Admiral Nakhimov (1885)
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Admiral Nakhimov ( Russian Адмирал Нахимов ) was the name of an armored cruiser of the Imperial Russian Navy . The ship was the first Russian cruiser with the main armament in armored turrets. Laid down in 1884 and launched in 1885, the ship entered service in 1888. The ship has long been considered one of the fastest and most heavily armed cruisers in the world.
construction
The cruiser was to be built as part of the naval armament program passed in 1881. According to the task set out by the Naval Technical Committee, the cruiser should have belt armor with a thickness of at least 254 mm at the level of the waterline, have main armament at least 9 inches in caliber, be able to carry large coal supplies, reach a speed of at least 15 knots, have a maximum draft of 7.92 m and be equipped with full sails. The British armored cruiser Imperious was chosen as a model , which was distinguished by the diamond-shaped arrangement of the guns: one cannon at the bow and stern and amidships on each side.
On November 19, 1882, the project was confirmed. Compared to the first draft, the diameter of the barbeds was increased to 1.5 m to accommodate the 229 mm cannon developed by the Obuchow works . The location of the boiler and machinery, which was developed under the direction of the chief engineer of the fleet, Major General A. I. Sokolov, was also changed. By moving the system aft, one chimney was sufficient for the entire system. The coal supply was increased to 150%, and the additional weight of 390 t increased the displacement to 7782 t. The length of the hull grew by 1.83 m, the draft by 0.1 m.
In 1884 the ship was laid down at the Baltic shipyard in Saint Petersburg. In January 1885 the armament was changed. Now a 203 mm cannon with a length of 35 calibers was to be used, this time in a vavasseur setup . This change led to an increase in the bullet weight of a volley and an increase in cadence, and the diameter of the barbeds could be reduced by 62 cm. This gave hope for an increased seaworthiness of the ship. The barbeds now also received thin armor. The launch took place on October 21, 1885. The armored cruiser entered service on December 15, 1887 after it was damaged in the trading port of St. Petersburg in the fall of 1887.
commitment
The Admiral Nakhimov was primarily used in Far Eastern waters. On September 29, 1888, she left Kronstadt on her first trip to the Far East . She returned after almost three years. After the repair work was completed, the US was visited, then the ship entered the Mediterranean for a short time. From there, the Admiral Nakhimov was relocated to the Far East. In the meantime there was a collision with the armored cruiser Pamjat Asowa off Cadiz - the damage was repaired in Nagasaki in April / May 1894.
In 1895, the cruiser took part in the naval maneuvers in the roadstead of the Chinese port of Zhifu , which were carried out because of the danger of war due to the Japanese claims on the Liaodong peninsula . The cruiser then visited Vladivostok as well as Korean and Japanese ports and finally returned to the Baltic Sea in 1898, where the ship in the Kronstadt arsenal was extensively modernized: the rigging was removed and a new machine system (2 standing three-cylinder triple compound machines) and new boilers from Type Belleville installed, which enabled a top speed of 17.5 knots with 9,000 hp. In addition, the armored cruiser received new towers for the main artillery and 3 torpedo tubes with a caliber of 38.1 cm instead of the 35.5. The old 8.7 cm guns were replaced by 6 more 4.7 cm guns for torpedo boat defense.
After its reconstruction, the Admiral Nakhimov was relocated to the Far East for the third time in 1900, with the armored cruiser already being damaged by ice in the Baltic Sea, which ultimately required a repair stay in La Spezia from March to May 1900 . In the following three years the ship took part in the maneuvers at Port Arthur , visited Japan and Korea and was used for diplomatic missions. In 1903 the cruiser returned to Kronstadt to stay in the shipyard. The planned conversion (8 15.2-cm L / 45 and 10 12-cm L / 45) was stopped due to the Russo-Japanese War .
Russo-Japanese War
At the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War, the Admiral Nakhimov was assigned to the 2nd Division of the 2nd Pacific Wing under the command of Rear Admiral von Fölkersahm . During the sea battle at Tsushima , the ship drove in the middle of the left battle line. The Admiral Nakhimov received on 27 May 1905 about twenty hits. During the night she was hit by a torpedo on the starboard side at around 10:00 p.m. According to information provided by the crew, the ship sank two Japanese mine-layers during the night, and according to information provided by the commander, Captain 1st rank AA Rodionow. This information has not been confirmed by the Japanese side. In addition, the main artillery scored at least three hits on the Japanese cruiser Iwate , which damaged it.
On the morning of May 28, the half-sunken ship drove ahead with the stern stem because the bow was perforated. When other Japanese ships appeared on the battlefield, the ship was sunk by its crew themselves. Twenty-one officers, ensigns and midshipmen as well as a large part of the crew fell into Japanese captivity. The Japanese auxiliary cruiser Sado Maru captured 523 crew members, 103 men initially managed to escape in boats, but they were later picked up by the Japanese. 18 men of the crew were killed or are missing. The Admiral Nakhimov sank in position 4 ° 34 ' N , 129 ° 32' O .
The legend of sunken gold
The wreck of the Admiral Nakhimov went almost unnoticed for the next thirty years, until in 1933 the American Garry Rissberg published the book 600 Billion Under Water . In it he made the claim that on board four Russian ships of the 2nd Pacific Squadron, which were sunk at Tsushima, there was a treasure of gold worth five million dollars , two million of which were on board the Admiral Nakhimov .
In November 1980, the Japanese businessman Ryoichi Sasakawa ( Japanese 笹 川 良 一 ) announced that he would provide a substantial sum for the salvage of the cruiser, since the wreckage of the ship was found. Sasakawa reported boxes of gold coins as well as gold and platinum bars that were found on board. Later Sasakawa also presented himself to photographers with platinum bars, which allegedly came from Admiral Nakhimov , but could no longer substantiate alleged later finds. Sasakawa pleaded unforeseen difficulties. Because of Sasakawa's portrayals, professional treasure hunters began to deal with the Admiral Nakhimov . However, the study of the documents on the Russo-Japanese War, in particular the reports of participants in the naval battle, could not confirm the representations of Sasakawa. Sasakawa's credibility was completely ruined when it was discovered that the metal fragments he had allegedly recovered from Admiral Nakhimov had the density of lead but not platinum.
Before Sasakawa's claims became untenable, the Soviet government protested against the intended salvage and, as the legal successor of the Russian Empire, filed claims for the gold. As a result, Sasakawa had agreed to hand over the gold to the Soviet Union if the latter returned the Kuril Islands to the Japanese in return (see Kuril conflict ).
literature
- Владимир Васильевич Арбузов: Броненосный крейсер "Адмирал Нахимов". Корабли и сражения, Санкт-Петербург 2000, ISBN 5-900786-25-0 ( Боевые корабли мира ).
- Roger Chesneau and Eugene M. Kolesnik: Warships of the World 1860 to 1905, Volume 2: USA, Japan and Russia. Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Koblenz 1983, ISBN 3-7637-5403-2 . (German translation by: Robert Gardiner), ed. (1979). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860-1905. Greenwich: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-8317-0302-4 .
- Bernhard Gomm: The Russian Warships 1856-1917, Volume II: Frigates, Armored Cruisers, Corvettes, Protected Cruisers, Appendix: Sailing Frigates 1694-1856. Self-published, Wiesbaden 1991
Web links
- Drawings and technical data (Russian)
- List of officers who took part in the naval battle of Tsushima on the ship (Russian)
Footnotes
- ↑ In Japanese sources, the damage on the Iwate is occasionally assigned to Nikolai I , but this can be extremely unlikely due to the reports of the crews and the fact that the Admiral Nakhimov was the only ship involved with artillery of the caliber 203 mm.
- ↑ Ranks in the Russian fleet
- ↑ Transcription from Russian
- ↑ 600 миллиардов под водой