Livadija (ship)

Ливадия / Liwadija

The Livadija seen from the side in 1881

Ship data flag  Russia other ship names Opyt Ship type Round ship Shipyard John Elder & Co. Govan , Scotland Launch June 25, 1880 Whereabouts Canceled in 1926

Ship dimensions and crew length approx. 72 m ( Lüa ) width approx. 47 m Draft Max. 2.1 m displacement approx 4500   crew 24 officers, 321 crew

Machine system machine 3 steam engines with a maximum of 12,354 PSi indicated performance 10,500 hp (7,723 kW) Top speed 15.725 kn (29 km / h)

The Liwadija ( Russian Ливадия ) was a state yacht of the House of Romanow-Holstein-Gottorp , built in the years 1879-1880. She was supposed to replace the first yacht of the same name that sank off the coast of Crimea in 1878 .

history

The yacht, commissioned by Alexander II on September 5, 1879, was laid down in Glasgow at the John Elder & Co. shipyard in the same year , although the official ceremony for this did not take place until March 25, 1880. The ship represented a radical novelty in boatbuilding. It was based on the ideas of Vice-Admiral Andrei Alexandrowitsch Popow , who had already devised several of these "round ships", the plans were drawn up by the shipbuilder Erast Gulyaev . In this case, however, Popow placed more emphasis on geometric perfection than on seaworthiness . As an obviously extreme example of an architecture collapsing towards the main deck , that is, a hull that is more reminiscent of an “O” in cross-section , the superstructures were more conventional. The construction of the yacht, which was to serve as a prototype for the subsequent warship generation, was supervised by Sir William Pearce , with additional advice from Bruno Tideman and Edward James Reed . William Leiper and William De Morgan designed the interior.

Het keizerlijke Jacht "Livadia" , text with illustration as wood engraving in: De Huisvriend. Geillustreerd Magazijn gewijd aan letters en art. 1881, pp. 2, 4.)

The maneuverability of the ship on the first test drives astonished most shipbuilders and was attributed to a particularly favorable arrangement of the ship's propellers . However, on the maiden voyage it was already evident that her flat bottom was very susceptible to damage from the impact of waves . The Livadija spent most of her short ship life in docks and was only used once for her duties when she sailed the Grand Dukes Konstantin and Mikhail across the Black Sea . The then ruling Alexander III. had no interest in maintaining a ship with such weak spots, so that the ship was laid up in Nikolaev in August 1881 and lay on the quay for 40 years. Here she was converted into a Hulk named Opyt in 1883 . All previous luxury was removed, the machines expanded and reused in naval cruisers . The Hulk itself was still in use during the First World War, only to be demolished for good in 1926 .

Technical specifications

Circular ship Livadija

According to the literature, the ship had an overall length of between 72 m to 79.25 m, in the waterline 71.63 m and a width between 46.64 m in the waterline and 47 m (unspecified), the displacement between 4,420 and 4,500 tons. The underwater ship was designed in an approximately circular shape, from which the term "round ship" is derived. The three steam engines delivered 10,500  hp , which was initially sufficient for the contractually agreed maximum speed of over 14  knots , but this could no longer be achieved in later operation. The Kaiser had a living space of 3950 m² on the yacht and a crew of 24 officers and 321 other men.

literature

• TW Donald: The “Livadia” . In: The Mariner's Mirror . Vol. 55, No. 3 . Cambridge University Press, London / New York August 1969, pp. 324 .
• Het keizerlijke Jacht "Livadia" , text with illustration as wood engraving in: De Huisvriend. Geillustreerd Magazijn gewijd aan letters en art. 1881, pp. 2, 4.
• VG Andrienko: Kruglye suda admirala Popova (Круглые суда адмирала Попова) . Gangut, Saint Petersburg 1994, ISBN 5-85875-011-7 , chapters 9 , 10 and 11 . (Russian)
• Robert Ballantyne: Man on the Ocean . 1881. (Reprint: BiblioBazaar, LLC, 2007, ISBN 978-1-4346-3766-6 ) (English)
• David Brett: CR Mackintosh, the poetics of workmanship . Reaction Books, 1992, ISBN 0-948462-22-1 .
• JM Dirkzwager: Dr. BJ Tideman, 1834–1883: Grondlegger van de moderne scheepsbouw in Nederland . Brill Archive, 1970. (Dutch)
• William Hovgaard: Modern history of warships: comprising a discussion of present standpoint and recent war experiences for the use of students of naval construction, naval constructors, naval officers and others interested in naval matters . Conway Maritime Press, London 1920 (English). (Reprinted by Taylor & Francis, 1971, ISBN 0-85177-040-1 )
• Frank R. MacLear: Catamarans as Commercial Fishing Vessels. In: Jan-Olof Traung (Ed.): Fishing boats of the World 3  - Internet Archive . Fishing News (Books), London 1967 (English)
• CE Stromeyer: Marine Boiler Management and Construction . 1893. (Reprint: Books on Demand , 2009, ISBN 978-1-4346-3766-6 ) (English)

Web links

• Imperial Yacht Livadia - Императорская яхта "Ливадия» (Russian)
• Photographs of the ship in the St. Petersburg Archives
• Detailed views of a model

Individual evidence

1. ^ From the report in the London Times in 1879 in England on the construction of the yacht Liwadija .
2. ^ ^{A b c d} William Hovgaard: Modern history of warships . 1920, p. 40 .
3. ^ Frank R. MacLear: Catamarans as Commercial Fishing Vessels . 1967, p. 196 .
4. ↑ ^{a b} Императорская паровая колесная яхта "Ливадия" после вступления в строй - The imperial yacht Liwadija after commissioning (Russian) accessed February 27, 2012.
5. ^ ^{A b c} V. G. Andrienko: Kruglye suda admirala Popova . 1994, p. 30 .
6. ↑ VG Andrienko: Kruglye suda Admirala Popova . 1994, p. 32 .
7. ^ William Hovgaard: Modern history of warships . 1920, p. 39 .