Round court admiral Popov. Part of 2. Bookmark "Novgorod"

3
October 12 The 1870 of the year was the “highest” choice of a typical popovka, and on October 31 there was a general discussion of the project in the shipbuilding department of the Marine Technical Committee. 6 November project signed by the ministry manager. In addition to financial and technical considerations, when choosing a round vessel, it was the diameter of the 29,26 meter that was based on the possibilities of further repair of this ship in the Sevastopol ROPiT slipway.



Preparations for the construction of the first popovka in St. Petersburg began in full swing at the beginning of 1871. In the New Admiralty a temporary slipway was built. The metal was immediately distributed for two ships between five enterprises at once: the St. Petersburg plants - the Russian Society of Mechanical and Mining Plants and the Baltic Foundry and Shipbuilding; Volga - Kama and Sormovsky; The largest amount of metal was supplied by the Raivolovsky plant located in Finland. Armored iron plates were instructed to roll to the Izhora plant. In the competition for the construction of boilers and steam engines, preference was given to the St. Petersburg plant of Byrd. This is the oldest enterprise engaged in the manufacture of power plants for the Russian fleet, undertook to supply mechanisms for the first popovka by 01.07.1872/XNUMX/XNUMX

The port of St. Petersburg organized all this cooperation quite effectively. 1 April shipbuilders set about assembling the hull with bolts; it was conducted non-stop, in two shifts, day and night. For the convenience of work, sluices with ladders of drawing in large masses were attached to the platform. In the autumn, a canopy with side walls was equipped above the construction site. Ceremony of the laying of the vessel took place 17 December. The ship was given the name "Novgorod". On this day, Alexander II was shown an almost assembled corps. The ship engineer, lieutenant Glazyrin N.K., supervised the works. By the new year, the hull was dismantled and began to prepare parts of the ships for shipment to the south.

Round court admiral Popov. Part of 2. Bookmark "Novgorod"


By this time, in Nikolaevsky port they were able, basically, to prepare for the assembly of ships. On the northern bank of the Ingul, stocks were arranged, and nearby, directly on the ground, equipment and machines of the future armored workshop were installed. In the last ten days of January 1872, the first sheets of the corps of the second popovka, which was given the name "Kiev", were installed on the stocks. At first, Lieutenant von Chemnitz was in charge of the construction of this ship.

Due to the lack of technical and financial resources in 1872, the laying of the remaining popovok was initially postponed for the next year, and then indefinitely. In addition, the novelty of the type of vessel, the haste of its development, the constant improvements that were made by the author directly on the slipway, led ultimately to the consistent construction of two vessels of different technical elements. In March, Popov A.A. persuaded the ministry to buy new, more compact and lightweight vertical steam engines for “Kiev”, then offered to increase the caliber of the guns and the thickness of the armor ... We had to stop the construction of “Kiev” before the end of the Novgorod test.




To Nikolaev the first batch of parts of the popovka was delivered on March 21. Transportation was carried out under an agreement with the Druzhina transport company and the Russian shipping company. Before the railway branch was put into operation on Nikolaev, cargo was sent to Odessa, after which it was delivered to the admiralty by steamers and barges. Even after the opening of the direct railway link, the heavy and oversized parts of the backfill had to be wound up due to the weakness of the track. In winter, when Ingul and the Bug were covered with ice, transportation was suspended. Parts of machines and boilers were delivered by sea from St. Petersburg, around Europe.

The assembly of Novgorod in the Nikolaevsk Admiralty began on March 29, 1872, under the leadership of A.V. Mordvinov. and it dragged on for a year. Disturbed schedules of traffic from the Volga region and St. Petersburg. Workers gathered throughout Russia proved to be inexperienced. There was a shortage of metalworking machines and hand tools, which were again delivered from England. Also in England, we had to order a part of the construction timber - the contractors requested such a sum that it turned out to be cheaper to purchase and deliver Russian logs from there. The period of readiness of boilers and steam engines was delayed by more than 3 of the month: the installation of the first of the machines began only on October 27. After long negotiations with the authorities, it was possible to postpone the date of the descent of the ship, now with the installed, tested mechanisms. Moreover, because of the desire of the General-Admiral to be present during the descent and trials, the timing of the readiness of "Novgorod" had to be tied to the date of his arrival!



The rush in the admiralty in the first couple of months of the year 1873 was going on unimaginable: around 2000 workers every day, regardless of the holidays, around the clock were assembling popovki. In March the Grand Duke took pity on the builders, postponing the date of arrival to the end of May. In the next three months, work was calmer. "Novgorod" 21 May solemnly went to the water. The first Black Sea battleship also became the first large Russian ship, which was lowered with armor and all mechanisms.

The set of the Novgorod hull was carried out using a braket-checkered system. It consisted of identical radial frames and stringers - "circular inner fins". Closed with outer and inner iron skins, they formed a double waterproof bottom, and with a circular inner bulkhead - the same board. Thus, a high, for that time, level of the floodability of the ship was ensured. Part of a specially enhanced set was the foundation for boilers and machinery. Belts of inner lining were located across, and outer - along the vessel, which allowed the assembly to use the usual standard narrow sheets, without resorting to cutting "of large expensive sheets." The side armor plates were installed in two belts: 178-millimeter plates were used for the bottom, 229-millimeter plates for the upper one. In order to simplify the fit of the plates along the contour of the hull, which had a double die, they were installed vertically, with the same curvature and sheathed outside with wooden gulls. The armor was attached to the metal channel bars and teak lining, equivalent to 51-millimeter plates by the “resistance force”.

The round frame of the hull, which has a single protrusion in the stern, was covered with a convex deck, which consisted of three layers of iron sheets. The thickness of the inner sheets 19 millimeters, the rest - 25,4 millimeters. Outer sheets of the deck for the convenience of movement received a special notch. A circular barbet was installed in the center, which in all documents was called the “fixed open tower”. For its booking, the same sheets were used as for the upper side belt. There were installed two 280-millimeter rifled Krupp guns, weighing 26 tons. Each artillery installation was induced and fired independently. The ammunition was fed through a central hatch ("pipe") made in the center of the barbet. Machines moved on special platforms around the hatch.



In the bow of the popovka there was an iron elliptical superstructure, which played the role of an unarmored freeboard. The commander’s cabin, the mess room and the crew accommodation were in it, the rest of the sailors were placed under the superstructure on the hinged deck. Directly under the tower staged cabins mechanics. Popovka had no conning tower. The compass and the steering wheel were set behind a barbet on light stages, and the “battle wheel” was placed behind the shaft of the skylight, below the deck. The small freeboard and formations of the deck made it possible to do without davs. Steam boats, four and six yachas, were raised to the deck using a sled equipped with wheels. Yaly were installed in the stern of the ship on folding iron blocks.

The ship’s propulsion system consisted of six horizontal Wulff steam engines and eight cylindrical fire tube boilers installed symmetrically with the center plane in two machine and two boiler rooms. Each machine set in motion a separate four-bladed screw of the Griffith design. Between the double side and boiler rooms were coal pits. The skylight of the engine room and the base of the chimneys were armored with 152-mm plates.

Ventilation of the premises was carried out, according to the designer, in the best way. In the boiler rooms there were two air ducts each, the sockets of which were brought out in pairs about the chimneys, while the machine chambers had a skylight made in the stern. Natural ventilation was carried out through a hatch in a barbet, artificial ventilation was carried out with the help of two fan machines.



All the metal and most of the mechanisms were domestic production. In England, only steam windlass was purchased, as well as a fire pump serving the drainage system of impermeable sections of the vessel, proposed by Lieutenant S.O. Makarov. (the system included a main pipeline passing over the second bottom and connected to all compartments with separate hoses).

Popovka during construction increased in diameter by 1500 mm. This happened in connection with the vertical production of armor plates, which caused the hull to broaden during its subsequent plating with the gulls, and then with the wooden plating. To make a similar covering and then to cover the underwater part with copper sheets was suggested by Vice-Admiral Arkas N.А. The main commander of the Black Sea Fleet and ports. All this is done on the stocks. Cast iron screws ordered Byrd had to be replaced with bronze ones. To protect against damage to the flat bottom, with a possible grounding, as well as to reduce the swinging span, the popovka was supplied with longitudinal outer keels. According to the project, there were seven of them, and during construction the number increased to twelve. Height 200 millimeters. The displacement as a result of "improvements" has increased by 400 tons, and the sediment by 300 mm.

After descending three days later, the battleship broke up the pairs and went on its own. With an inexperienced machine team and half-revolutions of machines (instead of 100 — 120 rev / min 62), the popovka developed the speed of 6 nodes — “not worse than the Baltic monitors,” A. Popov reported to St. Petersburg. At the official tests, which were carried out at the very beginning of August, at 104 revolutions per minute, the ship reached speed in 7 nodes. At the same time, coal consumption, depending on its quality, reached 1,6 — 2 tons per hour. The tests in full have not been completed, hurrying to prepare for the royal show "Novgorod"; they did not even determine the indicator power of the machines, the commission in its haste recognized it as satisfactory.



In early September, Popovka moved to Sevastopol, where Alexander II and Milyutin DA visited her 11 numbers.

The creators and crew of the amazing ship fell awards, and the Minister of War in his diary skeptically wrote: "I can not believe that this circular machine is in fact a seagoing ship." Apparently, Arkas N.A. didn’t believe in this, putting a schooner-guard in the first voyages to Novgorod, without which the popovka wasn’t released into the sea. After solemn examinations of the ship, both guns were finally loaded. The artillery system was tested and adjusted by the end of the month. During test shooting, the main attention was paid to machines and platforms developed by Major General Pestich FB, first installed in barbet. The tests were conducted under the guidance of the designer. When the first tests revealed the weakness of the machine stops, which caused turning when fired. The design was immediately strengthened, but the legend of the circling of the popovka during the shooting remained ... Before the Russian-Turkish war, new aiming devices were installed, and later, rifle control devices (“Davydov guides”). The guns of Novgorod, according to the gunners, could pierce armor, which was equal to their caliber, at a distance of 4 cables, so most of the shooting was carried out at short distances. However, at an elevation angle of 14,5 degrees, the range of the projectile was 23 cable. The rate of fire was extremely low: if the turn of the 180 degrees took just 2 — 3 minutes, then manual charging took at least 10 minutes. In October, Popov A.A. started experimenting with screws, changing their pitch. With the help of pontoons of his own invention, he could lift the stern and rearrange the blades. At the same time, the vessel’s behavior on the waves was clarified. Once the admiral got carried away with fresh weather so much that he almost drowned his own child: the water, which easily ran up to the deck through the canvas, which replaced the top layer of armor plates and the barbet hatch began to flood the interior of the vessel. With difficulty went to Sevastopol. All winter and part of the spring 1874, the popovka spent in the workshops ROPiT. Here it was first raised to the boathouse: the propeller blades were finally installed (their pitch, calculated from the nearest ones in the center plane, was 3,05, 3,35 and 3,66 meters). In the nose, through the double side, a special “secret” pipe was installed to extend the pole with a mine. Adapting the ship for sea crossings, superstructures were created on the deck: two cabins were built from the stern to the barbet, and on the roofs of these cabins there was a bridge, where the compass and steering wheel were moved, protected by light fellings from bad weather. A new skylight was put on the new deck, and davits for working boats were installed. Clues of anchors were raised on the roof of the nasal superstructure, the wings of the navigating bridge spread along its sides. A year later, the ropitovs moved these wings to the chimneys, connecting them to the stern bridge. A large ventilation pipe was installed on the central hatch of the barbet, and the mast-pole was moved to the front wall of the navigator's cabin.

Captain of the first rank Vogak IK, the first commander of Novgorod, was transferred to Peter the Great at the beginning of 1874. His place was taken by Lieutenant Commander Bistrom KR, who was a senior officer on the parrot. In the summer of 1874, Novgorod was able to develop the course in 7,5 nodes. Later, due to poor quality and imperfect powerplant, the ship’s speed was much lower, and after 2, steam pressure restrictions were introduced. In 1875, the ship began long-term tests at sea, conducted according to a special program compiled by A. Popov. "Novgorod" spent a long time at sea, mastering the theater of future military operations: the ship made a flight to the Caucasian coast, then to the Sea of ​​Azov, reaching Taganrog. The ship on the move burrowed into the wave, forming a large breaker in the bow, and even with strong agitation it had a smooth and even roll with amplitudes up to 7 — 10 degrees. In fresh weather, otherwise the wind, the battleship was losing heavily in the course, and the waves were going to be tuned. A current and wind "Novgorod" pulled down from the course, had to be controlled only by machines. In the spring of 1877 of the year, during the exercises at Ochakov, Novgorod, having withdrawn from the anchor, practically did not move with a counter current and an 8-point wind ... The commander of the detachment of vessels reported “In such conditions it is necessary to operate at anchor.”
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3 comments
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  1. +4
    11 February 2013 10: 12
    Good article, we are waiting for the third part.
  2. AK-47
    +1
    11 February 2013 16: 17
    Detailed, thorough, interesting.
  3. Dikremnij
    0
    12 February 2013 03: 48
    The article is interesting, I hope the further article will also highlight the combat use and further fate of these ships.

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