The battleship Potemkin is the ship of revolution

The battleship Potemkin was launched in September 1900 from the Nikolaev slipways. At that time it was considered the most powerful in the Black Sea Fleet. The creation of this ship has become a landmark for the process of transition from the already outdated technical solutions to more modern ones.

The development of the project and construction involved the engineer E. Schott - a student of the famous shipbuilder NE Kuteinikov.

The "Potemkin" battleship had an elevated half tank, which allows to reduce the floodability of its bow during a storm, and also had the opportunity to raise the axes of guns up to seven and a half meters above the water. It was for the first time that centralized control was established in the artillery fire, carried out from a post in the cabin.

In addition, the battleship "Potemkin" is the very first ship with new boilers, in the construction of which water tube units for liquid fuel were used. It was the first time that cranes were installed on the Black Sea Fleet for the lifting of boats and boats.

In the summer of 1902 this modern vessel, which had been floating only two years, was sent for completion and re-equipment. The initial terms of returning to service were disrupted due to the fire of the boiler room. The damage was significant. As a result, To replace the boilers by adapting them to solid fuel. Defects were also found in the tower armor. As a result, the return of the ship to service was postponed until 1904.

The battleship Potemkin possessed a displacement of 12.9 tons, the length of its hull was 113 meters, width 22 at a draft of 8.4. The ship moved at full speed of 16.7 knots with a fuel reserve of 1100 tons.

The battleship team was formed from the moment of its laying. Specially for him was formed the 36th naval crew with various ship specialists: artillerymen, machinists, miners. When in 1905 "Prince Potemkin-Tavrichesky" was finally launched, 731 people served on board, 26 of them were officers.

From the very beginning of the ship's construction, the crew began close contacts with the revolutionary dockers of Nikolaev. Even Bolshevik literature was distributed on board. Apparently, therefore, it was decided to carry out the completion in Sevastopol.

At this time, circles of the Social Democrats under the leadership of the Bolsheviks Yakhnovsky, Gladkov, and Petrov began to be created in the navy. The officer-artillery officer Vakulenchuk, who keeps in constant contact with the local revolutionary organizations of many ports of Russia, also belonged to them .

In the autumn of 1905, an armed riot was planned for the fleet, which was to be decisive for the general appearance. However, the battleship Potemkin, which rebelled on months earlier, outstripped the planned events. The reason was the reprisal, which the command wanted to inflict on the rebel members of the crew who refused to eat rotten meat. The response to repression was the disarmament of sailors by officers and a skirmish. The commander of the ship, as well as several senior officer ranks, were killed. The rest are under arrest.

At the same time, Vakulenchuk, who was initially against the uprising on the battleship Potemkin-Tavrichesky flared apart from the general movement, nevertheless took command of the ship on himself. However, soon, already during the general revolt, he was killed, and the Bolshevik Matyushenko rose at the head of the revolutionary minded ship. They were joined also by the destroyer N 267, who was standing on the Tenderovsky raid. The Tsar's battleship Potemkin became The ship of revolution.

However, on June 18, he was surrounded by a powerful squadron of eleven military ships, who intended to destroy it. When the rebel ship dared to ram, there were no shots from the destroyers: their crews, standing on the side of their comrades, went to the decks with shouts of "hurray."

Battleship, on board which no longer had food and water, tried to moor in the port of Odessa, and after - Feodosia, where he was already waiting for the tsarist army. I had to go to Constantia and surrender to the Romanian authorities, who returned the ship to Russia.

In an effort to erase from memory even his name battleship was renamed, and his team remained in Romania as political emigrants.