the Russian Revolution and the aftermath of World War I
, image =
, caption = Clockwise from top left:
{{flatlist,
*Soldiers ...
, abandoned by them when they withdrew and
scrapped by the Soviets in 1924.
Background and description
Tsar
Tsar ( or ), also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar'', is a title used by East and South Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word ''caesar'', which was intended to mean "emperor" in the European medieval sense of the ter ...
Alexander III's ambitious building programme of 1882 called for construction of 16 battleships in 20 years for the
Baltic Fleet. By 1890 the program was behind schedule and the director of the
Naval Ministry,
Vice Admiral , proposed that six first-class and four second-class battleships be built together with some armored coast-defense ships to make up the numbers required. The ''Petropavlovsk''-class ships were designed as first-class battleships to meet his requirement for a heavily armored ship that
displaced and had a speed of , a maximum
draught of and a range of with good
seakeeping
Seakeeping ability or seaworthiness is a measure of how well-suited a watercraft is to conditions when underway. A ship or boat which has good seakeeping ability is said to be very seaworthy and is able to operate effectively even in high sea stat ...
qualities.
The design began as an enlarged and improved version of the battleship , but with her
main armament of four guns mounted in lighter
barbettes
Barbettes are several types of gun emplacement in terrestrial fortifications or on naval ships.
In recent naval usage, a barbette is a protective circular armour support for a heavy gun turret. This evolved from earlier forms of gun protecti ...
rather than the heavy
gun turret
A gun turret (or simply turret) is a mounting platform from which weapons can be fired that affords protection, visibility and ability to turn and aim. A modern gun turret is generally a rotatable weapon mount that houses the crew or mechani ...
s of the older ship. Based on experience with , in which the
casemate-mounted
secondary armament
Secondary armament is a term used to refer to smaller, faster-firing weapons that were typically effective at a shorter range than the main (heavy) weapons on military systems, including battleship- and cruiser-type warships, tanks/armored ...
could often not be worked in rough weather, the Naval Technical Committee (NTC) adopted the layout of the American s with the secondary armament mounted in
turrets on the upper deck. Use of the lighter barbette mounting allowed for a
flush-deck hull, which gave the design high
freeboard
In sailing and boating, a vessel's freeboard
is the distance from the waterline to the upper deck level, measured at the lowest point of sheer where water can enter the boat or ship. In commercial vessels, the latter criterion measured relativ ...
. It was approved in January 1891 by the NTC with a displacement of and a full-length
waterline
The waterline is the line where the hull of a ship meets the surface of the water. Specifically, it is also the name of a special marking, also known as an international load line, Plimsoll line and water line (positioned amidships), that indi ...
armor belt
Belt armor is a layer of heavy metal armor plated onto or within the outer hulls of warships, typically on battleships, battlecruisers and cruisers, and aircraft carriers.
The belt armor is designed to prevent projectiles from penetrating ...
.
The design was intended to have a maximum speed of 17 knots using
forced draft The difference between atmospheric pressure and the pressure existing in the furnace or flue gas passage of a boiler is termed as draft. Draft can also be referred to as the difference in pressure in the combustion chamber area which results in the ...
, but model testing of the hull showed that it could only reach . Rather than delay construction by redesigning the hull, the navy accepted the slower speed. Development of the
quick-firing (QF) gun meant that an upper belt of armor was necessary and the weight required was gained by shortening the waterline armor belt, which left the ships' ends protected only by the sloping armor
deck. Other changes included the replacement of the barbettes with turrets of the same type as used in the battleship and the substitution of QF guns for the original guns. This last change saved enough weight to permit four more six-inch guns to be added.
The ''Petropavlovsk''-class ships were
long overall
__NOTOC__
Length overall (LOA, o/a, o.a. or oa) is the maximum length of a vessel's hull measured parallel to the waterline. This length is important while docking the ship. It is the most commonly used way of expressing the size of a ship, an ...
, had a
beam of and a draught of . Designed to displace , they were overweight and actually displaced . The ships were the first flush-decked battleships built for the navy. They had a partial
double bottom, and the hull was divided by 10 watertight transverse
bulkheads; a
centerline bulkhead divided the machinery spaces. The upper part of the hull between the main and upper decks curved inwards (
tumblehome
Tumblehome is a term describing a hull which grows narrower above the waterline than its beam. The opposite of tumblehome is flare.
A small amount of tumblehome is normal in many naval architecture designs in order to allow any small projecti ...
). The ''Petropavlovsk''s had a designed
metacentric height
The metacentric height (GM) is a measurement of the initial static stability of a floating body. It is calculated as the distance between the centre of gravity of a ship and its metacentre. A larger metacentric height implies greater initial stabi ...
of and were good seagoing ships. Their crew consisted of 26–27 officers and 605–625 enlisted men; ''Petropavlovsk'' had a crew of 750 when serving as a flagship.
The ships were powered by two
vertical triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one propeller, using steam generated by 14
cylindrical boilers at a working pressure of . Unlike her sisters, ''Sevastopol'' had 16 boilers. The engines were rated at and designed to reach a top speed of 16 knots. ''Poltava'' and ''Petropavlovsk'' used turbines and boilers imported from Britain and slightly exceeded their specifications; during their
sea trial
A sea trial is the testing phase of a watercraft (including boats, ships, and submarines). It is also referred to as a " shakedown cruise" by many naval personnel. It is usually the last phase of construction and takes place on open water, and ...
s, the ships reached maximum speeds of from , respectively. ''Sevastopol'', using domestically built machinery, only reached a speed of from , despite the extra boilers. The Naval Ministry chose not to exercise the penalty provisions of the contract for failing to attain the design speed because it had specified the machinery to be used. The ''Petropavlovsk''s carried a maximum of of coal which allowed them to steam for at a speed of .
Armament
The main armament of the ''Petropavlovsk'' class consisted of four 40-
caliber 12-inch guns mounted in twin-gun turrets fore and aft of the
superstructure. They used hydraulic power for loading and traversing, but the ammunition hoists were electrically powered. Designed to fire one shell every 90 seconds, the
rate of fire of the guns in service proved to be one
round
Round or rounds may refer to:
Mathematics and science
* The contour of a closed curve or surface with no sharp corners, such as an ellipse, circle, rounded rectangle, cant, or sphere
* Rounding, the shortening of a number to reduce the number ...
every three minutes. The structure of the turrets proved to be too weak to withstand extra-strength charges and had to be reinforced. The guns could elevate to a maximum of +15° and
traverse 270°; each was provided with 58 rounds. They fired a shell at a
muzzle velocity of . This gave them a range of at an elevation of 10°.
The secondary armament of the ships consisted of a dozen 45-caliber QF
Canet Model 1892 six-inch guns. Eight of these were mounted in four twin-gun turrets on the upper deck and the remaining four guns were on pedestal mounts in unarmored
embrasure
An embrasure (or crenel or crenelle; sometimes called gunhole in the domain of gunpowder-era architecture) is the opening in a battlement between two raised solid portions (merlons). Alternatively, an embrasure can be a space hollowed out ...
s in the sides of the hull, one deck below and between the turrets. Electric motors traversed the turrets and worked the ammunition hoists, but the guns were elevated manually. They had a 135° arc of fire, and the guns could elevate to a maximum of +15° and depress to −5°. The rate of fire of the turret-mounted guns was generally only about half that (two to three rounds per minute) of the pedestal-mounted guns. The motors and mechanism of the ammunition hoists were troublesome and sometimes reduced the rate of fire down to one round per minute. The guns in the hull could traverse 100° and each six-inch gun was provided with 200 rounds. Their muzzle velocity of gave their shells a maximum range of .
Smaller guns were carried for defense against
torpedo boat
A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval ship designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs were steam-powered craft dedicated to ramming enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes. Later evolutions launched variants of ...
s. These included a dozen
quick-firing (QF) Hotchkiss guns in hull embrasures and on the superstructure. They fired a shell at a muzzle velocity of . Twenty-eight smaller
Maxim
Maxim or Maksim may refer to:
Entertainment
* ''Maxim'' (magazine), an international men's magazine
** ''Maxim'' (Australia), the Australian edition
** ''Maxim'' (India), the Indian edition
*Maxim Radio, ''Maxim'' magazine's radio channel on Sir ...
QF
guns were positioned in hull embrasures, on the superstructure and in the
fighting tops. They fired a shell at a muzzle velocity of .
The ''Petropavlovsk''-class ships carried four
torpedo tube
A torpedo tube is a cylindrical 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 (also referred to as torpedo launchers) installed aboa ...
s, all above water, mounted on the
broadside and two broadside underwater tubes. The forward 15-inch tubes were near the forward main gun turret and were unprotected by any armor; aft, the 15-inch tubes were protected by the upper armor belt. The underwater tubes were protected underneath the armor deck, forward of the forward 12-inch
magazine. Each ship also carried 50
mines to be laid to protect its
anchorage in remote areas.
The ships were fitted with Liuzhol
stadiametric rangefinders that used the angle between two vertical points on an enemy ship, usually the waterline and the
crow's nest
A crow's nest is a structure in the upper part of the main mast of a ship or a structure that is used as a lookout point.
On ships, this position ensured the widest field of view for lookouts to spot approaching hazards, other ships, or land b ...
, to estimate the range. The gunnery officer consulted his references to get the range and calculated the proper elevation and
deflection
Deflection or deflexion may refer to:
Board games
* Deflection (chess), a tactic that forces an opposing chess piece to leave a square
* Khet (game), formerly ''Deflexion'', an Egyptian-themed chess-like game using lasers
Mechanics
* Deflection ...
required to hit the target. He transmitted his commands via a Geisler electro-mechanical
fire-control transmission system to each gun or turret.
Protection
The Russian armor-plate industry had not yet mastered the process for forming thick steel plates so the armor for these ships was ordered from companies in Germany and the United States. Even they could not produce enough of the latest types of armor plate in the quantities required for all three ships. ''Petropavlovsk'' had ordinary
nickel steel
Nickel is a chemical element with symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive but large pieces are slow to r ...
, while ''Sevastopol'' used
Harvey armor
Harvey armor was a type of steel naval armor developed in the early 1890s in which the front surfaces of the plates were case hardened. The method for doing this was known as the Harvey process, and was invented by the American engineer Haywa ...
and ''Poltava'' was fitted with the latest
Krupp armor. The thicknesses of the armor plates varied in an attempt to equalize their effectiveness. In ''Petropavlovsk'', the maximum thickness of the waterline armor belt over the machinery spaces was , which reduced to 12 inches abreast the magazines and tapered to a thickness of 8 inches at its bottom edge. In the other two ships, it was thick over the machinery spaces, over the magazines and at its lower edge. The belt covered of the ships' length and was high, of which the upper was intended to be above the waterline. It terminated in transverse bulkheads thick fore and aft, leaving the ends of the ships unprotected. Above the waterline belt was an upper
strake
On a vessel's hull, a strake is a longitudinal course of planking or plating which runs from the boat's stempost (at the bows) to the sternpost or transom (at the rear). The garboard strakes are the two immediately adjacent to the keel on ea ...
of armor that ran between the turret bases, seven and a half feet high. The ends of the upper belt were closed off by five-inch angled transverse bulkheads that connected the ends of the upper belt to the turret support tubes.
The armor of the main-gun turrets and their supporting tubes was 10 inches thick (Krupp armor in ''Poltava'', nickel steel in the other two) with roofs thick. The turrets of the secondary armament had 5-inch sides with roofs. The six-inch guns in the hull embrasures were unprotected. The sides of the
conning tower were 9 inches thick while the armor deck in the central citadel was 2 inches thick. Outside the area covered by the belt armor, the flat portion of the deck was thick, while the sloped portion was thick.
Ships
Service
![Sinking of the Petropavlovsk](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dd/Sinking_of_the_Petropavlovsk.jpg)
''Petropavlovsk'' was the first of the sisters to enter service; she departed
Kronstadt
Kronstadt (russian: Кроншта́дт, Kronshtadt ), also spelled Kronshtadt, Cronstadt or Kronštádt (from german: link=no, Krone for " crown" and ''Stadt'' for "city") is a Russian port city in Kronshtadtsky District of the federal city ...
on 17 October 1899 and reached Port Arthur on 10 May 1900. Upon her arrival, she became flagship of the Pacific Squadron commander, Vice Admiral
Nikolai Skrydlov. The ship supported international efforts to suppress the
Boxer Rebellion in mid-1900. ''Poltava'' and ''Sevastopol'' departed for Port Arthur on 15 October 1900 and arrived on 12 and 13 April 1901 respectively. ''Petropavlovsk'' was the flagship of Vice Admiral
Oskar Stark at the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War in February 1904.
During the Battle of Port Arthur on the second day of the war, ''Poltava'' was hit twice in the aft hull, ''Petropavlovsk'' was hit three times in the bow and ''Sevastopol'' was hit once. Between them, the sisters had two men killed and seven wounded and were not significantly damaged. None of them made any hits on Japanese ships. The Naval Ministry relieved Stark, and he was replaced by Vice Admiral
Stepan Makarov who assumed command on 7 March. On 31 March, ''Petropavlovsk'' and ''Poltava''
sortied to support Russian
cruisers and
destroyers engaging their Japanese counterparts, but they headed back to Port Arthur to join the rest of the Pacific Squadron when the main Japanese battlefleet appeared. They ran into a newly laid
minefield en route and ''Petropavlovsk'' struck at least one of the mines, sinking in less than two minutes. Casualties included Admiral Makarov and his guest, the
war artist Vasily Vereshchagin, 26 other officers and 652 enlisted men. Only 7 officers and 73 crewmen were rescued.
The new commander, Vice Admiral
Wilgelm Vitgeft
Wilhelm Withöft (russian: Вильгельм Карлович Витгефт, tr. ; October 14, 1847 – August 10, 1904), more commonly known as Wilgelm Vitgeft, was a Russia-German admiral in the Imperial Russian Navy, noted for his servic ...
, made an attempt to lead the Pacific Squadron to
Vladivostok
Vladivostok ( rus, Владивосто́к, a=Владивосток.ogg, p=vɫədʲɪvɐˈstok) is the largest city and the administrative center of Primorsky Krai, Russia. The city is located around the Golden Horn Bay on the Sea of Japan, c ...
on 23 June, but abandoned the sortie when the squadron was discovered and pursued by the Japanese. While returning to Port Arthur, ''Sevastopol'' struck a mine, and the ship took on an estimated of water; despite the flooding she was able to keep up with the fleet and reached port successfully. While under repair, which lasted until 9 July, a fire broke out aboard the ship, killing 2 crewmen and injuring another 28. All of the 47- and 37-millimeter guns in the lower hull embrasures were removed from ''Poltava'' and ''Sevastopol'' during this time; some were remounted on the superstructure, but others were used to reinforce the land defenses of Port Arthur.
Vitgeft made another attempt to break through the Japanese blockade on 10 August in obedience to a direct order from Tsar
Nicholas II. The squadron was spotted relatively quickly, and the Japanese main fleet intercepted the Russians in the early afternoon. In the resulting Battle of the Yellow Sea, ''Poltava'' and ''Sevastopol'' were the last battleships in the Russian column and the former, slowed by engine problems, became the primary target of the Japanese battleships and
armored cruiser
The armored cruiser was a type of warship of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was designed like other types of cruisers to operate as a long-range, independent warship, capable of defeating any ship apart from a battleship and fast eno ...
s when Vitgeft maneuvered the squadron past the Japanese and forced them into a stern chase. Shortly before sunset, a lucky hit killed Vitgeft and threw the squadron into confusion. The Russian second-in-command,
Rear Admiral Prince
Pavel Ukhtomsky, eventually gained control of the squadron and led most of the ships back to Port Arthur. ''Poltava'' was hit by 12–14 large-caliber shells and lost 12 crewmen killed and 43 wounded; ''Sevastopol'' was hit by several shells that killed 1 and wounded 62 crewmen.
![Russian battleship Poltava destroyed at Port Arthur](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/92/Russian_battleship_Poltava_destroyed_at_Port_Arthur.jpg)
On 23 August, ''Sevastopol'' sortied to bombard Japanese troops and struck a mine near her forward magazines while returning to port. She was badly damaged and three of her magazines were flooded. The ship was towed back into Port Arthur and her repairs lasted until 6 November. In the meantime, the new squadron commander, Rear Admiral
Robert Viren
Robert Nikolayevich Viren (russian: Роберт Николаевич Вирен 6 January 1857 – 14 March 1917), also known as Robert Reinhold von Wirén, was a Baltic German career naval officer in the Imperial Russian Navy, noted for his ...
, decided to use the men and guns of the Pacific Squadron to reinforce the defenses of Port Arthur, and even more guns were stripped from the squadron's ships. By September ''Poltava'' had dismounted three 6-inch, four 47- and twenty-six 37-millimeter guns, and ''Sevastopol'' lost one 47- and twenty-six 37-millimeter guns. Both ships were lightly damaged by shells in October when the
Imperial Japanese Army
The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...
's siege guns began firing blindly into the harbor. The capture of
Hill 203, which overlooked the harbor, on 5 December allowed them to fire directly at the Russian ships, and ''Poltava'' was sunk in shallow water that same day by a shell that started a fire in a magazine that eventually exploded. By 7 December all of the Russian battleships except ''Sevastopol'' had been sunk and the ship's captain,
Nikolai von Essen
Nikolai Ottovich von Essen (russian: Никола́й О́ттович Э́ссен, tr. ; – ) was a Russian naval commander and admiral descended from the Baltic German noble Essen family. For more than two centuries, his ancestors had ...
, anchored her under the guns of the remaining
coast defense guns outside the harbor. He rigged
torpedo net
Torpedo nets were a passive ship defensive device against torpedoes. They were in common use from the 1890s until the Second World War. They were superseded by the anti-torpedo bulge and torpedo belts.
Origins
With the introduction of the White ...
s and laid a minefield around his ship that thwarted repeated attacks until 16 December when one torpedo struck the ship in the stern during a blinding snowstorm. Badly damaged, ''Sevastopol'' was towed to deep water about two weeks later, when Port Arthur surrendered on 2 January 1905 and scuttled.
![Tango1908-1909](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8f/Tango1908-1909.jpg)
''Poltava'' was subsequently raised, repaired and reclassified as a first-class
coastal defense ship
Coastal defence ships (sometimes called coastal battleships or coast defence ships) were warships built for the purpose of coastal defence, mostly during the period from 1860 to 1920. They were small, often cruiser-sized warships that sacrifi ...
in the
Imperial Japanese Navy
The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrend ...
. Renamed ''Tango'' (丹後), she served as a gunnery training ship and participated in the
siege of Tsingtao
The siege of Tsingtao (or Tsingtau) was the attack on the German port of Tsingtao (now Qingdao) in China during World War I by Japan and the United Kingdom. The siege was waged against Imperial Germany between 27 August and 7 November 1914. ...
at the beginning of World War I. She was sold back to Russia in March 1916 as the countries were now allies against the
Central Powers
The Central Powers, also known as the Central Empires,german: Mittelmächte; hu, Központi hatalmak; tr, İttifak Devletleri / ; bg, Централни сили, translit=Tsentralni sili was one of the two main coalitions that fought in ...
and arrived in Vladivostok on 2 April 1916. Renamed ''Chesma'' (''Чесма''), because her original name was being used by a , the ship arrived in
Port Said, Egypt, on 19 September, and later supported efforts to intimidate the
Greek Government
Greece is a parliamentary representative democratic republic, where the President of Greece is the head of state and the Prime Minister of Greece is the head of government within a multi-party system. Legislative power is vested in both the go ...
into supporting
Allied operations in
Macedonia. She arrived at
Alexandrovsk on 16 January 1917 after a brief refit in
Birkenhead
Birkenhead (; cy, Penbedw) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England; historically, it was part of Cheshire until 1974. The town is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the south bank of the River Mersey, opposite Liver ...
and became flagship of the
Arctic Flotilla. Her crew joined the Bolsheviks in October 1917 and ''Chesma'' was captured by the British in
Murmansk
Murmansk (Russian: ''Мурманск'' lit. "Norwegian coast"; Finnish: ''Murmansk'', sometimes ''Muurmanski'', previously ''Muurmanni''; Norwegian: ''Norskekysten;'' Northern Sámi: ''Murmánska;'' Kildin Sámi: ''Мурман ланнҍ'') ...
in March 1918 during the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War. The ship was already in poor condition, and the British immobilized her when they departed Russia in October 1919. She was stricken from the
Navy List
A Navy Directory, formerly the Navy List or Naval Register is an official list of naval officers, their ranks and seniority, the ships which they command or to which they are appointed, etc., that is published by the government or naval autho ...
on 3 July 1924 and subsequently scrapped.
Notes
Footnotes
Sources
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External links
*
''Petropavlovsk''-class battleships
{{WWI Russian ships
Battleship classes
Petropavlovsk class battleship (1897)