History of the series "Emperor Nicholas I. Battleships Battleship Nicholas I
"Emperor Alexander III" was the third among the ships of the class "Empress Maria" - dreadnoughts launched in the Black Sea and designed to combat the fleet Ottoman Turkey. It was named in honor of Emperor Alexander III, who inherited the throne after the death of his brother in 1881 ( in fact, Alexander's brother, Nikolai Alexandrovich, died after a short illness - approx. per.). Although several assassination attempts were also made on Alexander III, he died of natural causes in 1894. As a conservative, he reversed many of his father's reforms, indirectly sparking revolutionary sentiment in Russia in the early 20th century. The design of the ship was an improved class of battleships "Gangut" (related to which the ships were built in the Baltic), but "Alexander" carried much heavier armor. This class of ships was equipped with twelve 12-inch guns ( 305 mm - approx. ed), placed on four platforms of three barrels and distributed along the horizontal axis of the ship (they were in the same plane). With a displacement of twenty-four thousand tons, the ship could accelerate to twenty-two knots.
Due to rivalry with the Ottomans Black Sea Fleet remained the only Russian fleet that was not disbanded after the Russo-Japanese War. The dreadnoughts Sultan Osman I and Reshadie ordered by the Ottomans (later renamed EVK Egincourt and EVK Erin) would provide the Turks with a decisive superiority over the five obsolete Russian battleships remaining in service. "Emperor Alexander III" and his two twins were supposed to solve this problem. After the outbreak of the war, Great Britain captured both Turkish battleships, but the battlecruiser Goeben, transferred by the Germans, allowed the Turks to maintain their presence in the Black Sea. This meant that the situation was not too different from that expected by the Russian command.
Laid down in 1911, the Emperor Alexander III suffered from a series of design and production problems that slowed the ship's launch. The scarcity of resources caused by the war delayed the completion of the work by a year. In addition, to match the Turkish forces, Russian authorities accelerated the production of two twins "Alexander III" to the detriment of the "Alexander". The descent of two battleships into the water briefly provided Russian fleet superiority in the Black Sea, at least until the accidental explosion of the Empress Maria, which equalized the forces of the parties.
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The National Interest 16.02.2017February Revolution 1917 exacerbated the chaos. The provisional government took control of "Emperor Alexander III" and renamed it "Will". Despite the fact that it was still not completed, the ship went to sea. However, at that time, neither the Provisional Government nor the Bolsheviks were able to consolidate their power in southern Ukraine, and a few months later Volya was appropriated by one of several independent Ukrainian governments that emerged after the revolution. A few months later, the inexorable advance of the Reichswehr secured the Germans control over a large part of the Black Sea. According to Brest Treaty"Will" and its remaining twins passed to Germany. The revolutionary team of Free Russia (as the Empress Catherine was renamed) prepared to scuttle the ship, however, she was captured by the Germans, renamed the Volga, and commissioned into the German fleet on October 15, 1918, still unfinished. The Germans laid down their arms on November 11, 1918 and handed over the Volga to British control. The British did not want to leave the ship to the Bolsheviks, and therefore took it to Izmir under the flag of the Royal Navy.
In 1919 Britain, the United States, France and Japan set out to nip the Bolshevik revolution in the bud through a combination of direct intervention and support. white movement. The British handed over the Volga to the Whites, who put the ship on alert and renamed it General Alekseev in honor of the imperial and counter-revolutionary Russian general Mikhail Alekseev. "General Alekseev" carried out shelling of the Bolshevik forces deployed on the Black Sea coast, until the Reds crushed the Whites occupying the Crimea in the middle of 1920. Fleeing from Bolshevik tyranny, General Alekseev led a battered fleet that left the Crimea and left the Black Sea in November 1920. Nicknamed the Wrangel fleet (after the last white commander remaining in the region), it included the Alekseev, an obsolete battleship, two cruisers, a dozen destroyers, four submarines, and several small craft. In addition to the crews of the respective ships, the fleet accommodated four and a half thousand refugees.
"General Alekseev" traveled to Bizerte, the French colony in Tunisia, where he was detained by the French until 1924, in which France formally abandoned its policy of containment of the Soviet Union and recognized the Bolshevik government. France and the USSR could not come to an agreement regarding the return of the ship, partly because of her poor condition, and partly because of the French demand to pay the costs of maintaining her for the previous several years. The extent to which the condition of the Alekseev was inferior to that of other old Russian battleships in the Baltic is questionable, and with some probability the USSR could use it in the Black Sea. In any case, the General Alekseev remained with the French, who gradually scrapped it in Bizerte over the next decade.
Oddly enough, the story doesn't end there. In early 1940, France transferred the Alekseev's main gun battery to Finland to counter the Soviet invasion. Eight guns reached their destination, four more were captured by the Germans after the invasion of Norway. The Germans installed them in coastal fortifications on the captured island of Guernsey. The Finns used six of their guns for coastal defense and as mobile artillery, eventually losing two of them. Soviet Union, which, in turn, used them as coastal artillery until the 1990s. One gun platform and one gun remained with the Finns and were placed in a military museum.
The design of the ship, with four gun platforms and a smooth deck, was a dead end and gave rise to surprisingly ugly battleships. Considering that the Soviets failed to build a single battleship during the interwar period, it is difficult to judge how much the Alekseev and its sister ships influenced the production of Soviet battleships. However, the very fact that these hopelessly outdated battleships were built for the imperial fleet testifies in what direction the empire was moving before the revolution.
Robert Farley is a frequent contributor to The National Interest and is also the author of The Book of Battleships. He is a Senior Lecturer at the Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce at the University of Kentucky. His professional areas include military doctrine, national security and maritime affairs. He blogs at Lawyers, Guns and Money, Information Dissimination and The Diplomat.
The materials of InoSMI contain only assessments of foreign media and do not reflect the position of the editors of InoSMI.
When designing the "Emperor Nicholas I" - the fourth battleship for the Black Sea - the designers largely took into account the shortcomings of the "Gangut". With the same artillery of the main caliber, he had significantly enhanced armor protection.
The hull was recruited along the longitudinal system and was divided into compartments by 24 transverse bulkheads. For the first time in Russia, it was planned to install an active roll damping system (to improve the accuracy of artillery fire). Rolling reduction was achieved by automatic transfusion of water from the tanks of one side into the tanks of the other.
Armor weight, excluding turrets, was 9417 tons. those. 34.5% of the design displacement. But, in addition to quantity, quality improved: all armor plates (each 5.2 m high) were connected by vertical dowels of the “double dovetail” type, which turned the main belt into a monolithic shell. The belt protected the ship's side from the middle deck and 1.75 m below the normal waterline, extending 2/3 of the battleship's length.
The fore and aft parts of the belt were connected by traverses. Together with the 63 mm armored deck, this created an enclosed citadel, within which were all the vital parts of the ship. Behind the belt were a 75-mm bevel of the armored deck and the same longitudinal bulkhead. The anti-torpedo protection, unlike the armored one, was weak. The underwater explosion in the first phase was resisted by the outer and inner plating, which was supported by the side stringers and transverse bulkheads, and then by the coal pits.
305-mm guns were located in four three-gun turrets, as on their predecessors. The idea of replacing 305 mm guns with 356 mm guns was discussed. The armor protection of the turrets was very powerful: 300 mm front plate and barbette, 200 mm walls and roof, 300 mm rear plates. Anti-mine 130-mm guns were placed in separate casemates under the upper deck. Anti-aircraft armament was to be four 102-mm guns on the end towers.
The power plant surpassed in its power the ships of the "Empress Maria" type by three thousand "horses".
The fate of the battleship was sad. In October 1916, he went to the water, but never entered service.
On April 29, 1917, the battleship was renamed "Democracy", and six months later, by a special decree of the Provisional Government, its construction was suspended "until a more favorable time." The ensuing revolution, civil war and economic devastation in Russia made the completion of the dreadnought unrealistic. In January 1918, all work on it finally stopped.
For eleven years, the huge building of "Democracy" stood at the factory wall. It was planned to complete it according to an improved project, but in the end, on June 28, 1927, the battleship was sent in tow from Nikolaev to Sevastopol, and it was dismantled there in 18 months.
1924-1936
20-130mm/L55 AU PMK B-7
"Emperor Alexander III"- battleship-dreadnought [ ] of the Russian Imperial Navy type "Empress Maria".
History
Construction
Civil War
Shipwreck
In 1944, the Germans installed four guns on the Mius battery, on the island of Jersey in the English Channel, which is one of the fortified points of the Atlantic Wall. The Germans handed over three more guns to Finland, for a recoverable battery on the Hanko Peninsula. In September 1944, after the signing of an armistice agreement with Finland, the battery was returned to the USSR and was in service. And on the Mius battery, the guns stood until their final dismantling in 1951.
Legacy of the battleship "Emperor Alexander III"
Towers of the main caliber
The device of the towers of the battleship "Emperor Alexander III" influenced the development of the designs of the towers of the new French battleships of the "Dunkirk" type.
Guns in Finland
12 305-mm guns of the battleship were stored in the arsenal in Bizerte and were offered by the Germans in 1940 [ ] Finland, and after the negotiations were simply donated. But the Finns received only eight guns, which were used by Finland for coastal batteries on the islands of Makiluoto and Kuivisaari.
At the end of the Great Patriotic War some of these guns were transferred to the Soviet Union and used to equip Soviet coastal batteries. Currently, one of the guns, mounted on a special railway chassis, is located at the Krasnaya Gorka Fort, another is on display at the railway museum at Varshavsky Station in Saint Petersburg, and a third is on display at the museum on Poklonnaya Gora in Moscow.
Guns on the Atlantic Wall
Four guns did not have time to arrive in Finland and were captured by the Germans, who used them to equip the Mirus battery of the Atlantic Wall.
It is a common misconception that in 1957 two of these 305 mm guns were used in the filming of the adventure film The Guns of Navarone.
see also
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Notes
Literature
- R. M. Melnikov. battleships type "Empress Maria".
- N. R. Gutan. From Sevastopol to Novorossiysk.
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An excerpt characterizing Emperor Alexander III (battleship)
“That would be good,” she said. I didn't want anything and don't want to.She kicked her dog off her knees and straightened the folds of her dress.
“This is gratitude, this is gratitude to the people who sacrificed everything for him,” she said. - Wonderful! Very good! I don't need anything, prince.
“Yes, but you are not alone, you have sisters,” Prince Vasily answered.
But the princess did not listen to him.
“Yes, I knew this for a long time, but I forgot that, apart from baseness, deceit, envy, intrigues, except ingratitude, the blackest ingratitude, I could not expect anything in this house ...
Do you or don't you know where this will is? asked Prince Vasily with even more twitching of his cheeks than before.
- Yes, I was stupid, I still believed in people and loved them and sacrificed myself. And only those who are vile and vile have time. I know whose intrigues it is.
The princess wanted to get up, but the prince held her by the hand. The princess had the appearance of a man suddenly disillusioned with the whole human race; she glared angrily at her interlocutor.
“There is still time, my friend. You remember, Katish, that all this happened by accident, in a moment of anger, illness, and then forgotten. Our duty, my dear, is to correct his mistake, to ease his last moments by preventing him from doing this injustice, not to let him die thinking that he made those people unhappy ...
“Those people who sacrificed everything for him,” the princess picked up, trying to get up again, but the prince did not let her in, “which he never knew how to appreciate. No, mon cousin,” she added with a sigh, “I will remember that in this world no reward can be expected, that in this world there is neither honor nor justice. In this world, one must be cunning and evil.
- Well, voyons, [listen,] calm down; I know your beautiful heart.
No, I have a bad heart.
“I know your heart,” the prince repeated, “I appreciate your friendship and would like you to have the same opinion about me.” Calm down and parlons raison, [let's talk plainly,] while there is time - maybe a day, maybe an hour; tell me everything you know about the will, and, most importantly, where it is: you must know. We'll take it now and show it to the count. He probably forgot about him already and wants to destroy him. You understand that my one desire is to sacredly fulfill his will; I then just came here. I'm only here to help him and you.
“Now I understand everything. I know whose intrigues it is. I know, - said the princess.
“That is not the point, my soul.
- This is your protegee, [favorite,] your dear Princess Drubetskaya, Anna Mikhailovna, whom I would not want to have a maid, this vile, vile woman.
– Ne perdons point de temps. [Let's not waste time.]
- Oh, don't talk! Last winter she rubbed herself in here and said such nasty things, such nasty things to the count about all of us, especially Sophie - I can’t repeat it - that the count became ill and did not want to see us for two weeks. At this time, I know that he wrote this nasty, vile paper; but I thought this paper meant nothing.
– Nous y voila, [That's the point.] Why didn't you tell me before?
“In the mosaic briefcase he keeps under his pillow. Now I know,” said the princess, without answering. “Yes, if there is a sin for me, a big sin, then it is hatred for this bastard,” the princess almost shouted, completely changed. “And why is she rubbing herself here?” But I will tell her everything, everything. The time will come!
While such conversations were taking place in the waiting room and in the princess's rooms, the carriage with Pierre (who was sent for) and Anna Mikhailovna (who found it necessary to go with him) drove into the courtyard of Count Bezukhoy. When the wheels of the carriage sounded softly on the straw laid under the windows, Anna Mikhailovna, turning to her companion with consoling words, convinced herself that he was sleeping in the corner of the carriage, and woke him up. Waking up, Pierre got out of the carriage after Anna Mikhailovna, and then only thought of that meeting with his dying father that awaited him. He noticed that they did not drive up to the front, but to the back entrance. While he was getting off the footboard, two men in bourgeois clothes hurriedly ran away from the entrance into the shadow of the wall. Pausing, Pierre saw in the shadow of the house on both sides several more of the same people. But neither Anna Mikhailovna, nor the footman, nor the coachman, who could not but see these people, paid no attention to them. Therefore, this is so necessary, Pierre decided with himself, and followed Anna Mikhailovna. Anna Mikhailovna walked with hasty steps up the dimly lit narrow stone stairs, calling Pierre, who was lagging behind her, who, although he did not understand why he had to go to the count at all, and still less why he had to go along the back stairs, but , judging by the confidence and haste of Anna Mikhailovna, he decided to himself that this was necessary. Halfway down the stairs they were almost knocked down by some people with buckets, who, clattering with their boots, ran towards them. These people pressed against the wall to let Pierre and Anna Mikhailovna through, and did not show the slightest surprise at the sight of them.
- Are there half princesses here? Anna Mikhailovna asked one of them...
“Here,” the footman answered in a bold, loud voice, as if everything was already possible now, “the door is on the left, mother.”
“Perhaps the count did not call me,” said Pierre, while he went out onto the platform, “I would have gone to my place.
Anna Mikhailovna stopped to catch up with Pierre.
Ah, mon ami! - she said with the same gesture as in the morning with her son, touching his hand: - croyez, que je souffre autant, que vous, mais soyez homme. [Believe me, I suffer no less than you, but be a man.]
- Right, I'll go? asked Pierre, looking affectionately through his spectacles at Anna Mikhailovna.
- Ah, mon ami, oubliez les torts qu "on a pu avoir envers vous, pensez que c" est votre pere ... peut etre al "agonie." She sighed. - Je vous ai tout de suite aime comme mon fils. Fiez vous a moi, Pierre. Je n "oublirai pas vos interets. [Forget, my friend, what was wrong against you. Remember that this is your father... Maybe in agony. I immediately fell in love with you like a son. Trust me, Pierre. I will not forget your interests.]
Pierre did not understand; again it seemed to him even more strongly that all this must be so, and he obediently followed Anna Mikhaylovna, who had already opened the door.
The door opened into the back entrance. In the corner sat an old servant of the princesses and knitted a stocking. Pierre had never been in this half, did not even imagine the existence of such chambers. Anna Mikhailovna asked the girl who overtook them, with a decanter on a tray (calling her sweetheart and dove) about the health of the princesses and dragged Pierre further along the stone corridor. From the corridor, the first door to the left led to the living rooms of the princesses. The maid, with a decanter, in a hurry (as everything was done in a hurry at that moment in this house) did not close the door, and Pierre and Anna Mikhailovna, passing by, involuntarily looked into the room where, talking, the elder princess and Prince Vasily. Seeing the passersby, Prince Vasily made an impatient movement and leaned back; the princess jumped up and with a desperate gesture slammed the door with all her might, shutting it.
This gesture was so unlike the princess’s usual calmness, the fear expressed on the face of Prince Vasily was so unusual for his importance that Pierre, stopping, inquiringly, through his glasses, looked at his leader.
Anna Mikhailovna did not express surprise, she only smiled slightly and sighed, as if to show that she had expected all this.
- Soyez homme, mon ami, c "est moi qui veillerai a vos interets, [Be a man, my friend, I will look after your interests.] - she said in response to his look and went even faster down the corridor.
Pierre did not understand what was the matter, and even less what it meant veiller a vos interets, [observe your interests,] but he understood that all this should be so. They went down a corridor into a dimly lit hall that adjoined the count's waiting room. It was one of those cold and luxurious rooms that Pierre knew from the front porch. But even in this room, in the middle, there was an empty bathtub and water had been spilled over the carpet. To meet them on tiptoe, paying no attention to them, a servant and a clerk with a censer. They entered the reception room, familiar to Pierre, with two Italian windows, access to the winter garden, with a large bust and a full-length portrait of Catherine. All the same people, in almost the same positions, sat whispering in the waiting room. Everyone, falling silent, looked back at Anna Mikhailovna, who had come in, with her weepy, pale face, and at the fat, big Pierre, who, with lowered head, meekly followed her.
Anna Mikhailovna's face expressed the consciousness that the decisive moment had arrived; she, with the receptions of a businesslike Petersburg lady, entered the room, not letting go of Pierre, even bolder than in the morning. She felt that since she was leading the one whom she wanted to see dying, her reception was assured. With a quick glance at everyone in the room, and noticing the count's confessor, she, not only bending over, but suddenly becoming smaller, swam up to the confessor with a shallow amble and respectfully accepted the blessing of one, then another clergyman.
“Thank God that we had time,” she said to the clergyman, “all of us, relatives, were so afraid. This young man is the son of a count,” she added more quietly. - Terrible moment!
Having spoken these words, she approached the doctor.
“Cher docteur,” she told him, “ce jeune homme est le fils du comte ... y a t il de l "espoir? [this young man is the son of a count ... Is there any hope?]
The doctor silently, with a quick movement, raised his eyes and shoulders. Anna Mikhailovna raised her shoulders and eyes with exactly the same movement, almost closing them, sighed and moved away from the doctor to Pierre. She turned especially respectfully and tenderly sadly to Pierre.
- Ayez confiance en Sa misericorde, [Trust in His mercy,] - she said to him, showing him a sofa to sit down to wait for her, she silently went to the door at which everyone was looking, and following the barely audible sound of this door she disappeared behind her.
Pierre, deciding to obey his leader in everything, went to the sofa, which she pointed out to him. As soon as Anna Mikhaylovna disappeared, he noticed that the eyes of everyone in the room were fixed on him with more than curiosity and sympathy. He noticed that everyone was whispering, pointing at him with eyes, as if with fear and even servility. He was shown respect that had never been shown before: a lady unknown to him, who spoke with clerics, got up from her seat and invited him to sit down, the adjutant picked up the glove dropped by Pierre and gave it to him; the doctors fell silent respectfully as he passed them, and stepped aside to make room for him. Pierre wanted to first sit down in another place, so as not to embarrass the lady, he wanted to pick up his glove himself and go around the doctors, who did not even stand on the road; but he suddenly felt that it would be indecent, he felt that on this night he was a person who was obliged to perform some kind of terrible and expected by all ceremony, and that therefore he had to accept services from everyone. He silently accepted the adjutant's glove, sat down in the lady's place, placing his large hands on symmetrically exposed knees, in the naive pose of an Egyptian statue, and decided to himself that all this should be exactly like that and that he should not to get lost and not to do stupid things, one should not act according to one’s own considerations, but one must leave oneself completely to the will of those who led him.
It should be noted that the Shtandart yacht was distinguished by a very high level comfort, but at the same time, not to the detriment of comfort at all, she also had high seaworthiness and was rightly considered the best yacht of this class in the world among such ships. In the book of the American writer Robert Mass “Nikolai and Alexandra”, it is written about her like this: “Wherever the Shtandart moored - in the Baltic or near the Crimean rocks - it was a model of maritime elegance. The size of a small cruiser, equipped with a coal-fired steam engine, it was nevertheless designed as a sailing ship. His huge bowsprit, decorated with a gold monogram on a black background, directed forward, as if an arrow shot from a bow, seemed to continue the nose of the clipper. Three slender, varnished masts and two white chimneys rose above the deck. White canvas awnings were stretched over the scrubbed decks, wicker tables and chairs shaded from the sun. Below the upper deck there were living rooms, salons, saloons, sheathed in mahogany, with parquet floors, crystal chandeliers, candelabra, velvet curtains. Premises intended for royal family, were draped with chintz. In addition to the ship's church and spacious cabins for the imperial retinue, the yacht had rooms for officers, mechanics, boiler engineers, deck crew, barmaids, footmen, maids and a whole platoon of guards sailors. In addition, there was enough space on the lower decks to accommodate a brass band and balalaika players.”
Imperial yacht "Standard". On the roads of Yalta, 1898.
In the presence of the most august persons on the Shtandart, the yacht was always accompanied by an escort of 2-3 destroyers. Some of them could stand not far from the yacht, while others cruised leisurely on the horizon.
Imperial salon.
Cabinet of Nicholas II.
During the day, the yacht sailed slowly between the rocky islands, generously scattered by nature off the coast of Finland, periodically deepening into the picturesque coastal bays, bordered along the coast by the trunks of tall ship pines. By evening, they anchored in some secluded deserted bay, and in the morning the passengers of the Shtandart were already admiring its calm clear water, a bottom with yellow sand and red granite boulders overgrown with dense shrubs.
Salon of the Empress.
Canteen members imperial family.
The Empress, who suffered from private ailments, rarely went ashore, and spent most of her time on deck. Since 1907, Anna Alexandrovna Vyrubova became her maid of honor, and now, together with Alexandra Fedorovna, she spent a lot of time on the Shtandart yacht and left interesting memories of this. When it was warm, the empress and the maid of honor basked in the sun in armchairs on deck, played music, wrote letters and admired the sea views. In the evenings, when Nicholas II played billiards with his adjutants or smoked cigarettes filled with his own hands on the deck, Alexandra Fedorovna and Vyrubova were engaged in reading aloud to each other or sewing by the light of an electric lamp.
Bedroom of the heir-tsarevich.
Lunch of the lower ranks.
In good weather, Nicholas II used to take long walks with his daughters through the Finnish forests that grew along the banks of the bays. At the same time, he often let go of the guards accompanying them and walked with them alone. The girls were engaged in collecting bouquets of flowers, wild berries, mushrooms, gray moss growing on the rocks and small pieces of quartz sparkling with magic sparks. Travelers, full of impressions, returned to the yacht for midday tea, which was served to them on the upper deck to the marches performed by a brass band, or to the virtuoso playing of a group of balalaika players included in the staff of the yacht.
Princesses Olga and Tatiana aboard the Shtandart.
In the evenings, the imperial yacht turned into a real cradle. Her light swaying on the water lulled everyone to sleep. So, when the stewards began to lay the table for dinner in the living room, there was very often simply no one to eat it: the entire imperial family was already fast asleep.
Tatyana in a sailor suit.
While on board the Shtandart, Nicholas II continued to deal with state affairs, so ministers and secret police officials arrived on destroyers and boats for reports. The schedule of his annual June two-week vacation on board the yacht, the emperor built in such a way that he worked two days a week and rested five days. During this time of rest, neither ministers nor high officials of the secret police were allowed to board the yacht. But important reports, as well as various documents and press, were delivered to the Shtandart from St. Petersburg daily by courier boat.
The Imperial family on board the Shtandart yacht.
In her memoirs, Vyrubova spoke in detail about what happened on the Shtandart yacht in her presence. For example, about the fact that while the daughters of the emperor were still small, a special sailor-nanny (as they were called on the Shtandart - uncle) was responsible for each of them, who were engaged in ensuring that the child entrusted to his care did not fall overboard.
Sablin N.P. - the author of memoirs about the service on the "Standart" in the company of grand duchesses and yacht officers.
Then the Grand Duchesses grew up and received parental permission to swim in the sea on their own, but the “uncles” were not canceled. Just so as not to embarrass them during water procedures, they were nearby on the shore and, standing on some hill, watched them through binoculars.
Imperial yacht "Standard" in the Revel Bay. King Edward VII and Emperor Nicholas II.
It is clear that the older the princesses became, the more this guardianship burdened them, and they, like all children, strove to show that they were no longer “little ones”. It happened that the princesses teased their uncles, and even arranged various tricks for them. However, Nicholas II never interfered in these relations between his daughters and sailors-nannies. But every year, for their hard and very delicate work, all the uncles were given a nominal gold watch as a gift from the emperor, that is, it was highly valued.
King Edward VII and Emperor Nicholas II aboard the Shtandart in 1908.
It happens, Vyrubova recalled, that the Shtandart dropped anchor in the waters of the possessions of both Russian and Finnish nobility. And their owners could often meet the Russian emperor on the threshold of their house in the morning, who politely asked their permission to play on their tennis court. By the way, Nicholas II was an excellent tennis player, which was not noted by her alone.
The life of the imperial family on the yacht was easy and carefree. It was her own world, a world away from troubles and sorrows, a world in an "ivory tower".
Alexandra Feodorovna with Tsarevich Alexei.
Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna and British Princess Victoria aboard the Shtandart yacht in Reval.
Head of the Chancellery of the Ministry of the Imperial Court A.A. Mosolov in his notes “At the court of the last Russian Emperor”, published in 1993, wrote: “The empress herself became sociable and cheerful as soon as she stepped on the deck of the Shtandart. The Empress participated in the children's games and talked for a long time with the officers. These officers obviously occupied a very privileged position. Some of them were invited to the highest table every day. The sovereign and his family often accepted, for their part, an invitation to tea in the wardroom ... The junior officers of the "Standard" little by little joined the games of the grand duchesses. When they grew up, the games imperceptibly turned into a whole series of flirtations - of course, quite harmless ones. The word "flirt" I do not use in the vulgar sense that is now given to it; - The officers of the "Standard" were best compared with pages or knights of the Middle Ages. Many times these young people have flown past me, and never have I heard a single word of criticism. In any case, these officers were wonderfully trained ... "
Tsarevich Alexei and his uncle Andrei Derevenko.
And Vyrubova recalls how “... passing by the door of Tsarevich Alexei Nikolayevich, I saw the Empress Mother sitting on his bed: she was carefully peeling an apple for him, and they chatted merrily.”
The Sovereign-Emperor with his wife on board the Shtandart yacht.
In any case, the emperor, once on his yacht, tried to spend as much time as possible with his children. Moreover, the large size of the yacht turned it into an excellent playground. Young princesses, for example, rode on her deck on roller skates!
Princess Anastasia plays with kittens...
Princesses Maria and Tatiana play with kittens, 1908
But it cannot be said that the Shtandart was only a kind of houseboat for the royal family. The yacht was very often used to participate in various diplomatic and representative events. At that time in Europe there was no such emperor, king or president who at least once would not be on this ship, did not set foot on its sparkling clean deck and did not admire its decor, brave crew and interior.
Maria, Olga, Anastasia and Tatyana… They still don’t know what fate awaits them in the future…
"We're here on business." Minister of the Imperial Court Baron V.B. Frederiks and Chairman of the Council of Ministers P.A. Stolypin on the deck of the Shtandart yacht. Finland, 1910
In 1909, it was on board the Shtandart that Nicholas II made his last visit to England, during which King Edward VII staged a parade of the Royal Navy in honor of his crowned guest. Both sovereigns were on board the royal yacht Victoria and Albert, which sailed between three lines of battleships and dreadnoughts. At the same time, flags were lowered on the British warships in front of the yacht, the ships saluted with gunshots, and the orchestras on the decks played the hymns “God Save the Tsar!” and “God Save the King!”. King Edward VII and Emperor Nicholas in the form of an English admiral stood side by side on the deck and saluted, and thousands of British sailors shouted a loud "Hurrah" to them.
Nicholas II conducts a review of the pre-dreadnought battleships of the Black Sea Fleet.
As for Nicholas II and Kaiser Wilhelm, the last time they had a chance to meet was in June 1912, and again on board the Shtandart yacht. Then both the Shtandart and the yacht of Emperor Wilhelm, the Hohenzollern, anchored side by side in the port of Revel (now Tallinn). On June 30, 1912, Nikolai wrote in a letter to his mother: “Emperor Wilhelm stayed for three days, and everything went quite well. He was extremely cheerful and affable... he gave good gifts to the children and gave Alexei a lot of board games... On the last morning he invited all the officers of the "Standart" to his yacht for a snack with champagne. This reception lasted an hour and a half, after which he told me that our officers drank 60 bottles of his champagne.
Photograph of Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich of Russia with sailors, 1908.
Interestingly, his white and gold yacht Hohenzollern had a displacement of 4,000 tons and was therefore much smaller than the Shtandart, and the Kaiser could not hide his envy looking at this beautiful vessel. “He said,” Nicholas II wrote to his mother, “that he would be happy to receive her as a gift ...”. But ... no matter how much he hinted to Nikolai, how good it would be, he did not heed his hints, and in the end, the Shtandart remained with him.
The engine compartment of the Shtandart yacht.
One of the voyages in the skerries ended in an accident. Here is her description, made by Robert Massey in 1907, that is, immediately after the incident: “The yacht went through a narrow strait into the open sea. Passengers were seated on deck. Suddenly, with a deafening crash, the yacht hit an underwater rock. Dishes overturned, chairs fell, musicians fell onto the deck. Water rushed into the hold, the Shtandart tilted and began to sink. Sirens howled, sailors began to launch boats. At that moment, there was no three-year-old crown prince, and both parents were simply distraught with grief. It turned out that the sailor-nanny Derevenko, when the Shtandart hit the rock, grabbed Alexei in his arms and carried him to the bow of the yacht, believing quite correctly that it would be easier for him to save the heir from this part of the ship when the yacht was completely destroyed.
Nicholas II was at the rails all the time, watching the launch of the boats. He often looked at his watch, counting how many inches per minute the Standard was sinking into the water. He estimated that there were 20 minutes left. However, thanks to her airtight bulkheads, the yacht did not sink. And it was later renovated.
"Yacht "Standard" - "egg" of Faberge.
Olga, the sister of Nicholas II, recalled that while the Standard was being repaired, sailors from the yacht were often invited to the Mariinsky Theater to play the roles of slaves and warriors there, for example, in the opera Aida. “It was funny to see these tall men standing awkwardly on stage, wearing helmets and sandals and showing off their bare, hairy legs. Despite the frantic signals of the director, they goggled at the royal box, smiled broadly and cheerfully at us.
"Yacht "Standard" - "egg" of Faberge. Close-up.
IN Soviet time from the yacht "Standart" they made the minelayer "Marty", but this is already a completely different ...
Externally, the project differed from the ships of the "Empress Maria" type by modified bow lines to reduce the bow wave that arose on the move, carried out at the suggestion of the head of the Shipbuilding Department of the GUK, Lieutenant General P. F. Veshkurtsov. As a result of a number of measures to improve the project, "Emperor Nicholas I" became somewhat heavier and more than the first three ships of the series. Full displacement increased to 27,830 tons; the greatest length was 182.4 m, width - 28.9 m, draft - 9 m.
Booking
The ship was unique in terms of armor, designed as a result of experimental firing carried out in the Russian fleet on the full-scale compartment of a battleship. Such a compartment, which included side armor, armored decks, a casemate, internal structural protection with an armored bulkhead and a conning tower, was built according to the drawings of the Baltic battleship Sevastopol and built from one side into the hull of the Chesma battleship handed over to the port.
The very first test firing at the decommissioned battleship revealed a significant lack of armor for all ships of the project. The rigid support contour, on which the armor plates were superimposed, did not interfere with their deflection, as a result of which the thin skin behind the armor was torn, forming a leak. This problem could be solved only by making the belt monolithic, that is, by tying the plates together so that they would not allow the projectile to push the plate into the body. Therefore, a radical change in design was undertaken - a monolithic armor belt appeared from plates connected by dowels of the “double dovetail” type (before that, keyed fastenings of armor plates were implemented on Izmail)
Armament
The battleship was planned to be armed with 356-mm main battery artillery, but the project was revised under the pretext of the difficulty of supplying various-caliber artillery and the requisition by Great Britain of the Turkish battleship Reshadiye with a 13.5-inch (343-mm) main battery, so the usual 305 was put on Nicholas I -mm guns. The resulting displacement reserve (about 4000 tons) was used to strengthen the armor - the thickness of the armor bevel and the longitudinal anti-torpedo armor bulkhead was increased to 75 mm, and the armor of the middle deck was up to 63 mm, the side bevels on the lower deck were up to 75 mm. Due to the abandonment of the aft conning tower, the armor of the bow conning tower (walls 400 mm, roof 250 mm), main artillery towers (forehead 300 mm, roof and side edges 200 mm) and elevators (300-225 mm) were strengthened.
