Orfei class


The Russian destroyer Letun in 1916.
Class details
Ship type:	destroyer
Shipyard	Ust Ischora shipyard of the St. Petersburg metal factory
Period of service:	1915-1958
Units:	8th
Technical specifications
Length:	98 m
Width:	9.34 m
Draft:	3.3 m
Displacement :	Construction: 1,260 t, maximum approx. 1,450 t
Drive:	4 oil-fired Vulcan steam boilers 2 sets of Curtis AEG Vulcan steam turbines 31,500 PSw on 2 shafts
Speed:	35.0 kn
Range:	1680 nm at 21 kn 560 nm at 34 kn
Fuel supply:	400 tons of heating oil
Armament:	4 × 102 mm L / 60 guns 1 × 40 mm Flak L / 39 2 × 7.62 mm machine guns 9 × torpedo tubes (3 × 3) Ø 457 mm 80 mines
Crew:	150 men

The Orfei class ( Russian Орфей for Orpheus ) was a class destroyer of the Baltic fleet of the Imperial Russian Navy . It was based on the design of the prototype boat Nowik , was ordered in the wake of the small shipbuilding program approved in June 1912 for the Baltic Sea in 1912 and built there.

draft

Soviet destroyer Artem ex- Azard

Abandoned Russian destroyer Grom is being towed by torpedo boat B 98

Compared to the Nowik , the design was a little smaller. The plans were drawn up with the help of the German shipyard Blohm & Voss in Hamburg for the Putilow shipyard in St. Petersburg , which forwarded them to the Ust-Ischora shipyard of Metallwerke St. Petersburg. Differences to the Leitenant-Iljin class of the Putilow shipyard, which were built at the same time, consisted in the arrangement and shape of the fans, the chimney extensions and the shape of the bridge.

Within the class, Grom and Pobeditel each had a 63 mm Flak L / 38 and Orfei and Sabijaka each had a 76.2 mm Flak L / 30 instead of the 40 mm gun of the other boats.

Naming

The boats were given the names of famous Russian sailing ships that distinguished themselves in various sea battles.

Boats and Fates

ship	Keel laying	Launch	in service	comment
Orfei	November 5, 1914	06/28/1915	05/17/1916	The boat ran into a mine in November 1917, damaging the turbines and bending the shafts. The ship was then brought in, but only preserved. On May 31, 1922, it was deleted from the fleet list. The hull was cannibalized, the forecastle was attached to the damaged destroyer Volodarsky and the rest was then scrapped in 1929.
Letun	11.1914	October 18, 1915	07/24/1916	The boat was badly damaged by a mine on November 7, 1916 near the island of Wulf , with the stern being torn off. The destroyer was also no longer repaired, removed from the fleet list on May 31, 1922 and scrapped in 1925.
Pobeditel	11.1913	November 5, 1914	November 7, 1915	The boat was launched in 1919, made ready to sail again in 1921, renamed Volodarsky on December 31, 1922 , modernized in 1935 and assigned to the Baltic fleet. It sank on August 28, 1941 on the Juminda mine barrier in the Gulf of Finland.
Sabijaka	11.1913	November 5, 1914	11/24/1915	The boat was severely damaged by a mine off Dagerort shortly after it was put into service on January 6, 1916 and again during the Battle of Moon Sound on October 14, 1917. It was laid up from April 1918 to April 1921, on December 31, 1922 in Uritzky renamed and modernized 1935th Since 1937 it belonged to the Arctic Ocean Fleet, where it was reclassified to the watch ship Reut in 1951 and finally decommissioned as the Hulk UTS 22 in December 1956 and scrapped in 1958.
Grom	11.1913	06/28/1915	05/17/1916	The destroyer sank the submarine trap SMS Schiff H on June 13, 1916 during a convoy operation against German ore ships . The boat sank after heavy artillery hits and boarding by German units towing the torpedo boat SMS B 98 on October 14, 1917 during the battle in Moon Sound .
Desna	11.1914	November 7, 1915	08/29/1916	The boat was launched in 1919, made ready to sail again in 1921, renamed Engels on December 31, 1922 , modernized in 1932 and assigned to the Baltic fleet. It sank on August 24, 1941 on the Juminda mine barrier in the Gulf of Finland.
Asard	07.1915	June 5, 1916	10/23/1916	The boat sank together with the destroyer Gawriil on June 9, 1919 in the Gulf of Finland, the British submarine HMS L55 . Asard was always ready to drive , was renamed Zinoviev on December 31, 1922 and Artyom on November 27, 1928 . In 1933 it was modernized and sank on August 28, 1941 on the Juminda mine barrier in the Gulf of Finland.
Samson	07/13/1915	June 5, 1916	December 4, 1916	The boat was launched in 1919, made ready to sail again in 1921, renamed Stalin on December 31, 1922 , modernized from 1933 to 1936 and assigned to the Far East fleet. Decommissioned in 1951, renamed the Hulk PKZ 37 and scrapped in 1956.

literature

Harald Fock: Black journeymen. Vol. 2 Destroyers until 1914. Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Herford 1981, ISBN 3-7822-0206-6 .
Harald Fock: Z-before! Vol. 1 International development and war missions of destroyers and torpedo boats 1914 to 1939. Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Herford 1998, ISBN 3-7822-0207-4 .
Robert Gardiner: Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1906-1921. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis / Maryland 1985. ISBN 0-85177-245-5 .
Robert Gardiner: Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1922-1946. Naval Institute Press, London 1980. ISBN 0-85177-146-7 .
René Greger: The Russian fleet in the First World War 1914 - 1917. JF Lehmanns, Munich 1970, ISBN 3-469-00303-3 .
Michael J. Whitley: Destroyers in World War II , Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-613-01426-2 .

Web links

Commons : Orfei class - collection of images, videos, and audio files

Orfei class (Russian)

Remarks

↑ according to AN Verstyuk, SJ Gordeev: Korbli Minnueh divisii, Moscow 2006 p. 38 - which is correct from the point in time since Orfei was still transporting members of the ZENTROBALT to Helsinfors in autumn 1917 and was not involved in the fighting for Ösel ( Operation Albion )

[1] rding to AN Verstyuk, SJ Gordeev: Korbli Minnueh divisii, Moscow 2006 p. 38 - which is correct from the point in time since Orfei was still transporting members of the ZENTROBALT to Helsinfors in autumn 1917 and was not involved in the fighting for Ösel ( Operation Albion )