On September 20, 2018, a new diesel-electric submarine of Project 677 Kronshtadt was solemnly launched in St. Petersburg. A hundred years earlier, on October 11, 1908, the first diesel-electric submarine, not only in Russia, but also in the world, was launched in St. Petersburg - it was a submarine of the Lamprey project. This boat, equipped with a diesel engine, became the progenitor of all diesel-electric submarines of the Russian fleet.
A diesel-electric submarine (DEPL) is a submarine equipped with a diesel engine for surface movement and an electric motor designed to move under water. The first such boats were created at the very beginning of the 20th century, when the industry was able to present relatively advanced diesel engines, which quickly displaced kerosene and gasoline engines from the field of underwater shipbuilding, as well as steam installations, which were previously used by designers.
The transition to a dual engine scheme allowed submarines to achieve a high level of navigation autonomy (during the First World War, the autonomy of boats was already measured in thousands of miles) and a significant time underwater (at least 10 hours of economic progress). It was also important that the danger of explosion of steam boilers or gasoline vapors disappeared, which turned submarines into a truly formidable combat force and became the reason for the development of this type of weapon and their widespread use. From 1910 to 1955, all existing submarines (with a few rare exceptions) were built exactly according to the diesel-electric scheme.
Russian submarine "Lamprey"
The first diesel-electric submarine "Lamprey"
The experience of using submarines in the Russo-Japanese War demonstrated that submarines of small displacement can only be used in coastal areas. Therefore, the General Naval Headquarters came to the conclusion that the Russian fleet must have two types of submarines - coastal, with a displacement of up to 100-150 tons and cruising, intended for operation on the high seas and having a displacement of about 350-400 tons.
Already in 1905, the Russian naval engineer and mechanic Ivan Grigorievich Bubnov developed two projects of submarines, with a displacement of 117 and 400 tons. Submarines built according to these projects were named in the future Lamprey (small boat) and Shark (large boat). Both submarines are referred to as "experimental" by the Marine Technical Committee (MTK). Their construction was supposed to serve the independent development of Russian submarine shipbuilding.
The laying down of the submarine "Lamprey" on the stocks of the Baltic Shipyard took place on September 6, 1906. The construction of the submarine was carried out under the direct supervision of the work of Bubnov. In the history of submarine construction, this boat forever entered as the world's first submarine with a diesel power plant. Two diesel engines for the submarine were built in St. Petersburg at the Nobel plant (today it is the Russian Diesel plant), which by that time had already accumulated quite a lot of experience in the construction of such engines. At the same time, when building diesel engines for the boat, the plant encountered a large number of unforeseen difficulties. Especially in the manufacture of a reversing device, which was first created in our country for engines of this type.
Unforeseen difficulties that arose at the Nobel plant delayed the readiness of diesel engines, the first of them was commissioned only in July 1908, and the second in October of the same year. Also, the delay in the construction of the submarine was caused by the unavailability of the main electric motor, for the assembly of which the Volta plant in Reval (today Tallinn) was responsible. To top it all off, on the night of March 21, 1908, a fire completely destroyed the already assembled and accepted battery produced by the Travaille Electric de Mateau plant in Paris.
The new submarine was launched on October 11, 1908. On October 23, 1908, the Lamprey entered the Sea Canal for the first time, however, under only one diesel engine and an electric motor, the second diesel engine on the boat had not yet been installed at that time. On November 7 of the same year, the submarine sank for the first time into the Neva at the quay wall of the Baltic Shipyard. Based on the results of the experimental dive, it was decided to equip the submarine with a lead keel to increase the ballast. The whole next year was spent on the completion of the boat and its testing, including the execution of torpedo firing. Recommendations from the MTK on the acceptance of the submarine "Lamprey" into the fleet were received on October 31, 1910.
The submarine "Lamprey" was a further development of the Russian-type submarines "Kasatka", for which the location of the main ballast tanks in light ends, outside the strong hull of the boat, was characteristic. Ballast system "Lamprey" was different from its predecessors: in addition to two main ballast tanks at the ends of the boat there were also deck tanks - aft and bow, located next to the wheelhouse. The main ballast tanks were filled with special centrifugal pumps, and the deck tanks were filled with gravity. With unfilled deck tanks, the boat could navigate in a positional position (only the wheelhouse remained on the surface) with sea waves up to 3-4 points. All the ballast tanks of the boat were supplied with high pressure air, with the help of which it was possible to blow ballast water from the tanks at any depth.
The strong middle part of the hull of the submarine "Lamprey" was formed of circular frames with an angular section of 90x60x8 mm, located at a distance of 33 cm from one another and forming a geometrically regular body with a decrease in diameter from the middle to the ends of the boat. The thickness of the hull plating reached 8 mm. The middle part of the submarine's hull is separated from the end tanks by spherical strong bulkheads 8 mm thick. On top of the hull of the boat, a solid oval-shaped wheelhouse was riveted and made of low-magnetic steel. The sturdy hull of the boat was designed for a working depth of diving - about 30 meters, the maximum - up to 50 meters.
In the bow of the single-hull submarine, two 450-mm tubular torpedo tubes were located, similar devices were used on a Russian submarine for the first time (on submarines of the Dolphin and Kasatka type, lattice rotary torpedo tubes of the Drzhevetsky system were used). Firing a salvo from two torpedo tubes was impossible. In the bow of the strong hull of the Lamprey there was a rechargeable battery, which consisted of two groups of 33 cells each. Between the groups of battery cells there was a passage for servicing the batteries. Under the floor of the passage there were 6 high-pressure air supply air guards, as well as one air guard for firing 450-mm torpedoes.
In the bow compartment of the boat there was also an anchor electric motor with a drive brought to the upper deck. An electric compressor was located on the starboard side of the Lamprey to replenish the supply of compressed air. On the left side there was an electric pump. Also in the bow of the submarine was a torpedo loading hatch with a strong cover that could be closed from the inside of the boat. Through this hatch, it was possible to load not only torpedoes on board the boat, but also batteries, various equipment and supplies.
The storage battery was covered with a flooring, which simultaneously served as the floor of the room. On the sides of the submarine, above the batteries, there were boxes for the crew's things, and they could be lifted on hinges to gain access to the batteries. In the lowered position, these boxes formed a flat platform along the sides of the boat, which could be used for rest by the crew members who were not on duty.
In the central post of the boat, under the wheelhouse on the sides, two small cabins were fenced off for the commander and his assistant. The aft partitions of these cabins were the walls of the fuel tanks located on the sides of the boat. The submarine's crew consisted of 18 people, including two officers. In the central post there were ship ventilation fans - exhaust and blower, as well as battery fans, designed to ventilate the battery pit.
There were five windows in the boat's wheelhouse, which made it possible to visually observe the environment. Here, in the upper part, a strong cap with four portholes was placed; its cover served as an entrance hatch to the submarine. To observe the terrain in a submerged position, two optical devices were installed in the wheelhouse - a periscope and a kleptoscope. The klepto scope differed from the periscope in that when its eyepiece was rotated, the observer remained in place, without changing his position relative to the horizon. In the conditions of extreme constraint of the small felling, this was quite important.
Lamprey in the port of Libava
To control the submarine in the horizontal plane, a conventional vertical rudder with a roller drive and steering wheels was used, one of which was located on the upper bridge and was intended to control the Lamprey on the surface, and the second was installed in the wheelhouse to control the boat during an underwater course. The submarine was controlled in the vertical plane using two pairs of horizontal rudders located on the bow and stern of the boat.
The Lamprey has two diesel engines with a capacity of 120 liters. with. each were installed in one line, they worked for one propeller. The engines were connected to each other using a friction clutch. In exactly the same clutch, the aft diesel engine was connected to the propeller electric motor, which, in turn, was connected to the propeller shaft using a cam clutch. The scheme of the power plant used assumed that the boats could operate on the propeller: one electric motor with a power of 70 hp, one aft diesel engine with a power of 120 hp. or both 240 hp diesel engines The possibility of supplying three different powers to one common propeller demanded from the designer of the device on the boat a propeller with an adjustable pitch. The drive for changing the pitch of the propeller was located inside the hollow propeller shaft inside the submarine, where there was a screw device for turning the propeller blades. Operation of the submarine demonstrated that this drive was weakened by shocks and vibrations, especially when sailing in stormy weather; there was a decrease in the pitch of the propeller, which created many difficulties and inconveniences for the team when it was necessary to maintain a constant speed of the submarine.
On March 23, 1913, while making a test dive after a winter stay, the Lamprey nearly died along with the crew near Libau. Near the Libavsky lighthouse, a boat told the escorting port boat that they were going to dive. Having transmitted the signal, the boatswain rolled the semaphore flags into a tube and stuck them under the deckhouse bridge deck. He did it extremely unsuccessfully, the flags fell into the valve of the ship's ventilation shaft, which at that moment was open. When preparing the submarine for diving, the foreman Minaev, who was closing the valve, did not pay attention to the fact that the valve did not close, since the semaphore flags interfered with this. Perhaps he simply did not pay attention to the fact that the ventilation valve worked tight and did not close completely, attributing this to a feature of the submarine.
As a result, when submerged, the Lamprey began to draw water through the half-open ventilation valve. Water entered the engine room, and the boat received negative buoyancy and sank at a depth of approximately 11 meters. At the same time, an emergency buoy was released from the boat, which was noticed on the boat, which contributed to the start of the rescue operation. A powerful 100-ton port crane, destroyers, a tug with divers, officers and sailors - students of the Scuba Diving Training Squad - arrived at the scene. As a result, 10 hours after the sinking, it was possible to raise the stern of the boat to the surface and evacuate the crew through the aft hatch. All the divers were in a semi-faint state, as they inhaled chlorine and acid fumes from the batteries flooded with water. The entire crew was hospitalized with poisoning, but there were no fatalities.
During the First World War, the boat, completely repaired by that time, took an active part in the hostilities. In 1915, during the next repairs, its armament was supplemented with a 37-mm cannon, which was installed at the stern of the boat. In total, the Lamprey made 14 military campaigns, but did not achieve results. At the same time, the boat itself was attacked several times by enemy ships. For example, in the summer of 1915, the submarine, thanks to the competent actions of the engine foreman G. M. Trusov, was able to escape from the ram. For this, on October 29, 1915, he was awarded the St. George Cross of the 4th degree.
In the fall of 1917, the Lamprey, together with four Kasatka-class submarines, arrived in Petrograd for overhaul. Here the boat was caught by revolutionary events, the repair was postponed indefinitely. All boats were delivered to the port for storage in January 1918. They were remembered only in the summer of 1918, when the Soviet government needed to strengthen the Caspian military flotilla due to the actions of the interventionists. The boats were repaired and transferred by rail to Saratov, from where they reached Astrakhan on their own. In May 1919, near Fort Alexandrovsky, the Lamprey took part in a battle with British ships.
After the end of hostilities in the Caspian, the boat was stored for some time in the port of Astrakhan, until November 25, 1925, it was decided to send it for scrap due to the wear and tear of all mechanisms. After 16 years of service, the first Russian diesel-electric boat was dismantled for scrap. Long-term operation of the submarine "Lamprey" confirmed the correctness of the constructive solutions proposed by Bubnov, some of them (the device of the immersion system, the general layout) found in the future development in the design and construction of small submarines already in the Soviet fleet.
Tactical and technical characteristics of the submarine "Lamprey":
Displacement - 123 tons (surface), 152 tons (underwater).
Length - 32.6 m.
Width - 2.75 m.
The average draft is 2.75 m.
The power plant is two diesel engines of 120 hp each. and an electric motor - 70 hp.
Travel speed - 11 knots (surface), 5 knots (underwater).
Cruising range - 900 miles on the surface (8 knots), 25 miles - underwater.
The working depth of the immersion is 30 m.
The maximum immersion depth is up to 50 m.
Armament - 37-mm cannon (since 1915) and two 450-mm bow torpedo tubes.
Crew - 18 people.
