Armadillos of the Andrei Pervozvanny type. Squadron battleship "Andrei Pervozvanny"
Ordered as part of the shipbuilding program for 1903-1920. Construction began with loans allocated to support the activities of “private shipyards and state-owned shipyards.” They were completed according to the program “Distribution of appropriations for shipbuilding” for 1907-1911.
They were laid down as improved Borodino-type battleships with an increased (up to 203mm) caliber of medium artillery, reinforced armor and mine protection. Based on the experience of the Russo-Japanese War, the project was redesigned. The number of guns was increased to 14; introduced a single mine-resistant caliber and strengthened mine protection, in the absence of any holes in the armor below the upper deck.
Due to numerous reworkings, completion was delayed and by the time it entered service they were morally obsolete. The last of the Russian battleships built.
Andrew the First-Called1912/1923
Participated in the 1st World War (covering the raiding actions of light naval forces) and the February Revolution; was among the first to rebel on March 16, 1917 in Helsingfors (Helsinki). On November 7, 1917 it became part of the Red Baltic Fleet and on April 21, 1921 it became part of Marine forces Baltic Sea. On April 5-10, 1918 he made the transition from Helsingfors to Kronstadt. Participated in the civil war (suppression of the rebellion at the Krasnaya Gorka fort on July 13-15, 1919); was part of the bunker (active detachment of ships).
On August 18, 1919, it was damaged in Kronstadt by a torpedo fired by the English torpedo boat, after which it was put for restoration repairs. During the Civil War, the ship's 120-mm guns were partially used on land fronts and on ships of river and lake flotillas.
From September 1, 1920, it was stored in the Kronstadt military port; on December 15, 1923, it was handed over to the Komstate Fund for dismantling and cutting into metal, and on February 8, 1924, it was excluded from the lists of ships of the Naval Forces of the Baltic Sea. Subsequently, the ship's 203-mm turrets were installed on the Krasnoflotsky and Pervomaisky forts, and rangefinders and artillery fire control devices were installed on the monitors of the Amur Flotilla.
Emperor Paul I1912/1923
Participated in the 1st World War (covering the raiding actions of light naval forces) and the February Revolution; the first in the navy to rebel on March 16, 1917 in Helsingfors (Helsinki). On November 7, 1917, it became part of the Red Baltic Fleet and on April 21, 1921, it became part of the Naval Forces of the Baltic Sea. Participated in the civil war (Ice transition from Helsingfors to Kronstadt on April 5-10, 1918, defense of Fort Ino in April 1918).
From September 22, 1920, it was stored in the Kronstadt military port. During the Civil War, the ship's 120-mm guns were partially used on land fronts and on ships of river and lake flotillas.
On November 22, 1923, it was handed over to the Komgosfonds for dismantling and cutting into metal and on November 21, 1925 it was excluded from the lists of RKKF vessels.
Once upon a time, not so long ago, one of my acquaintances pestered me with a question: “Was it possible to make one dreadnought out of “Andrew the First-Called” and “Paul the First?” In general, the answer is clear. And that’s roughly what I answered, but my friend didn’t give up and continued to ask what assumptions needed to be made in order to get this cross between a bulldog and a rhinoceros. As a result, this was born.
"When you don't die, you only lose one day" (c) Folk.
First of all, I would like to immediately apologize for the quality of the drawing. As the English pirates said, “he who is hanged will not drown”; My next attempt to “drown myself” by drawing something predictably ended in failure.
Secondly, I want to warn you that the alternative begins much earlier than the events described, because without this it would not have grown together.
Thirdly, again I want to warn: “Attention, you’re a bastard!” (because without it initial condition again was not fulfilled).
The program of enhanced shipbuilding, adopted in 1895, had been more or less successfully carried out for 7 years and was approaching its logical conclusion when in 1902, immediately after the launching of all 4 EDBs of the Borodino type, modernization of the production facilities of the Baltic Shipyard and the New Admiralty began. According to the “program”, at these plants before 1905 it was planned to build 2 more EDBs according to the “improved Borodino project”, and in connection with this, units, mechanisms, armored steel and weapons for two new battleships. It was worth assuming that, having such a backlog, domestic shipbuilders would have time to deliver the missing ships on time determined by the program, and the fleet would have received both ships in mid-1905. However, in September 1903, the intelligence department intervened in the fate of the ships that had not yet been laid down on the stocks fleet and His Imperial Majesty personally.
On September 13, 1903, the first meeting of the “special commission for advanced shipbuilding” headed by Emperor Nicholas II himself took place in the MTK building. The commission also included the head of the Ministry of Transport and Communications F.V. Dubasov, Rear Admiral S.O. Makarov, captain 2nd rank V.A. Smirnov, director of the Baltic plant K.K. Ratnik, head of the experimental pool A.N. Krylov, engineer I.G. Bubnov and a number of other engineers of the Baltic Plant. The present members of the commission were presented with data on the start of work on a new type of battleship in the UK, and on the possible timing of its laying and commissioning. It was proposed to develop technical specifications for the design of a similar battleship in order to maintain the current balance of forces and prevent a catastrophic weakening of the Russian fleet. Since E.I.V. Since his accession to the throne, he paid considerable attention to naval affairs, the drafting of the TTZ took place with his direct participation, and according to the memoirs of the participants in these events that have reached us, on the one hand, the atmosphere of the commission meetings was very democratic [i], and on the other hand, sometimes The debate became quite tense. However, to the credit of the commission members, none of their disagreements that emerged during the work had any impact on the further relationship between them.
One of the most difficult issues that caused disagreement was the choice of the power plant of the new battleship. E.I.V. and engineer Bubnov insisted on a steam turbine power plant, pointing to its high specific power and the prospects of such control systems and citing intelligence data that the British are going to install exactly such a control system on their battleship. They were objected to by K.K. Ratnik, S.O. Makarov and V.F. Dubasov, quite reasonably noting the lack of turbine production in Russia, the untested nature of turbines in real operation, their high cost and the resulting possible delays in the construction of the ship. Ultimately, they managed to convince the Emperor and Bubnov that on the first Russian ship of this type it was necessary to use conventional triple expansion steam engines, well mastered by Russian industry in production. No less heated (mainly due to the temperament of the participants, already heated by the previous discussion) was the discussion of booking a new ship. Here the main instigator was S.O. Makarov, who once again put forward the idea of a high-speed armorless ship. However, all other participants in the meeting spoke out against this idea, and the level of armor protection was set as “not lower than the level of modern battleships of the Russian Empire and foreign powers” . Thanks to the personal participation of the emperor in the development of the TTZ, it was ready by the end of November 1903. In addition, according to the personal order of the emperor, the project initially included the use of the technical basis for the construction of an EDB of the “Improved Borodino” type (in RI “Andrew the First-Called”) .
According to the TTZ, the new battleship was supposed to have a displacement of within 22 thousand tons. Armament included 8-12 twelve-inch guns in turrets and 12 six-inch guns in towers or casemates. Maximum speed was determined to be no less than 21 knots, and a cruising range of 3000 miles at an economical speed. In January 1904, two projects for a new battleship were presented at the MTK. The first of them, developed with the participation of S.O. Makarov, was a project for a high-speed (23-24 knots) battleship with weak armor (front thickness up to 180 mm), and the second more fully met the requirements put forward by the commission. As a result, it was accepted for construction. In March 1904, the official laying of the battleship took place, which received the name “Andrei Pervozvanny”, and in official documents it was called “squadron battleship of the “Improved Borodino” type.” In general it is worth noting high degree The secrecy surrounding the construction of this ship could be called unprecedentedly high in relation to Russian shipbuilding: suffice it to say that the British were able to understand the true nature of the ship only by the time the installation of the ship’s gun turrets began at the outfitting wall of the Baltic Shipyard. It should be noted that both the construction itself and the timing of its implementation turned out to be shocking for the British Admiralty. And only a year later, having learned that the actual production of mechanisms, weapons and armor (as well as, possibly, a number of body parts) began back in 1902, they calmed down somewhat. But the launch of the battleship “Andrei Pervozvanny” on October 10, 1906 for testing created a sensation in both the foreign and Russian press.
By the end of the 1906 navigation, the new battleship only had time to test the machines at full power, which was fully consistent with the design data and allowed the design speed to reach 21 knots. Unfortunately, these tests also showed that using machines designed for much lighter ships was not the best idea. An increase in steam pressure in boilers and steam pipelines led to constant breakdowns in the engine part, regularly leading to a drop in full speed from 21 to 18 or even 17 knots. During the winter shutdown, a number of changes were made to the ship's vehicles to increase their reliability, but, as practice has shown, little has changed in this regard.
In the spring of 1907, tests continued. Firing was carried out with the main and auxiliary calibers, the maneuverable elements of the ship were checked, the cruising range was checked, and the survivability control systems were tested. By the summer, the tests were completed, and the ship was accepted into the treasury. Despite the unusual nature of the concept itself and the problems with the machines, this event was accepted by the sailors and officers of the RIF with undisguised joy. Thus, the commander of the 3rd destroyer division, captain of the 3rd rank A.V., who participated in the testing of the battleship. Kolchak, wrote to the boss tests Shchensnovich:
“What a pity that this ship was built so late: if we had managed to build it before the attack on Port Arthur, then there would have been no war. But we had such chances, only now I learned that Vladimir Alekseevich Stepanov proposed a project for such a ship back in 1884. Is it surprising that now he took a very active part in the design and construction of this beauty?
At the end of the tests, the battleship set off on her first foreign voyage, calling at the ports of Germany, Denmark and France on official visits; he completed it in August 1907 in Portsmouth, taking part in the traditional royal review of the fleet on the Spithead roadstead. In addition to "Andrew the First-Called" in gala event On behalf of the Russian Imperial Navy, the Vitgeft squadron took part, consisting of the battleship Retvizan and the cruisers Askold and Aurora. At the end of the review, the battleship included in this squadron left with it back to St. Petersburg.
“Andrew the First-Called” spent the 1908 campaign as part of the Mediterranean squadron, participating with it in eliminating the consequences of the earthquake in Messina. Later, he repeatedly made diplomatic visits to various states. Repeatedly visited the ports of France and England. Participated in rescue and search operations in the Baltic and North Seas. After the outbreak of the First World War in July 1912, the battleship remained in the Baltic until March 1916, when, due to the difficult foreign policy situation, it was decided to strengthen the Arctic Ocean flotilla with battleships (the decision itself was made much earlier, but before 1916 Russia did not have the opportunity to ensure the basing of large warships in the north). As a result of this decision, the 4th brigade of battleships of the Baltic Fleet, consisting of the battleships “Andrei Pervozvanny”, “Retvizan” and “Slava” (the last two EBRs, participants in the RYAV, albeit having undergone modernization), accompanied by the 14th destroyer division , the 2nd detachment of the TFR, as well as the tankers “Onezh”, “Ladoga”, the coal miner “Dvina”, the icebreaker “Eduard Toll” and 4 transports went on a long voyage. The Baltic Sea and the Danish Straits were passed without problems, and the detachment under the overall command of Rear Admiral A.M. Lazarev headed north. There were a few days left before the Russian Empire entered the First World War.
Ship design
The battleship "Andrei Pervozvanny" had a smooth-deck hull with a low freeboard and a classic ram stem. Small stern and bow superstructures were also designed to reduce the silhouette of the battleship. The hull was divided into 14 waterproof compartments. In the bow, the hull received reinforcement along the waterline for safe navigation in difficult ice conditions. Due to the high length to width ratio (7.42), the ship received bilge keels. The ship also received so-called lattice masts. “American design”, developed by engineer Shukhov. The gun turrets were placed linearly and monotonously, but not evenly. The bow towers were located in front of the bow superstructure and behind the mainmast, and a pair of stern towers were located behind the stern superstructure.
Power point
The battleship's power plant consisted of four vertical triple expansion steam engines with a power of 7160 hp. each, steam for which was produced by 32 Belleville-Dolgolenko boilers. Unfortunately, the changes made to accommodate 4 vehicles on the ship at once had a negative impact on their reliability. Throughout her service, the battleship was plagued by engine failures, and from the end of 1909 a recommendation was issued not to develop the full power of the engines in order to avoid their breakdown.
Armament
The battleship's armament consisted of 8 305-mm guns from the Obukhov plant with a barrel length of 40 calibers, similar to the guns of the Borodino-class battleships, in four double-gun turrets located along the longitudinal axis of the hull; 12 152mm casemate guns of the Kane system, assembled in 6 two-gun plutongs, three on each side and 12 three-inch guns. It was decided to abandon torpedo and mine armament due to the small internal volumes of the hull. Ammunition capacity was 120 shells per barrel for the main caliber, 130 shells per barrel for the medium caliber, and 100 shells for each secondary gun.
Main tactical and technical elements of the battleship "Andrei Pervozvanny"
Linear dimensions:
Length along overhead line: 181 m
Width: 24.4 m
Draft: 8.5 m
Displacement:
Standard: 21,660 t.
Normal: 22,385 t.
Full: 22,965 tons.
Weapons:
4x2 305/40 guns from the Obukhov plant
12x1 152/45 guns of the Kane system
12x1 75/50mm guns of the Kane system
Reservations:
Main armor belt (thickness/length/height): 254 mm/125 m/4.1 m
Upper armor belt (thickness/length/height): 76 mm/120 m/2.7 m
Ends(thickness/length/height): 76mm/41m/3.3m
Conning tower: 254 mm
Upper armored deck: 25 mm
Lower armored deck: 51 mm
Main battery turrets (front/side/barbet): 279 mm/127 mm/254 mm
Casemates SK (front/roof/rear wall): 127 mm/76 mm/76 mm
Secondary guns (shield): 25 mm
Powerplant: 4 triple expansion steam engines with a total power of 28,642 hp.
Total coal reserve: 1305 tons.
Maximum speed: 21 knots
Cruising speed: 10 knots
Maximum cruising range: 3000 nautical miles.
Crew: 1032 people
Slippers, stools, suggestions and corrections are absolutely welcome.
PS. Taking into account comments from dear Andrey and NF, I made amendments to the image and layout. In particular: The freeboard height was changed (when checking, 0.3 m or two pixels were missing), the aft main battery turrets were shifted to the bow, the height of the casemates was reduced (when checking, I realized that their height was 3.5 meters), the bow casemate was moved closer to the stern.
Well, at the request of everyone else, I moved the second main battery turret to its place in front of the bow superstructure.
In general, whichever option is recognized by colleagues as superior will become “canonical” and will be placed in the article instead of the current one.
Warships of the world
Publication of the almanac “Ships and Battles” St. Petersburg 2003
On pages 1–4 of the cover there are photographs of the battleship "Andrei Pervozvanny" during various periods of service.
Those. editor V.V. Arbuzov
Lit. editor SV. Smirnova
Proofreader B.C. Volkova
1. Project of the Grand Duke
In January 1900, Chief Ship Engineer of the St. Petersburg port D.V. Skvortsov presented a design for a battleship to the MTK, which in many ways overturned previous ideas about this class of warships. By displacement -14,000 t - new ship significantly superior to the Borodino-class squadron battleships then under construction, the speed was 19 knots higher (by 1 knot), and the armament offered was completely different (16,203 mm guns in eight turrets). The project was drawn up on the instructions of Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich. With the rank of captain 2nd rank, he commanded the battleship Rostislav on the Black Sea and, due to his grand-ducal position, could afford any, even extravagant, initiative.
The project embodied the generally accepted, although too hasty, conclusion from the experience of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895. about the advantage of rapid-fire artillery. Now, instead of 152-mm cartridge guns, 203-mm guns were more effective and not as striking as before, inferior to them in rate of fire (2.54 rounds per minute versus 3.97 for 152 mm). Constituting a single and main caliber for the ship (4 152 mm, 16 75 mm, 14 47 mm cannons and 4 machine guns were also provided), these guns were reminiscent of previous experiments and the use of a single caliber. This was the case in the implemented projects of Russian three-tower frigates of the Admiral Lazarev type (1867), three-tower squadron battleships of the Catherine II family (1882), and German three-tower squadron battleships of the Brandenburg type (1891).
There were two more, remaining unimplemented, domestic projects of four-turret squadron battleships. In 1883, Lieutenant L.A. Rasskazov unsuccessfully persuaded the Manager I.A. Shestakov to add a fourth pair of 305-mm guns to the design of the battleship Ekaterina P and turn the ship into a four-turreted one (with two installations on each side). The admiral shelved the lieutenant's project. An even more daring solution - a completely dreadnought layout of four paired 305-mm barbette installations along the center plane in his project of 1884 - was proposed by Lieutenant V.A. Stepanov (1858–1904).
This is the backstory of the first ships of the conventionally dreadnought class, which, it would seem, Russian officers and naval engineers could not help but know. But what is so simple and clear today looked completely different in the eyes of the people of that time. About L.A.’s proposals buried in the archives Rasskazov and V.A. People simply might not have known Stepanov. At best the titles original projects should have seemed only isolated, long-forgotten manifestations of exoticism in shipbuilding. It was precisely this way of thinking that naval engineers were accustomed to by the routine and inertia that reigned everywhere in shipbuilding at that time. And it was not without reason, apparently, that bold projects were then proposed not by naval engineers, accustomed to a subordinate and handy position, but by more creatively uninhibited naval officers.
And although the loading time for a 305 mm gun, which was in the 80s. up to 15–20 minutes, by the beginning of the 20th century. decreased to almost 1 minute, the world routine - both domestic and foreign - continued to consider 305-mm guns almost an auxiliary caliber, designed only to complete the success achieved in the many rapid-fire 152-mm guns installed on battleships.
This concept was followed by the vast majority of squadron battleships in the world, and although some of them already bore the stamp of “rehabilitation” of large-caliber guns (two or four 234-274 mm guns were added to the 4,305-343 mm guns), it remained intact the most fashionable caliber is 150-164 mm guns. A step forward in this direction was the project of battleships of the Vittorio Emanuele class, in which the outstanding naval engineer V. Cuniberti (1854–1913) provided 12 203 mm guns in six side turrets. Two single-gun (305 mm) turrets were installed at the extremities. The guns of these towers were supposed to complete the success of the victory achieved by the massive fire of 203 mm guns. These battleship-cruisers of the Vittorio Emanuele class were laid down in September 1901.
The fate of D.V.’s project turned out to be different. Skvortsova. Its discussions at the MTC in January and April 1900 revealed a depressing diversity of views among the leading admirals. Thus, the chairman of the MTK, Vice Admiral F.V. Dubasov admitted that homogeneous artillery is combat-wise better than the heterogeneous artillery used on modern squadron battleships. Head of GUKiS Vice Admiral V.P. Verkhovsky insisted on the primary use of 152 mm guns. According to the admiral, the main thing is to achieve a high percentage of hits, and in terms of this indicator, 152 mm guns will far surpass the traditional four 305 mm guns. For some reason, the admiral did not compare the differences in the power of the explosion between 305 mm and 152 mm shells.
Being in the grip of the fashion for rapid-fire guns, V.P. Verkhovsky, apparently, was not familiar with the saying of Admiral A.A. Popova: "Ships are built for guns." And these guns were supposed to be of the largest possible caliber. He also forgot the confession of another famous admiral G.I. Butakov, made back in 1855 on the pages of the “Sea Collection” (No. 10): “It’s difficult to hit from a long distance, but if you get caught you can cause great harm.” When voting for a single 203-mm caliber on the project, Grand Duke Alexei Mikhailovich, Vice Admirals V.P. Verkhovsky, I.M. Dikov, K.K. De Livron, N.I. Skrydlov.
Rear Admiral D.G. spoke in favor of 305 mm and 152 mm guns. Felkerzam and the artillery department of the MTK, vice admirals F.V. Dubasov, I.N. Lomen, Rear Admiral F.I. Amosov. Rear Admirals N.N. Loman, K.S. Ostetsky, captain 1st rank A.A. Virenius considered the armament of 305 mm end and 203 mm side guns more useful. There were no supporters of a single 305 mm caliber among those gathered. The feasibility of building only one ship according to the proposed design was also questioned, although for a squadron battle one best walker does not matter, since the squadron move depends on the worst walker. There was no agreement even in comparing the weight characteristics of ship boilers.
Such was the thinking and intellectual potential of the Russian admiralty on the eve of the war with Japan. None of those gathered were able to show that enlightenment of consciousness and sense of foresight that in the Grand Duke’s project could make them see the ideas of the dreadnought. And therefore the fate of the project was decided with disarming simplicity. For this, it was enough to receive a message from GUKiS to the Ministry of Transport and Communications that the financial resources of the Maritime Ministry were very limited and that a battleship with a displacement of 14,000 tons could be built to replace one of the Borodino-class battleships ordered to the Baltic Shipyard. Meanwhile, all the artillery for these battleships, including 12-dm turrets. and 6-in. guns have already been ordered. If a new project were to take place, all of these orders would have to be cancelled.
It is clear that the damage to the treasury caused by changes in orders could not be compared with the enormous advantage that the project (if such a miracle happened) of a ship armed with only 305 mm guns gave the fleet. Moreover, such a change would be even more profitable for factories. After all, the labor intensity of manufacturing a limited number of 305-mm guns and their turrets was significantly reduced in comparison with many 152-mm or 203-mm turrets. But the factories were not ready for such a great feat as redesigning several Borodino-class battleships already under construction and planned for construction for three or four turrets of 305 mm guns. A radical change in the design for battleships No. 7 and 8 was not excluded, for which the vast experience accumulated by the Baltic Shipyard in designing cruisers of the Rurik family, battleships of the Oslyabya type, and the initiative project of a turret cruiser only recently approved by the Emperor was very useful. It was only necessary to continue the path of initiative and creativity. This would be a great feat of engineering.
Have a nice day, colleagues. For a change, I need to update myself with the Eagles of the Fatherland, otherwise I’ll think again that I’ve completely abandoned this topic. There are actually a lot of ship options for publication, but I decided to choose one and only one, and I would say - a unique ship.
An appeal will be sent about other (but not very) battleships like Andrew the First-Called.
Introduction
I've been in a lot of different troubles here lately. Their space escorts and battleships were created and published, and I also published my own shabby drafts on an ancient semi-fantasy theme. And it was the last thing that caught my attention. No, the semi-fantasy theme itself was, regardless of individual moments with which I am pleased, slag, which also did not correspond to the theme of the site. But antiquity itself – there is something in it. And I was overwhelmed.
And despite the fact that the ancient topic on the site is not popular (but, like many purely historical alternatives - the more technical in the alt topic, the more people react to it in terms of comments), I still decided to bother with this topic and produce something like the chronologies of Phoenix Purpura, only much more detailed, more similar in content to the World of the Lost Genghis Khan of colleague Boroda. Yes, most likely most of the employees will ignore this new alternative of mine, but I want it, so come what may.
All that remains is to tighten up the hardware and draw a map (where would we be without it!). And in that place it is possible to draw up an alternative, and by and large I can write something (otherwise I’m still whining and waiting for the muse in my dreams that I will write something in the next 5 years).
But all this does not mean at all that I am closing my own shabby alternatives. It’s more correct that so far everything is sad with Dixieland - dragging it further is not yet possible. But with the Eagles of the Fatherland, everything starts slowly.
If it weren't for the need to saw through half military equipment(I found a huge scaling bug, why most of the drawn samples of military equipment are 15-20 percent smaller than they should be - you yourself realize what a p-ts this is), then I would have already published it - in fact, I have the entire armored vehicle ready before 1920, and tanks of 1920–1930. I would also publish aviation if I were brave enough - because I foresee a mess and the revelation of the complete bullshit of my own developments on this topic.
Someday I will publish this whole thing, but at that time, I have no idea. And a good half of the planes in that place are based on real ones...
Who am I going to show now? Yes, there is one ship. Under no circumstances have you ever wondered what Andrew the First-Called would have looked like if they had not gone overboard with the side armor? And aesthetically, the aft tower does not look very good when separated from the superstructure.
I constantly asked myself these questions, and in the end I was honored to draw a kind of normalized Andrew the First-Called, more similar to contemporaries like Radetzky and Lord Nelson than to a solid turned piece of cast iron with cannons, thrown into the water to the death and fear of the enemies. Of course, the technical part was also corrected - because in my alternative the boilers are different, and new guns will arrive in time, and by and large the situation is second - accordingly Andrey must be second. And how it turned out is up to you to draw your own conclusions.
This time I'll be tight-lipped. I mean, not so much, but I don’t really want to talk too much about the history of ships until then. Moreover, I have one trouble, caused by my not very good memory - at the end of the break with the Eagles of the Fatherland, I completely forgot some points, which is why every detailed detail of the legend so far is fraught with huge jambs. So there will be a little information.
The main thing is what Andreika looks like in the alternative...
Stillborn greatness
This battleship was tough and beautiful, although he did not have the chance to cover himself with glory in battle.
Already during the laying of the second troika of Borodino-class squadron battleships, the Moscow General School issued an order to design a new squadron battleship for the Russian Imperial Navy. Along with this, a rather important question arose - where to develop further?
Battleships of the Potemkin type looked like the height of perfection of tower-casemate ships, and the Borodino type was an excellent (according to the point of view of MTK and MGSh) variation on the theme, with a reduced number of SK guns, but better angles of fire and theoretically better survivability. The simplest and most natural method of development seemed to be the upcoming increase in the number of SK guns - up to 16 at Borodino and 18-20 at Potemkin.
In fact, such ship designs were submitted to the competition. In addition, all new ships had 12-20 pieces of 107-mm anti-mine artillery instead of 87 mm. There was also one project of the all-big-guns concept, in which 12 254/45 mm guns were placed in six turrets in a hexagon.
But the competition was won by a completely different project of the Baltic Plant, combining moderate conservatism and a fairly high share of innovation. The Baltics decided not to take the path of increasing the number of guns, but decided to expand the SK caliber itself to 203 mm, while maintaining a large number of guns - 14 pieces. Along with this, 8 guns were placed in four turrets, and in addition 6 - in casemates (for space and saving weight for a wonderful power plant).
When choosing an anti-mine caliber, the Baltic skipped over the 107 mm guns and decided to immediately install 130 mm artillery, starting from the fact that the personal projects of the new destroyers already carried 107 mm guns, and it would be appropriate to arm the ironclads with more remarkable weapons against enemy destroyers. The main battery guns were to be 4 305/45 mm guns from the Obukhov plant, which were already being tested at that moment.
Along with this, the battleship had good protection of a huge area and thickness. All this caused an increase in size, general completeness and hull displacement - as a result, in order to maintain a speed of 18 knots, it was necessary to place a noticeably more remarkable power plant than on its predecessors. Together, all the characteristics made up a fairly modern and remarkable battleship, which theoretically surpassed everything that foreign states had the opportunity to oppose to it.
It was decided to build three such ships. The head began to be called Andrew the First-Called.
Scheme of armor protection of St. Andrew the First-Called. Despite the fact that it is quite possible that somewhere I messed up with her.
But history had its own calculations regarding these ships. Laid down just before the start of the Russo-Japanese War, the battleships would have had the opportunity to become an undeniable argument for Russia at sea, but due to the protracted production and organizational difficulties of the 305/45 mm guns, it was decided not to speed up their construction. As a result, the last three Russian battleships entered service in 1908 - at a time when the era of dreadnoughts had already begun, and the Andreys had become obsolete.
However, the trio of these battleships, together with the trio of the first Russian dreadnoughts, formed the core of the Baltic Fleet during WWII, as a result of which the obsolete battleships became one of the most active ships of the highest rank in the Russian fleet. They repeatedly had the opportunity to shoot at the enemy, among them at German employees - the battleships of the German Baltic squadron.
There were some losses - Emperor Alexander I was blown up by a mine in 1916, and on the way back to the port he was also torn apart by an unmarked mountain. As a result, upon completion of the examination and docking working group The court's decision was disappointing - lengthy and expensive repairs, or a large decrease in combat readiness. The battleship was transformed into a floating battery.
But his finish was the same as that of his two other brothers - Emperor Paul I and St. Andrew the First-Called: all three ships, in accordance with the terms of the Washington Naval Contract of 1922, were withdrawn from the fleet and eventually allowed to be scrapped. However, some of them were preserved - the guns and modernized turrets of these three ships fired at the old enemy already in the new world war as part of the coastal defense batteries of Moonsund and Riga.
This is where my Andrei the First-Called turned out to be
“Andrey the First-Called” (BF), Admiralty Plant, St. Petersburg – 01/08/1904/05/14/1906/09/13/1908
“Emperor Paul I” (BF), Baltic Shipyard, St. Petersburg – 01/08/1904/04/23/1906/09/09/1908
“Emperor Alexander I” (BF), Putilov shipyard, St. Petersburg – 01/08/1904/05/12/1906/07/15/1908
Displacement: normal 17,850 thousand kilograms, full 18,880 thousand kilograms
Dimensions: 140.7?23.5?8.8 m
Mechanisms: 2 shafts, 2 PM VTR, 18 Norman-MacPherson boilers, 18,000 hp. = 18 knots
Fuel reserve: 500/1400 thousand kilograms of coal
Range: 3600 miles (10 knots)
Armor (krupp): main belt 102–229 mm, traverses and upper belt 152 mm, SK casemates 152 mm, PMK casemates 76 mm, KO casings 76 mm, GK turrets 203–254 mm, GK turret roofs 64 mm, SK 152 turrets –178 mm, turret roofs SK 51 mm, main barbettes 254 mm, barbettes SK 203 mm, conning tower 305 mm, conning tower roof 76 mm, comm. pipe 102 mm, lower deck 38–51 mm, upper deck 38 mm
Weapons: 4 305/45 mm, 14 203/45 mm, 12 130/45 mm, 4 57/50 mm guns, 2 381 mm torpedo tubes
Crew: 957 people
In 1915, 2 87/30 mm anti-aircraft guns were installed.
Notes
1) There will be an article about them later. Despite the fact that there are not very many alternatives in that place...
2) There are suspicions that the displacement is underestimated.
P.S. I can't resist spoiling:
Heavenly patron of Holy Rus': Apostle Andrew the First-Called and his way of the cross
In January 1900, Chief Ship Engineer of the St. Petersburg port D.V. Skvortsov presented a design for a battleship to the MTK, which in many ways overturned previous ideas about this class of warships. In terms of displacement - 14,000 tons - the new ship was significantly superior to the Borodino-class squadron battleships then under construction, the 19-knot speed was higher (by 1 knot), and the armament offered was completely different (16,203 mm guns in eight turrets). The project was drawn up on the instructions of Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich. With the rank of captain 2nd rank, he commanded the battleship Rostislav on the Black Sea and, due to his grand-ducal position, could afford any, even extravagant, initiative.
Appendix No. 1 How “Andrew the First-Called” was arranged
Appendix No. 1
How "Andrew the First-Called" was arranged
The maximum length of the ship was 140.2 m; along the waterline - 1 38.38 m, between perpendiculars 132.3 m. These values are calculated based on the constant spacing value, 4 ft (1.219 m) and the positions of the zero frame (aka bow perpendicular) at the trailing edge of the stem (or the cut of the underwater mine apparatus), aft perpendicular along the axis of the rudder stock (sp. 109), the extreme edge of the stern at 113 sp. and the extreme edge of the stem at minus 2 frame. Due to repeated changes in the project in different documents, different interpretations of these values are possible. The hull width remained a stable design value, amounting to 24.38 m. With the normal coal reserve of 850 tons provided for in the initial design and the draft during testing of 26 ft (7.925 m), the displacement was 1,6600 tons. But already according to the draft specification for an even keel "with a normal reserve "of coal was 27 ft (8.23 m), and the corresponding displacement was 1,7400 tons. This must be considered design. In real conditions, which reflected all types of overloads familiar to the Russian fleet, the ship’s displacement with a draft of 8.84 m bow and 8.53 m stern was 1.8500 tons (Ship list 1914). The same information - 18,580 tons with a bow draft of 29.2 ft (8.9 m) and a stern of 28 ft (8.53 m) is given in a reference book compiled by the Moscow State Shipping School in 1917.
Ship hull (made of ordinary Siemens-Oarth steel with a resistance of 41–47 kg/mm 2 ) was recruited according to the traditional in world and domestic shipbuilding - longitudinal-transverse or, as they said, bracket ("checkered") system. This system was a complex of transverse (frames), longitudinal (stringers) and sheet connections that formed a “checkered” or, one might say, honeycomb layer of the set. The stem began in the bottom part of the ship between the 6th and 7th frames, continued until the end with the ram tusk (10.4 m in length) and rose to a height of the middle armored deck of almost 11 m. The manufacture and installation of such a casting has always served as an indicator of the level development of shipbuilding.
The design of the hull, grasped by the stems, basically repeated the experience and the most important decisions of the designs of the previous battleships of the Tsesarevich - Borodino series. Significant differences were the use of a smooth upper deck without a forecastle, three full armored decks, a modification of the armor system of the internal longitudinal bulkhead at the side and a more orderly division of the hull connections in accordance with the degree of their participation in ensuring the strength of the hull. This division reflected the principle of a beam of equal resistance (which is the well-known leaf spring) with a decrease in the thickness of the hull connections from its middle part - the “main section”, limited by frames 42–73, to the ends. The spacing of frames 42–30 and 73–85 made up the second two sections, sp. 30–18 and 85–97 - two thirds, and from shp. 18 and 97 to the extremities - two quarters. The vertical keel had a height of 1.14 m.
Along with the vertical keel, the rigidity of the hull was provided by stringers (seven on each side). The role of a stringer was also played by the shelf under the armor - a horizontal section along the length of the side, which served for the installation of side armor plates. 8 frames located between the stem and the collision bulkhead served as reinforcement for the ram stem and the bow mine apparatus installed here. Their spacing was reduced to 2 ft. The set formed by frames and stringers was covered with outer skin. Eleven of its belts had a thickness from 7/8 to 1 1/16 dm. The rivets for connecting them had a diameter of 1 dm. The checkered layer formed by frames, stringers and floors was covered with a second bottom, extending from 13 to 99 sp. It extended to the lower armored deck and had a thickness of 5/8 to 7/16 dm (at the ends). The sheets of the second bottom were joined overlapping with the set edges on a double row of rivets.
The ship's three main decks ran from bow to stern.
The lower armor deck was made of two layers of steel. The bottom layer, 5/8 dm thick along the entire length of the deck, was superimposed with a second layer of armor steel with a thickness of 1 5/16 dm along the length of the boiler and engine rooms and 7/8 dm at the ends. The thickness of the 7th (sh. 30–90) and 8th (sh. 34–88) belts of the upper layer was 1 ? dm. This means that the thickness of the horizontal section of the deck was a total of 40 and 38 mm, and on the slopes 54 mm. It is assumed that in the course of subsequent improvements this last value could be increased to 79 mm (Vinogradov S.E. “The Last Giants of the Russian Imperial Fleet”, St. Petersburg, 1999).
Middle armored deck on shp. 18–99 had two layers of flooring - the bottom 7 /8 dm and top 1 ? dm and 1 ? dm. The remaining deck sheets made of chromium-nickel steel had a thickness of 1 dm.
The upper armored deck was made of steel sheets thick ? dm. Outside the casemates of the 8-dm guns, it was reinforced with a top layer of chrome-nickel steel 1 dm thick.
The hinged deck outside the casemate of the 120 mm guns had a lower layer thick ? and the top one? dm made of chrome-nickel steel. The lining of the side of the 8-mm casemate was made of steel sheets 3/8-inch thick, the casemate of 120-mm guns - ? dm. The height of the side of the 120 mm casemate at the ends was increased to 10 ft. 6 in., thereby reaching an elevation of the end guns of 3 ft, which ensured their firing angle of up to 125°. This casemate was divided by a longitudinal bulkhead made of Krupp uncemented steel 1 dm thick, and dividing semi-bulkheads 1 dm thick were installed between the guns.
The main transverse watertight bulkheads were located at 4, 13, 15, 18, 24, 28, 34, 40, 46, 50, 56, 58, 62, 68, 73, 86, 90 and 99 sp. Longitudinal side bulkheads (on each side) were located along the length from 28 to 86 sp. 2.5 m from the side. The longitudinal bulkheads of the corridor behind the side armor of the lower armored deck were located along the length from 1 3 to 99 sp. 6 feet from the steel jacket behind the armor. The diametric bulkhead with a thickness of 3/8 dm in the engine room (73–86 lps) was made of corrugated (wavy) steel with 11 trapezoidal corrugations with a depth of about 400 mm. Folded from vertical boxes, it eliminated the need for reinforcing posts.
The steel jacket behind the main belt had a thickness of 7/8 inch in the middle to 1 1/16 inch at the ends. The wooden lining for the armor was made from longitudinal larch beams with a thickness of 6 dm or more. The jacket behind the underwater armor along the entire length of the hull had a thickness of 3/8 dm. The chimney casings, rising from the lower armored deck to a height of 7 ft 6 dm above the hinged deck, were located between the shp. 36? - 43? and sp. 52? - 6 6.
The lower armor belt, 10 ft 6 dm high with a draft of 27 ft, passed 4 ft below the load waterline. Its upper edge was at the level of the middle deck. The back sides of the slabs had bevels - at a distance of 3 ft. at the top and 1 ft. 6 in. below the load waterline at the bottom. On each side the slabs had the following thicknesses: along the stem up to 16 shp. (7 plates) - 5 dm at load waterline, 3 ? dm at the top and bottom edges; on sp. 16.5-34 (7 plates) - 6 ? dm and 4 each ? dm; on sp. 34–86 (2 1 plate) - 8 ? dm and - 6 dm; at 86–98.5 sp. (5 plates) - 6 ? and 4 ? dm; at 98.5-105 sp. (3 plates) - 4 ? dm and 3 ? d m; from 105 sp. to the sternpost - 4 dm and 2 ? dm. A total of 98 slabs were installed on both sides (the outermost bow and stern were made of two halves). Their total weight was 1256 tons.
The upper armor belt was located along the entire length of the hull between the middle and upper decks. Their height is from 8 ft 9 ? dm in the middle part of the hull increased towards the bow to 11 ft 9 dm and towards the stern to 9 ft 10 1/8 dm. The thickness of the slabs was: from the nasal end to 18 shp. (6 slabs per side) - 3 1/8 dm; on sp. 18–37 (6 slabs) - 4 dm; on sp. 37–65 (8 slabs) - 5 dm; on sp. 6598 (9 slabs) - 4 dm; from sp. 98 to the aft end (5 slabs) and at the stern symmetrically along the center plane (1 slab) - 3 1 /8 dm. The weight of 69 plates on both sides, according to the specification, was about 594 tons. According to one of the surviving drawings, which included 68 plates along with the stern, their total weight was 619 tons, including 9.2 tons for armor bolts. One armor bolt accounted for 5.24-6 square meters. ft. of slab area. Unlike the main belt, the slabs (also made of Krupp cemented steel) were made without beveled edges, and were installed not on the shelf (and without wooden supports), but directly on the upper edges of the slabs of the main belt. They were attached directly to the shirt with the same special armor bolts according to drawings approved by the Ministry of Transport and Communications.
The casemates of the 8-dm guns were protected from the sides by armor 5 dm thick, and from the ends by traverses 4 dm thick. The slabs were about 9 ft 3 in. high. All the plates, except for the four 3-inch doors in the beams and the 2-inch plates under the gun embrasures, were made of Krupp cemented armor. The weight of the entire casemate armor was 2 3 7 tons. The guns in the casemate were separated by bulkheads 1 thick ? dm, and the casemate - a diametrical 2-dm bulkhead with two of the same 2-dm doors. The casemates of the 120-mm guns were protected on the sides by armor 3 1/8 dm thick, the rear wall with 1-dm steel sheets. 1-dm bulkheads were installed between the guns. The weight of 38 slabs was 105 tons.
The armor of the rotating parts of the 12-dm gun turrets consisted of 7 vertical plates 8 dm thick and one rear plate 10 dm thick. The roofs of the towers had a thickness of 2 ? dm, hem 4 dm. The total weight of the armor of one tower was 159 tons. The fixed armor of the supply pipes had a thickness of 4 dm to 5 dm. The weight of the armor of the supply pipes of the lower tier of the bow tower was 35 tons, the aft one - 32.6 tons, the upper tier, respectively, 66.7 tons and 61 tons.
Rotating parts of turrets of 8-dm guns with front and back sides had a thickness of 6 dm, side 5 dm, tower roofs 2 dm, lining 2 and 3 dm. The weight of the armor of one tower was 85 tons.
The conning tower was protected by 8-inch slabs, doweled at the joints, and a stern door of the same thickness and 4 feet high. The height of the vertical armor plates was 7 ft 10 in. The sighting holes in the conning tower slabs, 3 dm wide, were located at a distance of 12 dm from the lower edge of the roof.
The armored roof and floor of the conning tower were made of low-magnetic steel with a thickness of 4 dm and 3 dm, respectively. A hole was cut in the floor for a cast steel pipe (internal diameter 3 ft 6 dm and thickness 4 dm), which served to protect the steering gear, conductors and speaking pipes. The internal bulkhead of the cabin with its doors was made of 1-dm low-magnetic steel. The weight of the vertical armor of the cabin was 54 tons, the roof 15.3 tons, the floor 10.8 tons, the armored pipe 16 tons, the internal bulkhead 2.7 tons.
The rangefinder and wheelhouse was structurally similar to the one below the combat one, but the thickness of the vertical armor plates and the door was 2 dm, height 6 ft 11 ? dm, doors - 3 ft 9 dm. The bow plate was made of low-magnetic steel, the rest of Krupp uncemented steel. The sighting holes, 11 in. high, in the vertical armor from the center line of the sight to the lower edge of the roof were spaced at a distance of 1 ft. 9 in. The roof was made of low-magnetic steel 2 dm thick.
The aft artillery cabin along the circumference was assembled from three slabs of Krupp cemented steel, 6 ft 3 dm high and 3 mm thick. 1 /8 dm, connected, as in a rangefinder, into a lock. The 3-inch sight holes in the vertical armor were spaced 12 inches from the center line of the sight to the bottom edge of the roof. The deckhouse floor is made of Krupp uncemented armor, thickness 1 ? dm had a hole for an armored pipe (made of cast steel with an internal diameter of 3 ft, a height of 19 ft and a thickness of 1 ? dm), intended for protection of conductors and speaking pipes. The pipe exit at the armored and light floor was covered with 2 ? dm armored coaming.
Load of the squadron battleship "Andrei Pervozvanny".
Displacement 16,483 tons, speed 18 knots, armament 4 12-dm, 12 8-dm and 20 120-mm guns (tons)
| According to the project | Valid | |
| 1. Steel body | 5266,4 | 4966,9 |
| 2. Wooden body parts | 257,5 | 279.3 |
| 3. Internal structure (furniture, cellars) | 126,9 | 272.7 |
| 4. Smart things | 128.2 | 165.9 |
| 5. Auxiliary ship devices and mechanisms | 239,7 | 274,9 |
| 6. Separate mechanisms and devices for ship life | 483,4 | 472,4 |
| 7. Supply: anchors, chains, skipper and other accessories | 222,0 | 222,0 |
| 8. Lifeboats | 43,3 | 38,5 |
| 9. Masts, topmasts, yards, rigging | 20.0 | 30.5 |
| 10. Tower reinforcements assigned to the hull (supply pipes) | 362,2 | 397,0 |
| 11. Mechanisms of 12-dm and 8-dm towers | 852,0 | 852,0 |
| 12. Armor of 12-dm and 8-dm towers | 998,7 | 1041,2 |
| 13. Armor of the side, beams, casemates, boiler casings, side bulkheads | 2401,1 | 2515,4 |
| 14. Conning tower armor | 128,0 | 133,0 |
| 15. Armor of decks and armored grates | 1161,5 | 1477,6 |
| 16. Main mechanisms and boilers | 1831,1 | 1831,1 |
| 17. Machine materials | 20,0 | |
| 18. Coal with normal supply | 803,2 | 800,0 |
| 19. Ship's stores | 170,0 | 130,0 |
| 20. Artillery and military supplies | 1370,6 | 1360.8 |
| 21. Mine device and supplies | 62,1 | 53.9 |
| 22. Crew | 125,0 | 125.0 |
Ship design course compiled by Professor K. Boklevsky for students of the shipbuilding department of the St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute, St. Petersburg, 1904/1905. Lithographed edition of the student mutual aid fund of the Polytechnic Institute. 1905., p. 436).
The elevators for supplying 8-dm and 120-mm ammunition to their guns were protected by 1-dm armored pipes installed at a distance of 2 dm from the elevators. The circumferential pipe consisted of two parts connected by external joint strips. On top of the elevator hatch, each pipe protruded 4 inches. Four armored tubes for elevators of 8-mm guns weighed about 4.9 tons, four tubes of 120-mm elevators weighed about 5.3 tons.
The ship's armament was manufactured by the Obukhov plant (four 12-mm guns with a barrel length of 40 calibers, fourteen 8-mm guns with a barrel length of 50 calibers, twelve 120-mm guns with a barrel length of 45 calibers, as well as four 47-mm salute guns and six 3-line machine guns Maxim systems, of which four are boat and two are landing).
According to the specifications and the “Ship List” for 1914, the firing range of 12-dm turret guns at an elevation angle of 35° was 110 kb., the rate of fire was 1.2 rounds per minute, the set per gun was 70 shells and charges. Turret 8-dm guns with an elevation angle of 25° had a firing range of 95 rounds, casemate (elevation angle 20°) - 90 rounds, rate of fire 2 and 2.5 rounds per minute, respectively, combat reserve - 110 rounds per gun of both types of installations .
120-mm guns with an elevation angle of 20° had a firing range of 65 rounds, a rate of fire of 7 rounds per minute, and an ammunition capacity of 200 rounds. The specification called for 120 mm guns to achieve elevation angles of 25°, but local installation conditions apparently did not allow this. According to the specification, the angles of descent of the guns were for 12-mm and 8-dm guns: - 5°, for 120 mm - 7°.
Battleship "Andrey Pervozvanny" (Longitudinal section of the hull from 64 to 111 shp).
Turret installations are among the most complex combat devices, which, in terms of the variety of operations performed and the richness of mechanisms, remain particularly outstanding works of the human mind today. The installations of "Andrew the First-Called", like the type of ship itself, completed the stage of their development. In the Russian fleet, the St. Petersburg Metal Plant had the greatest experience. The design he proposed for "St. Andrew the First-Called" represented a development of the type of towers for battleships of the previous "Borodino" series. While maintaining the previous two-gun type and the elongated cylindrical shape of the rotating part of the turrets, the plant in the design for 12-dm guns achieved the elimination of its particularly vulnerable unit, adjacent to the sides of the turret, the “canopy” rotating with it. The need for this canopy, which on the Borodino series battleships served to cover the well of the fixed barbette of the tower, has now been eliminated thanks to a more proportionate relationship between the contour of the tower in plan and the barbette located above it. Now the barbette fit into the dimensions of the rotating part of the tower and was completely covered by the vertical armor plates hanging above them. This reduced the risk of the turret jamming when a projectile hits the joint between the armor and the barbette. Even closer to the newest type were the turrets of the 8-inch guns, on which the roof was sloped from the front, increasing the possibility of a projectile hitting it ricocheting.
However, the main drawback inherited from previous types remained unremovable - their cylindrical, although elongated, design. This forced the cutting of significantly larger embrasures in the vertical frontal armor than in its inclined position. Accordingly, the weakening of the slab by the embrasure cutout and the likelihood of hitting the tower servants were smaller. The production of circular armor with two embrasures forced, for technological reasons, to produce frontal plates from two halves with a joint in the most vulnerable place - between the embrasures. Vertical plates were also disadvantageous from the point of view of resistance to projectile impacts. At short and medium distances, where the projectile speed is high, the impact hits the slab normally, and not at a large angle, as would be the case with an inclined slab. At large distances, the angle of impact is no longer significant, since the projectile impact occurred at a speed that significantly decreased during the flight. In cylindrical towers, the problem of balancing was also more difficult to solve, which is why the towers of “St. Andrew the First-Called” were distinguished by their elongated shape.
Battleship "Andrei Pervozvanny" Longitudinal section of the turret installation for 12-inch guns From the collections of the State Maritime Library Technical University(f. Leningrad Shipbuilding Institute)
Vertical guidance (with both guns or separately), as well as horizontal guidance, was performed electrically or manually with appropriate gear shifting. In the first method, a 12-dm turret with a roll of 8° was rotated 1-80° within 1 minute. Manual rotation by the action of additional sprockets under the same conditions and forces on the handles of 10 people was carried out in 8 minutes.
The supply of shells and charges inside the turret to the guns, both by electric drives and manually, with the possibility of independent actions for each gun, was carried out by three types of mechanisms: chargers that rose along guides fixed to the supply pipe and the turret table; winches that operate the chargers; special movable (interconnected) chutes for preparing projectiles and fixed chutes for preparing half-charges.
Battleship "Andrei Pervozvanny" Cross-section of the turret installation for 12-inch guns From the collections of the library of the State Maritime Technical University (formerly Leningrad Shipbuilding Institute)
The device for loading, that is, sending shells and half-charges into the gun chamber, consisted of hammers driven by winches. Charging could occur either by an electric drive or manually. Priboyniki represented complex system drives, including gear arcs, gears, sprockets. Kinematically connected to the gun's vertical guidance drives, the breakers could operate at loading angles from +3° to -3°.
The supply of half-charges from the charging magazines to the turret room of the aft tower was carried out manually, and the bow - by means of a special lifting device - a lifting frame. Within the tower installations, six communication pipes (3 dm in diameter) were installed. From the tower commander's cabin, pipes went to the central post and to both gunner's cabins by branching a common pipe, from the right and left gunner's cabins - to the place of manual rotation of the installation, from the right and from the left upper charging posts - to the loading points of the corresponding chargers. The weight of the bow turret armor was 260.7 tons; aft - 252.6, weight of the structure and mechanisms of each turret without guns - 224 tons (All tons are English).
Bomb magazines for 1 2-dm guns were located directly under the turrets - in the turret compartment. The shells were placed radially in a ring around the turret bulkhead between the platform and the lower deck. The cellar of each tower was designed for 156 shells, placed in nests between the radial struts that served as reinforcement for the tower. The racks could accommodate 75% of the combat set of gun shells with a length of 38 dm and 25% of armor-piercing shells with a length of 32 ? dm. Provision was also made for storing training cast iron projectiles about 32 dm long.
Of the three charging magazines in the bow turret provided on the ship, two were located in the hold under the turret (18–24 sp.) and one on the platform in front of the turret compartment (18–21 sp.).
For the aft tower, two cellars were allocated along the sides on a “lower cockpit” (90–95 sp.). Their half-charges in cases were stored on the shelves of metal racks, two deep each. The magazine capacity of each tower was 120 combat and 36 training rounds. The design of the 8-dm turrets was basically the same as that adopted for 12-dm guns, but the mechanical feed, characterized by the use of an endless feed belt, had to be replaced, based on the experience of feed in casemates, with a more efficient manual one.
Battleship "Andrei Pervozvanny" Plan of the internal arrangement of the turret installation for 12-inch guns (From the collections of the library of the St. Petersburg Shipbuilding University)
The mine armament included two underwater traverse mine vehicles of the Metal Plant system of engineer Danilchenko. The devices were installed near the bulkhead at 28 shp. at 12 ft 3 in below the load waterline. Compressed air from pumps with pressure up to 110 atm. could be fed into mine tanks, into the air guards of mine vehicles and into the turrets of 12-dm guns. Six Whitehead mines (torpedoes) with a diameter of 45 cm were stored in threes near their vehicles in their room on rotating brackets (along the bulkhead 28 sp. on the starboard side, on racks at 25 sp. on the port side and on trolleys right there in the compartment. Six combat charging compartments and demolition cartridges were stored in the mine cellar in the hold on the starboard side (sp. 24–28). The cellar could be flooded from the kingston on sp. 27–28 on the starboard side, driven by a rod from the middle deck. For lifting mines from the water ( at the end of the firing training) they used two rotating gangway beams of the bow command ladders and hand winches. The mines were delivered on a trolley under the bridge above the center of the mine hatch, where, having picked it up with a sling, they lowered it into the hatch at 27-28 shp., and transferred it to the compartment. To protect the mine from impacts during descent, a metal casing was put on it with an internal wooden lining that fit tightly to the body of the mine.From the hatch to the storage location and then to the apparatus, the mines were transferred by means of hanging rails and two turntables. The range of mine weapons also included a mine storeroom, mine indicators and mine sights installed in the conning tower.
For more than 30 years, considered an integral part of a battleship (despite doubts expressed), the Whitehead mines on the "St. Andrew the First-Called" lasted until 1916. Only then did the opinion about the incompatibility of torpedoes with the purpose of a battleship become generally accepted.
The main steam engines of the ship - vertical type or, as they often wrote in the specifications, “with vertically overturned cylinders”, were located in two compartments separated by a corrugated bulkhead between 73 and 86 sp., that is, over a length of 15.85 m. Out of a desire to play it safe and Due to less design and technological experience, the Franco-Russian plant assigned the machines designed and built by it (specific power 2x8800 hp) noticeably increased cylinder sizes (in brackets the values adopted by the Baltic plant for the "Emperor Paul I"), high, medium and low pressure: 1,070 (934), 1,615 (1,524), 1,940 (1,753). The piston stroke was also shorter: 1030 (1143) mm. The specification speed was 120 rpm. The pressure in the spool box of the high-pressure cylinder was 16 kg/cm 2 , coal consumption is at least 1 kg (2.44 Russian pounds) for each indicated horsepower. The vehicles were supplied with two independent air pumps of the Black system. The total cooling surface area of the main refrigerators was 1950 m 2 (21,000 square feet).
In the engine rooms there was also one Worthington bilge-fire pump (pressure 8 atm, flow 50 t/hour), one fresh water pump of the Worthington system (supply 150 t/hour), one auxiliary Worthington pump (25 t/hour) for supplying water from reserve tanks with subsequent pumping into reserve and pressure tanks. The loss of water in the boilers was also replenished by two evaporators of the domestic system of R. Krug. The main circulation pumps (two in the engine room) pumped water through the four main refrigerators. They could also act as drainage agents. Feedwater from the main air pumps entered warm boxes equipped with 5 R. Krug water heaters.
25 water-tube boilers, traditionally used in the Russian fleet of the French Belleville system without economizers, had a total heating surface area of 4743.63 m 2 , grates 153.71 m 2 . The boilers belonged to the group of wide-tube boilers (diameter of water-heating tubes from 102 to 116 mm) with a small (about 8°) inclination to the horizon. Distinguished by their low water capacity (about 8% of the total weight of the boiler), they were at one time advertised as “non-explosive,” but at the same time they required particularly careful care and monitoring of their operation. Any mistake could result in a burnout of the tubes and the boiler being taken out of operation. Given the extreme difficulty of training qualified stokers (due to the low level of literacy in the country) and the constantly feverish fleet of machine teams, frequent accidents could not be ruled out.
In terms of ease of disassembly - disconnecting straight tubes from element boxes - the boilers were considered inferior only to the boilers of the French Collet-Nikolossa system (see the author's book about this, "Cruiser "Varyag", L., 1975; L., 1983), but this is a convenience disassembly with an abundance of threaded connections and their “sticking” resulted in practice in a highly labor-intensive work and the risk of damage to the tubes. Threaded connections, causing an almost irreparable loss of water in the connections, reduced the efficiency of the boilers. By the time of the construction of “St. Andrew the First-Called”, Belleville boilers had already passed their peak popularity and were replaced in the world by more technologically advanced, convenient, simple, reliable types of Yarrow, Norman, Babcock-Wilcox.
But the mechanical department of the MTK, which was distinguished by its particularly routine views, insisted on preserving the type of Belleville boilers and, contrary to all considerations of efficiency and economy, was going to use them on the dreadnoughts being designed at that time. A.N. Krylov told how he had to resort to a special organizational trick in order to, with the help of the voices of the mechanic engineers of floating ships, make a decision at the MTK to install less heavy and more productive Yarrow boilers on the dreadnoughts, and not Belleville, which the mechanical department of the MTK insisted on. And, perhaps, it was precisely the example of the obviously outdated decisions of “St. Andrew the First-Called” that A.N. added. Krylov had the courage to fight for technical progress in the dreadnought project.
The old-fashioned steering gears with a tiller trolley that shifted from side to side, “introduced” according to the French model of the “Tsesarevich” on the ships of the “Borodino” series, were abandoned. Instead, they returned to the Davis screw drive system mastered on previous ships of the Borodino series. Steam and electric drives to the steering wheel, thanks to a transmission invented by Baltic Plant engineer N.A. Fedoritsky, could control the steering wheel both individually and jointly, reinforcing one another. Device N.A. Fedoritsky consisted of a converter (motor-generator with a power of 152 hp), installed in the stern dynamo room (90 hp) and a steering motor (120 hp), installed in the cockpit (99-104 hp on the starboard side ) in a waterproof enclosure. Four steering wheels were used to control the steering wheel: in the wheelhouse and conning tower, in the central post and the steering compartment. Electric drives for controlling the spool of the steam steering machine of the N.K. system were also located here. Geisler connected to the steering indicator system.
The normal supply of coal provided for by the original design load, dated January 25, 1903, was 850 tons, but the actual capacity of 19 coal pits, according to the 1908 drawing, was equal to 1584.79 tons. According to the Ship's List of 1914, with a displacement of 1,8500 tons normal stock was 1,500 tons, and the “reinforced” one - 1,738 tons. Similar data - 1,400 tons and 1,500 tons (with a displacement of 18,580 tons) were also given by the List compiled at the Moscow State School in 1917. Obviously, with what happened, following the example of the Borodino-class battleships ", once again facing inevitable overload, the "normal" reserve became a very arbitrary value, determined in accordance with the limits of the draft and the circumstances of the voyage. The “reinforced” reserve was apparently taken only on particularly long voyages.
The ship's drainage system included 11 centrifugal pumps ("turbines") with a flow rate of 500 tons/hour, which could pump water out of 18 compartments formed on the ship by transverse and longitudinal bulkheads. Each turbine (with a horizontal axis) was installed on the second bottom flooring and driven by a DC electric motor with a power of 35–39 hp. in waterproof design. The turbines were located either in enclosures, where water flowed through bypass valves from adjacent compartments, or directly in ammunition cellars, in boiler rooms and engine rooms, in the tiller and stern compartments. Water was removed overboard through drain pipes running in the double-bottom space, between stringers 5 and 6. Inlet and outlet pipes were made of solid-drawn red-copper pipes; valves, clinkers, tees and pipes, flanges and other parts were made of gunmetal (an alloy of red copper with tin and the addition of zinc). Each drain pipe was equipped with a clinket at the side and a non-return valve. The rods from the clinkets were brought out to the middle deck. Two portable ebb and flow turbines were also provided, with a supply of 200 t/hour with their own receiving and discharge hoses. To control the presence of water in the compartments, air tubes were used, and in each double-bottom waterproof compartment there were measuring tubes.
The drainage system, which serves to remove small masses of water from the hold, included 11 Worthington steam pumps with a flow rate of 50 tons/hour. The pressure in the mains was 8 atm. The discharge pipes of all pumps were led overboard under the shelf of the lower armored deck and were equipped with outboard and non-return valves at the side.
The fire system included a 127 mm copper main pipeline running throughout the ship. Going under the lower armored deck (in the corridors of the steam pipes), it is at the ends at 28 and 91 shp. rose under the beams of the middle deck; branches with a diameter of 102 mm rose from the mainline up to all four decks to the fire hydrants. The system was served by six bilge-fire pumps of the drainage system. To operate in case of damage, the main line could be separated into four sections by dividing valves, and each outgoing branch was equipped with a separating valve under the armored deck. Fire hoses were connected to the fire hydrants on the decks. In case of inactivity of steam drives (when the ship did not have steam), two traditional (from the times of the sailing fleet) Ston hand pumps with a diameter of 7 dm were provided. For “preventive rains” in all similar shafts of the engine and boiler rooms, as well as for periodic washing of command latrines, water was taken from the main line from branches with a diameter of 64 mm.
Flooding of 7 7 ammunition cellars and two ballast tanks (on the second bottom at the ends) was carried out from kingstons with an isolation valve attached to each, to which in turn a valve or valve box of a group of cellars was connected. The kingstons were opened by flywheels; the rods installed on them from the flood valves were brought out to the middle deck, where they were closed with locks. Each kingston and its isolation valve could be locked.
The roll system solved two problems: automatically reducing the roll by transferring water from compartment to compartment and straightening the ship by flooding the compartments of the opposite side. The automatic transfer of water from one of the flooded engine rooms to the opposite ones made it possible to reduce the resulting roll from 13.5° to 5.5°. Controlled flooding of the side compartments 40–73 shp., which made it possible to reduce the list to 4°, was carried out by outboard flood valves installed in them. Their rods were brought out onto the middle deck. These two systems, together with the idea of continuous armoring of the side, constituted, undoubtedly, one of the most significant embodiments of the lessons and experience of the past war.
The trim system ensured the elimination of trims at the bow and stern. Filling of the corresponding ballast tanks (4-13, 99-103 sp.) was carried out through the ship's kingstons, already called in the cellar flooding system. The rods from the flood valves to the kingstons were also brought out to the upper deck.
The salt water pipeline included pumps (10 t/hour each) that supplied water from the kingstons to the collector (a red copper pipe with a diameter of 3 dm), from which pipes went (with isolation valves) to consumers: to baths, latrines, washbasins, heaters, etc. baths to showers, to sinks in the galley. The collector passed under the beams of the upper deck on the port side, the pumps were installed in similar shafts of the boiler rooms on the lower armored deck.
The water pipelines for coastal and desalinated water operated according to the same scheme (two pumps - collector - consumers), but water was taken respectively from tanks in the double-bottom space (40–43 sp.) and from tanks filled with water desalination apparatus. Coastal water was supplied to baths, washbasins, heaters, baths to showers, to sinks in galleys and buffets, and desalinated water was supplied to galleys, lagoons, buffets, samovars, to ammunition cellars, to engine and boiler rooms. All pumps used Worthington systems (desalination water - 5 t/hour) and were duplicated to ensure uninterrupted operation. Dirty water and waste water systems also ran throughout the ship and were supplied with appropriate drains to the overboard scuppers.
The steam heating system with heating coils extended to all living quarters of both officers and crew, as well as boiler rooms and engine rooms. The system was powered by expanders installed on the fresh steam pipe of the auxiliary mechanisms and the corresponding distribution boxes. From them pipes were laid to heating pads, heaters, samovars, to the ship's dryer, to the laundry to its apparatus, to the seacocks and sea valves for their ventilation.
The fresh steam pipeline ensured the operation of all auxiliary mechanisms of the main machines and the entire extensive composition of the previously mentioned auxiliary mechanisms and drives. Steam from the main steam boilers was supplied to two main pipes that passed under the lower armored deck on both sides from bulkheads 34 to 86. Corresponding branches led from them to consumers.
The corresponding system, repeating the steam supply line to consumers, was a system for removing the steam they used from consumers, which went into its main pipe. From it steam was released into the atmosphere through its own pipe. Equally developed was the system of pipes through which all auxiliary mechanisms were blown. The ship was literally breathing steam, looking like a monster emitting steam from everywhere.
Such an overwhelming predominance of steam drives (only the turrets and a backup drive to the rudder were electric) with the age of turbines and electricity already in full swing was one of the differences between the two pre-dreadnoughts, which seemed to have retreated into last century. And in this sense, “Andrew the First-Called” and “Emperor Paul I” could not enrich the dreadnoughts with useful lessons and positive examples. It was truly an impressive parade of the highest achievements to which the technology of steam piston engines had reached the threshold of its development. And the ships, once on this threshold, seemed to pass the baton of progress to those who replaced them. But the experience was also great, which could be used with undoubted benefit on the dreadnoughts. Together with the hull design, reservation system, ensuring unsinkability and straightening of the ship, tower and casemate installations, communications equipment and everything that concerned maritime practice"Andrew the First-Called" also had useful experience in ventilating cartridge magazines.
The ventilation system of the cartridge magazines consisted of five independent groups, each located autonomously in its own impenetrable compartment. To maintain a stable storage regime for smokeless powder at a temperature not exceeding 25 °C (outside air temperature +40 °C). Each group was equipped with its own refrigeration unit. Its set in each of the five groups of cellars (sp. 15–25, 28–34, 46–50, 68–73, 86-103) included one compressor with an electric motor, one evaporator, one double-action circular pump with an electric motor, four air coolers with fans and four exhaust fans. In addition, each cellar was provided with one air cooler and one injection and exhaust fan.
The ventilation system of the ship's premises solved problems that had not yet been posed in the Russian fleet. The exchange of air required by hygiene and living conditions of people had to be ensured in the close division of the compartments of a five-deck ship in the absence of air supply paths, which usually served as portholes. Having been a stumbling block for designers and builders of almost all ships of the Russian fleet, the ventilation on the "St. Andrew the First-Called" was doomed by its very design to constant, but unsuccessful improvements. Only the air conditioning system could help, but even if it existed in nature, one could not even dream of it. As Admiral V.A. once said. Belly, “there was always a shortage of money in Russia,” and at the time described, there was especially little money for the fleet. And it was no small feat for the officers and sailors of the two pre-dreadnoughts to live and serve with a lack of ventilation and a virtual absence of natural light in the cabins, cockpits and compartments.
Repeatedly improved, the ventilation system, together with the air intake and exhaust ducts of the pipelines, included 64 stationary fans. There were also 6 portable fans (mainly in case of damage to the cooling and ventilation system of the ammunition magazines).
The refrigeration unit was equipped refrigeration equipment, similar to that used in ammunition cellars. Her cell was isolated from steel plating The body was covered with lapidite and the inside was lined with pine boards. In its three compartments they stored meat, fish, and vegetables intended for the entire crew (not excluding the commander). The fourth contained cheese, butter, snacks, fruit, eggs and bottled liquids. The temperature in each compartment could be maintained between +4° and +2°C or -2° and -4°C.
Simultaneously with normal operation, the installation could produce up to 8 pounds of ice in molds in 5 hours; when working only with ice, up to 20 pounds in 5 hours.
The windlass device on the middle deck (8-19 sp.) consisted of two steam engines and a windlass driven by them and a spire brought to the upper deck. The aft spire on the lower armored deck (sp. 99-103), powered by its two engines, was also steam-powered. The capstan stock, connected to the steering shaft, could control the steering wheel if the steering gears were damaged.
Steering using the Aevis drive provided rotation of the rudder blade by 35° away from the center plane and was provided by steam and electric drives. The spools of the steam steering engine could be controlled using a hydraulic drive from the conning tower and the central post. Manual control from the steering compartment was also provided.
The ship's power plant consisted of six steam dynamism machines of the DC compound system, with a voltage of 105 V. The machines were supplied by the Revel plant of the Volta company with steam drive machines from the Moscow Phoenix plant. Energy consumers were all the mentioned electric drives, as well as a lighting network (up to 1800 incandescent lamps), four special lighting lamps, two spotlights with a diameter of metal mirrors of 907 mm from Soter and Harse. Two 640 amp dynamos with 1 25 hp motor. one was located on the middle deck on the starboard side (sp. 24–28), the other on the lower deck in the center plane (sp. 68–73). Four 1500 ampere dynamos were located on both sides of the engine room bulkheads on the cockpit: two on the shp. 23–28, two on shp. 86–90. Due to the large number of steam mechanisms, the total power of the power plant (four dynamos of 157 kW each and two of 67 kW each) - 764 kW - turned out to be the same as on the battleship Borodino. The experience of installing dynamos in a single block of all power in the engine room, as was done on the latest battleships of the Borodino series, was not applied. Considerations of survivability or the layout of the main machines could have an impact. Independent stations of each dynamo were equipped with the necessary instrumentation, lines and circuit breakers for parallel connection two bow dynamos of 1500 amperes, two stern dynamos of 1500 amperes and two of 640 amperes in pairs. At the 1500 ampere lower dynamo stations, means were provided for connecting spare drives to the electric motors of the turrets of 1 2-dm and 8-dm guns and the steering drive.
The electrical current was channeled through two ring mains - one for electric motors, the other for lighting. Both lines ran along the side corridor of the lower deck from 28 to 90 sp. In case of repair, emergency situation or battle damage, the highway could be divided into eight sections that continued to operate.
Control and communications were carried out from three control rooms (combat, rangefinder, stern artillery) on the surface and two posts inside the hull - the central one and a post in the steering compartment. Intra-ship communication was carried out by a developed system of speaking pipes, which included, in addition to those inside the turret, a line of communication between command and combat posts. In particular, from the conning and wheelhouses, communication pipes were led to the main artillery posts, to both engine rooms, to the steering electric motor station, to the central post, to the artillery and rangefinder rooms (on the right and left sides), to the onboard rangefinder posts of the right and left side. Almost the same number of pipes were carried out from the central post. The engine and boiler rooms, dynamo stations, the main bow and stern compasses, and the main bow with compasses in the wheelhouse and conning tower, the conning tower with both mine apparatus, the unloading posts of elevators 1 20 mm and 8 inch casemates were connected by communication pipes. guns with the corresponding casemates and their cellars served by them. To transmit alarm signals on the ship, a total of 42 loud chime bells were installed near the most important combat posts.
The cabin bell system was divided into eight separate circuits: for the watch (from the cabins of the admiral, chief of staff, commander, senior officer and wardroom); admiral's and commander's quarters; officers' quarters ("a numbering machine in the officer's canteen with 40 numbers for calling messengers in all officers' cabins, in the wardroom and in the bathrooms"); to the ship's office (buttons from the desks of the commander, senior officer and auditor); to the printing house (from the cabins of the chief of staff and three flag officers); emergency calls (four bells in the officers' quarters and a button on the bow bridge); calling sergeant majors and boatswain. The system of bells and buttons on compasses was used in the work to eliminate their deviation.
Mine indicators of the N.K. system Geislers were installed to transmit orders from the conning tower, from mine sights to traversing mine devices. Rudder indicators and steering wheels also from N.K. Geisler and Co. transmitted orders to the steering compartments while simultaneously indicating the position of the rudder blade. They were installed one at a time in the wheelhouse and conning tower, in the central and steering posts. The steering guidance system was connected to a system of electric motors to control the spool of the steam steering machine, using switches when necessary.
Orders to the engine rooms could be transmitted via one of three electric telegraphs from N.E. Geisler and Co., equipped with columns with response indicators. They were located in the wheelhouse and conning tower, the third - in the central post. In each engine room there were two receivers with loud bells.
By the time the ship entered service, radio communications were already a full-fledged means of communication and control, far ahead of the scandalous experiments in the use of radio during the war with Japan. Two radio stations installed on the ship with a power of 2 kW of the Maritime Department system and a power of 8 kW of the German Telefunken system provided a communication range of 300 and 600 miles. The 8-kilowatt station became the first example of a new generation station - the “sounding type” - received by the fleet. This station, unlike the previous spark-type ones, made it possible to receive a musical melody in the telephones of the receiving station, which made it possible to confidently distinguish telegraph signs from atmospheric discharges. The station's range was now steadily increasing. For intra-squadron communications, special low-power raid stations were used, the signals of which were inaccessible for interception. The beginning of the use of underwater sound communication between ships was also expected.
The composition of basic rangefinders has changed significantly, in comparison with pre-Tsushima times, both quantitatively and qualitatively. There were now four times more of them on the ship than according to the original MTK standard of 1902. Traditional types of exchange of visually visible signals - flags on signal arches, conventional figures - balls and cones - were fully preserved and further developed. The signaling used even before the war with Japan with flashes of special electric lamps, provided for by the “Rules of Signal Production” reissued in 1909 and 1911 and books of one-, two- and three-flag signals, was improved. They were preparing to use signals with colored smoke, “stars” and torch tubes of the Sem system - to illuminate the trajectory and place of impact of projectiles. The war prevented these experiments from being completed.
Masts, boats, anchors, useful things. The ship's masts amazed everyone with their unprecedented appearance and outwardly resembled the masts of American dreadnoughts. But neither the masts of these ships, nor the hyperboloid masts of the Russian engineer V.G. Shukhov was not used in the Russian fleet.
The masts of "St. Andrew the First-Called", without repeating any of the models mentioned here, were completely original. The specification calls the masts “tubular.” There is no information about any clear justification for such an extravagant choice (English simple tripods were already known), or about computational and experimental (up to the shooting of a full-scale or model structure) studies of the strength, survivability and vibration resistance of the mast. There is no place for justifications for decisions in the specifications; it was not yet accepted to attach explanatory notes to projects.
From the specification it followed that the ship had two “tubular masts”, on the saling of which an “observation post cabin” was installed, as well as a wooden topmast and one metal “tubular yard” (as in the document), strengthened under the saling for signals. The mast, 100 ft high from the hanging deck (124 ft from the load waterline), was made of steel tubes with a diameter of 6 dm to 4 dm. The mast was provided with “ten connecting belts” in height. The saling was made from steel sheets 3/16 dm thick. It was secured to the mast top plate with angle steel. The cutting was done from 1/6 dm sheets. The conical topmast had a diameter of 14 4/5 dm, its height from the saling was 50 ft. The metal yards had a diameter of 5 dm and 4? dm. A ladder was provided outside the mast, and in the saling there was a manhole neck with a light lid.
The description of "Emperor Paul I" makes it possible to clarify that its mast consisted of 12 links connected to each other by a "yoke" made of box and sheet steel and attached by a cross made of box steel. Obviously, such a connection of tubular elements, which were not convenient for structural connection, and even only with riveting, turned out to be quite bulky, heavy and hardly provided the proper rigidity. Complicated, unlike the masts of V.G. Shukhov with their rectilinear elements, the whole structure was with an ellipse (about 13.3x9.3 ft) at the base and a circle (about 3.8 ft in diameter) along the saling cut. This conspicuous lack of constructivity has become the reason for repeated proposals to replace the masts with one central one.
From ancient times, boats and anchors, after oars and sails, which constituted the most important item of supply for a ship, retained their traditional type: the first - from the time of the Ushakov and Nakhimov squadrons, the second - adopted by the fleet after protracted thoughts and doubts in 1880-90, when Hall's anchors were fleets of the world were accepted everywhere. In equipping the boats, the breath of the new century was felt by the smells of gasoline and kerosene that appeared on the ship. Together with traditional rowing vessels - faithful and hardy relics of the sailing era: rowing-sailing 20-oar longboats, 14-oaring light boats, 6-oaring whaleboats and 6-oaring yawls - the "sixes" that have survived to this day (two boats of each type) - the ship also received two representatives of technical progress - a 40-foot steam boat (this type began development in the 60s of the 19th century) and a 40-foot motor boat - the brainchild of the development that began at the end of the 19th century. motor era. Moreover, one of the longboats was equipped with a kerosene engine with a propeller.
The trend of progress was also reflected by the new type of anchor device adopted on the ship. "Andrew the First-Called" became the first battleship fleet, which received not only modern Hall anchors, but also the right to pull them into the side hawse without the grueling operations of taking the anchor “to cut”, “to fish” and others, which turned anchor removal into a protracted and dangerous adventure. Now, when equipped with an anchor device, the ship has become on par with the requirements of the 20th century. The anchor device of “St. Andrew the First-Called”, which became convenient and trouble-free, included two main anchors and one spare anchor of the Hall system, each weighing 480 pounds, one 35-pound verp, two 110-pound stop anchors. Two dead chains with a caliber of 2 2/3 dm (69.85 mm) had a length of 150 soots. (the same chain of the spare anchor 100 soot). The lifting and release of anchors was serviced by a capstan machine on the middle deck, two shortened Legof stoppers, two side fairleads that made it possible to pull anchors into them, two deck fairleads for passing chains onto the capstan, four turnbuckles for pulling anchors into the fairleads with a lashing stopper in a stowed manner, two chain snap-on stoppers and two chain stoppers with verb-hooks.
From the extensive range of useful items, numbering 18 items, it is worth noting the steering wheel, which was distinguished by a semi-balanced design. Interesting dimensions external differences ship - 15 in. height of applied cast copper letters of the ship's name and 28 ft. and 20 ft. height of the flagpole and guypole.
A feature of the ship, like its peer "Emperor Paul I", was the use of deck portholes.
They are known back in sailing fleet, should have at least partially corrected the consequences of an overly extremist design decision. In the officer's cabins and crew quarters, portholes were installed from cast copper, with a glass clearance of 6 dm. The portholes in the officers' quarters opened on hinges and closed with three bolts. To protect the glass from the deck side, steel lattice covers were provided, attached to the outer rings. Metal trays with a glass bottom were hung under the porthole to drain water. In the crew's premises, they did not use fastenings, and the porthole was screwed into place with the outer ring. In place of the porthole, when it was removed, lattice ventilation covers and trays were installed. All portholes were covered with armored covers. In the officer's quarters, the armored cover was placed in place of the outer ring and secured with bolts. The porthole covers in the crew quarters were screwed, like the porthole, into the outer ring.
This is how it was, presented, of course, not in all the details, sometimes ahead of its time, sometimes irreparably behind it, the pre-dreadnought battleship "Andrew the First-Called".
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