Jewels of the Russian Imperial Navy. "Pearls" and "Emerald". About the quality of construction
In this article we will continue the discussion about some features of the weight load of the cruisers “Pearl” and “Emerald”.
Why do we need an analysis of the weights of almost the same type of ships of domestic and imported construction, which were the "Novik" and "Emerald"? The fact is that a quick look at history The construction of the cruisers of the Nevsky Plant shows a very disappointing picture of the quality of domestic shipbuilding. Here are the Germans - are going to build a high-speed cruiser in the 3 000 t, and then - r-time! - and we were able to build it in the displacement of the entire 2 721 t. And then we wanted to build a cruiser according to the German drawings, almost the same, only a couple of guns were added, and we also allowed the speed to be reduced by one node. But already in the project, the mass of this cruiser went beyond the 3 100 t, and in fact, the Emerald was put to the test in the 3 330 t displacement, that is, with an additional 230 t overload! As a result, the weight of the Emerald surpassed the "Novikovsky" by a colossal amount of 609 t, and if we recall that the cruiser of domestic construction has not yet developed the contract speed, the apocalyptic picture of the failure of domestic shipbuilding in comparison with the German one develops.
But is it?
Unfortunately, the “Emerald” weight report on the 3 330 t. Is not available in the sources available to the author, and the available comparison of the Novik and Emerald weights is made for some design state of the cruiser, and, as can be seen below, the project not yet final. However, the ship’s displacement has already reached 3 177 “long” tons (rounded 1 is such a ton = 1016 kg).
So, as mentioned earlier, the author will try to decompose the excess of the scales of the Emerald over the Novik into 2 components. It is known that domestic cruisers were built according to an improved project, in which an attempt was made to get rid of a number of shortcomings of the Novik and representatives of the Marine Ministry in some cases quite consciously went to the "advantage" - it is obvious that such an increase in displacement cannot be blamed domestic production culture. Having understood this, we can understand how much of the above difference in 609 tons between ships should be attributed to the customer's initiatives, and how much for the worst quality of construction and / or weight discipline of the Nevsky Plant.
Alas, there was an error in the previous material: in the section on artillery and mine weapons, it was stated that Emerald under this article had savings of 24 tons. In fact, this is not true, since such savings, apparently, took shape after the mine vehicles and mines were removed from the ship, and the artillery weapons still remained equal to Novik. However, subsequently, a 3 mine vehicle was returned to the cruiser and two 120-mm guns were additionally installed. Let's try to calculate the weight of the specified "supplement"
Considering the fact that the Novik 381-mm mine devices were 5, it turns out that on average one such device with ammunition weighed 4,8 t, respectively, the weight of the same 3 devices for Izumrud 14,4 t. Two deck installations 120 -mm / xnumx guns arr. 45 were each weighed at least 1892 tons each, total 7,5 tons. In addition, 15 shots were assigned to each gun, each of which weighed 200 kg. Thus, the mass of only the guns themselves and the ammunition for them, without additional racks, gazebos for shells, etc. amounted to 36 t, and taking into account the mine weapons - 29,4 t. or 43,8 "long" tons. Consequently, in the final version, the total weight of the Emerald cruiser under the articles Artillery and Mine Weapons and Projectiles, Charges was at least 43,11 tons, which is 171,11 tons higher than those of Novik (19,11 tons). And this advantage, of course, can in no way be attributed to a construction overload due to the fault of the manufacturing plant.
Chassis
He had a very interesting story. The fact is that on the tests of “Novik” Russian representatives were confused by the weakness of the hull of a German-built ship: the trembling of certain parts of the hull and the large cuts in the residential deck above the engine rooms caused particular concerns. The cruiser, nevertheless, was accepted into the treasury, that is, a similar over-lightening of the structure was still considered acceptable. However, Russian sailors and engineers did not want to receive ships with equally weak hull structures in the future, so it was decided to reinforce the Pearl and Emerald hulls.
We will not list in detail all the changes that cruisers underwent: increasing the thickness of the stringers, installing Carlings, and so on. We only note that, based on the results of the innovations, the longitudinal strength of the Emerald hull and Pearl cases has increased (calculated) by approximately 7% of what Novik had. The price for this was an additional approximately 55 tons of steel, spent on all types of reinforcements.
A similar situation exists with linoleum on the upper deck. This decision was considered acceptable for Novik. But linoleum when slipping water on it became slippery, which made it extremely difficult to move around the deck in fresh weather and artillery firing, moreover, it quickly turned into rags. Therefore, linoleum on the upper deck was rightly considered to be “a huge inconvenience” and on the Pearls and Emerald, it was abandoned in favor of the classic for warships flooring teak boards 44,45 mm thick (1 and inch). It was a completely correct and wise decision, but it cost XTNUMX tons of extra weight. Thus, the total weight of improvements, which the Naval Ministry quite deliberately went to, was 24 tons.
And that's what happens. Shihau designed the cruiser with a normal displacement of 3 000 t, and provided a hull for it, which in fact weighed 1 269 t, or 42,3% of normal displacement. Nevsky Zavod was going to build a 3 130 T cruiser with a displacement, but then increased it to 3 177 T. Unfortunately, it is not known where the weight was added, but even if we assume that the hull weight remained unchanged, it turns out that for the ship in 3 130 t the body should weigh 1 406 t. or 44,9%. But we are already talking about an improved, reinforced hull: if we exclude the associated 79 t mass increase, that is, if the hull is built in the same way as Novik, the cruiser would have received 1 327 t hull weight (1 406 t minus 79 t) or 42,39% of normal displacement. In other words, the difference between the actual masses of the Novik and Emerald hulls in relation to their planned displacement is hundredths of a percent! It can be assumed that if Emerald were built by Shihau, then the weight of its hull would be 1 324 t, that is, 42,3% of 3 130 t planned normal displacement.
In other words, looking at the comparison table of the weight lists of Novik and Emerald, we see that the body of the latter is heavier on the 137. But if we take into account the increase in mass as a result of conscious decisions of the leadership of the Marine Ministry (79 t), and we take into account that the Emerald was designed by a larger than Novik ship, which naturally requires a more massive hull, the result will be quite different . By introducing the appropriate adjustments, we understand that the difference in weight of the Novik and Emerald hulls, which could still be attributed to the worst quality of domestic construction, does not exceed some three tons! But this, incidentally, is not only about the hull, but also about the armor protection of the cruiser and a number of equipment and “practical things”, whose masses were assigned to the article “The hull with devices”.
In fact, there is no difference between the mass of the Novik and Emerald hulls in the table above in general — the fact is that, in addition to reinforcing the Pearls and Izumrud hulls, they also received an additional superstructure, which the Novik did not have one, namely, the command post, located on the front bridge, on top of the battlefield. Probably, this “prelux” cutting room covers the three-ton deviation we have calculated.
From the foregoing it follows that all 137 tonnes. The differences indicated in the weights comparison table relate either to important improvements of the cruiser, or caused by a large displacement of the Emerald in comparison with the Novik, but by no means a low production culture at the Nevsky Plant.
Mast and communications
As you know, the "wireless telegraph" installed on Novik was extremely unsuccessful in its design and even in the most wonderful conditions could not provide communications at a distance of more than 15-17 nautical miles (up to 32 km). In addition, the only mast of the German-built cruiser made it difficult to place the antenna and prevented the use of the cruiser as a "rehearsal vessel", which, generally speaking, was considered one of the most important tasks of the 2nd-rank armored cruisers in the Russian Imperial navy. In addition, the sources usually state that a single mast did not allow raising multifaceted signals - it is unclear how true this is, but in any case it can be argued that, due to the frank weakness of the radio station and the mast, Novik lost much of its ability to transmit information to other ships, which is completely unacceptable for the reconnaissance cruiser.
Well, "Pearls" and "Emerald", apparently, were completely devoid of these shortcomings. At the end of May 1904, F.K. Avelan ordered to install on the cruiser of the Nevsky Plant "German long-range wireless wiring apparatus," and, apparently, this was done. In addition, domestic cruisers received additional fok- and mizzen-mast, thus becoming three-masted ships. In spite of the fact that the mizzen-mast was “dry”, that is, there were no rivers, the ships obviously did not have problems either with the rehearsal of others' signals, or with raising their multi-humid ones, as well as with placing the antennas of the wireless telegraph. Interestingly, this decision had almost no effect on the ship’s displacement: the two Emerald masts, 21,3 and 18,3 m high (rounded, 70 and 65 feet), along with yards and rigging had a total weight of 1,44 tons. Such is the size of the petty economy of the Schihau company, which refused to install an additional spar on the Novik: German shipbuilders went for a significant deterioration in the ship’s operational qualities for one and a half tons!
The “emerald” under the article “Masts, boats, davits” had, in comparison with “Novikom,” the advantage in 6 of “long” tons, from which, as we see, 1,41 of such tons gave additional masts. As for the reasons for the remaining excess, it is insignificant and, apparently, consisted in various designs of boats and boats used on the Novik and Emerald. However, apparently, the metal boats "Novik" were slightly better installed on the "Emerald". So we can not consider the advantage in 4,59 t justified, and attribute it to the worst production culture in comparison with the German one.
Crew
The crews of Emerald and Pearl were 343 people for each cruiser, of which 14 were officers, including 2 headquarters officer, 8 chief officers, 3 mechanical engineer and 1 doctor. The number of officers coincides with the number of Novik officers we calculated, but the German-built cruiser had a slightly smaller crew: the figure in 328 people is considered classic, according to some other data it may be 323 or 330 people. Obviously, a slightly larger number is justified by at least the presence of two additional guns with a caliber of 120-mm, whose calculations clearly outnumber the calculations of two mined 381-mm vehicles, in which Novik had an advantage. Thus, there is no reason to believe that the crews of Russian-built cruisers were inflated with respect to the Novik.
Thus, we can say that the crew size of the Emerald surpassed that of the Novik by 4-6%. At the same time, the weight in the article “Team, baggage, provisions, water” is almost 18% higher in Izumrud. But, of course, such an "overload" can in no way be reproached by the Nevsky Plant. Rather, it should be said that at the Zhemchug and Emerald the indicated weights were determined more realistically, while Shikhau, being afraid of achieving the contract speed, saved on what it could. We have no reason to put 18 t overload on this article in reproach domestic shipbuilders.
Other articles
As we said in the previous article, the overload of Emerald in 133 t of feedwater for boilers is obviously either the design features of the Yarrow boilers, but most likely the fact that the management of Shihau was able to convince a large part of the reserves such water from normal to full displacement. It is possible, however, that both of these factors played a role. Be that as it may, in no case is there any reason to record this overload in the “sins” of the Nevsky Plant.
As for the article “Main mechanisms and boilers”, the mass of which at the Emerald exceeds Novik’s by as much as 210 tons, this is obviously partly the “fault” of the Yarrow boilers, which by design were simpler and more convenient, but at the same time, it is heavier than the Schihau boilers used at Novik. And besides, a “re-grading” is possible, when part of Novika’s boiler equipment was found in the article “Ventilation, steam line, dynamo”, where Emerald somehow miraculously turned out to have 24 tons of savings (despite the greater number of boilers!) . Thus, it makes sense to combine both of these articles and consider the preponderance of the power plant and other Emerald mechanisms on 186 t (210 - 24 t) as a result of the use of a domestic boiler system, Yarrow, on the cruiser. Again, the decision to use the Yarrow boilers did not arise because the Nevsky Plant was unable to produce Schultz-Tornikroft boilers, an upgraded version of which was installed at Novik, but by decision of the Marine Ministry, which experts found the Yarrow type to be the most suitable for Pearls. and "Emerald".
Of course, it may be that if the Yarrow boilers were made in Germany, they would have been somewhat easier than the Nevsky Plant did. But is this true, and if so, how much easier would German-made boilers be - one can only guess. Therefore, for the time being we will leave 186 t. Within the limits of the "reasonable" overload of the cruisers "Pearl" and "Emerald".
Summing up our calculations. Let's take the normal displacement of the Novik and add to it those weights, which the Naval Department went consciously increasing, expecting to achieve certain benefits by increasing the displacement. Summing up the above figures, we get the total weight of such improvements in 494,5 "long" tons. Accordingly, if the Nevsky Plant worked with the same weight discipline as the shipyard "Shikhau", then the "Emerald" would have to have a normal displacement in 3 215,5 t.
But, as we know, on displacement, the normal displacement of the Emerald was 3 330 t. Accordingly, the construction overload due to the fault of the Nevsky Plant was about 114,5 tons. The result, of course, is not the most pleasant, but not critical: remember that the Boyar, built at the Danish shipyard Burmeister og Vain, was overloaded by about the same - 100 t. As for Pearl, then with it Alas, everything is unclear. V.V. Khromov claims that the normal displacement of this cruiser was 3 250 t, but A.A. Alliluev and M.A. Bogdanov - that 3 380 t.
Of course, our calculation may have shifted somewhat in favor of Emerald due to the fact that the advantage over machines and equipment in 186 T. the author entirely attributed to the design features of the Yarrow boilers, but even if this is not the case, the overall picture of the Emerald overload testifies that these boilers are unlikely to be heavier than their counterparts, made in England or Germany more than with 20-30 tons, which, again, is not too critical. And in any case, there can be no talk of any "600-ton" overloads - as we can see, the difference in artillery weapons, other types of boilers, etc. led to the fact that "Pearls" and "Emerald" were obliged to become much heavier than "Novik."
Now we will try to consider the quality of the work of the Nevsky Plant on the other hand.
Acceptance to the treasury
Like many other ships, both before and after them, the Pearl and the Emerald were accepted by the fleet according to the results of the acceptance tests. As a matter of fact, it was the results of official sea trials that created the cruisers of the Nevsky Plant with a stable reputation of unsuccessful ships among the history lovers of our time. And all because the maximum speed reached on them was 23,04 knots. for Pearls and all 22,5 ties. for Emerald. In other words, the driving performance of the ships turned out to be very far from even the contractual 24 units, and the 25,08 units developed by Novik could only be dreamed of. And yet with this still tests are constantly accompanied by one or other damage!
Nevertheless, anyone who takes the trouble to read carefully any monograph dedicated to these cruisers will see that the results achieved by the tests are extremely far from the maximum speed that Pearl and Emerald could actually develop. The fact is that not a single cruiser under test has developed its full power. Both of them, like Novik, had steam engines designed for power 17 000 hp, but Pearl, having developed 23,04 knots, had power only about 15 000 hp, and Emerald V.V. Khromov 10 746 hp, according to A.A. Alliluyeva and MA Bogdanov - 13 500 hp According to the author, the data given by A.A. Alliluyeva and M.A. Bogdanova, since the calculation through the admiralty coefficient shows: in the case of displacement 3 330 t and power 13500 hp the cruiser developed the 22,5 knots, then with the 17 000 hp he could develop 24,3 ties. At the same time, if Emerald had managed to develop 22,5 ties in the same displacement with only 10 746 horsepower, then with 17 000 horsepower. he would give 26,2 bonds.! Obviously, the last is the ultimate fantasy.
And why, in fact, the official tests did not bring the power plants of cruisers to the maximum possible? The answer is very simple - wartime. Tests of both cruisers were conducted with violations of established procedures.
The fact is that sea trials of combat ships of those years were progressive. The level of technology that existed at that time did not allow ideally assembling such complex aggregates as large steam engines, and, in fact, boilers. Therefore, usually, before trying to give full speed, the ship was tested with less power of mechanisms, and increased it only after they were convinced that its power plant successfully copes with the previous one. Violation of the order of progressive tests could lead to extremely unpleasant consequences. Recall that the Germans ignored this and tried to disperse the Novik to the 24 nodes at the very first tests. And what did it lead to? The tests were frustrated, as 7 from 1901 trial exits into the sea from May to September ended with large machine breakdowns and screws. In other words, the power plant of the German construction could not withstand such “abuse” and received serious damage, which then had to be removed for a long time.
And what was done with "Pearl" and "Emerald"?
After testing the machines at moorings (when the machines are working and the cruiser remains at the factory wall), the “Pearls” were allowed to go on their own to Kronstadt. Then, at the two-hour factory tests, the revolutions were brought to 100 per minute, which, of course, was very far from full speed - at the final tests, when the cruiser showed 23,04 ties. his cars gave 155 (airborne) and 164 (central) rpm. After that, the sea trials were interrupted, although the cruiser went to sea twice: for the first time to eliminate the deviation, and the second - to sample artillery installations.
And after that, the tests for the full stroke, which ended in failure, immediately followed. Then - the second, final tests, which ... were not completed - after the power of the 15 000 hp was reached. and the cruiser developed 23,04 bonds. An accident has occurred. The gasket struck the bottom flange gasket on the right-hand medium-pressure cylinder.
Thus, we see that the Pearls did not undergo any progressive tests, because prior to the full speed tests, it had only three exits to the sea at low speed. If we take, for example, the factory tests of the Bayan cruiser, then before making an attempt to reach the contractual 21-knot course, he had preliminary 8-hour tests, during which he held an average of 19,25 knots. Novik’s attempt to achieve 24 knots “offhand” led only to serious damage to its power plant, while Pearls got off with relatively minor and easily fixable malfunctions.
As a matter of fact, the fact that the cruiser’s cars were taken to the treasury the very next day after the tests, on which the Pearl demonstrated the 23,04 knot, does not mean that it was the speed limit for it. It only says that the commission, seeing such a result with power in 15 000 hp, perfectly understood that when 17 reached 000 hp the cruiser will not only reach, but even surpass the contractual 24 node. And, due to wartime, members of the commission decided not to force the ship to confirm the obvious, but to use the remaining time before exiting with the 2 Pacific Squadron to eliminate any and all faults and deficiencies that could be identified, as well as other tests. Let's not forget that, the squadron went on a campaign 2 October 1904, that is, after just 2,5 weeks after the test "Pearls". At the same time, although the cruiser’s vehicles were taken to the 14 September 1904 coffers, the decision to accept the ship by the fleet was only made by 5 in January 1905 (taken retroactively on the day the squadron exited).
With “Emerald” it turned out even more “fun” - the cruiser, as well as the “Pearl”, completed mooring tests at the plant wall, and then independently transferred to Kronstadt. After that, September 19 "Emerald" came out on its only preliminary tests, which ended unsuccessfully, while the ship's machines gave 120 rpm. And then, in fact, the official trials took place, in which the cruiser with 13 500 hp developed 22,5 bonds, after which cars and boilers were taken to the treasury.
Obviously, the same considerations played a role as in the case of “Pearl” - the list of shortcomings on “Emerald” was more, and he no longer had time to go to the Far East together with the squadron. He had to be sent later, as part of a special “catching-up squad”, while the volume of outstanding work was so great that the cruiser had to put into operation some of its systems already during the march. Obviously, as in the case of the “Pearl”, the selection committee preferred to devote maximum attention to checking other cruiser mechanisms, rather than driving it to the measured mile in order to make sure that the cruisers reached its 24 nodes. Just because no one had any doubts about achieving this speed.
All of the above indicates that neither the "Pearl" nor the "Emerald" should in any way be considered unsuccessful construction ships. Yes, the weight discipline of the Nevsky Plant turned out to be lower than that of the Schihau company, but quite within reasonable limits, and there is no doubt that if the cruisers had completed a full cycle of tests and fine tuning of peacetime, they would have shown, and even surpassed, im under the contract 24 node. That they would not have reached the speed of the "Novik" could not be blamed on domestic shipbuilders, if only because eliminating the shortcomings of this cruiser led to an increase in the displacement of "Pearls" and "Emerald" by almost 500 tons. Moreover, that fact that the cruisers built by the Nevsky Plant were able to withstand accelerated tests in general without serious damage to the power plant, indicates a very high build quality of their cars and boilers. It is interesting, by the way, that members of the selection committee noted separately the “thoroughness of assembling machines” on the “Pearls”.
Thus, we conclude that the only truly significant drawback of the construction of the cruisers "Pearl" and "Emerald" was that it simply did not have time to finish, and both ships set off on a long hike and battle, without going through a full cycle of debugging mechanisms . But blaming the Nevsky Zavod is absolutely impossible.
Why do we need an analysis of the weights of almost the same type of ships of domestic and imported construction, which were the "Novik" and "Emerald"? The fact is that a quick look at history The construction of the cruisers of the Nevsky Plant shows a very disappointing picture of the quality of domestic shipbuilding. Here are the Germans - are going to build a high-speed cruiser in the 3 000 t, and then - r-time! - and we were able to build it in the displacement of the entire 2 721 t. And then we wanted to build a cruiser according to the German drawings, almost the same, only a couple of guns were added, and we also allowed the speed to be reduced by one node. But already in the project, the mass of this cruiser went beyond the 3 100 t, and in fact, the Emerald was put to the test in the 3 330 t displacement, that is, with an additional 230 t overload! As a result, the weight of the Emerald surpassed the "Novikovsky" by a colossal amount of 609 t, and if we recall that the cruiser of domestic construction has not yet developed the contract speed, the apocalyptic picture of the failure of domestic shipbuilding in comparison with the German one develops.
But is it?
Unfortunately, the “Emerald” weight report on the 3 330 t. Is not available in the sources available to the author, and the available comparison of the Novik and Emerald weights is made for some design state of the cruiser, and, as can be seen below, the project not yet final. However, the ship’s displacement has already reached 3 177 “long” tons (rounded 1 is such a ton = 1016 kg).
So, as mentioned earlier, the author will try to decompose the excess of the scales of the Emerald over the Novik into 2 components. It is known that domestic cruisers were built according to an improved project, in which an attempt was made to get rid of a number of shortcomings of the Novik and representatives of the Marine Ministry in some cases quite consciously went to the "advantage" - it is obvious that such an increase in displacement cannot be blamed domestic production culture. Having understood this, we can understand how much of the above difference in 609 tons between ships should be attributed to the customer's initiatives, and how much for the worst quality of construction and / or weight discipline of the Nevsky Plant.
Alas, there was an error in the previous material: in the section on artillery and mine weapons, it was stated that Emerald under this article had savings of 24 tons. In fact, this is not true, since such savings, apparently, took shape after the mine vehicles and mines were removed from the ship, and the artillery weapons still remained equal to Novik. However, subsequently, a 3 mine vehicle was returned to the cruiser and two 120-mm guns were additionally installed. Let's try to calculate the weight of the specified "supplement"
Considering the fact that the Novik 381-mm mine devices were 5, it turns out that on average one such device with ammunition weighed 4,8 t, respectively, the weight of the same 3 devices for Izumrud 14,4 t. Two deck installations 120 -mm / xnumx guns arr. 45 were each weighed at least 1892 tons each, total 7,5 tons. In addition, 15 shots were assigned to each gun, each of which weighed 200 kg. Thus, the mass of only the guns themselves and the ammunition for them, without additional racks, gazebos for shells, etc. amounted to 36 t, and taking into account the mine weapons - 29,4 t. or 43,8 "long" tons. Consequently, in the final version, the total weight of the Emerald cruiser under the articles Artillery and Mine Weapons and Projectiles, Charges was at least 43,11 tons, which is 171,11 tons higher than those of Novik (19,11 tons). And this advantage, of course, can in no way be attributed to a construction overload due to the fault of the manufacturing plant.
Chassis
He had a very interesting story. The fact is that on the tests of “Novik” Russian representatives were confused by the weakness of the hull of a German-built ship: the trembling of certain parts of the hull and the large cuts in the residential deck above the engine rooms caused particular concerns. The cruiser, nevertheless, was accepted into the treasury, that is, a similar over-lightening of the structure was still considered acceptable. However, Russian sailors and engineers did not want to receive ships with equally weak hull structures in the future, so it was decided to reinforce the Pearl and Emerald hulls.
We will not list in detail all the changes that cruisers underwent: increasing the thickness of the stringers, installing Carlings, and so on. We only note that, based on the results of the innovations, the longitudinal strength of the Emerald hull and Pearl cases has increased (calculated) by approximately 7% of what Novik had. The price for this was an additional approximately 55 tons of steel, spent on all types of reinforcements.
A similar situation exists with linoleum on the upper deck. This decision was considered acceptable for Novik. But linoleum when slipping water on it became slippery, which made it extremely difficult to move around the deck in fresh weather and artillery firing, moreover, it quickly turned into rags. Therefore, linoleum on the upper deck was rightly considered to be “a huge inconvenience” and on the Pearls and Emerald, it was abandoned in favor of the classic for warships flooring teak boards 44,45 mm thick (1 and inch). It was a completely correct and wise decision, but it cost XTNUMX tons of extra weight. Thus, the total weight of improvements, which the Naval Ministry quite deliberately went to, was 24 tons.
And that's what happens. Shihau designed the cruiser with a normal displacement of 3 000 t, and provided a hull for it, which in fact weighed 1 269 t, or 42,3% of normal displacement. Nevsky Zavod was going to build a 3 130 T cruiser with a displacement, but then increased it to 3 177 T. Unfortunately, it is not known where the weight was added, but even if we assume that the hull weight remained unchanged, it turns out that for the ship in 3 130 t the body should weigh 1 406 t. or 44,9%. But we are already talking about an improved, reinforced hull: if we exclude the associated 79 t mass increase, that is, if the hull is built in the same way as Novik, the cruiser would have received 1 327 t hull weight (1 406 t minus 79 t) or 42,39% of normal displacement. In other words, the difference between the actual masses of the Novik and Emerald hulls in relation to their planned displacement is hundredths of a percent! It can be assumed that if Emerald were built by Shihau, then the weight of its hull would be 1 324 t, that is, 42,3% of 3 130 t planned normal displacement.
In other words, looking at the comparison table of the weight lists of Novik and Emerald, we see that the body of the latter is heavier on the 137. But if we take into account the increase in mass as a result of conscious decisions of the leadership of the Marine Ministry (79 t), and we take into account that the Emerald was designed by a larger than Novik ship, which naturally requires a more massive hull, the result will be quite different . By introducing the appropriate adjustments, we understand that the difference in weight of the Novik and Emerald hulls, which could still be attributed to the worst quality of domestic construction, does not exceed some three tons! But this, incidentally, is not only about the hull, but also about the armor protection of the cruiser and a number of equipment and “practical things”, whose masses were assigned to the article “The hull with devices”.
In fact, there is no difference between the mass of the Novik and Emerald hulls in the table above in general — the fact is that, in addition to reinforcing the Pearls and Izumrud hulls, they also received an additional superstructure, which the Novik did not have one, namely, the command post, located on the front bridge, on top of the battlefield. Probably, this “prelux” cutting room covers the three-ton deviation we have calculated.
From the foregoing it follows that all 137 tonnes. The differences indicated in the weights comparison table relate either to important improvements of the cruiser, or caused by a large displacement of the Emerald in comparison with the Novik, but by no means a low production culture at the Nevsky Plant.
Mast and communications
As you know, the "wireless telegraph" installed on Novik was extremely unsuccessful in its design and even in the most wonderful conditions could not provide communications at a distance of more than 15-17 nautical miles (up to 32 km). In addition, the only mast of the German-built cruiser made it difficult to place the antenna and prevented the use of the cruiser as a "rehearsal vessel", which, generally speaking, was considered one of the most important tasks of the 2nd-rank armored cruisers in the Russian Imperial navy. In addition, the sources usually state that a single mast did not allow raising multifaceted signals - it is unclear how true this is, but in any case it can be argued that, due to the frank weakness of the radio station and the mast, Novik lost much of its ability to transmit information to other ships, which is completely unacceptable for the reconnaissance cruiser.
Well, "Pearls" and "Emerald", apparently, were completely devoid of these shortcomings. At the end of May 1904, F.K. Avelan ordered to install on the cruiser of the Nevsky Plant "German long-range wireless wiring apparatus," and, apparently, this was done. In addition, domestic cruisers received additional fok- and mizzen-mast, thus becoming three-masted ships. In spite of the fact that the mizzen-mast was “dry”, that is, there were no rivers, the ships obviously did not have problems either with the rehearsal of others' signals, or with raising their multi-humid ones, as well as with placing the antennas of the wireless telegraph. Interestingly, this decision had almost no effect on the ship’s displacement: the two Emerald masts, 21,3 and 18,3 m high (rounded, 70 and 65 feet), along with yards and rigging had a total weight of 1,44 tons. Such is the size of the petty economy of the Schihau company, which refused to install an additional spar on the Novik: German shipbuilders went for a significant deterioration in the ship’s operational qualities for one and a half tons!
The “emerald” under the article “Masts, boats, davits” had, in comparison with “Novikom,” the advantage in 6 of “long” tons, from which, as we see, 1,41 of such tons gave additional masts. As for the reasons for the remaining excess, it is insignificant and, apparently, consisted in various designs of boats and boats used on the Novik and Emerald. However, apparently, the metal boats "Novik" were slightly better installed on the "Emerald". So we can not consider the advantage in 4,59 t justified, and attribute it to the worst production culture in comparison with the German one.
Crew
The crews of Emerald and Pearl were 343 people for each cruiser, of which 14 were officers, including 2 headquarters officer, 8 chief officers, 3 mechanical engineer and 1 doctor. The number of officers coincides with the number of Novik officers we calculated, but the German-built cruiser had a slightly smaller crew: the figure in 328 people is considered classic, according to some other data it may be 323 or 330 people. Obviously, a slightly larger number is justified by at least the presence of two additional guns with a caliber of 120-mm, whose calculations clearly outnumber the calculations of two mined 381-mm vehicles, in which Novik had an advantage. Thus, there is no reason to believe that the crews of Russian-built cruisers were inflated with respect to the Novik.
Thus, we can say that the crew size of the Emerald surpassed that of the Novik by 4-6%. At the same time, the weight in the article “Team, baggage, provisions, water” is almost 18% higher in Izumrud. But, of course, such an "overload" can in no way be reproached by the Nevsky Plant. Rather, it should be said that at the Zhemchug and Emerald the indicated weights were determined more realistically, while Shikhau, being afraid of achieving the contract speed, saved on what it could. We have no reason to put 18 t overload on this article in reproach domestic shipbuilders.
Other articles
As we said in the previous article, the overload of Emerald in 133 t of feedwater for boilers is obviously either the design features of the Yarrow boilers, but most likely the fact that the management of Shihau was able to convince a large part of the reserves such water from normal to full displacement. It is possible, however, that both of these factors played a role. Be that as it may, in no case is there any reason to record this overload in the “sins” of the Nevsky Plant.
As for the article “Main mechanisms and boilers”, the mass of which at the Emerald exceeds Novik’s by as much as 210 tons, this is obviously partly the “fault” of the Yarrow boilers, which by design were simpler and more convenient, but at the same time, it is heavier than the Schihau boilers used at Novik. And besides, a “re-grading” is possible, when part of Novika’s boiler equipment was found in the article “Ventilation, steam line, dynamo”, where Emerald somehow miraculously turned out to have 24 tons of savings (despite the greater number of boilers!) . Thus, it makes sense to combine both of these articles and consider the preponderance of the power plant and other Emerald mechanisms on 186 t (210 - 24 t) as a result of the use of a domestic boiler system, Yarrow, on the cruiser. Again, the decision to use the Yarrow boilers did not arise because the Nevsky Plant was unable to produce Schultz-Tornikroft boilers, an upgraded version of which was installed at Novik, but by decision of the Marine Ministry, which experts found the Yarrow type to be the most suitable for Pearls. and "Emerald".
Of course, it may be that if the Yarrow boilers were made in Germany, they would have been somewhat easier than the Nevsky Plant did. But is this true, and if so, how much easier would German-made boilers be - one can only guess. Therefore, for the time being we will leave 186 t. Within the limits of the "reasonable" overload of the cruisers "Pearl" and "Emerald".
Summing up our calculations. Let's take the normal displacement of the Novik and add to it those weights, which the Naval Department went consciously increasing, expecting to achieve certain benefits by increasing the displacement. Summing up the above figures, we get the total weight of such improvements in 494,5 "long" tons. Accordingly, if the Nevsky Plant worked with the same weight discipline as the shipyard "Shikhau", then the "Emerald" would have to have a normal displacement in 3 215,5 t.
But, as we know, on displacement, the normal displacement of the Emerald was 3 330 t. Accordingly, the construction overload due to the fault of the Nevsky Plant was about 114,5 tons. The result, of course, is not the most pleasant, but not critical: remember that the Boyar, built at the Danish shipyard Burmeister og Vain, was overloaded by about the same - 100 t. As for Pearl, then with it Alas, everything is unclear. V.V. Khromov claims that the normal displacement of this cruiser was 3 250 t, but A.A. Alliluev and M.A. Bogdanov - that 3 380 t.
Of course, our calculation may have shifted somewhat in favor of Emerald due to the fact that the advantage over machines and equipment in 186 T. the author entirely attributed to the design features of the Yarrow boilers, but even if this is not the case, the overall picture of the Emerald overload testifies that these boilers are unlikely to be heavier than their counterparts, made in England or Germany more than with 20-30 tons, which, again, is not too critical. And in any case, there can be no talk of any "600-ton" overloads - as we can see, the difference in artillery weapons, other types of boilers, etc. led to the fact that "Pearls" and "Emerald" were obliged to become much heavier than "Novik."
Now we will try to consider the quality of the work of the Nevsky Plant on the other hand.
Acceptance to the treasury
Pearls in Kronstadt
Like many other ships, both before and after them, the Pearl and the Emerald were accepted by the fleet according to the results of the acceptance tests. As a matter of fact, it was the results of official sea trials that created the cruisers of the Nevsky Plant with a stable reputation of unsuccessful ships among the history lovers of our time. And all because the maximum speed reached on them was 23,04 knots. for Pearls and all 22,5 ties. for Emerald. In other words, the driving performance of the ships turned out to be very far from even the contractual 24 units, and the 25,08 units developed by Novik could only be dreamed of. And yet with this still tests are constantly accompanied by one or other damage!
Nevertheless, anyone who takes the trouble to read carefully any monograph dedicated to these cruisers will see that the results achieved by the tests are extremely far from the maximum speed that Pearl and Emerald could actually develop. The fact is that not a single cruiser under test has developed its full power. Both of them, like Novik, had steam engines designed for power 17 000 hp, but Pearl, having developed 23,04 knots, had power only about 15 000 hp, and Emerald V.V. Khromov 10 746 hp, according to A.A. Alliluyeva and MA Bogdanov - 13 500 hp According to the author, the data given by A.A. Alliluyeva and M.A. Bogdanova, since the calculation through the admiralty coefficient shows: in the case of displacement 3 330 t and power 13500 hp the cruiser developed the 22,5 knots, then with the 17 000 hp he could develop 24,3 ties. At the same time, if Emerald had managed to develop 22,5 ties in the same displacement with only 10 746 horsepower, then with 17 000 horsepower. he would give 26,2 bonds.! Obviously, the last is the ultimate fantasy.
And why, in fact, the official tests did not bring the power plants of cruisers to the maximum possible? The answer is very simple - wartime. Tests of both cruisers were conducted with violations of established procedures.
The fact is that sea trials of combat ships of those years were progressive. The level of technology that existed at that time did not allow ideally assembling such complex aggregates as large steam engines, and, in fact, boilers. Therefore, usually, before trying to give full speed, the ship was tested with less power of mechanisms, and increased it only after they were convinced that its power plant successfully copes with the previous one. Violation of the order of progressive tests could lead to extremely unpleasant consequences. Recall that the Germans ignored this and tried to disperse the Novik to the 24 nodes at the very first tests. And what did it lead to? The tests were frustrated, as 7 from 1901 trial exits into the sea from May to September ended with large machine breakdowns and screws. In other words, the power plant of the German construction could not withstand such “abuse” and received serious damage, which then had to be removed for a long time.
And what was done with "Pearl" and "Emerald"?
After testing the machines at moorings (when the machines are working and the cruiser remains at the factory wall), the “Pearls” were allowed to go on their own to Kronstadt. Then, at the two-hour factory tests, the revolutions were brought to 100 per minute, which, of course, was very far from full speed - at the final tests, when the cruiser showed 23,04 ties. his cars gave 155 (airborne) and 164 (central) rpm. After that, the sea trials were interrupted, although the cruiser went to sea twice: for the first time to eliminate the deviation, and the second - to sample artillery installations.
And after that, the tests for the full stroke, which ended in failure, immediately followed. Then - the second, final tests, which ... were not completed - after the power of the 15 000 hp was reached. and the cruiser developed 23,04 bonds. An accident has occurred. The gasket struck the bottom flange gasket on the right-hand medium-pressure cylinder.
Thus, we see that the Pearls did not undergo any progressive tests, because prior to the full speed tests, it had only three exits to the sea at low speed. If we take, for example, the factory tests of the Bayan cruiser, then before making an attempt to reach the contractual 21-knot course, he had preliminary 8-hour tests, during which he held an average of 19,25 knots. Novik’s attempt to achieve 24 knots “offhand” led only to serious damage to its power plant, while Pearls got off with relatively minor and easily fixable malfunctions.
As a matter of fact, the fact that the cruiser’s cars were taken to the treasury the very next day after the tests, on which the Pearl demonstrated the 23,04 knot, does not mean that it was the speed limit for it. It only says that the commission, seeing such a result with power in 15 000 hp, perfectly understood that when 17 reached 000 hp the cruiser will not only reach, but even surpass the contractual 24 node. And, due to wartime, members of the commission decided not to force the ship to confirm the obvious, but to use the remaining time before exiting with the 2 Pacific Squadron to eliminate any and all faults and deficiencies that could be identified, as well as other tests. Let's not forget that, the squadron went on a campaign 2 October 1904, that is, after just 2,5 weeks after the test "Pearls". At the same time, although the cruiser’s vehicles were taken to the 14 September 1904 coffers, the decision to accept the ship by the fleet was only made by 5 in January 1905 (taken retroactively on the day the squadron exited).
With “Emerald” it turned out even more “fun” - the cruiser, as well as the “Pearl”, completed mooring tests at the plant wall, and then independently transferred to Kronstadt. After that, September 19 "Emerald" came out on its only preliminary tests, which ended unsuccessfully, while the ship's machines gave 120 rpm. And then, in fact, the official trials took place, in which the cruiser with 13 500 hp developed 22,5 bonds, after which cars and boilers were taken to the treasury.
Obviously, the same considerations played a role as in the case of “Pearl” - the list of shortcomings on “Emerald” was more, and he no longer had time to go to the Far East together with the squadron. He had to be sent later, as part of a special “catching-up squad”, while the volume of outstanding work was so great that the cruiser had to put into operation some of its systems already during the march. Obviously, as in the case of the “Pearl”, the selection committee preferred to devote maximum attention to checking other cruiser mechanisms, rather than driving it to the measured mile in order to make sure that the cruisers reached its 24 nodes. Just because no one had any doubts about achieving this speed.
All of the above indicates that neither the "Pearl" nor the "Emerald" should in any way be considered unsuccessful construction ships. Yes, the weight discipline of the Nevsky Plant turned out to be lower than that of the Schihau company, but quite within reasonable limits, and there is no doubt that if the cruisers had completed a full cycle of tests and fine tuning of peacetime, they would have shown, and even surpassed, im under the contract 24 node. That they would not have reached the speed of the "Novik" could not be blamed on domestic shipbuilders, if only because eliminating the shortcomings of this cruiser led to an increase in the displacement of "Pearls" and "Emerald" by almost 500 tons. Moreover, that fact that the cruisers built by the Nevsky Plant were able to withstand accelerated tests in general without serious damage to the power plant, indicates a very high build quality of their cars and boilers. It is interesting, by the way, that members of the selection committee noted separately the “thoroughness of assembling machines” on the “Pearls”.
Thus, we conclude that the only truly significant drawback of the construction of the cruisers "Pearl" and "Emerald" was that it simply did not have time to finish, and both ships set off on a long hike and battle, without going through a full cycle of debugging mechanisms . But blaming the Nevsky Zavod is absolutely impossible.
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