Model of the battleship Empress Maria. "Empress Maria". armored cruiser “Kahul”

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

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

• "Empress Maria";

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

Design and main parameters

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

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

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

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

Construction of the ship “Emperor Alexander III”

Armament of battleships of the "Empress Maria" type

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

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

Model “Empress Maria”

Model “Empress Catherine the Great”

Beginning of service - first losses

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

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

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

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

Service of the remaining dreadnoughts

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

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

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

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

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

Ship history:
The decision to strengthen the Black Sea Fleet with new battleships was caused by Turkey’s intention to purchase 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 Navy Ministry insisted on the urgent strengthening of the Black Sea Fleet.

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

battleships “Sevastopol” and “Poltava” on the voyage

This approach made it possible to significantly speed up the process of developing strategic and tactical assignments 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 of 305 mm main caliber guns

The emphasis was placed on the widespread 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 carried out 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 assigned to build ONZiV.
Empress Maria Feodorovna Romanova (wife of Alexander III)

On June 11, 1911, simultaneously with the official laying ceremony, the new ships were enlisted in 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, by order of the Minister of Navy I.K. Grigorovich was ordered to be called ships of the "Empress Maria" type.

Ivan Konstantinovich Grigorovich

The hull design and reservation system of the Chernomorets basically corresponded to the design of the Baltic dreadnoughts, but were partially modified. The Empress Maria had 18 main transverse watertight bulkheads. Twenty triangular-type water-tube boilers fed turbine units driven by four propeller shafts with brass propellers with a diameter of 2.4 m (rotation speed at 21 knots 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 Ministry of the Navy with the Russud plant, the Empress Maria should have been launched no later than July. Full readiness of the ship (presentation for acceptance tests) was planned for August 20, 1915, another four months were allotted for the tests themselves. Such high rates, not inferior to those of advanced European enterprises, were 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 progress of work was affected not only by the growing pains of the factories that were building such large ships for the first time, but also by the “improvements” so characteristic of domestic shipbuilding already during 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 bow was formed. In other words, the ship "sat down like a pig." Fortunately, some constructive raising of the deck in the bow concealed this. The order in England for turbines, auxiliary mechanisms, propeller shafts and stern tube devices, placed at the John Brown plant by the Russud Society, also caused a lot of excitement. There was a smell of gunpowder in the air, and it was only by luck that the Empress Maria managed to receive her turbines in May 1914, delivered by an English steamer that had crossed the straits.

A noticeable disruption in contractor deliveries by November 1914 forced the ministry to agree to new deadlines for the ships' readiness: the Empress Maria in March-April 1915. All efforts were devoted to the speedy introduction of "Maria" into operation. For it, by agreement of the construction plants, the 305 mm gun machines and electrical equipment of the towers that arrived from the Putilov plant were transferred.

According to the wartime equipment approved on January 11, 1915, 30 conductors and 1,135 lower ranks (of which 194 were long-term servicemen) were appointed to the Empress Maria’s command, which were united into eight ship companies. In April-July, new orders from the fleet commander added 50 more people, and the number of officers was increased to 33.

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

By the evening of June 23, 1915, after the consecration of the ship, raising the flag, jack and pennant sprinkled with holy water over the Ingul roadstead, the Empress Maria began the campaign. In the dead of night on June 25, apparently in order to cross 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, test firing was carried out, 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 cover lines (all the way to the Bosphorus!!!), stayed at sea.

Having received 700 tons of coal, on the afternoon of June 29, “Empress Maria” went to sea following 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, conscious of her own greatness and the significance of the moment, the Empress Maria entered the Sevastopol roadstead on the afternoon of June 30, 1915. And the rejoicing that gripped the city and the fleet that day was probably akin to the general joy of those happy days of November 1853, when P.S. returned to the same raid after a brilliant victory at Sinop 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 to sea, would sweep the rather tired Goeben and Breslau out of its borders. Already with these expectations, “Maria” was assigned the role of the first darling 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 sentence on his punishment was to come into force after the end of the war. But the revolution broke out, and the sailors pronounced their verdict: the former commander of the Empress Maria, along with other officers of the Black Sea Fleet, was shot on December 15, 1917 on Malakhov Kurgan without trial or investigation. Buried there, who knows where.

What changes in the balance of forces at sea did the entry into service of the Empress Maria bring about, how did it change with the beginning of the war, and what impact did it have on the construction of subsequent ships? The extremely threatening situation before the war, when the appearance of Turkish dreadnoughts already being equipped for voyage in England 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, either due to the political maneuvers of the British Admiralty or, due to their phenomenal luck, who managed to fool the allied Anglo-French naval forces and broke through to the Dardanelles.

battle cruiser “Goeben”

Normal displacement 22,979 tons, full 25,400 tons. Waterline length 186 m, maximum length 186.6 m, beam 29.4 m (including 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 Parsons steam turbines with direct shaft transmission, located in three compartments. High-pressure turbines (rotor diameter 1900 mm) were located in two bow compartments and rotated external 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 a working steam pressure of 16 atm. The total design power 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 tilt angles from -8 to 13.5°, firing range - 18.1 miles. The main caliber towers were placed in a diagonal pattern. The starboard turret pointed its guns toward the bow, and the port turret pointed toward 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 gun trunnions above the load waterline: bow turret 8.78 m, side turret 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 capacity of 1800 shells, firing range up to 13.5 miles. Mine and anti-aircraft artillery - 12 88/45 mm guns. Ammunition capacity: 3000 shells. Later, instead of four 88 mm, 4 22-pound anti-aircraft guns were installed; and since 1916, all 88-mm guns (except anti-aircraft) 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 Adjustment posts were installed on the ship at the tops of the masts.

Now the Empress Maria has 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 ship construction have also changed. With the beginning 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 acceptance testing program that began with the departure from Nikolaev. Of course, we had to turn a blind eye to many things and, relying on the plant’s obligations, postpone the elimination of deficiencies until after the official acceptance of the ship. Thus, the air refrigeration system for ammunition cellars caused a lot of criticism. It turned out that all the “cold” regularly produced by the “refrigeration machines” was absorbed by the warming electric motors of the fans, which, instead of the theoretical “cold,” drove their heat into the ammunition cellars. The turbines also caused concern, but no significant problems occurred.

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 dock, the commission began testing underwater torpedo tubes. After the battleship was removed from the dock, the devices were tested by fire. All of them were accepted by the commission.

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

Andrey Avgustovich Eberhard

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

By August 25, acceptance tests were completed, although the development of the ship continued for many months. On the instructions of the fleet commander, in order to combat the bow trim, it was necessary to reduce the ammunition of two bow turrets (from 100 to 70 rounds) and the bow group of 130 mm guns (from 245 to 100 rounds).

Everyone knew that with the entry into service of the Empress Maria, the Goeben would now not leave the Bosporus without extreme necessity. 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 the Empress Maria and the cruiser Cahul with destroyers assigned to guard them. This organization made it possible (with the involvement of submarines and aircraft) to carry out a more effective blockade of the Bosporus.

armored cruiser “Kahul”

Technical data:

Year of launch - May 2, 1902
Length - 134.1 m Beam - 16.6 m Draft - 6.8 m Displacement - 7070 t
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
Reservations - 35-70 mm armored deck, 140 mm conning tower, 127 mm turrets, 102 mm casemates
Similar ships: Bogatyr, Oleg, Ochakov

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

And yet, the capture of the Goeben remained the blue dream of the entire crew. More than once the officers of “Maria” had to speak unkindly of the leaders of Genmore, together with Minister A.S. Voevodsky, who cut off at least 2 knots of speed from their ship when drawing up the design assignment, which left no hope for the success of the chase.

Information about the departure 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 was going as well as possible. The course and time of departure of “Breslau” were known, the interception point was calculated without error. The seaplanes accompanying the Maria successfully bombed the UB-7 submarine guarding its exit, preventing it from launching an attack; the destroyers ahead of the Maria intercepted the Breslau at the intended point and engaged it in battle.

seaplane “Voisin” over “Maria”

The hunt unfolded according to all the rules. The destroyers stubbornly pressed the German cruiser trying to escape to the shore, the Cahul relentlessly hung on its tail, frightening the Germans with its salvos, which, however, did not reach. "Empress Maria", having developed full speed, had only to choose the moment for the right salvo. But either the destroyers were not ready to take on the responsibility of adjusting the Maria’s fire, or they were saving the shells from the reduced ammunition load of the bow turret, not risking throwing them at random into the smoke screen with which the Breslau was immediately enveloped when the shells fell dangerously close, but that decisive salvo that could have covered Breslau did not happen. 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, was steadily losing in straight-line distance, which decreased from 136 to 95 cables. The squall that came in was saved by chance. 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 Bosporus.

cruiser Breslau

Displacement 4480 tons, turbine power 29,904 liters. s., speed 27.6 knots. Length between perpendiculars 136 m, width 13.3, average recess 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 propellers: Breslau - 4 propellers, Strasbourg - 2 propellers, Magdeburg and Stralsund - 3 propellers 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, approximately 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 stationed 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 pulled apart the fire hoses and began to fill the turret compartment with water. At 6:20 a.m., 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 rose 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, demolishing the conning tower, bridge, bow funnel and foremast. A hole formed in the hull of the ship behind the tower, from which pieces of twisted metal protruded, flames and smoke came 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 the auxiliary mechanisms was broken, the fire pumps stopped working, and the electric lighting went out. This was followed by another series of small explosions. On the ship, orders were given to flood the cellars of the second, third and fourth towers, and fire hoses were received from port craft that approached the battleship. Firefighting continued. The tugboat turned the ship with its log in the wind.

By 7 a.m. the fire began to subside, the ship stood on an even keel, and it seemed that it would be saved. But two minutes later there was another explosion, more powerful than the previous ones. The battleship began to quickly sink with its bow and list to starboard. When the bow and gun ports went under water, the battleship, having lost stability, capsized upward on its keel 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. Mechanical engineer midshipman Ignatiev, two conductors and 225 sailors were killed.

The next day, October 21, 1916, a special commission to investigate the causes of the death of the battleship Empress Maria, chaired by Admiral N.M. Yakovlev, departed by train from Petrograd to Sevastopol. One of its members was appointed as a general for assignments under the Minister of the Navy A.N. Krylov. In a week and a half of work, all the surviving sailors and officers of the battleship Empress Maria passed before the commission. It was established that the cause of the death of the ship was a fire that broke out in the bow magazine of 305-mm charges and resulted in an explosion of gunpowder and shells in it, as well as an explosion in the magazines of 130-mm guns and torpedo combat charging compartments. As a result, the side was destroyed and the kingstons for flooding the cellars were torn off, and the ship, having suffered great 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 leveling the roll and trim by filling other compartments, since this would take considerable time.

bottom of “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 commission’s conclusion stated that “it is not possible to come to an accurate and evidence-based conclusion; we only have 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 magazines. 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 magazine of the first tower - it was carried out by four people from the Putilov plant. A family roll call of the artisans was not carried out, 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, it pointed out “the relatively easy possibility of carrying out malicious intent.”

Recently, the version of “malice” has received further development. In particular, the work of A. Elkin states that at the Russud plant in Nikolaev during the construction of the battleship Empress Maria, German agents acted, on whose instructions sabotage was committed on the ship. However, many questions arise. For example, why were there no sabotages 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 on them was hardly more stringent when they left Kronstadt, half-finished with a large number of factory workers on board, at the end of 1914. And the German spy agency in the capital of the empire, Petrograd, was more developed. What could the destruction of one battleship on the Black Sea achieve? Partially ease the actions of “Goeben” and “Breslau”? But by that time the Bosporus was reliably blocked by Russian minefields and the passage of German cruisers through it was considered unlikely. Therefore, the version of “malice” cannot be considered conclusively proven. The mystery of “Empress Maria” is still waiting to be solved.

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

Alexey Nikolaevich Krylov

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

The execution of A. N. Krylov’s project was undertaken by naval engineer Sidensner, senior shipbuilder of the Sevastopol port. By the end of 1916, the water from all the stern compartments was pressed out with 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 did the port tugs “Vodoley”, “Prigodny” and “Elizaveta” take the battleship to the dock.

The 130-mm artillery, some of the auxiliary mechanisms and other equipment were removed from the battleship; the ship itself remained in the dock in a 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 base of the dock. “Maria” was taken out and stranded at the exit of 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.

in the dock

The work was carried out by EPRON.

When the battleship capsized during the disaster, the multi-ton turrets of the ship's 305-mm guns fell off their combat pins and sank. Shortly before the Great Patriotic War, these towers were raised by Epronovites, and in 1939, the battleship’s 305-mm 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 broke into the Belbek Valley. Having used up all the shells, the battery fired blank charges, holding back the enemy's onslaught until June 25.

latest battery protector

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

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

Displacement:	standard 22600 tons, full 25450 tons.
Maximum length:	169.1 meters
Length according to KVL:	168 meters
Maximum width:
Bow height:	15.08 meters
Midship side height:	14.48 meters
Side height at the stern:	14.48 meters
Hull draft:
Power point:	8 steam turbines of 5333 hp each, 20 boilers, 4 propellers, 2 rudders.
Electric power system:	AC 220 V, 50 Hz, 4 turbogenerators 307 kW each, 2 diesel generators of 307 kW each.
Travel speed:	full 20.5 knots, maximum 21 knots, economic 12 knots.
Cruising range:	2960 miles at 12 knots.
Autonomy:	10 days at 12 knots.
Seaworthiness:	no limits.
Weapons:
artillery:	4x3 305 mm turrets, 20x1 130 mm guns, 5x1 75 mm Kane guns.
torpedo:	4x1 450 mm underwater TT.
radio engineering:	2 radiotelegraph stations for 2 kW and 10 kW.
	1220 people (35 officers, 26 conductors).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

With this half-chair, master Gumbs begins a new batch of furniture. 1865.

Greetings, dear Colleagues!

Let me invite you to a gala event dedicated to the release of the first model from the Black Sea series of battleships - the model of the battleship "Empress Maria".

Brief historical background.
The decision to strengthen the Black Sea Fleet with new battleships was caused by Turkey’s intention to acquire three modern battleship-dreadnoughts abroad, which would immediately provide it with overwhelming superiority in the Black Sea.
To maintain the balance of power, the Russian Navy Ministry insisted on the urgent strengthening of the Black Sea Fleet, about which a report was made on September 23, 1910 to the Council of Ministers. Developed on the basis of the report and supported by the Chairman of the Council of Ministers P.A. Stolypin, the bill was adopted by the State Duma in March 1911 and approved by Emperor Nicholas II in May. Of those intended for “renewal of the Black Sea Fleet” 150.8 million rubles. 102.2 million rubles were allocated for the construction of three battleships, nine destroyers and six submarines. (the rest of the money was intended to strengthen the means of repair and basing of the fleet). Each battleship, as it was soon clarified, cost about 27.7 million rubles.
And already on October 17, 1911, simultaneously with the official laying ceremony, new ships were included in the fleet lists under the names “Empress Maria”, “Emperor Alexander III” and “Catherine II” (from June 14, 1915 - “Empress Catherine the Great”) .
In connection with the decision to equip the lead ship as a flagship, all ships of the series, by order of the Minister of Navy I.K. Grigorovich was ordered to be called ships of the "Empress Maria" type.

To speed up construction, their architectural type and the most important design decisions were made mainly based on the experience and model of the four Sevastopol-class battleships laid down in St. Petersburg in 1909.
The construction of the dreadnoughts was entrusted to two private factories in Nikolaev.
One, built in 1897 and having some shipbuilding experience (two series of destroyers, turrets and vehicles of the battleship "Prince Potemkin-Tavrichesky", a number of civilian and port ships), belonged to the multidisciplinary Society of Nikolaev Factories and Shipyards (ONZiV), the other, under the Russian brand shipbuilding joint-stock company (“Russud”), was just being created on the territory of the former Nikolaev State Admiralty leased to it.
Preference was given to the Russuda project, which was carried out “with the permission” of the Naval Ministry by a group of prominent naval engineers who were in active service. They continued their further work at the plant: Colonel L.L. Coromaldi as the chief naval engineer of the Russud, Captain M.I. Sasinovsky as the head of the Technical (design and technological) bureau, Lieutenant Colonel R.A. Matrosov as one of supervising engineers assigned to the ship. As a result, "Russud" received an order for two ships, the third (according to its drawings) was assigned to build ONZiV (in common parlance - "Naval").
The hull design and reservation system of the Chernomorets basically corresponded to the design of the Baltic dreadnoughts, but were partially modified by increasing the thickness of the plates: the main armor belt from 225 to 262.5 mm, the walls of the conning towers from 250 to 300 mm, their roofs from 125 to 200 mm, bevel of the armored deck from 25 to 50 mm.
For a better understanding, I will give a short table.
Design tactical and technical elements of the Black Sea and Baltic battleships

Name of elements	Type "Empress Maria"	Type "Sevastopol"
WEAPONS
Artillery: number of guns - caliber, mm	12 - 305, 20 - 130	12 - 305, 16 - 120
Torpedo: number of torpedo tubes - caliber, mm	4 - 450	4 - 450
RESERVATION, mm:
main armor belt	262,5	225
decks (upper + middle + lower)	37.5 + 25 + 25 (in the stern)	37.5 + 25 + 25 (in the stern)
lower deck slopes	50	25
SHIPBUILDING ELEMENTS
Displacement is normal, t	22600	23000
Main dimensions, m:
length according to KVL	168,00	181,20
width with armor	27,36	26,90
draft	8,36	8,30
Travel speed, knots	21	23
Power of turbine units, l. With.	26000	42000

To protect against air targets on the Empress Maria, one KANE anti-aircraft gun (75 mm/50) on Meller machines was installed on each of the Main Caliber turrets.
The impending war forced, despite the sad experience of the past, to develop working drawings simultaneously with the construction of ships. The obligation to copy internal layout drawings from Sevastopol-class battleships did not make the work much easier: due to the difference in size (“Empress Maria” was 13 m shorter and 0.4 m wider) almost all the drawings had to be redone.
The progress of work was also affected by the fact that the factories were building such large ships for the first time, and the “improvements” so characteristic of domestic shipbuilding were carried out during construction. They 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 bow was formed (obviously from the thickening of the deck in the bow), in other words, the ships “sat down like pigs.” Fortunately, the rise of the deck in the bow (by 0.6 m) concealed this.
In this fever, when design and completion work came together in a difficult tangle of contradictions, far from optimal decisions had to be made, and it was no longer possible to even think about improvements. Probably a rare exception during this period was the alteration of the Maria's navigation bridges, which her commander, Captain 1st Rank K.A. Porembsky, persistently petitioned for. The persistence of K.A. Porembsky, supported by the commander of the fleet A.A. Ebergard, who personally witnessed the inconvenience of operating the ship (even the “admiral’s kennel” near the wheelhouse did not have heating), forced some improvements. The bridges of the Empress Maria, more fully developed than on other ships, acquired the necessary functional purpose.
According to the contract dated March 31, 1912, signed by the Naval Ministry with the Russud plant (the preliminary order was issued on August 20, 1911), the Empress Maria was to be launched no later than July, and the Emperor Alexander III in October 1913 . Their full readiness (presentation for acceptance tests) was planned for August 20, 1915, another four months were allotted for the tests themselves. Such high rates, not inferior to those of advanced European enterprises, were almost sustained: the plant, which itself continued to be built, launched the Empress Maria October 19, 1913. It was a day of great celebration for the Black Sea Fleet, the beginning of its new era.
The descent of the dreadnought was the central event of two extremely eventful days on October 17 and 18. The celebrations in the presence of Naval Minister I.K. Grigorovich, who arrived from the capital, and the ships that came from Sevastopol - the cruiser "Cagul", the yacht-cruiser "Almaz" and the gunboat "Terets" - were held according to a special ceremony.
June 30, 1915"Empress Maria" first appeared on the Sevastopol roadstead. And the rejoicing that gripped the city and the fleet that day was probably akin to the general joy of those happy days of November 1853, when the 84-gun “Empress Maria” returned to the same raid after a brilliant victory at Sinop under the flag of P.S. Nakhimov. . And as an echo of those glorious events, the words of the welcoming telegram sounded, in which the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich, admonished the new ship with the wish to continue “the traditions of its glorious ancestor in the Battle of Sinop.” The entire fleet was looking forward to the moment when the "Empress Maria", having gone to sea, would sweep out of its borders the fairly tired "Goeben" (which, after a fictitious sale to Turkey, received the name "Sultan Selim Yavuz", this, in naval jargon, "uncle" with his no less annoying “nephew” - the cruiser “Breslau” (“Midili”).
Almost immediately, the ship’s own tradition arose - an officer who had served on a ship for a considerable time was awarded a specially made saber with an enamel image of the icon of St. Nicholas the Pleasant on the hilt (it was done by midshipman G.R. Viren) and an engraving of the name of the ship on the blade. The saber charter, developed by the ship's wardroom, was approved by the commander of the fleet and approved by the Minister of the Navy.
From July 9 to July 23, 1915, the Empress Maria was in the dry dock of Emperor Nicholas II in Panaiotova Balka (now the Northern Dock). On the ship, they inspected the propellers, deadwoods, kingstons, cleaned and painted the skin of the sides and bottom with the proprietary anti-fouling composition "Moravia" (this composition had a dark green tint, which gave the ships of the Black Sea Fleet a characteristic color scheme).
The dreadnoughts were still left without the obviously necessary structural protection. Fortrals were tested against mines, and nets against torpedoes. The device for their installation and automatic cleaning was installed in accordance with the patent of the English inventor Kemp: ONZiV acquired a license for its production with the right to use it on all ships built in Russia. As a last resort, to force the minefields ahead of the dreadnoughts, it was planned to launch the Sinop and Rostislav, for which protective caissons were already being prepared.
But…..
At dawn on October 7 (20), 1916, Sevastopol was awakened by a series of explosions in the internal roadstead. The battleship Empress Maria, the first of three Black Sea dreadnoughts that entered service during the ongoing World War, suffered a disaster.
There were (and still are) versions of the explosion on the ship - plenty.
However:
In 1933 - already Soviet! - counterintelligence arrested a certain person in Nikolaev Vermana - head of the German reconnaissance group at the shipyards. At the OGPU, Verman testified that he was preparing sabotage on warships under construction. He also admitted that he led the intelligence network during the 1st World War. Wehrman's agents worked on ships being repaired in Sevastopol.
On the eve of the death of the battleship, Werman was deported from Russia, and 4 years later he was awarded the Iron Cross in Germany...

It is curious that the order to disable or destroy the “Empress Maria” was also received from German intelligence by agent “Charles”, who was in fact an employee of Russian counterintelligence. And yet, for a long time there was no direct evidence of the involvement of German agents in the death of the battleship.
But at the end of the Patriotic War, after the fall of Königsberg, an interesting photograph was discovered in the Abwehr archives:

A famous photo is the fire on the Maria after the explosions, but at the same time interesting in many aspects:
1. Shooting point.
2.Shooting technique.

This image is widely circulated on the Internet today, but with one peculiarity - it is in the “Internet version” - a mono image. In fact, this is a STEREO picture.
A similar technique was used by photographers at the beginning of the century for sure. She was called - "binocular panoramic photography". A special “device” was even invented for viewing them. A long, 45 centimeter, rail, at the bottom of which there is a handle for holding, at one end of the rail there is some kind of optical glasses with lenses, and at the other there is a movable carriage with a holder frame into which it is inserted. photo.
You insert a photo, zoom in and out depending on your vision to the “glasses” - and a semblance of a stereo image appears...
This is exactly what the photograph of the fire on the Maria discovered in Königsberg looks like.

This shooting technique required not only careful pairing of the “stereo effect” point with two lenses, but also "pre-reconnaissance, selected and prepared position"- it took a long time to prepare for the shooting and carefully choose the location and angle. But - for this it was necessary to KNOW what and when would happen at this point, at this time.
That is, the photographer, whose photograph later ended up in the Abwehr archive, needed to know that at this time and in this place something extraordinary was going to happen...
When the battleship capsized during the disaster, the multi-ton turrets of the ship's 305-mm guns fell off their combat pins and sank. Shortly before the Great Patriotic War, these towers were raised by Epronovites,
When creating the TM-3-12 railway transporters, 305-mm machine tools and some other mechanisms removed from the three-gun turrets of the Empress Maria were used, as well as electric motors that were dismantled during the modernization of the cellars of the battleship Paris Commune.
The famous 30th coastal battery (BBNo. 30) was armed with four 305-mm guns, 52 calibers long. Of these, three (No. 142, 145 and 158) had an extended chamber of the Military Department (gun brand "SA"). Fourth gun (No. 149), had a chamber shortened by 220 mm, like the guns of the Naval Department (brand "MA"). This was revealed only during test firing in 1934. It was this gun No. 149 that was removed from the Empress Maria. Filmed first, back in 1928 or 1929.
And due to the fact that the variety of guns did not have a particular effect on dispersion during salvo fire, the battery acceptance committee decided to leave the gun in place, but use charges specially selected for its weight.
The fate of the commanders.
In August 1916, there was a change of commanders of the battleship. Prince Trubetskoy was appointed head of the mine brigade, and Captain 1st Rank Ivan Semyonovich Kuznetsov took command of the Empress Maria. After the death of the battleship, he was put on trial.
The sentence on his punishment was to come into force after the end of the war. But the revolution broke out, and the sailors pronounced their verdict: the former commander of the Empress Maria, along with other officers of the Black Sea Fleet, was shot on December 15, 1917 on Malakhov Kurgan without trial or investigation. There he was buried somewhere unknown.

Model.
The model was built from scratch.
Patterns for making the body frame for the model were kindly provided to me by Alexey Kolomiytsev.
And in the manufacture of all other structures I used literature and the Internet.

The following literature was used during the construction of the model:
- AJ-Press - Encyklopedia Okretow Wojennych 30 - Pancerniki typu Impieratrica Maria
- Ships of the Fatherland, issue 02. “Battleships of the “Empress Maria” type” (Gangut library - St. Petersburg, 1993)
- Aizenberg B.A., Kostrichenko V.V. "Dreadnoughts of the Black Sea" (Novorossiysk, 1998)
- Vinogradov S.E. "The Last Giants" (St. Petersburg, 1999)
- Vinogradov S.E. "Battleship "Empress Maria"" (St. Petersburg, 2000)
- Vinogradov S.E. "Empress Maria" - return from the depths (St. Petersburg, 2002)
- Melnikov R.M. "Battleships of the "Empress Maria" type" (Midship frame No. 81, 2003)
- Aizenberg B.A., Kostrichenko V.V. "Battleship "Empress Maria". The main secret of the Russian fleet" (M: Eksmo, 2010)

Also, during the construction of the model, information from open Internet sources was used, in particular from the resources:
- http://flot.sevastopol.info/ship/linkor/impmariya.htm
- http://www.nkj.ru/archive/articles/12061/
- http://kreiser.unoforum.pro/?0-25-0
- http://www.dogswar.ru/forum/viewforum.php?f=8
- http://tsushima.su/forums/viewtopic.php?id=5346

I partially used this information as reference material, and some quotes from the listed literature and from the above sites were used by me when compiling this explanatory note.
And, of course, photographs of both the ship itself and its models, built at different times and by different people, provided great assistance in creating the model.

As with the construction of previous models, all sorts of different materials were at hand, but mainly Evergreen plastic. Sheets of various thicknesses, shaped bars, tubes and tubes…. Well, any available materials from the apartment, even cocktail straws, went into use. Acupuncture needles helped a lot (there are such procedures).
The main battery turrets were taken from the remains of my Sevastopol series models.
All the turning work for the model was done for me by Vladimir Dudarev, for which I am deeply grateful to him!
The body is standard: DP, a set of frames, foam padding and putty with ordinary construction putty.
Deck - fine-radial veneer with a thickness of only 0.4 mm, base made of plastic 0.75 mm,
And then came, obviously, the most interesting thing of all this construction: the application of munz metal strips to the deck, which prevented the deck flooring from being torn off when firing from the Main Caliber guns.
The munz metal strips were applied to the deck as before - with acrylic paint using masks.
The model is painted in acrylic.
Those wishing to learn more about the model creation process can go to:
In conclusion, I want to say the following: I presented the model as of the beginning of 1916.
And further.
I saved many nuances from the creation, design features and service of these beautiful ships “for later.” After all, there are still stories to be told about the remaining models of ships of the Black Sea series. I hope that you will see them soon.
In conclusion I would like to express huge gratitude to all participants of our Forum (and not only ours, and not only the Forum), who were not indifferent to the process of creating this model.

Sincerely, Alexey Lezhnev.