"Novik" - the destroyer of the Russian fleet

The beginning of the 20th century was marked by the rapid development in the Russian Empire of all types of defense industry. The shipbuilding did not lag behind the general trend.

One of the most remarkable ships of the Russian fleet was Novik. The destroyer had outstanding seaworthiness and maneuverability, which allowed the ship to be used for a variety of tasks.

Prerequisites

The war with Japan showed all the weakness and vulnerability of the Russian fleet. Since there was no money in the treasury to modernize the warships, the maritime authority announced the collection of money for the construction of voluntary donations of new ships. These funds were planned to build several ships of various classes. Among them - destroyers, dreadnoughts and destroyers.

Projects

Before the engineers were put new technical tasks for the creation of the ship. Destroyers of the "Novik" type had to meet the requirements of the new time: they must be fast, well-armed and universal. Technical characteristics of the prototype should be as follows:

• Speed - to reach 36 knots;
• Speed at full load - about 33 knots;
• Block of power plants - Parson turbines.

The tasks set were rather complicated for the engineers of the time. Therefore, the interested parties announced an international competition for the design of a Novik type ship. Destroyer of a new generation interested domestic shipbuilders.

The commission presented drawings of Creighton shipyard, as well as Nevsky, Putilov and Admiralty plants. After the final meeting, the winner was recognized by the Putilov plant project , which was used to build Novik in the future. The destroyer was developed by a group of engineers led by D.D. Dubitsky, supervising the mechanical part of the vessel, and B.O. Vasilevsky, who was in charge of shipbuilding.

Construction

And in 1907, vessels of the Novik type were already included in the development. The destroyer of the New type was laid down at the Putilov shipyard in 1910. The German company Vulkan took an active part in the work, which undertook to design, manufacture and install a compact and quite powerful boiler turbine plant for the destroyer Novik.

The ship's drawings were refined as the ship was completed. During the construction of the destroyer, a team of N.V. Lesnikov, who served as lieutenant colonel in the Corps of Ship Engineers, captain of the Corps of Engineers and Fleet mechanics Kravchenko GK The chief engineer of the project was K.A. Tennyson.

The appearance of the ship

In October 1913, for the first time, the pride of the Russian fleet, the destroyer Novik, left its native docks. Photos of the meeting of St. Petersburgers strolling along the Neva embankment and greet the handsome ship, fortunately, survived. Newspapers of that time noted that many townspeople came to admire the new destroyer. After all, this ship was built according to a fundamentally new technology. A ship equipped with a large number of torpedo tubes, a 102-mm high-speed deck artillery with a device for installing mine barriers became the protopope of the domestic torpedo-artillery warship of universal purpose. In addition, Novik, the destroyer, was equipped with systems of salvo airborne fire - a simultaneous volley of eight guns made it the only ship in its class.

Another unique quality was its speed - for a long time (until 1917) it was the only vessel that could develop and maintain a speed of more than 37 knots.

The First World War

When the Russian Empire entered the Second World War, Novik was enlisted in the detachment of cruisers of the Baltic Fleet. In his first fight, he left on September 1, 1914. In combat operations, the ship often fought independently, relying on its own power and speed. So, in the summer of 1915 two German destroyers broke through into the Gulf of Riga , which was commissioned to find and sink a Russian ship.

The Novik team could alternately attack both of them, inflicting serious damage on them with artillery fire. And there were many such successful military feats in the biography of this ship.

Last years

During the October Revolution, the legendary Novik was on conservation. Only after the end of the Civil War, in 1925, he underwent partial repairs and modernization. The ship was renamed. Now the legendary destroyer bore the name of one of the leaders of the revolution - "Yakov Sverdlov."

At the end of fifteen years the ship was sent to the Baltic Fleet and used for training purposes. In June 1941, when hostilities broke out throughout the eastern front, it was decided to evacuate naval ships. In the detachment of escort there was also Novik. The destroyer, who had guarded the other ships for so long from the minefields, himself blew himself up on a mine. Thus ended the path of the legend.