Battleships and battleships of the Baltic Fleet (1870-1917)

Design and armor of the dreadnought "Empress Maria"

The length of the Empress Maria was 168 meters, the maximum speed was 21.5 knots. In economy mode, the ship could travel 2,960 miles. Such figures were significantly lower than those of the latest developments of the European Navy. Even the previous Russian battleships Sevastopol, based in the Baltic Sea, were of greater length and displacement. But in the Black Sea, Russian dreadnoughts were the most powerful ships.

Reservations had better performance compared to its predecessors. The thickness of the main armor belt was 262.5 mm. Its height was over 5 meters. Their main opponent, the Turkish Sultan Osman, was sheathed in 229 mm steel sheets. The main caliber turrets of the Russian dreadnought also had enhanced protection: the walls were covered with 250 mm plates.

Armament of the Empress Maria class dreadnoughts

The main gun of the battleship was located on four towers. Each of them included three 305 mm naval guns. The rate of fire did not exceed 2 rounds per minute.
Anti-mine weapons included 20 pieces of artillery with a caliber of 130 mm, produced at the Obukhov plant in 1913. 12 guns were located in the bow of the ship.
Anti-aircraft artillery was represented by 4 guns of 75 mm caliber.
The torpedo armament consisted of four 450 mm tubes.
Differences between the battleship "Emperor Nicholas I" and other battleships of the "Empress Maria" class
When the Turks ordered another battleship, the Russian Empire began construction of the fourth dreadnought of the Empress Maria class. At the same time, the new ship was supposed to have a number of differences from its predecessors:
The appearance was radically different. The bow contours were changed, resulting in a reduction in the size of the waves generated as a result of the ship's movement.
The length of the ship was increased to 182 meters, the displacement accordingly to 27,830 tons.
Tests on battleships have shown that the armor belt must have monolithic protection. In this case, its characteristics improved.
The fleet leadership was going to replace the main armament with 356 mm guns. However, already at the construction stage the decision was changed. The previous 305 mm artillery was left behind. The freed “extra” tonnage was used to further enhance the hull protection.

Excerpt characterizing Emperor Nicholas I (battleship)

The remnants of our regiment, which was in action, hastily formed and retreated to the right; from behind them, dispersing the stragglers, two battalions of the 6th Jaeger approached in order. They had not yet reached Bagration, but a heavy, ponderous step could already be heard, beating in step with the entire mass of people. From the left flank, walking closest to Bagration was the company commander, a round-faced, stately man with a stupid, happy expression on his face, the same one who ran out of the booth. He, apparently, was not thinking about anything at that moment, except that he would pass by his superiors like a charmer. With a sporty complacency, he walked lightly on his muscular legs, as if he were swimming, stretching out without the slightest effort and distinguished by this lightness from the heavy step of the soldiers who followed his step. He carried a thin, narrow sword taken out at his foot (a bent sword that did not look like a weapon) and, looking first at his superiors, then back, without losing his step, he turned flexibly with his whole strong figure. It seemed that all the forces of his soul were aimed at getting past the authorities in the best possible way, and, feeling that he was doing this job well, he was happy. “Left... left... left...”, he seemed to say internally after every step, and according to this rhythm, with variously stern faces, a wall of soldier figures, weighed down with backpacks and guns, moved, as if each of these hundreds of soldiers was mentally saying, every step of the way: “ left... left... left...". The fat major, puffing and staggering, walked around the bush along the road; the lagging soldier, out of breath, with a frightened face for his malfunction, was catching up with the company at a trot; the cannonball, pressing the air, flew over the head of Prince Bagration and his retinue and to the beat: “left - left!” hit the column. “Close!” came the swaggering voice of the company commander. The soldiers circled around something in the place where the cannonball fell; an old cavalier, a flank non-commissioned officer, falling behind near the dead, caught up with his line, jumped, changed his foot, fell into step and looked back angrily. “Left... left... left...” seemed to be heard from behind the threatening silence and the monotonous sound of feet simultaneously hitting the ground. - Well done, guys! - said Prince Bagration. “For the sake of... wow wow wow wow!...” was heard through the ranks. The gloomy soldier walking on the left, shouting, looked back at Bagration with such an expression as if he was saying: “we know it ourselves”; the other, without looking back and as if afraid to have fun, with his mouth open, shouted and walked by. They were ordered to stop and take off their backpacks. Bagration rode around the ranks passing by and dismounted from his horse. He gave the Cossack the reins, took off and gave his cloak, straightened his legs and adjusted the cap on his head. The head of the French column, with officers in front, appeared from under the mountain. "With God blessing!" Bagration said in a firm, audible voice, turned for a moment to the front and, slightly waving his arms, with the awkward step of a cavalryman, as if working, he walked forward along the uneven field. Prince Andrei felt that some irresistible force was pulling him forward, and he experienced great happiness. [Here occurred the attack about which Thiers says: “Les russes se conduisirent vaillamment, et chose rare a la guerre, on vit deux masses d'infanterie Mariecher resolument l'une contre l'autre sans qu'aucune des deux ceda avant d 'etre abordee'; and Napoleon on the island of St. Helena said: “Quelques bataillons russes montrerent de l'intrepidite.” [The Russians behaved valiantly, and a rare thing in war, two masses of infantry marched decisively against each other, and neither of the two gave way until the very clash." Napoleon's words: [Several Russian battalions showed fearlessness.] The French were already getting close; Already Prince Andrei, walking next to Bagration, clearly distinguished the baldrics, red epaulettes, even the faces of the French (He clearly saw one old French officer, who, with his legs turned out in boots, was hardly walking up the hill.) Prince Bagration did not give a new order and that’s it he walked silently in front of the ranks. Suddenly, one shot cracked between the French, another, a third... and smoke spread throughout all the disorganized enemy ranks and gunfire crackled. Several of our men fell, including the chubby officer, who was walking so cheerfully and diligently. But at the same time The very moment the first shot rang out, Bagration looked back and shouted: “Hurray!” “Hurray aa aa!” a drawn-out cry echoed along our line and, overtaking Prince Bagration and each other, in a disorganized, but cheerful and animated crowd, our people ran down the mountain after the upset French. The attack of the 6th Jaeger ensured the retreat of the right flank. In the center, the action of the forgotten battery of Tushin, who managed to light Shengraben, stopped the movement of the French. The French extinguished the fire, carried by the wind, and gave time to retreat. The retreat of the center through the ravine was carried out hastily and noisily; however, the troops, retreating, did not get confused in command. But the left flank, which was simultaneously attacked and bypassed by the superior forces of the French under the command of Lannes and which consisted of the Azov and Podolsk infantry and Pavlograd hussar regiments, was upset. Bagration sent Zherkov to the general of the left flank with the order to immediately retreat. Zherkov smartly, without taking his hand from his cap, touched his horse and galloped off. But as soon as he rode away from Bagration, how his strength failed him. An insurmountable fear came over him, and he could not go where it was dangerous. Having approached the troops of the left flank, he did not go forward, where there was shooting, but began to look for the general and commanders where they could not be, and therefore did not convey the order. The command of the left flank belonged by seniority to the regimental commander of the very regiment that was represented at Braunau by Kutuzov and in which Dolokhov served as a soldier. The command of the extreme left flank was assigned to the commander of the Pavlograd regiment, where Rostov served, as a result of which a misunderstanding occurred. Both commanders were very irritated against each other, and while things had been going on on the right flank for a long time and the French had already begun their offensive, both commanders were busy in negotiations that were intended to insult each other. The regiments, both cavalry and infantry, were very little prepared for the upcoming task. The people of the regiments, from soldier to general, did not expect battle and calmly went about peaceful affairs: feeding horses in the cavalry, collecting firewood in the infantry. “He is, however, older than me in rank,” said the German, a hussar colonel, blushing and turning to the adjutant who had arrived, “then leave him to do as he wants.” I cannot sacrifice my hussars. Trumpeter! Play retreat! But things were getting to a point in a hurry. The cannonade and shooting, merging, thundered on the right and in the center, and the French hoods of the Lannes riflemen had already passed the mill dam and lined up on this side in two rifle shots. The infantry colonel walked up to the horse with a trembling gait and, climbing onto it and becoming very straight and tall, rode to the Pavlograd commander. The regimental commanders gathered with polite bows and with hidden malice in their hearts. “Again, Colonel,” said the general, “I cannot, however, leave half the people in the forest.” “I ask you, I ask you,” he repeated, “to take a position and prepare to attack. “And I ask you not to interfere, it’s not your business,” the colonel answered, getting excited. “If you were a cavalryman...” “I’m not a cavalryman, colonel, but I am a Russian general, and if you don’t know this...” “Very well known, Your Excellency,” the colonel suddenly cried out, touching the horse, and turning red and purple. “Would you like to put me in chains, and you will see that this position is worthless?” I don't want to destroy my regiment for your pleasure. - You are forgetting yourself, Colonel. I do not respect my pleasure and will not allow anyone to say this. The general, accepting the colonel's invitation to the tournament of courage, straightened his chest and frowned, rode with him towards the chain, as if all their disagreement was to be resolved there, in the chain, under the bullets. They arrived in a chain, several bullets flew over them, and they stopped silently. There was nothing to see in the chain, since even from the place where they had previously stood, it was clear that it was impossible for the cavalry to operate in the bushes and ravines, and that the French were going around the left wing. The general and the colonel looked sternly and significantly, like two roosters preparing for battle, at each other, waiting in vain for signs of cowardice. Both passed the exam. Since there was nothing to say, and neither one nor the other wanted to give the other a reason to say that he was the first to escape from the bullets, they would have stood there for a long time, mutually testing their courage, if at that time in the forest, almost behind them, there had not been the crackle of guns and a dull merging cry were heard. The French attacked soldiers who were in the forest with firewood. The hussars could no longer retreat along with the infantry. They were cut off from the retreat to the left by a French chain. Now, no matter how inconvenient the terrain was, it was necessary to attack in order to pave a path for ourselves. The squadron where Rostov served, having just managed to mount his horses, was stopped facing the enemy. Again, as on the Ensky Bridge, there was no one between the squadron and the enemy, and between them, dividing them, lay the same terrible line of uncertainty and fear, as if the line separating the living from the dead. All people felt this line, and the question of whether or not they would cross the line and how they would cross the line worried them.

Service

"Empress Maria" served for about a year. In 1916, for an unknown reason, an explosion occurred on the ship, as a result of which the battleship sank. 225 people died. The crew rescue operation was personally led by Admiral Alexander Kolchak. "Emperor Alexander III" was transferred to the Soviet fleet and withdrawn from service in 1924. The dreadnought "Catherine the Great" took part in the First World War; after the capture of Crimea by the Germans, the Soviet authorities decided to sink the ship so that it would not fall to Germany. “Emperor Nicholas I” was never completed due to the war and revolution. The shipyard to which he was assigned moved from one state to another several times. In 1924 it was scrapped.

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McLaughlin, pp. 40–41.
McLaughlin, page 39
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McLaughlin, pp. 39, 43–44
McLaughlin, page 42
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↑ McLaughlin, pp. 42–43
↑ L'Illustration
, n ° 2642, October 14, 1893
Jump up
↑ McLaughlin, pp. 39, 44
McTiernan, p. 15.
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British on Crete, 1896-1913: Know Your Enemy - Part 1
McLaughlin, page 157
^ ab McLaughlin, pp. 44–45
"Battleship IKI (1893/1905) - Imperial Japanese Navy (Japan)". www.navypedia.org
. Retrieved August 15, 2022.
Jentschura, Hansgeorg; Jung, Dieter and Mikel, Peter (1977). Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1869–1945
. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press. pp. 13–14. ISBN 9780870218934. OCLC 3273325.
Watts, Anthony John and Gordon, Brian G. (1971). Imperial Japanese Navy
. Garden City, New York: Doubleday. paragraph 34.

Results of the board

Successes and achievements

Successful wars with Persia (1826-1828) and Turkey (1828-1829), Armenia and the Western Caucasus were annexed.
The Decembrist Uprising (1825) was suppressed and the revolutionaries' coming to power was prevented.
A unified Code of Laws of the Russian Empire was created (1832).
Further development of public education
. The Imperial University of St. Vladimir was founded in Kyiv (1833) and the Technological Institute (SPbGTI) in St. Petersburg (1828).
The beginning of the mass industrialization of Russia was laid
- from 1819 to 1859, the volume of production of cotton products in Russia increased almost 30 times; the volume of engineering production from 1830 to 1860 increased 33 times.
The fight against corruption and bribery - regular audits have been introduced at all levels, trials of officials have become commonplace.
Carrying out monetary reform (1839-1843), which made it possible to establish a stable financial system in Russia.
The first highways and railways were built
, including the St. Petersburg - Tsarskoe Selo railway (1837), Moscow - Irkutsk, Moscow - Warsaw and the Nikolaevskaya railway (1851), connecting St. Petersburg with Moscow [1[1]

Bogdan Villevade, “Nicholas I with Tsarevich Alexander Nikolaevich in the artist’s studio in 1854,” 1884.

Centralization of power and strengthening of autocracy. State stability.
A sharp increase in the urban population (more than doubling - from 4.5% in 1825 to 9.2% in 1858) and urban growth.
The Polish uprising (1830) was successfully suppressed.
Easing the situation of the peasantry, laying the foundation for the future abolition of serfdom
- the sale of peasants individually and without land is prohibited; the purchase of peasants by landless nobles is prohibited; peasants received the right to buy their freedom from the land when selling the landowner's estate for debts, as well as the right to acquire real estate.
Russian troops played a decisive role in suppressing the Hungarian uprising of 1848.

Mistakes and failures

A sharp increase in censorship and repression by the state, the foundation of the Third Department at the Imperial Chancellery - a secret police to monitor the state of minds in the state.
Defeat in the Crimean War (1855-1856).
Loss of the Kars fortress, the mouth of the Danube and part of Southern Bessarabia. Russia was prohibited from having a fleet in the Black Sea and troops on the Åland Islands.