Weapons 03/03/20 Submarine “the Seal”: the most dangerous submarine in the history of the Russian fleet
Speaking about the revolution in the Russian Empire, historians will long to break the spear, arguing about whether she went to the state or not. But one thing is for sure – many of the events and heroes of those dashing years were now undeservedly forgotten. One such historical character and we would like to tell. It’s submarine “Seal”, which still holds the record for number of wins. During the service the ship was replaced by two captain – until the end of 1915 it went under the command of Lieutenant Peter S. Bachmanova, and since 1916 – senior Lieutenant Mikhail Aleksandrovich of Citizen.
“Seal” type “Walrus”
“Seal” refers to a class of submarines of the “Walrus”. The project has developed an outstanding Russian naval engineer Ivan G. Bubnov. The construction of the vessel began in June 1911, by 1913 it was launched, and in 1915 it began to serve in the flotilla of the black sea fleet.
the Submarine was equipped with 12 torpedo tubes and two pieces of artillery: up to 1916 – 88 mm German gun, after – 76.2 mm Japanese gun and 57-mm gun of the French company “Gocci”.
a range of 4,800 kilometers, the submarine provided the domestic diesel engines, produced in Kolomna, as well as two electric motors.
First world war
“Seal” was adopted into the fleet March 19, 1915, but up to this date, the submarine took part in patrolling the waters of the Black sea.
it is worth to note an important feature: many of the enemy did not take place in the format of “secretly tracked down and torpedoed,” and in the artillery duel during which the submarine was on the surface that modern naval combat submarines is simply unthinkable.
At the beginning of June 1915 in the district of the Bosphorus Strait boat-fishingshka “Dar”, imitating an important goal, was forced to throw ashore after shelling with “Seal”. Within days, he torpedoed the German cruiser “Breslau”, which at that time went under the Turkish flag and under the name of “Midilli”, but the shells went wide. At the end of that month, the submarine went into the new campaign. In the period from 18 to 31 July in the surface Seal was forced to thrown on the shore three-masted sailing ship and a few schooners with coal, and then from the island of Kefken sank a cargo ship.
Since 1916, the ship came under the command of commander M. A. Citizine. And it was in this year the crew of the “Seal” he made his name in the annals of the Russian submarine fleet. By may, the sailors of the submarines sank 14 ships and damaged with torpedoes two ships, one of which was able to escape, and the second is an armed steamer “will Resinet” – beached on the shore. In addition, in the battle near the island of Kefken “Seal” rammed at least one Turkish schooner, sending her to the bottom. And during the battle at the end of the spring, the sailors were able to capture and bring to Sebastopol two-masted barque “Dennis”.
battle with the “Rodosto”
the Most famous and heroic battle “Seal” is the fight with transport ship “Rodosto”. The case is unique not only because the submarine had with ship artillery duel on the surface and won, but the fact that we were able to tow it to Sevastopol.
the Collision occurred on 28 September 1916. By this time the “Seal” for the fourth day patrolled the transport route for delivery of coal to the Istanbul-Zonguldak. Around 10 PM, the observer noticed a large ship, flying the Turkish flag. Playing red alert, Michael Kititsin wedged between the shore and the vessel to squeeze out the last in the sea, and opened fire.
After the first hits from a 57mm and 76.2 mm guns, the ship “Rodosto” did not give up and took the fight. Its armament consisted of a 57-mm and 88-mm guns, but none of their shells has not reached the “Seal”. As it turned out, the officers “Rodosto” took the submarine pabout silhouette for the destroyer, which incorrectly calculated the distance to her and blew their shells with considerable flights. The battle lasted nearly an hour, and during this time our sailors, unlike their Turkish colleagues were able to get 30 times, shot 46 times.
we Must pay tribute to the tenacity of the Turks: on the boat when the fire broke out, they continued to resist, firing a smokescreen to under its cover to put out the fire. But Citizen have what is called, caught the tail of luck. He brought the submarine at a distance of half a kilometer (which by marine standards – almost in focus) and one by one put the remaining seven rounds directly into the boiler. After this the ship stood up, the engine was disabled. Under cover of smoke the captain and officers of “Rodosto” in the boat ran ashore, and part of “Seal” went on a captured ship, extinguished the fire, could somehow return to the boat and took him to Sevastopol.
“After a huge effort engineer Maximov with machine conductor Georgy Bezrukov managed to release the steering the car and the fact I think he saved the prize from destruction. After that I ordered him to stand on the wheel and in the car, sent the boat of the listener engineer chernovetskogo” – wrote in his memoirs, Citizen.
In the First world Seal put to the bottom of the 5 Turkish ships, more than 30 sailboats and coal schooners, and captured 3 enemy ship, of which “Rodosto” became the richest trophy. This record is still not broken.
End of service
However, on the fate of the heroic ship was sad. In 1917 it was involved in the campaigns, but is not so active, and in 1918 it, together with the black sea fleet seized by German troops. The boat in operation was not allowed, and only cleaned sacked. She was secretly restored by the captain of the 2nd rank Pohorecki, and when the Germans left occupied Sevastopol, began to participate in battles on the side of the White movement. After 1924 the new crew of the submarine was relocated it Bizert (a city in present Tunisia), where in 1930 she was sawed for scrap.
Vasily Khodarev
Source:
© Russian Seven
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