Gornostai

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Gornostai
RussiaRussia (naval war flag)
Builder: Bjornburg, Finland
Keel laying: October 10, 1862
Launch: April 27, 1863
Commissioning: 1865
Period of service: 1865-1893
Displacement: 456.7 t
Length: 47 m
Width: 7 m
Draft: 2.8 m
Drive: Sails
1 steam engine
1 screw
232 PSi
Speed: 8.25 kn
Range:
Crew: 8 officers / 78 men
Armament: Guns:
  • 2 × 152 mm cannon
  • 4 × 87 mm cannon
  • 2 × 107 mm cannon
  • 2 × 42 mm cannon

Gornostai (Russian: Горностай, German: Hermelin) was the name of a sea-going gunboat of the Imperial Russian Navy . Commissioned in 1863, it was primarily used in the Pacific and was involved in several Russian research expeditions. In 1893 it was removed from the fleet list.

From the middle of the 19th century, an accelerated development of the Siberian and Far Eastern parts of the country began in Russia . In this context, Russian foreign policy interests slowly shifted from the Baltic and Black Sea regions to South and East Asia (see also Great Game ). A naval presence appeared to be necessary to safeguard foreign policy interests in this area, but also to enforce Russian state authority in the vast, so far barely developed territories. At least some of the ships deployed there should be able to operate in shallow coastal waters and in the estuaries of the large rivers. Since there was no efficient industry in Far Eastern Russia, the ships had to be built in the shipyards in the Baltic Sea region. The transfer of the boats and ships always required structures suitable for the sea, but the seaworthiness was also necessary for use in the seas in and around China, Korea and Japan.

The Gornostai was built at the Björnburg shipyard in the Grand Duchy of Finland, which was then linked to Russia by a personal union . The keel was laid on October 10, 1862, the launch on April 27, 1863. The equipment work and the installation of the machinery took place in Kronstadt .

The later Vice-Admiral Konstantin Fjodorowitsch Litke became the first in command of the boat . Under his command, the boat moved from Kronstadt across the Atlantic , the Strait of Magellan and the Pacific to the Amur estuary from 1865 to 1867 . In the summer of 1867 the boat was incorporated into the Siberian Flotilla of the Imperial Russian Navy. The boat remained in the fleet of the flotilla until it was decommissioned on October 19, 1893.

Between 1868 and 1869, the Gornostai carried out hydrographic research expeditions in the north-western part of the Sea of Japan and the Peter the Great Bay (Russian: Залив Петра Великого). Cape Kornilev in Strelok Bay was named after the head mate of the boat, Lieutenant A. A. Kornilew.

In the following years the boat was also used for diplomatic missions. In 1870 the Russian ambassador traveled to Beijing on the Gornostai , followed by a naval visit to San Francisco in 1876 . Another research trip was undertaken in the same year. The Gornostai sailed from Vladivostok through the Tatar Sound and the Amur estuary into the Sea of ​​Okhotsk . The aim of the expedition was to find suitable ports in this sea area.

From 1886 the Gornostai was used for hydrographic surveys and pilotage services . For this purpose, the boat was moved to Nikolayevsk on the Amur . In August 1886 the boat entered the mouth of the Sungari and measured the fairway . The Gornostai was the first Russian warship to reach Khabarovsk in this way . After that, the boat was assigned to the special department of the Eastern Ocean and carried out surveying work in Peter the Great Bay until it was decommissioned.

Web links

literature

  • Д. В. Ершов: Русский флот в борьбе с хунхузами. Конец XIX - начало XX в. (DW Jerschow: The Russian fleet in the fight against the Honghuzi. End of XIX. - beginning of XX. Cent. ) In: Woprosy istorii, No. December 12, 2009, pages 53-62 (Russian).