Russian monitor Rusalka: Difference between revisions
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Revision as of 02:45, 26 February 2018
drydock , 1868
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 Russian Empire | |
| Name | Rusalka |
| Namesake | Rusalka |
| Ordered | 26 January 1865[Note 1] |
| Builder | St. Petersburg |
| Cost | 762,000 rubles |
| Laid down | 6 June 1866 |
| Launched | 12 September 1867 |
| In service | 1869 |
| Reclassified | As coast-defense ironclad , 13 February 1892 |
| Stricken | 26 October 1893 |
| Fate | Sank in the Gulf of Finland, 7 September 1893 |
| Status | Wreck discovered, 22 July 2003 |
| General characteristics (as completed) | |
| Class and type | Template:Sclass- |
| Displacement | 2,100 long tons (2,134 t) |
| Length | 206 ft (62.8 m) (waterline) |
| Beam | 42 ft (12.8 m) |
| Draft | 12 ft 7 in (3.8 m) |
| Installed power |
|
| Propulsion | 2 shafts, 2 Horizontal direct-action steam engines |
| Speed | 8 knots (15 km/h; 9.2 mph) |
| Complement | 172 officers and crewmen |
| Armament |
|
| Armor |
|
Rusalka (
Design and description
Rusalka was 206 feet (62.8 m) long at the waterline. She had a beam of 42 feet (12.8 m) and a maximum draft of 12 feet 7 inches (3.8 m). The ship was designed to displace 1,882 long tons (1,912 t), but turned out to be overweight and actually displaced 2,100 long tons (2,100 t). Her crew numbered 13 officers and 171 crewmen in 1877.[1]
The ship had two simple horizontal direct-acting steam engines, each driving a single propeller. The engines were designed to produce a total of 900 indicated horsepower (670 kW) using steam provided by two coal-fired rectangular fire-tube boilers, but only achieved 705 ihp (526 kW) and a speed of approximately 9 knots (17 km/h; 10 mph) during her sea trials.[2] She carried a maximum of 250 long tons (254 t) of coal for her boilers.[3]
Rusalka was initially armed with a pair of nine-inch (229 mm) rifled Model 1867 guns in the forward gun turret and a pair of fifteen-inch (381 mm) smoothbore Rodman guns in the aft turret. The Rodman guns were replaced by a pair of Obukhov 9-inch (229 mm) rifled guns in 1871 and all of the nine-inch guns were replaced in their turn by longer, more powerful nine-inch Obukhov guns in 1878–79. No light guns for use against torpedo boats are known to have been fitted aboard the ship before the 1870s when she received 3 four-pounder 3.4-inch (86 mm) guns mounted on the turret tops as well as a variety of smaller guns that included 45-millimeter (1.8 in) Engström quick-firing (QF) guns, 1-inch (25 mm) Nordenfelt guns, single-barreled QF 47-millimeter (1.9 in) Hotchkiss guns and QF 37-millimeter (1.5 in) Hotchkiss revolving cannon.[4]
The ship had a complete waterline
Construction and service
Rusalka, named after
Sinking
Rusalka, under the command of
No trace of the monitor was found until the corpse of a sailor in a
Monument
On 7 September 1902, the ninth anniversary of the loss of the ship, a monument to Rusalka (Estonian transliteration from Russian: Russalka) was erected in Tallinn. Sculpted by Amandus Adamson, it takes the form of a bronze angel standing on a granite pedestal.[12]
Discovery
The wreck of Rusalka was claimed to have been found by divers of the Soviet EPRON salvage agency in 1932, but they made no attempt to salvage it. EPRON's location does not match that of the ship as discovered in 2003.[10]
In spring 2003, a joint project was launched by the Estonian Maritime Museum and the commercial diving company Tuukritööde OÜ with the aim of finding Rusalka which had sunk 110 years earlier. On 22 July 2003 the wreck of Rusalka was located in the Gulf of Finland, 25 kilometers (16 mi) south of Helsinki, by the museum's research vessel Mare.[13] Two days later, deep divers Kaido Peremees and Indrek Ostrat more precisely located and videoed the wreck.[11] Most unusually, the wreck is in a near-vertical position; following her sinking, the vessel plunged, bow first, 74 meters (243 ft) directly downward into the muddy bottom of the gulf, and is buried in the bottom to almost half her length.[13] The divers found the stern of the lost vessel rising 33 meters (108 ft) above the sea bed and her rudder turned to starboard.[11]
The wreck is generally intact although draped with snagged fishing nets. The aft turret, however, has fallen out off the ship.
Notes
Footnotes
- ^ McLaughlin, p. 156
- ^ McLaughlin, pp. 156, 159–60
- ^ Chesneau & Kolesnik, p. 176
- ^ McLaughlin, p. 158
- ^ McLaughlin, pp. 158–59
- ^ Silverstone, p. 384
- ^ McLaughlin, pp. 152, 155–56, 163
- ^ McLaughlin, p. 160
- ^ McLaughlin, pp. 160–62
- ^ a b c McLaughlin, p. 162
- ^ a b c "The Wreck of the Mermaid". Archaeology. Retrieved 18 November 2013.
- ^ "Soomuslaev sai mälestusmärgi üheksa aastat pärast hukku". Postimees (in Estonian). 20 July 2005. Retrieved 20 November 2013.
- ^ a b "Varia". Tuukritööde OÜ. Retrieved 20 November 2013.
- ^ "Dive The Wreck Of The Russalka In The Baltic". YouTube. Retrieved 19 November 2013.
Bibliography
- Chesneau, Roger; Kolesnik, Eugene M., eds. (1979). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860-1905. Greenwich, UK: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-8317-0302-4.)
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|lastauthoramp=ignored (|name-list-style=suggested) (help - McLaughlin, Stephen (2013). "Russia's Coles 'Monitors': Smerch, Rusalka and Charodeika". In Jordan, John (ed.). Warship 2013. London: Conway. pp. 149–63. ISBN 978-1-84486-205-4.
- Silverstone, Paul H. (1984). Directory of the World's Capital Ships. New York: Hippocrene Books. ISBN 0-88254-979-0.
Further reading
- Watts, Anthony J. (1990). The Imperial Russian Navy. London: Arms and Armour. ISBN 0-85368-912-1.
External links
