Kagul (armored cruiser). The Great Patriotic War

Characteristics

Displacement, T:	standard - 6,645; full - 7 070
Dimensions, m:	length - 134.1: width - 16.6; draft - 6.3
Power plant power, hp:	19 500
Speed, nodes:	maximum - 24.75; cruising - 16
Cruising range, nautical miles:	5,000 at 12 knots
Crew, Human:	540-556 (including 19 officer)
Booking, mm:	upper deck - 35- 0; main caliber turrets - 90-125; conning tower - 140; casemates - 25-80; gun shields - 25;
Armament
Main weapons	2x2 and 1x1 152 mm Kane main caliber guns; 12x1 75 mm Kane guns
Auxiliary artillery	12x1 75 mm Kane guns
Flak:	3x1 45 mm semi-automatic guns; 2x1 37 mm Vickers automatic guns; 2x4 Maxim machine guns
Mine and torpedo weapons:	2x1 381 mm torpedo tubes; 2 BMB-1 bomb launchers (160 min, 140 depth charges)

Comintern was the third armored cruiser (1st rank cruiser) of the Bogatyr class of the Russian fleet. The competition for the creation of these ships included the Russian Nevsky Plant, the Italian company Ansaldo and four German companies - German shipyards (a branch of the Krupp concern), Schichau, Govaldswerke and Vulcan.

The latter became the winner. She built the lead cruiser of the series (Bogatyr, laid down on December 9, 1899, launched on August 7, 1902). The remaining three, including the Comintern (under the name Cahul), were assembled in Russia at the shipyards of the New, Nikolaevsky and Lazarevsky Admiralties (Kahul - at the Nikolaevsky Admiralty shipyard in August 1901, adopted for service in 1905).

In addition to the already mentioned ships Bogatyr and Cahul, two more cruisers of this type were put into operation: Ochakov and Oleg. The cruiser Vityaz was also laid down, but it burned down during construction. None of these ships (except Cahul - Comintern) lived to see the Second World War: Oleg (entered into service in 1904) was sunk by a British torpedo boat in the Gulf of Finland in 1919, and Ochakov (1909) was withdrawn from the fleet in 1929

The cruiser Comintern - Cahul was a three-pipe, two-masted ship. Although the displacement limited by the order conditions did not allow the installation of an armor belt on the ship’s hull, the same order conditions, which required a speed of 23 knots, determined that the ship should be equipped with a fairly powerful propulsion system of 16 Norman water-tube boilers. The cruiser had three solid metal decks. For deck armor, they used super-soft nickel steel from the Izhora plant, which, when hit by shells, did not split into deadly fragments, but crumpled. To ensure unsinkability, the hull had 16 watertight bulkheads.

The main caliber of the Comintern is represented by twelve 152-mm guns of the Kane system. They were housed in two two-gun turrets (bow and stern) designed by the Metal Plant, in four onboard casemates and four panel installations on the deck. A fairly successful distribution of artillery ensured the fire of four guns in the direction of the bow and stern, and in the direction of the side - eight guns. It is interesting that at first these guns were loaded with unitary shots, but then, since they were very heavy, the Russian fleet switched to shots with separate loading.

The auxiliary caliber of the Comintern was represented by twelve 75-mm Kane guns, the main drawback of which was the lack of high-explosive shells in the arsenal (there was only armor-piercing shells). In addition, there were eight 47-mm Hotchkiss guns, however, they were abandoned during Soviet times. To combat submarines, there were two underwater torpedo tubes of 381 mm caliber (torpedo explosive weight - 64 kg, firing range - 550 m).

Before 1941, the Comintern underwent modernization - it was converted into a minelayer. The mine installation allowed the use of mines mod. 1926 in the amount of 160 pieces. Additionally, 3 21-K anti-aircraft guns of 45 mm caliber and two 37-mm Vickers automatic anti-aircraft guns were installed.

During the First World War, Cahul (renamed Memory of Mercury in March 1907) was part of the Black Sea Fleet and participated in raids against enemy communications, shelling the Turkish coast. After the fall of the Provisional Government on November 12, 1917, the blue and yellow flag of the independent Ukrainian Republic was raised on it. In July 1918, the ship was captured by German troops and used as a floating barracks under the German flag. After the surrender of Germany in 1918, the Entente allies handed over the cruiser to the Russian volunteer army. The flag of the Russian Empire did not fly on the ship for long - in 1920 the cruiser was captured by units of the Red Army, and then included in the naval forces of the Black Sea and given the name Comintern.

After the USSR entered World War II, work was found for the cruiser. Already on June 23, 1941, he began laying minefields near Sevastopol and Odessa. On August 6, the ship was assigned to the newly formed detachment of ships in the northwestern region. From the summer of 1941 to the spring of 1942, the Comintern provided artillery support to ground troops in Crimea and Odessa, transported the wounded from Odessa and Sevastopol and delivered reinforcements and cargo there. From December 29, 1941, she made voyages from Caucasian ports to Feodosia until its fall, delivering reinforcements and supplies to the troops of the newly formed Crimean Front. On July 2, 1942, during a German air raid on Novorossiysk, the Comintern received a direct bomb hit. The fleet command decided not to repair the outdated and heavily damaged ship - on October 10, 1942, it was scuttled at the mouth of the Khobi River to create a breakwater (he still rests here). The guns removed from it were used to form batteries in the Tuapse coastal defensive region.

Material from Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia

"Cahul" from March 25, 1907 - "Memory of Mercury" from December 31, 1922 -"Comintern"
"Memory of Mercury" in 1917
Service:	Russia, Russia USSR USSR
Vessel class and type	Armored cruiser
Manufacturer	Nikolaev Admiralty
Launched	May 20, 1902
Commissioned	1905
Removed from the fleet	February 2, 1943
Status	Sunk at the mouth of the Khobi River to create a breakwater
Main characteristics
Displacement	7,070 t
Length	134.1 m
Width	16.6 m
Draft	6.8 m
Booking	Deck - 35…70 mm, casemate - 35…79 mm, towers - 125 mm, cabin - 140 mm
Engines	2 vertical triple expansion steam engines, 16 Belleville boilers
Power	19,500 l. With. (14.3 MW)
Mover	2 screws
Travel speed	24.75 knots (45.8 km/h)
Cruising range	5320 nautical miles
Crew	576 people
Armament
Artillery	16 × 152 mm/45, 12 × 75 mm/50, 8 × 47 mm, 2 × 37 mm, 2 × 64 mm
Mine and torpedo weapons	Two underwater 381 mm torpedo tubes

• On November 14, 1920, it was abandoned by the Russian army during the evacuation from Sevastopol to Istanbul. On November 22, 1920, it was captured by units of the Red Army and in 1921, after being placed for repairs, it was included in the Black Sea Naval Forces.
• On December 31, 1922, renamed “Comintern”
• In 1923 she was restored and on November 7, 1923 she was put back into service as a training ship.
• In 1925, interior scenes of the film “Battleship Potemkin” by Sergei Eisenstein were filmed on board the Comintern.
• In 1930, 4 boilers were dismantled and classrooms were placed in their place. The first chimney was dismantled in the late 30s.
• The ship took part in the Great Patriotic War.
• On July 16, 1942, while parked in the port of Poti, it was disabled by German aircraft.
• On October 10, 1942, it was disarmed and sunk as a breakwater at the mouth of the Khobi River, north of Poti, to create a breakwater.
• On February 2, 1943, it was excluded from the lists of Navy vessels.
• On March 31, 1946, anti-boat artillery battery N 626, relocated from Sochi, was installed on the ship’s hull.
• The remains of the hull are still located at the mouth of the Hopi.

Commanders

• 01/30/1906-xx.xx.xxxx - captain 2nd rank Schultz, Maximilian Fedorovich
• xx.xx.1907-xx.xx.xxxx - F. N. Ivanov
• xx.xx.1908-xx.xx.1909 - Novitsky, Pavel Ivanovich
• xx.xx.1909-xx.xx.1911 - Diterichs, Vladimir Konstantinovich
• xx.xx.1911-xx.xx.1914 - captain 1st rank Lvov, Nikolai Georgievich
• xx.xx.1914-xx.xx.1916 - captain 1st rank Ostrogradsky, Mikhail Mikhailovich
• xx.xx.xxxx-xx.xx.1917 - captain 1st rank Gadd, Alexander Ottovich
• xx.xx.1917-xx.xx.1917 - Petrenko
• 06/16/1921-04/12/1924 - Shabelsky, Ivan Petrovich
• 04/23/1924-12/30/1924 - Ruzek, Alexander Antonovich
• xx.09.1926-xx.10.1930 - Kadatsky-Rudnev, Ivan Nikitich
• xx.12.1930-xx.05.1936 - Zinoviev, Yuri Konstantinovich
• xx.05.1936-xx.05.1937 - captain 2nd rank Kara, Stepan Ivanovich (Arrested on 05/17/1937. Sentenced by the All-Russian Military Forces on 09/20/1937, convicted: participation in a territorial organization. Shot on 09/20/1937. Rehabilitated on 07/25/1957)
• xx.07.1937-xx.08.1937 - Zinoviev, Yuri Konstantinovich
• xx.08.1937-xx.xx.1940 - captain 2nd rank Barbarin A.A.
• xx.xx.1941-xx.xx.1941 - captain 2nd rank Zaruba I.A.
• xx.12.1941-xx.09.1942 - captain 3rd rank Zhirov, Fedor Vasilievich

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Notes

see also

Links

Literature

• Zablotsky V.P. The entire heroic army. Armored cruisers of the "Bogatyr" type. Part 1 // Marine collection. - 2010. - No. 3.
• Zablotsky V.P. The entire heroic army. Armored cruisers of the "Bogatyr" class. Part 2 // Marine collection. - 2011. - No. 1.
• Krestyaninov V. Ya. Part I // Cruisers of the Russian Imperial Navy 1856-1917. - St. Petersburg. : Galeya Print, 2003. - ISBN 5-8172-0078-3.
• Tsarkov A. Cruiser "Comintern" (Russian) // Weapons: magazine. - 2010. - June (No. 06). - pp. 52-57.

type "Sevastopol" Other ships and types Heavy cruisers type "Svetlana" projects and 26 bis project 68 Other cruisers type "Novik" project 7/ "Angry" type project 7-U/ "Sentry" type Leaders Delivered under Lend-Lease Captured Other destroyers Small ships Patrol ships Torpedo boats Minesweepers Submarine hunters

Type Knight Type Diana Type Bogatyr Type Pearl Individual projects

Excerpt characterizing Cahul (armored cruiser)

They grabbed him by the arms; but he was so strong that he pushed the one who approached him far away.
“No, you can’t persuade him like that,” said Anatole, “wait, I’ll deceive him.” Look, I bet you, but tomorrow, and now we're all going to hell.
“We’re going,” Pierre shouted, “we’re going!... And we’re taking Mishka with us...
And he grabbed the bear, and, hugging and lifting it, began to spin around the room with it.

Prince Vasily fulfilled the promise made at the evening at Anna Pavlovna's to Princess Drubetskaya, who asked him about her only son Boris. He was reported to the sovereign, and, unlike others, he was transferred to the Semenovsky Guard Regiment as an ensign. But Boris was never appointed as an adjutant or under Kutuzov, despite all the efforts and machinations of Anna Mikhailovna. Soon after Anna Pavlovna's evening, Anna Mikhailovna returned to Moscow, straight to her rich relatives Rostov, with whom she stayed in Moscow and with whom her beloved Borenka, who had just been promoted to the army and was immediately transferred to guards ensigns, had been raised and lived for years since childhood. The Guard had already left St. Petersburg on August 10, and the son, who remained in Moscow for uniforms, was supposed to catch up with her on the road to Radzivilov.
The Rostovs had a birthday girl, Natalya, a mother and a younger daughter. In the morning, without ceasing, trains drove up and drove off, bringing congratulators to the large, well-known house of Countess Rostova on Povarskaya throughout Moscow. The countess with her beautiful eldest daughter and guests, who never ceased replacing one another, were sitting in the living room.
The Countess was a woman with an oriental type of thin face, about forty-five years old, apparently exhausted by children, of whom she had twelve. The slowness of her movements and speech, resulting from weakness of strength, gave her a significant appearance that inspired respect. Princess Anna Mikhailovna Drubetskaya, like a domestic person, sat right there, helping in the matter of receiving and engaging in conversation with the guests. The youth were in the back rooms, not finding it necessary to participate in receiving visits. The Count met and saw off the guests, inviting everyone to dinner.
“I am very, very grateful to you, ma chere or mon cher [my dear or my dear] (ma chere or mon cher he said to everyone without exception, without the slightest shade, both above and below him) for himself and for the dear birthday girls . Look, come and have lunch. You will offend me, mon cher. I sincerely ask you on behalf of the whole family, ma chere.” He spoke these words with the same expression on his full, cheerful, clean-shaven face and with an equally strong handshake and repeated short bows to everyone, without exception or change. Having seen off one guest, the count returned to whoever was still in the living room; having pulled up his chairs and with the air of a man who loves and knows how to live, with his legs spread gallantly and his hands on his knees, he swayed significantly, offered guesses about the weather, consulted about health, sometimes in Russian, sometimes in very bad but self-confident French, and again with the air of a tired but firm man in the performance of his duties, he went to see him off, straightening the sparse gray hair on his bald head, and again called for dinner. Sometimes, returning from the hallway, he walked through the flower and waiter's room into a large marble hall, where a table for eighty couverts was being set, and, looking at the waiters wearing silver and porcelain, arranging tables and unrolling damask tablecloths, he called to him Dmitry Vasilyevich, a nobleman, who was taking care of all his affairs, and said: “Well, well, Mitenka, make sure everything is fine. “Well, well,” he said, looking around with pleasure at the huge spread-out table. – The main thing is serving. This and that...” And he left, sighing complacently, back into the living room.
- Marya Lvovna Karagina with her daughter! - the huge countess's footman reported in a bass voice as he entered the living room door.
The Countess thought and sniffed from a golden snuffbox with a portrait of her husband.
“These visits tormented me,” she said. - Well, I’ll take her last one. Very prim. “Beg,” she said to the footman in a sad voice, as if she was saying: “Well, finish it off!”
A tall, plump, proudly looking lady with a round-faced, smiling daughter, rustling with their dresses, entered the living room.
“Chere comtesse, il y a si longtemps... elle a ete alitee la pauvre enfant... au bal des Razoumowsky... et la comtesse Apraksine... j"ai ete si heureuse..." [Dear Countess, how long ago... she should have been in bed, poor child... at the Razumovskys' ball... and Countess Apraksina... was so happy...] animated women's voices were heard, interrupting one another and merging with the rustle of dresses and the moving of chairs. That conversation began, which is started just enough so that at the first pause you get up and rustle with dresses , say: "Je suis bien charmee; la sante de maman... et la comtesse Apraksine" [I am in admiration; mother's health... and Countess Apraksina] and, again rustling with dresses, go into the hallway, put on a fur coat or cloak and leave. about the main city news of that time - about the illness of the famous rich and handsome man of Catherine's time, old Count Bezukhy, and about his illegitimate son Pierre, who behaved so indecently at an evening with Anna Pavlovna Scherer.
“I really feel sorry for the poor count,” said the guest, “his health is already bad, and now this grief from his son will kill him!”
- What's happened? - asked the countess, as if not knowing what the guest was talking about, although she had already heard the reason for Count Bezukhy’s grief fifteen times.
- This is the current upbringing! “Even abroad,” said the guest, “this young man was left to his own devices, and now in St. Petersburg, they say, he did such horrors that he was expelled from there with the police.
- Tell! - said the countess.
“He chose his acquaintances poorly,” Princess Anna Mikhailovna intervened. - The son of Prince Vasily, he and Dolokhov alone, they say, God knows what they were doing. And both were hurt. Dolokhov was demoted to the ranks of soldiers, and Bezukhy’s son was exiled to Moscow. Anatoly Kuragin - his father somehow hushed him up. But they did deport me from St. Petersburg.
- What the hell did they do? – asked the Countess.
“These are perfect robbers, especially Dolokhov,” said the guest. - He is the son of Marya Ivanovna Dolokhova, such a respectable lady, so what? You can imagine: the three of them found a bear somewhere, put it in a carriage and took it to the actresses. The police came running to calm them down. They caught the policeman and tied him back to back to the bear and let the bear into the Moika; the bear is swimming, and the policeman is on him.
“The policeman’s figure is good, ma chere,” shouted the count, dying of laughter.
- Oh, what a horror! What's there to laugh about, Count?
But the ladies couldn’t help but laugh themselves.
“They saved this unfortunate man by force,” the guest continued. “And it’s the son of Count Kirill Vladimirovich Bezukhov who is playing so cleverly!” – she added. “They said he was so well-mannered and smart.” This is where all my upbringing abroad has led me. I hope that no one will accept him here, despite his wealth. They wanted to introduce him to me. I resolutely refused: I have daughters.
- Why do you say that this young man is so rich? - asked the countess, bending down from the girls, who immediately pretended not to listen. - After all, he only has illegitimate children. It seems... Pierre is also illegal.
The guest waved her hand.
“He has twenty illegal ones, I think.”
Princess Anna Mikhailovna intervened in the conversation, apparently wanting to show off her connections and her knowledge of all social circumstances.
“That’s the thing,” she said significantly and also in a half-whisper. – The reputation of Count Kirill Vladimirovich is known... He lost count of his children, but this Pierre was beloved.
“How good the old man was,” said the countess, “even last year!” I have never seen a more beautiful man.
“Now he’s changed a lot,” said Anna Mikhailovna. “So I wanted to say,” she continued, “through his wife, Prince Vasily is the direct heir to the entire estate, but his father loved Pierre very much, was involved in his upbringing and wrote to the sovereign... so no one knows if he dies (he is so bad that they are waiting for it) every minute, and Lorrain came from St. Petersburg), who will get this huge fortune, Pierre or Prince Vasily. Forty thousand souls and millions. I know this very well, because Prince Vasily himself told me this. And Kirill Vladimirovich is my second cousin on my mother’s side. “He baptized Borya,” she added, as if not attributing any significance to this circumstance.
– Prince Vasily arrived in Moscow yesterday. He’s going for an inspection, they told me,” the guest said.
“Yes, but, entre nous, [between us],” said the princess, “this is an excuse, he actually came to Count Kirill Vladimirovich, having learned that he was so bad.”
“However, ma chere, this is a nice thing,” said the count and, noticing that the eldest guest was not listening to him, he turned to the young ladies. – The policeman had a good figure, I imagine.
And he, imagining how the policeman waved his arms, laughed again with a sonorous and bassy laugh that shook his entire plump body, as people laugh who have always eaten well and especially drunk. “So, please, come and have dinner with us,” he said.

There was silence. The Countess looked at the guest, smiling pleasantly, however, without hiding the fact that she would not be at all upset now if the guest got up and left. The guest's daughter was already straightening her dress, looking questioningly at her mother, when suddenly from the next room several men's and women's feet were heard running towards the door, the crash of a chair being snagged and knocked over, and a thirteen-year-old girl ran into the room, wrapping something in her short muslin skirt, and stopped in the middle rooms. It was obvious that she accidentally, with an uncalculated run, ran so far. At the same moment a student with a crimson collar, a guards officer, a fifteen-year-old girl and a fat, ruddy boy in a children's jacket appeared at the door.
The count jumped up and, swaying, spread his arms wide around the running girl.
- Oh, here she is! – he shouted laughing. - Birthday girl! Ma chere, birthday girl!
“Ma chere, il y a un temps pour tout, [Darling, there is time for everything,” said the countess, pretending to be stern. “You keep spoiling her, Elie,” she added to her husband.

Bogatyr-class cruisers are considered one of the most successful armored cruisers of the early 20th century.Initially, they were built to conduct raider operations on remote communications of the British Empire (in alliance with the German navies), but, ironically, they were forced to fight in the confined spaces of the Baltic and Black Sea against the German and Turkish fleets

By the end of the 19th century, the leading naval powers came to the conclusion that it was necessary to have cruisers in the fleet - ships capable of destroying enemy transport ships, as well as performing squadron service. According to naval theorists, the fleet needed three types of cruisers:

• large cruisers (in later sources appear as “heavy” or “armored”), intended for operations on ocean communications;
• medium cruisers (in later sources appear as “light” or “armored”), operating close to their own naval bases;
• small cruisers (in later sources appear as “auxiliary” or “advice notes”) - high-speed ships intended for reconnaissance in squadrons of linear forces.

The naval doctrine of the Russian Empire was generally consistent with global trends. Thus, the classification introduced in 1892 provided for the presence in the fleet of cruisers of the 1st (divided into armored and armored cruisers) and 2nd ranks. The shipbuilding programs adopted in Russia in 1896 and 1898–1904 provided for the construction of twenty cruisers of all types for the Baltic Fleet and two cruisers for the Black Sea Fleet. The bulk of the cruisers of the Baltic Fleet were intended for the Pacific Ocean squadron created within it (since May 12, 1904 - the 1st squadron of the Pacific Fleet). The Naval Ministry received the necessary funds, but spent them rather irrationally, eventually building only eighteen cruisers. The failure of the program was greatly facilitated by the Marine Technical Committee (MTK). As a result of the constant change in its requirements for the tactical and technical characteristics of new ships, the fleet eventually received six armored cruisers with a total displacement of 11,000–15,000 tons of four different types, nine armored cruisers with a total displacement of 7,000–8,000 tons of four different types and four armored cruisers with a total displacement 3000 tons of three different types.

The increase in the number of armored cruisers built due to a decrease in the number of armored cruisers is usually associated with the course of the Navy Ministry to abandon the previously planned cruising war against the British Empire in favor of a plan to create an armored squadron that would be superior in strength to the Japanese fleet. The appearance of armored cruisers with a displacement of 3,000 tons, optimally adapted for operations on Japanese trade routes close to Russian naval bases, is fully consistent with this assumption. But the appearance of larger (so-called “7000-ton”) cruisers does not fit into the anti-Japanese doctrine - ships armed with 152-mm guns were too powerful to fight Japanese cruisers of the 2nd rank and too weak to fight turret-mounted armored cruisers , armed with 203 mm guns. The emergence of 7,000-ton armored cruisers was more a consequence of numerous compromises aimed at creating a universal cruiser to fight any potential enemy than a fully meaningful and calculated decision. Such attempts to create the “ideal weapon”, as a rule, end in a waste of time and resources, but, fortunately, the largest series of 7000-ton cruisers were built, definitely the most advanced cruisers of the “Bogatyr” type, which were to a certain extent ahead of their time and anticipated the advent of in the 30s, tower cruisers of the so-called “Washington” type.

Performance characteristics

The final version of the “Program for a cruiser of 6,000 tons of displacement”, prepared for April 13, 1898, formulated the basic requirements for the ship:

• displacement - 6000 tons;
• cruising range - about 4000 miles at a speed of 10 knots;
• speed – at least 23 knots;
• the use of 152-mm Kane cannons with a barrel length of 45 calibers as the main artillery armament (the method of placing guns was not regulated);
• armoring the deck and conning tower.

It is interesting that the first ships of the new type were laid down in May 1897 - almost a year before the final version of the “Program” was adopted. Due to administrative confusion (Russian admirals were never able to finally agree on the requirements for a new type of cruiser) and short construction times, which forced them to turn to various shipbuilding companies, the Imperial Navy, as mentioned earlier, received nine armored cruisers of four different types.

Armored cruisers built according to the “Program for a cruiser of 6000 tons of displacement”

Cruiser type	"Pallada"	"Varangian"	"Askold"	"Bogatyr"
Project developer	Baltic Plant (Russia)	William Cramp and Sons (Philadelphia, USA)	Germaniawerft (Kiel, Germany)	Vulcan A.G. (Stettin, Germany)
Date of laying of the lead ship
Number of ships built
Total displacement, tons
Travel speed, knots
Cruising range	3700 miles at 10 knots	4280 miles at 10 knots	4100 miles at 10 knots	4900 miles at 10 knots
Placement of main caliber guns	Open deck installations	Open deck installations	Panel deck installations	Tower, casemate and panel deck installations

Diagram of the cruiser "Memory of Mercury" as of 1907

The construction of Bogatyr-class cruisers was carried out by four different shipyards (one German and three Russian).

The hull of the cruiser "Vityaz", laid down in 1900 (date of ceremonial laying - June 4, 1901) at the Galerny Ostrov shipyard in St. Petersburg, was destroyed by a powerful fire on June 13, 1901, which led to the need to lay down the cruiser "Oleg" instead " The cruisers "Bogatyr" and "Oleg" were built for the Baltic Fleet, and the "Cahul" and "Ochakov" for the Black Sea Fleet.

Design

Bogatyr-class cruisers had a three-tube silhouette with a short forecastle and poop deck. Structurally, Russian-built ships were somewhat different from the lead cruiser, which was caused by both objective (during the construction process the range of weapons was changed) and subjective nature (strange as it may sound from the point of view of modern realities, but at the beginning of the twentieth century there was no such concept both the internal design specifications and the parts produced by different contractors differed significantly from each other). The visible difference between the “Black Sea” cruisers and the “Baltic” ones was the smooth line of the stem without thickening in its middle part.

Cruiser "Memory of Mercury" (until 03/25/1907 - "Cahul"), 1917
Source: ru.wikipedia.org

The cruiser "Ochakov" at the outfitting wall. Sevastopol, 1905
Source: ru.wikipedia.org

Armament

Initially, during the construction of armored cruisers, the MTK assumed the installation of:

• main caliber artillery (bow and stern 203 mm and side 152 mm guns);
• 47- and 75-mm “mine-resistant” guns;
• 37- and 47-mm Hotchkiss boat guns;
• two surface (course and stern) and two underwater 381-mm torpedo tubes.

However, the Admiral General of the Russian Fleet, Grand Duke Alexey Alexandrovich, ordered the unification of the main caliber guns, replacing the 203 mm guns with 152 mm ones. The ideologist of this decision was the authoritative naval artilleryman N.V. Pestich, who believed that “a hail of shells from 152 mm cannons will cause more damage to the enemy than fewer hits from 203 mm and other larger guns”. As a result, the Bogatyr-class cruisers received twelve 152-mm Kane cannons with a barrel length of 45 calibers (four in two-gun bow and stern turrets, four in casemates on the upper deck (side of both masts) and four in sponsons in central part of the ship) with a total ammunition load of "2160 separate cartridges".

Aft 152-mm turret of the cruiser "Ochakov"
Source: nashflot.ru

The rejection of 203-mm guns is often criticized by experts, citing the opinion of the commander of the cruiser "Cahul", Captain 1st Rank S.S. Pogulyaev, who during the First World War insisted on replacing the two-gun 152-mm turrets with single-gun 203-mm turrets. According to Pogulyaev, after such changes « the cruiser even met with the Goeben(referring to the German battlecruiser Geben - author's note.) will not have that offensive, difficult character of complete defenselessness to which a ship armed only with six-inch guns is doomed.”. To a certain extent, we can agree with both points of view. On the one hand, Pestich was right, since the experience of the Russian-Japanese War showed that fire adjustments can only be made with a salvo of at least four guns, which made the two 203-mm Bogatyr guns suitable for firing only when pursuing or breaking away from enemy and excluded their use in a broadside salvo. On the other hand, Pogulyaev is right, since already during the First World War it became clear that it was impossible to conduct salvo fire jointly (centrally) with turret and deck guns for the following reasons:

• different rates of fire for turret and casemate guns due to differences in the methods of aiming them;
• more difficult adjustments to the firing of turrets due to the dispersion of projectiles caused by their rotation;
• differences in adjustments when controlling fire due to the use of different types of sights;
• different firing ranges during lethal fire due to the inability of tower elevators to supply projectiles with ballistic tips.

Alternating targeted salvoes of turret guns with salvoes of deck guns turned out to be practically impossible - the turrets required test salvos, and a special fire manager was needed for them. As a result, the bow and stern turrets were used only when pursuing or separating from the enemy (in such cases, the presence of more powerful 203 mm guns would have been preferable). Thus, we can say that Pestich’s theoretically correct idea was incorrectly implemented in practice. The anti-mine artillery, which consisted of twelve 75-mm Kane guns with a barrel length of 50 calibers (eight at the level of the upper deck, four above the casemates) with a total ammunition load of "3600 unitary cartridges" and six 47 mm Hotchkiss guns. A striking example of the low effectiveness of 75-mm guns is the attempt by Russian cruisers to shoot Turkish troops near the port of Rize during the First World War. After twenty-eight ineffective shots (according to the report, 75-mm shells that hit the water at the waterline did not explode, but ricocheted and exploded on the shore), the Laibs were destroyed by 152-mm guns. In addition to the above-mentioned guns, the cruisers received two 37- and 47-mm Hotchkiss boat guns.

Attempts to change the artillery armament of the new cruisers began literally immediately after the project was approved. Of the many proposed projects, several of the most noteworthy should be highlighted. Thus, already on September 20, 1899, the Baltic Plant presented a project that provided for the turret placement of all twelve 152-mm guns. This solution made it possible to significantly increase the effectiveness of main caliber artillery through the use of central aiming. However, this undoubtedly progressive project was rejected due to the impossibility of producing the required number of towers in a timely manner. After the Russo-Japanese War, the commander of the cruiser "Oleg", Captain 1st Rank L.F. Dobrotvorsky, proposed dismantling four onboard 152 mm and all 75 mm guns, replacing the casemate 152 mm guns with American 178 mm guns. Dobrotvorsky’s project also included armoring casemates and installing an 89-mm armor belt, which, in essence, turned the ship from an armored cruiser into an armored one. The Navy Ministry recognized this project as too radical, limiting itself to more conservative changes. At a certain stage, the project of A. A. Bazhenov to replace eight 75 mm guns with six 120 mm guns was considered as the main one, which was supposed to increase the firepower of the ship by 15%, but this idea was not implemented either. In accordance with the entry in the MTK journal for artillery No. 13 dated September 21, 1907, it was recognized that “The installation of 120-mm guns could indeed increase the fire of the cruisers, but unfortunately, there are currently no machine tools or guns of this caliber in stock, and their manufacture will take considerable time. Therefore, it would be more correct to postpone the issue of rearmament of these cruisers until the future, timed to coincide with the time of their overhaul.”. As a result, in the winter of 1913–14, ten (according to other sources, eight) 75-mm guns were dismantled on the cruiser “Memory of Mercury” (until March 25, 1907 – “Cahul”), and the number of 152-mm guns was increased to sixteen. In March-April 1915, the cruiser "Kahul" (until 03/25/1907 - "Ochakov") underwent a similar modernization. In 1916, it was decided to replace all 152 mm guns with 130 mm guns with a barrel length of 55 calibers. In fact, before the start of the revolution, guns had been replaced on all cruisers except the Memory of Mercury. In addition, in the last years of the existence of the Russian Empire, the development of aviation raised the question of the need to arm cruisers with anti-aircraft guns, and in 1916, the “Black Sea” cruisers received two, and the “Baltic” - four 75-mm Lander anti-aircraft guns.

Cruiser "Memory of Mercury". Judging by the presence of an anti-aircraft gun, the photo was taken no earlier than 1916
Source: forum.worldofwarships.ru

The initial project envisaged arming each cruiser with two surface and two underwater 381-mm torpedo tubes, but in November 1901, Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich decided not to install surface torpedo tubes on ships with a displacement of up to 10,000 tons for safety reasons. As a result, only two underwater torpedo tubes of 381 mm caliber were installed on the cruisers Oleg, Ochakov and Cahul.

Booking

Unlike many of their “contemporaries,” the Bogatyr-class armored cruisers received very serious armor (according to the project, the armor weight was 765 tons or about 11% of the ship’s displacement). The thickness of the armor deck reached 35 mm in the flat part and 53 mm on the slopes, and above the engine and boiler rooms it was reinforced to 70 mm. A number of sources claim that the thickness of the bevels on the Black Sea cruisers reached 95 mm, but most likely we are talking about armor in the area of ​​the engine and boiler rooms. An armored dome 32–83 mm thick was located above the vehicles. The main caliber towers had a wall thickness of 89–127 mm and a roof thickness of 25 mm. The armor of the casemates was 20–80 mm, the feed – 63–76 mm, the barbettes – 75 mm, and the gun shields – 25 mm. The conning tower, connected to the below-deck premises by a shaft with 37 mm armor, had 140 mm walls and a 25 mm roof. Cofferdams filled with cellulose, which quickly swells when water penetrates, were installed along the waterline. According to the engineers, watertight bulkheads and horizontal platforms were supposed to provide the ship with buoyancy and stability.

Cruiser "Kahul" (until March 25, 1907 - "Ochakov")
Source: tsushima.su

Indicative in terms of assessing the ship’s armor protection and its survivability are the results of the shelling of the cruiser “Ochakov” on November 15, 1905 by naval and coastal artillery during the suppression of the uprising that broke out on board. In total, 63 holes were noted in the ship, especially a lot of damage appeared at the level of the middle and battery decks - here the starboard side was torn apart in fourteen places by exploding fortress artillery shells hitting the waterline. In many places, the intermediate deck was torn off, the side cofferdams were broken, the shell supply shafts and coal loading pipes were broken, and many rooms were destroyed. Thus, a 280-mm shell, which exploded in a reserve coal pit on the slope of the armored deck, tore off the rivets and tore apart the intermediate deck located above it for ten spacings. However, a significant part of the shells did not penetrate the deck, and only two damage was noted in the engine room:

• A 254-mm shell from the battleship Rostislav hit the left side between the armor and intermediate decks, piercing the outer plating, cofferdam, inclined armor and the 70 mm thick armored deck flooring itself;
• The 152-mm projectile pierced the outer skin between the armor and intermediate decks and passed through the side cofferdam and the 85 mm thick glacis of the engine hatch.

The shooting of the Ochakov proved the high resistance of Bogatyr-class cruisers to artillery fire. "Ochakov", which suffered explosions of 152-mm shells in the aft artillery magazine and burned out almost to the ground, retained stability and buoyancy. The underwater protection of the cruisers turned out to be less reliable: on June 17, 1919, the cruiser Oleg, which was shelling the rebel forts Krasnaya Gorka and Gray Horse, sank within twelve (according to other sources - five) minutes after being hit by a single torpedo fired from an English torpedo ship. boats SMV-4.

Power plant

The creation of the power plant was accompanied by a serious conceptual dispute: the contractor (German company Vulcan A.G.) proposed to equip the cruiser with Nikloss system boilers designed to provide high speed, and the chief inspector of the mechanical part of the Russian Imperial Navy, Lieutenant General Nikolai Gavrilovich Nozikov, insisted on using slower, but more reliable Belleville boilers, which even allowed the use of sea water. Having considered both options, MTC made a compromise decision - to oblige the use of Norman boilers when designing the power plant of the Bogatyr cruiser. In the final version, the ship received a two-shaft power plant, criticized for both low reliability and low speed, consisting of two vertical triple expansion steam engines and sixteen Norman boilers with a total capacity of 20,370 hp. With. Critics of the reliability of this installation refer to repeated complaints from cruiser commanders about the operation of Norman's boilers. However, without denying the fact of complaints, they should be treated critically. Thus, in accordance with the report of the senior mechanic of the cruiser “Cahul”, captain 1st rank V. G. Maksimenko dated January 28, 1915, the reason for the decrease in the cruiser’s speed was:

« Firstly, the use of coal briquettes, which cannot be considered a good fuel for full speed, secondly, the poor condition of the boilers, a significant part of which worked without cleaning for four times longer (up to 1270 hours) than expected, and finally , thirdly, a drop in power and increased steam consumption due to the fact that the piston rings in the high-pressure cylinders burst (at 124 rpm)».

In general, problems with the reliability of the power plant of the Bogatyr-class cruisers were caused more by improper maintenance and poor quality of fuel and water than by the type of steam boilers. The statements about the low speed of the cruiser due to the installation of Norman boilers instead of Nikloss boilers also seem unfounded. The power plant of the cruisers allowed them to reach speeds of up to 24 knots, while the Varyag cruiser equipped with Nikloss boilers, due to frequent boiler breakdowns, in practice developed a speed of no more than 23.75 knots instead of the declared 26 knots. It is interesting that the most economical were the Bogatyr, which was not built in Germany at all, whose range with a coal reserve of 1220 tons was 4900 miles (at a speed of 10 knots), and the Oleg, not built in St. Petersburg (the same 4900 miles, but with coal reserves of 1,100 tons), and the “Black Sea” cruisers (5,320 miles at a speed of 10 knots and a coal reserve of 1,155 tons).

The crew size of each Bogatyr-class cruiser according to the project was 550 people (including 30 officers).

Most experts consider Bogatyr-class ships to be one of the most successful armored cruisers of the early twentieth century. However, the very idea of ​​​​using large armored cruisers turned out to be erroneous, since during the First World War the fleet needed small armored cruisers with a displacement of about 3,000 tons and large armored cruisers with turret-mounted 203-mm guns.

Combat service

When making calculations, German designers assumed the maximum service life of Bogatyr-class cruisers to be twenty years (in accordance with the design specifications), but in fact the Ochakov and Kagul served much longer, successfully surviving three Russian revolutions, the Civil War and the First World War ( "Cahul" managed to take part in the Second World War). The most striking event in the history of these ships was the Sevastopol uprising of 1905, which began on November 11 in the naval division and involved about 2,000 sailors and soldiers. Official Soviet historiography devoted a lot of works to this uprising that were more propaganda than historical, leaving in the memory of readers the indecision of Lieutenant Schmidt who led it and the story of the unparalleled courage of the crew of the cruiser "Ochakov". Upon closer examination, the picture of events is not so clear-cut. At the height of the uprising, under the control of “revolutionary sailors” who acted with the full connivance of demoralized officers, in addition to the unfinished cruiser “Ochakov”, there were the battleship “St. Panteleimon”, the mine cruiser “Griden”, the gunboat “Uralets”, the minelayer “Bug”, the destroyers “ Fierce", "Zorkiy" and "Zavetny", as well as destroyers No. 265, No. 268, No. 270. It is unknown how the uprising would have ended if not for the endurance and personal courage of General Meller-Zakomelsky, who managed to keep under control the only combat-ready battleship of the Black Sea Fleet, the Rostislav, and coastal batteries.

The suppression of the uprising itself, contrary to the legends, took place almost with lightning speed. Judging by the logbook of the battleship "Rostislav", fire on "Ochakov" and "Svirepoy" was opened at 16 o'clock, and already at 16 o'clock 25 minutes the following entry was made in the log: “A fire started on Ochakov, he stopped the battle, lowered the battle flag and raised the white one”. Judging by the same magazine, the Rostislav fired four 254 mm (one salvo) and eight 152 mm shells (two salvos). According to the testimony of the captured officers on board the Ochakov, the cruiser fired no more than six return shots. This was the end of “Ochakov’s” “courageous” resistance. During the battle, 63 shells hit the ship, which led to a fire, which delayed the cruiser's entry into service for three years. Contrary to the myth, the cruiser "Kahul" did not take part in the shelling of its sistership, and the birth of this myth is associated with the renaming of the cruisers in 1907. In accordance with the decree of Emperor Nicholas I, for the special courage shown by the brig "Mercury" in the battle with Turkish ships in May 1829, the St. George (Guards) ship "Memory of Mercury" was to be permanently included in the Black Sea Fleet. Formally, the text of the decree read: “When this brig becomes unable to continue serving at sea any longer, build another similar vessel based on the same drawing and perfect similarity in everything, calling it “Mercury”, assigning it to the same crew, and transferring the awarded flag to it. pennant". But by the beginning of the twentieth century, the construction of a sailing brig looked like such an obvious anachronism that they followed not the letter, but the spirit of the decree. It was not its sistership that took part in the shelling of Ochakov, but the cruiser Memory of Mercury, laid down back in 1883. After the exclusion of the old cruiser from the fleet (this happened on April 7, 1907), its name and the St. George flag on March 25, 1907 (probably we are talking about the old style date) were transferred to the combat-ready cruiser "Kahul", and at the same time the cruiser "Ochakov" was being completed "was renamed "Kahul". In Soviet historiography, this is usually interpreted as a kind of revenge of tsarism, late for a year and a half, but, probably, the renaming was due to the desire to leave in the fleet a ship named after the frigate "Kahul", which distinguished itself in the Battle of Sinop. By the beginning of the First World War, both of these ships were part of a semi-brigade of cruisers subordinate to the commander of the mine division of the Black Sea Fleet.

Comintern

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"Bogatyr"

Comintern

Empress Maria class battleship

Historical data

Total information

EU

real

doc

Booking

Armament

Main caliber artillery

• 4 (2 × 2) × 152 mm Kane guns;
• 8 (8 × 1) × 152 mm Kane guns.

Universal artillery

• 12 × 1 × 75 mm Kane guns.

Flak

• 2 × 1 × 45 mm semi-automatic guns;
• 2 × 1 × 37 mm Vickers automatic guns;
• 2 × 4 × 7.62 mm Maxim machine guns.

Same type ships

Oleg, Ochakov, Bogatyr

"Comintern"- Russian armored cruiser of 1st rank. Belonged to the "Bogatyr" type. Comintern, the only ship of this type to take part in World War II, served under four flags and three names. On October 10, 1942, it was sunk at the mouth of the Khobi River to create a breakwater.

History of creation

"Comintern" was the third cruiser of the "Bogatyr" class (armored cruiser or cruiser of the first class). The competition for the creation of these ships was held among a number of representatives of heavy industry, such as the Krupp concern (the German Shipyards company, which is a branch of the above-mentioned concern, took part directly in the competition), the Schichau, Govaldswerke and Vulcan companies, the Italian company "Ansaldo", Nevsky Plant. The winner was the German company Vulcan. She built the cruiser "Bogatyr", which was the lead cruiser, laid down on December 9, 1899 and launched on August 7, 1902, as well as the other three ships, including the "Comintern" (called "Kahul"), were assembled in Russia at the shipyards of the New, Nikolaev and Dazarevsky Admiralties (“Cahul” - at the shipyard of the Nikolaev Admiralty in August 1901, adopted for service in 1905).

Representatives

In addition to the already mentioned ships “Bogatyr” and “Kahul”, 2 more cruisers of this type were put into operation: “Ochakov” and “Oleg”; the cruiser “Vityaz” was also laid down, but it burned down during construction. None of these ships (except for the Cahul / Comintern) managed to “survive” the Second World War: “Oleg” (adopted into service in 1904) in 1919. She was sunk by a British torpedo boat in the Gulf of Finland, and "Ochakov" (1909) was withdrawn from the fleet in 1929.

Description of design

The cruiser "Comintern" / "Kahul" was a three-tube, two-masted ship. Although the displacement limited by the order conditions did not allow the installation of an armor belt on the ship’s hull, the same order conditions, which required a speed of 23 knots, determined that the ship should be equipped with a fairly powerful propulsion system consisting of 16 Norman water-tube boilers. The cruiser had three solid metal decks. For the deck armor, they used super-soft nickel steel from the Izhora plant, which, when hit, did not split into deadly fragments, but crumpled. To ensure unsinkability, the hull had 16 watertight bulkheads.

Armament

Main caliber

The main caliber of the Comintern is represented by twelve 152-mm guns of the Kane system. They were housed in two two-gun turrets (bow and stern) designed by the Metal Plant, in four side casemates and four panel installations on the deck. A fairly successful distribution of artillery ensured the fire of four guns in the direction of the bow and stern, and in the direction of the side - eight guns. It is interesting that at first these guns were loaded with unitary shots, but then, since they were very heavy, the Russian fleet switched to shots with separate loading.

Anti-mine caliber

The auxiliary caliber of the Comintern was represented by twelve 75-mm Kane guns, the main drawback of which was the lack of high-explosive shells in the arsenal (there was only armor-piercing shells). In addition, there were eight 47-mm Hotchkiss guns, however, they were abandoned during Soviet times. To combat submarines, there were two underwater torpedo tubes of 381 mm caliber (torpedo explosive weight - 64 kg, firing range 550 m).

Modification

Just before the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the Comintern underwent modernization - it was converted into a minelayer. The mine installation allowed the use of mines mod. 1926 in the amount of 160 pieces. Additionally, 3 21-K anti-aircraft guns of 45 mm caliber and two 37-mm Vickers anti-aircraft automatic guns were installed.

Crew

The cruiser's crew consisted of 19 officers and 537 lower ranks

Service history

First World War

During the First World War, “Cahul” (renamed “Memory of Mercury” in March 1907) was part of the Black Sea Fleet and participated in raids against enemy communications, shelling the coast of Turkey. After the fall of the Provisional Government on November 12, 1917, the blue and yellow flag of the independent Ukrainian Republic was raised on it. In June 1918, the ship was captured by German troops and used as a floating barracks under the German flag. After the surrender of Germany in 1918, the Entente allies handed over the cruiser to the Russian volunteer army. The flag of the Russian Empire did not fly on the ship for long - in 1920 the cruiser was captured by units of the Red Army, and then included in the naval forces of the Black Sea with the name "Comintern".

The Great Patriotic War

After the start of the Great Patriotic War, the long-lived cruiser went into battle again. Already on June 23, 1941, he began laying minefields near Sevastopol and Odessa. On August 6, the ship was assigned to the newly formed detachment of ships in the northwestern region. From the summer of 1941 to the spring of 1942, Comintern provided artillery support to troops in Crimea and Odessa, transported the wounded from Odessa and Sevastopol, and delivered reinforcements and cargo there. From December 29, 1941, she made voyages from the Caucasian ports of Feodosia until its fall, delivering reinforcements and supplies to the troops of the newly formed Crimean Front. On July 2, 1942, during a German air raid on Novorossiysk, the Comintern received a direct bomb hit. The fleet command decided not to repair the outdated and severely damaged ship - on October 10, 1942, it was sunk at the mouth of the Khobi River to create a breakwater (it still rests here). The guns removed from it were used to form a battery of the Tuapse Coastal Defense Region.

Ship commanders

• 01/30/1906-xx.xx.xxxx - captain 2nd rank Schultz, Maximilian Fedorovich
• xx.xx.1907-xx.xx.xxxx - F. N. Ivanov
• xx.xx.1908-xx.xx.1909 - Novitsky, Pavel Ivanovich
• xx.xx.1909-xx.xx.1911 - Diterichs, Vladimir Konstantinovich
• xx.xx.1911-xx.xx.1914 - captain 1st rank Lvov, Nikolai Georgievich
• xx.xx.1914-xx.xx.1916 - captain 1st rank Ostrogradsky, Mikhail Mikhailovich
• xx.xx.xxxx-xx.xx.1917 - captain 1st rank Gadd, Alexander Ottovich
• xx.xx.1917-xx.xx.1917 - Petrenko
• 06/16/1921-04/12/1924 - Shabelsky, Ivan Petrovich
• 04/23/1924-12/30/1924 - Ruzek, Alexander Antonovich
• xx.09.1926-xx.10.1930 - Kadatsky-Rudnev, Ivan Nikitich
• xx.12.1930-xx.05.1936 - Zinoviev, Yuri Konstantinovich
• xx.05.1936-xx.05.1937 - captain 2nd rank Kara, Stepan Ivanovich (Arrested on 05/17/1937. Sentenced by the All-Russian Military Forces on 09/20/1937, convicted: participation in a territorial organization. Shot on 09/20/1937. Rehabilitated on 07/25/1957)
• xx.07.1937-xx.08.1937 - Zinoviev, Yuri Konstantinovich
• xx.08.1937-xx.xx.1940 - captain 2nd rank Barbarin A.A.
• xx.xx.1941-xx.xx.1941 - captain 2nd rank Zaruba I.A.
• xx.12.1941-xx.09.1942 - captain 3rd rank Zhirov, Fedor Vasilievich

Literature

• Likso V.V. Warships and submarines of the Great Patriotic War p. 26

“Young people appreciate the feat of their fathers, but now, no less than before, dedication, enthusiasm, devotion to ideals, and readiness for heroism are needed.”

From the speech of Comrade L. I. Brezhnev at the XVI Congress of the Komsomol

We leave the port. The engine knocks loudly, echoing from the concrete and high sides of the bluish warships. The harbor expands.

Stone breakwater breakwater. On the right pier there is a wooden schooner turned upside down. The greenish-red stern with dried algae seemed to be about to climb over the high barrier of the pier and at the last moment changed its mind, but remained there, hanging on the pier.

The city is leaving behind the stern. And now, with a simple eye, you can see a dark dot ahead. Magnified ten times in the reticle of marine binoculars, the dot turns into a black jagged line. The dash is the goal of our journey. This is an old, long-disarmed warship. The blunt nose with the hawse anchor earring is clearly visible. Rusty rotary rollers are visible, on which the main caliber guns once stood. The remains of superstructures and semicircular balconies of the side guns stick out.

The sky turns blue, the water turns blue, the sun melts in the water, and against this bright blue the skeleton of a sea giant stands out with a long red outline.

Our boat carefully circles, choosing a place to land. The task is not easy, because people have not been there for a long time. Only once every two or three months does the lighthouse keeper’s nimble boat approach the ship. The caretaker changes gas cylinders and checks the lighthouse flashing system.

We are landing on the left side. It’s deeper here, and you can moor, and most importantly, climb up the armor of the fallen side plate.

We climb up and find ourselves in the kingdom of rusty, layered iron and steel. The once powerful armor is easily broken off by hand in places and crumbles into small brown plates. And then it suddenly resembles a dry coffee cake.

We move around the ship with all precautions. All around there are twisted strips of iron, hatches, risers, beams, steel ship ribs and bulkheads. The water makes a dull noise and splashes in the half-flooded holds, and, reflected, water bunnies play on the red iron walls. Not a piece of wood anywhere. Only iron and steel.

Suddenly you come across a temporary ladder leaning against the bulkhead. This means we’re going the right way... Probably the lighthouse also goes the same way, changing cylinders.

Another staircase. We climb out onto the running wing of the bridge along it. Bent, twisted handrails. A narrow long slit in the conning tower, a heavy armored rusty glass. It contains the remains of the steering column and instrument sockets. And underfoot, in a red puddle of water, an empty envelope, yellow as last year’s fallen leaf. The word “Air”, a blurred address: a distant city, an unfamiliar street. And we bend down and look at this envelope, as we would probably look at it on a desert island... Directly overhead is a high mast with a flashing lighthouse lantern. And at the very top, next to the lantern, like on a poplar tree near the hut, there is a lonely stork’s nest.

Like great men, great ships are entitled to an accurate, detailed biography.

In Sevastopol on Matrossky Boulevard (once it was called Midshipman) there is an old monument. Antique trireme on a high rectangular pedestal. Nearby are bronze staffs of the god of trade and travel, Mercury. Below them there is a short inscription: “To Kazar. An example for posterity."

One hundred and forty-two years ago, in May 1829, the brig Mercury, carrying eighteen small cannons, fought for several hours with two Turkish battleships armed with 184 guns. Pressed on both sides by the enemy, the brig, skillfully maneuvering, hit the spars and sails of the enemy ships. And forced them to leave the battle. For this feat, the ship was awarded the stern St. George's flag.

And five years later, according to the design of the architect A.P. Bryullov, the first monument in the city was erected - a monument to the commander of the Mercury, Lieutenant Commander A.I. Kazarsky and his crew. Three quarters of a century later, a new 1st rank cruiser, just launched, was named in memory of the famous brig. He had a long life and two birthdays. The first, like any ship, was when it was launched, and the second was when the ship was literally resurrected.

On the night of October 21-22, 1916, the cruiser, accompanied by the destroyer Piercing, made its last combat voyage. Before this, there were endless military campaigns of the first imperialist war, and the ship, suffering from chronic fatigue of its machines, was now in reserve - in the “second line” of the fleet. For fun, he stood under a steep bank in the Sevastopol South Bay and, it would seem, forever.

On April 27, 1919, faint explosions were heard in the bay. Fleeing White Guards and interventionists blew up Russian ships in the South Bay. And in the roadstead behind the Konstantinovsky fort and the remains of boom nets, the gray outlines of English and French dreadnoughts and cruisers loomed. Their guns were facing the city.

These days, the most unusual and varied things could be purchased at the Sevastopol market: a depth gauge from the submarine "Tyulen" and a copper ship heating tap from the battleship "Sinop", a leather sofa cover for the admiral's cabin from "Eustathius" and the main compass from the "Fighter for freedom." From the doomed ships, clever people dragged everything they could lay their hands on.

"Memory of Mercury", rusty and neglected, with blown cylinders, with torn and robbed cabins, stood at that time in its former place in the South Bay. The last English cruiser Calypso was leaving the sea, behind the Konstantinovsky fort, in a black cloud of smoke.

“They are leaving... And only the mutilated corpses of Russian ships, which once valiantly fought with the Goeben, remain an indelible monument to the inglorious “exploits” of the mighty fleet of the mighty Entente,” wrote the Izvestia newspaper of the Sevastopol Revolutionary Committee on April 29, 1919.

But the ships could still be restored.

On May 31, 1919, a “List of institutions and ships of the Maritime Department ... indicating the number of military sailors serving on them” was sent to Moscow from Sevastopol. Mentioned in this list along with the Freedom Fighter and other old battleships and cruisers is the Mercury Memory. At that time, according to the list, a total of ten military men served on it. Obviously, this was only the guard of the ship.

Soon Crimea was occupied by Denikin's troops. And for another four long years the cruiser remained in the South Bay. With its engines blown up and its red, littered deck, the long three-tube cruiser seemed to be firmly rooted to the shore. Next to him in the ship cemetery “rested” “Sinop”, “Three Saints”, “John Chrysostom”, “Eustathius”, and “Freedom Fighter” (formerly “Potemkin”) stood.

(The name of this ship, which was the first to raise the flag of uprising in the Russian fleet, is known to everyone. It is known that after the uprising it was renamed by the Tsar (“Potemkin” became “St. Panteleimon”). Its further fate remained mysterious for many. Where did the battleship disappear to? The Great Soviet Encyclopedia considers it sunk off Novorossiysk during the famous death of the squadron. "Potemkin" along with other ships of the Black Sea Fleet was sunk off Novorossiysk by order of the Soviet government. At the end of the civil war, it was raised, but due to severe damage to the engine part, it was dismantled" (TSB, volume 34).

Writer Viktor Shklovsky considers the ship destroyed shortly after the renaming. “The disgraced battleship itself,” he writes, “was first renamed, then destroyed...” (V. Shklovsky, Once Upon a Time).

In the “List of Ships of the Russian Steam and Armored Fleet” by S.P. Moiseev, in a serious, scrupulous, accurate work, in the column “Notable events in the history of the ship” nothing is said about the last berth of the Potemkin - a mysterious dash.

According to some other sources, the ship was allegedly taken away in 1920 by Baron Wrangel to French Bizerte.

But it was not flooded near Novorossiysk!

Was not destroyed by the king!

Was not taken away by Wrangel!

He remained in his native bay until his last day. I stood at my native pier. He lived only two years before his famous birth on the movie screen. — Approx. author.)

But they didn't have to stand like that for long. The year 1923 arrived. First, on one, then on another sea giant, a gas cutter hissed, melting heavy twelve-inch steel.

“The old battleships sit heavily in the water, like strange irons,” wrote the Sevastopol city newspaper “Mayak Kommuny” on October 10, 1923. “They have served their purpose and are long overdue for scrap.” But the devastation did not let them in... And forgotten and terrible in their abandonment, year after year they loomed terribly at the pier...

So far, work is being carried out on one giant, but others are in line... There are hundreds and hundreds of thousands of pounds of steel, expensive mechanisms, non-ferrous metals, chains as thick as a child's torso, iron of various shapes... You can make hundreds of steam locomotives or tractors from this. You can do a lot of useful things. Nowadays iron is in price. Everything will be recycled.

Old battleships, shadows of a dark past, loudly repeat the words of oily people...” - with such somewhat gloomy pathos, a journalist with the pseudonym “Mr” described the beginning of the dismantling of ships.

But it turned out to be possible to restore the “Memory of Mercury” (now the cruiser was renamed “Comintern”).

The main difficulty was that the cylinders of the main engine on the cruiser were blown up. They could not turn such cylinders at the factory. There were neither machines nor the necessary grades of cast iron. And yet, the old masters of the Sevastopol marine plant, led by the senior mechanic of the cruiser D.P. Vdovichenko, found a way out: the old people remembered that there was a cruiser in the Baltic, whose hull was hopelessly damaged, but the vehicle was intact. It was "Bogatyr".

(“Bogatyr” is the founder of the famous ship “dynasty” of cruisers of the 1st rank. During the Japanese War, this cruiser was part of the Vladivostok squadron. In the spring of 1904, it suffered an accident in Posiet Bay. At a speed of 10 knots in the fog, it ran aground and rolled up the ram. It took a long time to be repaired, and in 1906 he returned to Balgika and fought in the First World War.

According to his drawings, the no less famous Baltic cruiser "Oleg" was built, which, under the flag of Rear Admiral Enquist, caught up with Rozhdestvensky's squadron on the way to Tsushima. Ship relatives of the "Bogatyr" and "Oleg" were the five-pipe "Askold" built at the very beginning of the century and four-pipe famous "Varyag".

For the Black Sea squadron, according to a project of this type, the Ochakov (Cahul) and the Memory of Mercury (Comintern) later began to be built. — Approx. author.)

"Comintern" and "Bogatyr" were built by different factories, but the ships were even very similar in appearance. The cylinders of the main engine turned out to be the same. A special expedition went to the Baltic...

The cruiser first left the wall in the South Bay - the second place of her birth - in the last days of April 1923.

Coal loading began, the most difficult general ship work.

“I signaled to the orchestra to play the “coal” march... We also had such a march,” recalls the head of the cruiser’s team of musicians, Nikita Lavrentievich Biyakovsky. — During the march, brigades of loaders hurried in a chain with bags of coal on board the ship. The bags contained selected Donetsk anthracite, “prunes,” as the sailors called it.

The “prunes” gradually turned black faces, hands, and hair. Coal dust crunched on my teeth. The musicians shook viscous black drops from their mouthpieces...

The orchestra played a march continuously. Then came waltzes, butterfly polkas... The musicians' lips mercilessly ached and ached. The loaders have arms and backs. Under electric light, under a black blizzard of coal dust, they loaded until late at night...”

A few days later, on May 1, 1923, the Sevastopol residents escorted the cruiser to sea control tests.

The faded admirals and caperangs, all the numerous “former” ones, looked at each other ironically. Before the cruiser left for the city, as the Sevastopol newspaper “Mayak Kommuny” wrote a few days later, the “old regime inhabitants” started a fantastic rumor: the “Comintern” itself would not be able to sail, and it would be towed by a submarine in an invisible tug... But the cruiser walked independently and soon developed a move that no submarine in the world could have kept underwater at that time.

A few months later, the Comintern, at the head of the squadron, set out on its first training cruise.

“Everything happened simply and unexpectedly,” said Andrei Aleksandrovich Divavin. In 1922, he, a Yaroslavl Komsomol member who subsequently devoted his entire life to the fleet, was one of those two and a half thousand who joined the fleet at the first patron’s recruitment. “I haven’t seen water wider than the Volga near Yaroslavl.” And then we got to the sea... On the Korabelnaya side we were divided into companies. I was enrolled in the 5th. They dressed us in peacoats made of gray, literally see-through cloth, gave us vests and boots with cardboard soles - and then only to those whose shoes were no longer suitable. This is how our mischief began.

After graduating from the school of ship electricians, I ended up at the Comintern.

At that time there were few large ships on the Black Sea, and in all coastal cities our three-funnel beauty was well known. “Comintern” became a part of my destiny.”

And two years later, “Comintern” had to become on the movie screen the one with whom it stood for many years in the South Bay.

In the fall of 1925, Sergei Eisenstein’s film crew arrived in Sevastopol. The director was looking for Potemkin. But the battleship - the battleship "Freedom Fighter" - was no longer there. It was dismantled. The fleet command showed Eisenstein mine block No. 8, the former old, disarmed battleship Twelve Apostles. Externally, the floating warehouse of sea mines still resembled a battleship and even somewhat resembled the Potemkin. But for a long time it had neither gun turrets nor the above-deck superstructures characteristic of an armadillo.

Eisenstein managed to shoot “The Twelve Apostles” against the background of water and sky from below, from the nose. But the director desperately needed scenes on the deck, near the gun barrels. They were filmed at Comintern. So in the famous film that went around the whole world, “Comintern” became “Potemkin”.

Years passed. New ships joined the Black Sea Fleet, and the Comintern gave way to one of them at the head of the squadron, and it modestly became a combat training ship of the Black Sea Fleet.

He was one until he was 41...

In the summer and autumn of 1941, on military airwaves over the Black Sea one could hear: “Attention, attention, a gray three-tube cruiser is approaching Odessa...”, “A large cruiser is heading to Odessa...” German reconnaissance planes broadcast in plain text such reports to their airfields. No code was required. And so everything was clear. Both for the ship and for the crews of enemy bombers. This was followed by usually violent air attacks.

From the first days of the war, the old ship, along with the newest ones, began to participate in intense military work. Carried military units, food, equipment, ammunition. Evacuated the wounded. He laid minefields near Sevastopol, covered the passage of the ships of the Danube Flotilla to Odessa, and supported our ground forces with artillery fire. The cruiser took part in the largest Kerch-Feodosia landing operation. "Comintern" was the flagship of a detachment of ships in the northwestern region, and the detachment was commanded by Rear Admiral D. D. Vdovichenko, the son of the cruiser's senior mechanic.

Sevastopol flights were deservedly considered the most difficult. And often the cruiser took an unusual course to break the naval blockade around the city. From Novorossiysk, Tuapse or another Caucasian port, the Comintern turned into the open sea, but did not take the shortest route, diagonally, or, as the Black Sea residents say, “through the pass,” but parallel to the shores of Turkey and only on the meridian of Sevastopol headed for the city. It was a little safer that way.

But patrol reconnaissance planes flew far into the sea and, constantly taking turns, circled along a large curve, scanning the entire water area on the approaches to the city. And no matter what course the next blockade runner took, he was almost always discovered during daylight hours.

The night had its difficulties. Mines on the entrance fairways, attacks by seaplanes that were waiting for our ships on the water, attacks by German and Italian torpedo boats...

And during the day, in ten or two minutes, a plane could overtake a cruiser traveling at a speed of ten to twelve knots. Then the battle began. Laconic entries appeared in the logbook: “February 20. 1942. They were carrying mines. They were attacked by torpedo bombers. Dodged four torpedoes..."

“March 9, 1942. Coming out of Novorossiysk, we were attacked by torpedo bombers all day. We repulsed ten attacks. On March 11 we arrived in Sevastopol.”

“March 11, 1942. An air bomb hit the deck on the poop deck. The explosion destroyed part of the starboard side and demolished the superstructure. There are killed and wounded. Two planes were shot down..."

On June 19, 1942, the Comintern with a large convoy and military transports set out on its next Sevastopol voyage. And on June 7, the Nazis began their third assault on the city. Now the heroic defenders of the sea fortress were especially in need of support. And every day the delivery of people and goods from the mainland became more and more difficult. The enemy took every measure to disrupt maritime transport. A special group of 150 aircraft was sent to Crimea, the crews of which were specially “trained” to fight ships. Submarines, hunting boats, torpedo boats, and patrol ships were transferred from Germany, Italy, and Romania.

At the beginning of June, Colonel General Richthofen’s 8th Separate Aviation Corps also flew to Crimea. The same corps that bombed London and Liverpool landed paratroopers on the island of Crete. On the peninsula itself and the airfields closest to Crimea, the Nazis now had almost 1,100 aircraft against the 53 that the city’s defenders had.

Immediately after the release on June 19, aircraft attacks began. “It was clearly visible,” said a participant in this transition, senior lieutenant of the marine brigade Ivan Aleksandrovich Sukhov, “how another torpedo bomber or Heinkel went on the attack... We all fired. In addition to the ship's 37-mm anti-aircraft guns, they fired from easel "Maxims" that were being transported. Even from rifles. The tension reached its highest point when the dive bomber, starting to dive, lay down on a combat course and a black drop of a bomb or torpedo dripped from the yellow belly of the aircraft, from under the shiny transparent plexiglass nose.

The cruiser rushed forward. Stopped. With the rudder on board, he lay down to the right, to the left. Backed up. Circulating and shaking with the whole body, as if dancing almost in place, it abruptly changed course... The white path of the torpedo passed at the bow, at the side, crossing out the wide stern trail of the Comintern. White columns of explosions fell along the sides. But a torpedo dropped into the water was still dangerous. The metal shark, leaving behind a white flake of foam, continued to circle the ship in a deadly, tapering spiral. And a new torpedo bomber came into the attack. On the other side. From a different heading angle. From different heights, from different directions, with the “star” raid famous among the fascist aces.

Desperately fighting back, the ships continued to move forward. Many ships have already had direct hits. Others lost steam in their boilers from nearby explosions of heavy bombs and hull shocks.

An order came from Novorossiysk by radio: the convoy and transports should return to the port.

The return of the ships was covered on the meridian of the Kerch Strait by several of our fighters, which took off from nearby Caucasian airfields. This was the limit of their flight range." Comintern is back. But on July 16, 1942, while parking in Poti, during a raid, a bomb hit the high middle pipe of the cruiser, and the second one pierced the hold. There was no point in overhauling an old ship during the war. It was decided to disarm the Comintern.

The guns and anti-aircraft guns were removed from the ship. They were dug into the ground and installed near Tuapse, behind Mount Turkey. The artillerymen of the Comintern stood behind the guns.

The disarmed Comintern remained in the harbor. They wanted to dismantle it. But it so happened that the cruiser served the fleet for many more years.

At the mouth of one of the rivers there was a base for torpedo boats and submarines during the war. And so, in order to protect the base from torpedo attacks from the sea and change the regime of the river, deepen it, an old cruiser was installed as a kind of breakwater breakwater. Its long, strong hull reliably protected the entrance to the river mouth from heavy autumn and winter storms. And if during the war an enemy torpedo had come from the sea, it would have hit the side of the ship... The old cruiser-soldier covered the hulls of the “babies” and torpedo boats with his body.

This is how the three-tube cruiser of the Black Sea Fleet, its first flagship, ended its combat journey.

The destroyer was leaving for its base after repairs. I asked for him to be a passenger.

The swift southern twilight was quickly approaching. Ahead, expanding wider every minute, the endless sea road swayed.

The familiar light of the flashing lighthouse on the mast of the distant Comintern came on and went out. And the young navigator of the destroyer, deftly taking aim, took bearings to this glimpse. He walked away from the direction finder, bent over the map and walked along it with a compass.

The destroyer was leaving, but for a few more minutes a distant, fleeting and joyful fire, like the smile of a loved one, was visible.

Arseny Ryabikin, our specialist. corr.