Mine Volga
Article from 2016-07-05
The first carriers of sea mines were the Black Sea steamships of the Russian Society of Shipping and Trade (ROPiT) Vesta and Vladimir, which were equipped with the necessary equipment for mine setting during the Russian-Turkish war. When specialized facilities were required for the mine defense of the Vladivostok military port in 1880, Vice Admiral I.A. Shestakov gave the task to build a completely new "military vessel with marine qualities - a special military transport" capable of serving as a cargo ship in peacetime, and as a mine depot in wartime. Such a ship was built in 1886 for the needs of the Russian fleet Norwegian mine transport Aleut. However, Aleut, which was actively used in coastal cruising, protection of fur seals, and hydrographic works, had a major drawback - it could not put mines on the move and worked, as a rule, using mine rafts.
In 1889, Lieutenant V.A. Stepanov proposed to supply the ship with a low-lying closed mine deck, above which a T-rail should be laid along the entire length, intended for transportation and discharge of mines overboard at the required safety distance. This system allowed the production of mines at a speed of up to 10 nodes at regular intervals. Stepanov’s invention opened the way to the creation of a special minelayer, and in the same year, the Marine Ministry announced a tender for the design and construction of two such ships for the Black Sea Fleet. According to the results of the competition, the project of the Swedish company "Motala" was recognized as the best - it was she who received the order to build the "Bug" and "Danube" mine transports. In 1892, they entered service, becoming the first vehicles capable of producing covert mines on the move.
The shipbuilding program 1895 of the year provided for the construction of four transports, two of them with “devices for service as fenders” according to the type of transport “Bug”. However, the construction of the last two was postponed due to the urgent implementation of an additional program 1898, adopted in connection with the exacerbation of the political situation in the Far East. Subsequently, instead of one of them, the Kamchatka coal transport was laid, and the fate of the second was determined by 28 in December 1901. Considering the funds allocated to the Maritime Department before 1905, funds were revealed that “an insignificant remnant is foreseen”, in connection with which the Marine Department manager Admiral P .P. Tyrtov ordered to start the construction of a new mine transport, but not according to the exact type of “Bug”, but a cargo one, adapted for setting mines. It was proposed that all the mines should be made collapsible and removable for possible storage on the shore.
At the end of January 1902, the St. Petersburg port received an outfit for the construction of mine vehicles in the small stone slipway of the “New Admiralty”, and the junior shipbuilder M.M. Egypt, and in the future this position was performed by the naval engineers V.A. Afanasyev, V.M. Predjakin and V.P. Lebedev. Design issues were addressed by the Naval Academic Council and the NMS. According to the operating experience of the “Bug” and “Danube” mine vehicles, various improvements have been made. Thus, one of the responses from the Black Sea Fleet contained an interesting proposal to create a project of a ship with the qualities of a strong icebreaker, capable of operating in the winter, as well as serving as escort and ship base of the mine-carrying units; as an example was the ship "Pelican" in the Austrian fleet. All the information gathered after the discussion of 7 on April 30, at MTC, lay on the table of the chief ship engineer of the St. Petersburg port of senior shipbuilder D.V. Skvortsova and served as a guide in the drafting of transport for the port of Revel.
The main requirements for the ship design (taking into account changes made to the “Bug” transport drawings) were as follows: the displacement 1300 t was considered sufficient to accommodate 400 ball mines with anchors of the 1898 model of the year (total weight 200 t). For convenience, the scaffold rails were straightened, which required reducing the sheer of the upper deck. To maintain the seaworthiness, the collapse of the nasal frames in the surface part was increased; fodder education was given the usual (direct) form, as fodder exploration created difficulties in mine settings; provided a balcony with removable handrails for ease when working with mines, "as is done on French cruisers ..." With a two-shaft mechanical installation and the highest speed in 13 knots, Belleville water tube boilers were considered mandatory; Two tricedoms and a jib were included in the sailing armament, and four 47-mm rapid-fire guns were included in the artillery armament. Detailed changes were mainly related to the following: we decided to make a steel residential deck, increase the distance between the racks for more space in the mine cellars, make officer's rooms as far as possible on the upper deck, install mechanical revolution counters in the aft part, Valesi counters in the engine compartment, at lazport - Telegraph and negotiation pipe, on the bridge and in the engine room. Improved fire, drainage, as well as the system of flooding the cellars. In peacetime, the transport was supposed to be used for the lighthouse and pilot service in the Baltic, therefore it was envisaged to place four “Pinch” boilers with oil gas for refueling the buoys. Particular attention was paid to the improvement of stability compared to the “Bug”, which was notable for its significant valleys.
4 December 1902 of MTK approved the drawings and specification of the Bug type mine transport, submitted after a series of revisions, as well as the documentation of the twin-screw power plant designed by the Society of Franco-Russian Plants; instead of six Belleville boilers, it was decided to install four systems of the English firm Babcock and Wilcox, as more economical and cheaper, the drawings of which were presented by the Metal Works in St. Petersburg. The assembly of transport (cost estimated 668785 rubles.) On the stocks started 8 January 1903; 1 February was credited to the fleet's ships list under the name “Volga”, and 20 was officially bookmarked in May. According to the specification, the mine transport had a length between the perpendiculars 64 m (the largest 70,3), the displacement in full load 1453 t.
Case steel was supplied by the Aleksandrovsky, Izhorsky and Putilovsky plants; In addition, the Izhora people manufactured the 50 hp spire and steering steam engines, and the Putilovs made forged and aft steers, the steering frame and the propeller shaft cast brackets. The transport was supplied with two mounts and one spare anchor, a verpe and a stop anchor. There were two steam boats with a length of 10,36 m, a longboat, a working boat, three yala and a whaleboat.
Under the contract of 30 on April 1903, the Franco-Russian plant pledged to supply two three-cylinder vertical steam engines of triple expansion (cost 260 thousand rubles) with a spool-type actuator with a Stephenson slide (total display power 1600 hp at 130 rpm); Two four-bladed propellers of the Gears system with a diameter of 2,89 m were made of manganese bronze, while the parts of the shafts that went beyond the stern bearings were protected from being eroded by sea water by coating with a special rubber compound. Two main and auxiliary refrigerators were provided with three centrifugal circulating pumps (150 t / h). The deadline for the presentation of mechanisms for mooring tests was assigned to 1 August 1904, subject to the launch of transport on the water 15 October 1903 g.
According to the terms of the contract concluded by 10 on June 1903, with the company Babcock and Wilcox, four steam boilers (pressure up to 14,7 kg / sq. Cm, cost 90 thousand rubles) manufactured the Metal Plant with the exception of individual parts supplied from England. The boilers were supposed to be commissioned on 1 on January 1904, provided that the vehicles were launched into the autumn of 1903. The boiler plant was serviced by two Vira nutrient dons (50 t / h), and each individually could feed all the boilers at full load. The rest of the ship equipment, also supplied mainly by private enterprises, consisted of three steam dynamos (105 B, two in 320 and one 100 A) for powering two 60-cm floodlights, four electric turbines (in 300 cubic meters / h ), for the drainage system, mine electric winches (five with a lifting capacity of 160 and four for 320 kg), one evaporator and desalination plant, eleven Warmington pumps, two manual pumps for 1,5 t / h, for fresh and salt water. In addition to machine electric fans, there were seven more, two of which are portable. The ship was equipped with the telegraph of Chatborn's response system and electric position indicators of the rudder.
The approval of the drawings of steam engines, which lasted for half a year, led to the temporary cessation of work on the hull and the disruption of the initial period of launching the transport into the water, in addition, the Putilovsky plant had to produce newly rejected propeller shaft brackets. Thus, the loading of boilers, also made with a delay, was started only in March of the 1904 year, and on July 22 they passed hydraulic tests. After the survey of the launching device, simultaneously with the laying of the Khivinets gunboat, the 28 of August launched the Volga mine transport into the water. The changes made during the construction (increasing the mass of the mechanisms to 266,9 t, reducing the number of minutes to 312, etc.) led to a redistribution of loads and caused fears for the stability of the ship. This, as well as the insufficient speed and range, forced MTC to reject the proposal to send transport to the Far East during the Russo-Japanese War.
Mooring tests took place on 30 on April 1905 of the year (pressure in two boilers was raised to 9 atm) during a six-kilometer factory test. 1 June the ship developed a maximum speed of 12,76 knots, and the temperature in the engine and boiler rooms reached, respectively, 30 and 33 ° С. After going to sea 7 June to determine the deviation of the compasses, it was unexpectedly discovered that due to the malfunctioning of the filters all the water pipes and boxes are covered with a thick layer of cylinder oil; it took about ten days to remove it and clean the boilers. The official tests at full speed passed 18 June quite successfully: at 1591,5 tonnes displacement (138,5 tonnes overload), the average speed was 13,48 knots (maximum 13,79) at the left engine speed of 135 and right 136 rpm (total display power of 4635,6 hp at average vapor pressure, “which was kept quite lightly” (12,24 kg / sq. cm); The total coal consumption of four boilers is 1240 kg / h. According to the ship mechanic "Volga" staff captain E.P. Kosheleva, all comments of the acceptance committee were eliminated by March 18 of 1906. But with the mine equipment a lot did not go well. After the corrections made by the manufacturer (“G.A. Lesner and K °”), only mine anchors (respectively 153 and 107) were placed in the bow and stern cellars, and on average, 200 combat and 76 training mines.
The first trips to the sea confirmed the fears of insufficient stability - the transport was extremely flexible and had poor seaworthiness; Neither 30 T of ballast helped, since even with it the metacentric height was only 0,237 m instead of 0,726 by the project. According to MTC, the center of gravity has risen, obviously, due to "increasing mechanisms, weighting the surface of the hull and reducing the stock of mines." At 14 August and 13 December 1906, experts concluded that a radical way to eliminate these shortcomings is to widen the hull to 11,88 m over the 22 to 90 frame by disassembling the skin at the height of five meters, as was done on Amur mine transport and Yenisei. The hull broadening was carried out in Kronstadt, in the northern part of the Nikolaev dock, under the direction of the hull of shipboard engineers of lieutenant colonel A.I. Moiseev and the forces of the Baltic plant.
Displacement after reworking the hull reached 1710,72 t (without 30 t ballast), coal stock increased by 36 t and reached 185 t, cruising range increased to 1200 miles at full speed and 1800 economic, and metacentric height to 0.76 m. On 20 conducted June 1908 Testing Volga, reclassified by 27 September 1907, into a minelayer, developed in full load speed 14,5 knots (1 knots more than official tests). Thus, as a result of the work done, all the basic qualities of the minelayer improved. With the adoption of the mines of the 1905 model of the year, on the residential deck, from each side, the lower rail tracks of length 49,98 m were installed, on which up to 35 (maximum 40) mines of a new type were installed. For better communication, the navigator's cabin and mine lazports were tied up with two “loud-speaking” telephones of the French company “Le La”.
After the entry of the Volga into service, and before the start of the First World War, on board the ship, personnel were trained in setting up barriers. On maneuvers in the 1908 year, the only one at the time of the Baltic Fleet minelayer, it had to spend Xnumx mines on the Gogland position for four whole days. In November, 420, the ship entered a special detachment of barriers, formed from Ladoga, Amur and Yenisei. Before World War I, the Tölefunken spark radio station of the 1909 model of the year installed in 1905 was replaced with Marconi radio telegraph (1904 kW, 0,5 miles). During the period of the First World War, Volga took an active part in the mine-defensive operations of the Russian fleet in setting mines of the 100, 1898 and 1905 types. At the end of 1912, it was decided to overhaul the mechanisms and install four Belleville steam boilers. This decision supported the headquarters of the Baltic Sea Fleet Commander and, taking into account the extreme operational importance of the Volga minelayer, suggested using the Belleville boilers previously manufactured for the Onega minelayer to speed up the repairs. Repairs took place during the 1914 year. Then there were mines again.
Domestic ships in Revel threatened to be captured by German troops, so the Volga 27 in February 1918 moved to Helsingfors, and the 10-17 in April together with other ships of the Baltic Fleet participated in the famous Ice Campaign in Kronstadt. 10 and 14 August she put minefields in about. Seskar, and in June of the following year, was involved in an operation to suppress the insurgency at the forts Krasnaya Gorka and the Gray Horse, after which she was at the disposal of the main mineral of the Kronstadt port.
In 1922, the Volga was transferred to Petrograd to the Baltic Shipyard for repairs and armament. December 31 1922, she received a new name - "January 9". Repair work began on 10 on April of the same year. On August 27 mooring trials took place, and on September 2 on the ship raised the flag and huys. After going through the factory running test of 15 machines in September, the ship came to Kronstadt in October to the Steamship Plant to continue repairs, after which 230 (277 maximum) of only 1912 model mines were placed on the barrier, and the stern and side rails served to drop them. Ammunition for four 47-mm guns consisted of 1000 cartridges. The range with the largest supply of 160 coal and the speed of 8,5 knots reached 2200 miles. After a major overhaul (1937-1938), the ship was reclassified into a non-self-propelled floating base, and before the 1 was taken on July 1943, it was stored in the port for storage of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet ships. 28 July 1944 transport was excluded from the fleet lists. From 1947 until the end of the seventies, the former netlayer was used as a live fish base, after which it was handed over for disassembly; however, for some reason, it did not take place, and for a long time the ship hull is located in the water area of the Coal Harbor in Leningrad.
This ship was the result of the further development of the first Russian barriers "Bug" and "Danube" based on the experience of their creation and operation. High quality of construction, sufficient safety margin allowed for a long time to use the "Volga" for military and civilian purposes.
Sources:
Smirnov G., Smirnov V. Mina - weapon and offensive // Model Builder. 1989. No.4. WITH.
Berezhnoy S. Mine Transport „Volga" // Ships and auxiliary vessels of the Soviet Navy (1917-1927). M .: Voenizdat, 1981, C. 56-57.
Arkhipov M .. Minelaying Volga "// Sea Fleet. 1989. No. 1. С.46-52.
Kuznetsov L. Mine Transport “Volga" // Shipbuilding. 1984. No. 4. С.58-59.
Pavlovich N. Fleet in the First World War. M .: Voenizdat, 1964. T. 1, C. 80-81.
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