Slava (1903)
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 Ship of the line Slawa in Kronstadt in 1910 |
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| Overview | |
| Type | Ship of the line |
| units | 5 |
| Shipyard | |
| Keel laying | October 1902 |
| Launch | August 1903 |
| delivery | June 1905 |
| Namesake | Russian term for fame |
| period of service |
1905-1917 |
| Whereabouts | Sunk October 17, 1917 after the Battle of Moon Sound |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
13,516 ts |
| length |
121 m |
| width |
23.3 m |
| Draft |
8.00 m |
| crew |
796 men |
| drive |
12 Belleville boilers , |
| speed |
17.5 kn |
| Range |
2,590 nm at 10 kn |
| Armament |
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| Coal supply |
1,545 ts of coal |
| Armor |
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The Slava ( Russian Слава , German: Ruhm ) was the last ship of the line of the five-ship Borodino class of the Imperial Russian Navy . Three of her sister ships sank in the sea battle at Tsushima , and the Oryol had to surrender to the Japanese. Slava sank in Moon Sound on October 17, 1917 .
The Borodino class
The Borodino class was based on the plans of the Zessarevich, built in France 1899–1901 . When the construction contract was signed, the Russian naval command insisted that five more ships of the same type be built in Russia and modified if necessary so that they would meet the requirements of the Russian navy. Accordingly, from 1899 to 1905, the ships of the Borodino class were built in Russian shipyards: Borodino , Emperor Alexander III. , Oryol , Knjas Suvorov and Slava .
Like the Zessarewitsch , these ships also suffered from the fact that their center of gravity was too high, the hull walls in the so-called tumblehome design showed inwards above the waterline, the longitudinal bulkhead running in the middle of the hull conjured up the risk of capsizing and the low belt armor when fully loaded Water was pressed. The casemate guns were so low that they were unusable in rough seas. In addition, the ships, despite their greater weight, had weaker engines than the Zessarewitsch . All three ships of the class sunk at Tsushima capsized before sinking. The ships are therefore regarded by some shipbuilding experts as the worst battleships ever built (Preston 2002).
history
The slava was laid on the keel of the Baltic Works in St. Petersburg in 1902 . It was launched in August 1903 and completed in June 1905. She had finished that too late to be assigned to her sister ships in the Second Pacific Squadron under Vice-Admiral Roschestvensky . As a result, she escaped their fate, the sinking or capture by Japan in the sea battle of Tsushima . She stayed with the Baltic Fleet all her service life .
First World War
In August 1915 she took part in the defensive battle in the Riga Bay against the German deep-sea fleet and had a brief, unsuccessful duel with the liners SMS Braunschweig and SMS Alsace on August 8, 1915 and then withdrew. On August 16, 1915, she dueled with the two battleships SMS Nassau and SMS Posen at a further break-in attempt by the deep-sea fleet in the Riga Bay, and received three hits without hitting the German ships. In the winter of 1916, the mounts for the 305 mm guns were rebuilt in Helsinki in order to increase the maximum increase from 15 ° to 25 ° and thus increase the range of the main battery to approx. 21,000 m.
In the Battle of Moon Sound on October 17, 1917, the Slava was shot down by the superior German ship of the line SMS König despite its shorter artillery range. Since she could no longer escape through the shallow strait due to her increased draft due to water ingress, she was abandoned by her crew and sunk by a torpedo of the destroyer Turkmenez Stavropolski in Moon Sound to block the fairway.
In 1918 the Slav was officially removed from the fleet lists by the Soviets and in 1935 it was scrapped by Estonia, in whose waters it lay.
Web links
- German Army Report of October 19, 1917 and report by the Chief of the Admiralty's Staff of the Navy