The beginning of the 20th century was marked by the rapid development in the Russian Empire of all types of defense industry. Shipbuilding did not lag behind the general trend.
One of the most remarkable ships of the Russian fleet was Novik. The destroyer possessed outstanding seaworthy and maneuverable qualities that made it possible to use the ship for a wide variety of tasks.
Background
The war with Japan showed all the weakness and vulnerability of the Russian fleet. Since there was no money in the treasury for the modernization of warships, the maritime department announced a fundraiser for the construction of voluntary donations of new ships. With these funds it was planned to build several ships of various classes. Among them are destroyers, dreadnoughts and destroyers.
Projects
The engineers were assigned new technical tasks for the creation of the ship. Destroyers of the Novik type had to meet the requirements of the new era: they must be fast, well-armed and versatile. Technical characteristics of the prototype should be as follows:
- speed - reach 36 knots;
- speed at full load - about 33 knots;
- block power plants - Parson turbines.
The tasks set were quite complicated for the engineers of that time. Therefore, interested parties announced an international tender for the design of a Novik-type ship. The destroyer of the new generation interested in domestic shipbuilders.
For consideration of the commission, drawings of the Creighton shipyard, as well as the Nevsky, Putilovsky and Admiralteysky plants were submitted. After the final meeting, the winner was the Putilov plant project , on which Novik was subsequently built. The destroyer was developed by a group of engineers led by D.D. Dubitsky, who oversaw the mechanical part of the vessel, and B.O. Vasilevsky, in charge of shipbuilding.
Building
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 actively participated in the work, which undertook to design, manufacture and install on the vessel a compact and rather powerful boiler turbine plant for the destroyer Novik.
Drawings of the vessel were finalized as the completion of the vessel. The construction of the destroyer was observed by a team of N.V. Lesnikov, who served as lieutenant colonel in the Marine Engineers Corps, staff captain of the Corps of Engineers and Fleet Mechanics G.K. Kravchenko The chief engineer of the project was K.A. Tennyson.
Ship appearance
In October 1913, the pride of the Russian fleet, the destroyer Novik, left its native docks for the first time. The photo of the meeting of Petersburgers walking along the Neva Embankment and meeting the handsome ship, fortunately, has been preserved. Newspapers of that time noted that many citizens came to admire the new destroyer. After all, this ship was built according to a fundamentally new technology.
The vessel, equipped with a large number of torpedo tubes, high-speed 102-mm deck artillery with a device for installing minefields became the protopope of the Russian torpedo-artillery warship for universal use. In addition, the Novik, the destroyer, was equipped with multiple-launch volley fire systems - a simultaneous salvo of eight guns made it the only ship in its class.
Another unique quality was its speed - for a long time (until 1917) he was the only vessel that could develop and maintain a speed of more than 37 knots.
World War I
When the Russian Empire entered World War II, Novik was enrolled in the Baltic Fleet cruiser squad. He entered his first battle on September 1, 1914. In hostilities, the ship often fought independently, relying on its own power and speed. So, in the summer of 1915, two German destroyers erupted into the Gulf of Riga , who were instructed to detect and sink the Russian ship.
The Novik team was able to attack them both in turn, inflicting serious damage to them with artillery fire. And there were many similar 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 a partial repair and modernization. The ship was renamed. Now the legendary destroyer bore the name of one of the leaders of the revolution - "Jacob Sverdlov."
After fifteen years, the ship was sent to the Baltic Fleet and used for training purposes. In June 1941, when hostilities broke out on the entire eastern front, it was decided to evacuate naval ships. There was Novik in the escort squad. The destroyer, which had been protecting other ships from minefields for so long , was blown up by a mine itself. Thus ended the path of legend.