Bobr (1884)

Gunboat Bobr in Tsingtau
Overview
Type	Gunboat
Shipyard	W: m Crichton & C: o Ab, Abo
Keel laying	January 1884
Launch	April 10, 1884
Commissioning	December 20, 1885
Whereabouts	Sunk December 26, 1904 in Port Arthur
Technical specifications
displacement	Max. 1,230 t
length	60.3 m
width	10.7 m
Draft	3.7 m
crew	170 men
drive	6 boilers, 2 screws 2 horizontal double compound machines 1,140 HP
speed	11.7 kn
Armament	• 1 × 229 mm L / 30 cannon • 1 × 152 mm L / 35 cannon • 6 × 107 mm L / 20 cannons • 4 × 37 mm L / 23 Hotchkiss rapid fire guns • 1 × 64 mm L / 19 Baranowski landing gun
Armored deck	13 mm
Sister ship	Sivuch
similar	Grozjashchi , Gremjashchi , Otvaschny , Khrabry

Bobr ( Russian Бобр , German "beaver") was the name of a sea-going gunboat of the Imperial Russian Navy . Commissioned in 1885, it was primarily used in the Far East. During the Russo-Japanese War was there during the siege of Port Arthur sunk.

history

The Bobr was the type ship of a class of two boats, the second boat was the Swedish-built Siwutsch .

The boat was laid on the keel at the W: m Crichton & C: o shipyard in Abo in January 1884 , and was launched on April 10, 1884. The Bobr was finally put into service on December 20, 1885.

In 1886 the Bobr was assigned to the Baltic Fleet , but moved to the Far East under the command of Captain 2nd Rank A. Menshikov (А. Меньшиков) in the spring of the following year . On July 11, 1887, the Bobr became part of the Siberian War Flotilla. From the end of 1887 the boat provided station service in the port of Tschemulpo . In 1890 the Bobr was used for a hydrographic expedition. The aim of the expedition was to explore the America Bay south of Nakhodka . In 1891, during the visit of the Russian Emperor Nicholas II in the Far East, the boat was assigned to his squadron. The Bobr then carried out patrols in the area of ​​the commanders' islands.

The Bobr with the battleship Nawarin in Port Arthur

From May 29, 1900, the boat was part of a Russian squadron under the leadership of Admiral Weselago in the transfer of troops during the Boxer Uprising . It transported reinforcements for the Russian troops operating on the Tientsin peninsula under Colonel Anissimow ( Анисимов ). On June 4th, the Bobr and other boats shelled the Taku forts . While the boat received a hit from enemy artillery, the Bobr managed to set fire to the forts' powder depot.

Bobr

During the Russo-Japanese War, on March 27, 1904 , the Bobr was involved in repelling the attack by Japanese fires on the Port Arthur roadstead. In May 1904, the boat covered the right flank of the Russian troops used to defend Jingzhou with its guns . Trapped in the port of Port Arthur with the Russian fleet, the Bobr received several heavy hits from the Japanese siege artillery on October 20, 1904. Since there was no longer any possibility of offensive action for the Russian fleet and the Bobr was badly damaged, the boat was disarmed. Guns and crew increased the forces deployed on land to defend the fortress. On December 26, 1904, the Bobr was hit by a Japanese 280mm shell and sank. In the following year the boat was lifted by the Japanese and then scrapped.

Web links

• Photos, drawings and technical data (Russian)