Many are familiar with the biblical story about David and Goliath, in which the winner is not the giant warrior Goliath, but a very young and inexperienced in military affairs David. This plot has been embodied many times in real life, history knows many examples when in a duel between two opponents the size and strength of the parties were not decisive. It so happened that two such examples from the history of the Russian fleet fell on the same day - May 14. It was on this day in 1829 that the Russian 20-gun brig "Mercury" entered the battle with two Turkish battleships and emerged victorious. The second incident occurred on May 14, 1877, when two tiny boats "Tsarevich" and "Ksenia" sank the Turkish river monitor "Seyfi" with pole mines.
Fight "Mercury" with Turkish battleships
On May 14, 1829, during the Russian-Turkish war of 1828-1829, three Russian warships, the frigate Shtandart, brigs Orpheus and Mercury, were cruising abeam Penderaklia, when they found a Turkish squadron approaching them, which in many times outnumbered them. Since there was no need to accept an unequal battle, the commander of the "Shtandart" Lieutenant-Commander Pavel Yakovlevich Sakhnovsky ordered to retreat, the ships turned towards Sevastopol. The downwind that blew at sea that day was weak, so the brig "Mercury", which had the worst driving characteristics, began to lag behind, despite the fact that his team also put the oars in motion. The Russian brig was able to catch up with two battleships of the Turkish fleet: the 110-gun Selimiye and the 74-gun Real Bey.
Brig "Mercury" was a two-masted ship with a displacement of about 450 tons, the ship's crew consisted of 115 people. This ship differed from other brigs of the Russian fleet in a smaller draft, as well as being equipped with oars (7 per side), rowing with these oars while standing. The brig's armament consisted of 18 24-pounder carronades, which were designed for close combat and two portable 3-pounder long-barreled cannons with a large firing range. If necessary, these guns could be used both as retiring guns in the harbor ports, and as running guns when placed in the bow ports. This made it possible to use them both in retreat and in pursuit of enemy ships. The gun ports installed on the upper deck of the carronade brig were not closed, since through them the water flowing onto the deck was drained.
Despite the inequality of forces, the multiple superiority of the enemy in artillery weapons and crew, the Mercury did not surrender to the enemy. Having bypassed all the officers in turn, the brig commander Alexander Ivanovich Kazarsky was convinced of their unanimous desire to accept the battle with the enemy. It was decided that if during the battle the mast was knocked down, a strong leak opened, the water in the hold would arrive until it was impossible to pump out, then the brig should be blown up. To execute this decision, Kazarsky put a loaded pistol on the spire in front of the gunpowder warehouse, and one of the surviving members of the team was supposed to undermine the supply of gunpowder. Rejecting the very possibility of surrendering to the enemy, the stern flag on the brig was nailed to the gaff so that it would not be lowered under any circumstances.
The team of "Mercury", which decided to prefer death to dishonor, forever inscribed their name in history, having accomplished a real feat. The unfolding battle with two Turkish battleships pursuing the brig ended with the fact that both enemy ships withdrew from the battle with damage to their sailing weapons, stopping the pursuit of a small but daring Russian ship.
Such an outcome of a seemingly deliberately disastrous enterprise was a coincidence of many circumstances, and researchers are still arguing about the whole picture and the course of the battle of a small Russian brig with two battleships of the Turkish fleet. In the success of the "Mercury", which escaped death and captivity, in addition to unconditional courage, dedication and excellent training of the crew led by the ship's commander, the fact that the best part of the Turkish fleet was destroyed in the battle of Navarino one and a half years earlier, a huge number of sailors were killed and wounded, which significantly weakened all of Turkey's naval forces. The team of "Mercury" faced in battle with insufficiently trained commanders and sailors, yesterday's recruits, who could not quickly cope with the damage inflicted by the brig. Of course, it helped Kazarsky and his team with the weather. A weak wind, which at times completely died down, at some point almost immobilized the enemy ships, while the "Mercury", which had oars, could not only maneuver, but also slowly but surely break away from the enemy, increasing the distance.
Painting by Mikhail Tkachenko, 1907
An important factor that did not allow the Turks to let the "Mercury" sink to the bottom and turn it into a mountain of chips was the fact that for most of the battle, with the exception of a few episodes, Turkish sailors could not use more than 8-10 bow guns of their ships. since in the side ports, their guns could turn no more than 15 degrees, while the short carronades of the Mercury for close combat had much more opportunities for aiming and could fire at the rigging and spars of Turkish ships. During the entire battle, due to the competent and active maneuvering of the "Mercury", the Turkish ships were not able to take an advantageous traverse position relative to the enemy. Thus, the seemingly devastating advantage of the Turkish ships in artillery was reduced to naught; for most of the battle, the ratio of the operating Turkish and Russian guns was practically the same.
During the battle, which lasted more than three hours, the crew of the "Mercury" lost 10 people: 4 killed and 6 wounded, which was already tantamount to a miracle. The captain of the ship was shell-shocked, but did not stop steering the ship. In total, the brig received 22 holes in the hull, 133 holes in the sails, 148 damages in the rigging and 16 damages in the mast, all small rowing ships on board were destroyed, and one carronade was also damaged. But the ship retained its buoyancy and the ability to move, and the very next day, with a proudly raised flag, it connected with the main forces of the Russian fleet, which left Sizopol.
Painting by Aivazovsky. Brig "Mercury" after defeating two Turkish ships meets with the Russian squadron, 1848
For its feat the brig "Mercury" was the second after the battleship "Azov", which distinguished itself in the Navarino battle, was awarded the stern St. George's flag and a pennant. The solemn ceremony of raising the flag and pennant took place on May 3, 1830, and was attended by the captain of the brig, Alexander Ivanovich Kazarsky. The commander, officers and sailors of the brig were presented with various awards. And in 1839 a monument to Kazarsky and the feat of the brig "Mercury" was opened in Sevastopol, the initiator of its creation was the commander of the Black Sea squadron, Admiral Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev.
The sinking of the Turkish river monitor "Seyfi"
The Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878, caused by Russia's intercession for the southern Slavs oppressed by Turkey, enjoyed the support of the entire Russian society, Emperor Alexander II began preparing for war already in October 1876, and on April 12, 1877, the war was officially declared. The Russian campaign plan provided for a decisive offensive through the territory of Bulgaria to the Turkish capital - Istanbul (Constantinople). However, for this, the troops had to overcome an 800-meter water barrier - the Danube River. The Russian fleet could have neutralized a sufficiently strong Turkish military flotilla on the Danube, but it, in fact, did not exist at that time.
The defeat in the Crimean War of 1853-1856 and the then signed Paris Peace Treaty, which was in effect until 1871, prohibited Russia from having a navy on the Black Sea. That is why, by the mid-1870s, the Russian Black Sea Fleet had only two coastal defense battleships and only a few armed steamers. A way out of this state of affairs was proposed by the lieutenant, and later the famous Russian admiral Stepan Osipovich Makarov. The young officer was the initiator of equipping small steam boats with pole and towed mines. Thanks to his talent and perseverance, he was able to convince the leadership of the Russian naval department that with the almost complete absence of large warships, tiny mine boats will represent a real force that can cope with an armored squadron of any enemy. It was largely thanks to Stepan Makarov that the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878 became the first example of the massive use of small destroyers against the superior forces of the enemy fleet.
Undermining the ship with a sixth mine
Back in December 1876, Makarov took command of the steamer Grand Duke Constantine, intending to use the ship as transport for four small mine boats. A fast ship-base for boats, which could deliver them to the place of operations, became Makarov's main project. The method he proposed for the delivery of torpedo boats solved a large number of problems associated with the extremely limited cruising range and poor seaworthiness of tiny boats.
At that time, Russian mine boats were not able to compete with foreign analogues of special construction, for example, boats of the Rapp project. Before the start of the war, all Russian mine boats were ordinary wooden steam boats, the speed of which did not exceed 5-6 knots, since the power of their steam engines did not exceed 5 hp. The steam engine, the boiler and the crew members of the boats were protected by sheets of steel with a thickness of 1, 6 mm, as well as bags of coal, which were hung from the rods along the sides of the boats. For protection from waves, some mine boats received metal visors located in the bow. At the same time, the crew of each boat included 5 people: the commander and his assistant, the mechanic, the helmsman and the miner.
To secure the frequent ascents and descents of boats on board the carrier ship, as well as to increase their seaworthiness, Makarov proposed to lay 6-12-meter mine poles in special oarlocks along the sides like oars. For a mine attack, the poles were moved obliquely forward using a special system of levers so that the mine was below the surface of the water. To bring the pole into a firing position, the effort of two or three members of the boat's crew was required. Special metal containers containing powder charges were attached to the poles. Three types of charges could be used: 8-pound (3.2 kg), 15-pound (approximately 6 kg) and the most powerful 60-pound (24.6 kg). The explosion of such a charge occurred either from the contact of a pole mine with the hull of an enemy ship (the push action fuse of the design of Staff Captain Trumberg was triggered), or from an electric pulse from a galvanic battery. In order to bring the pole mine under the waterline of the enemy ship, the mine boat had to come very close to it.
Bogolyubov A. P. Explosion of the Turkish monitor "Seyfi" on the Danube. May 14, 1877
The first major success awaited Russian mine boats on the night of May 14, 1877, when four mine boats broke through from the base in Brailov to the Machinsky arm of the Danube - "Ksenia", "Tsarevich", "Tsarevna" and "Dzhigit", boats equipped with pole mines, were supposed to ensure the crossing of the Russian troops. The target of their attack was a Turkish armored monitor "Seyfi" with a displacement of 410 tons, which was anchored under the protection of an armed steamer and an armored gunboat. The Safe was armed with two 178mm Armstrong guns, two 120mm Krupp guns and two Gatling mitrailleuses. The armor of the sides reached 51 mm, the conning tower - 105 mm, the deck - 38 mm, the crew of the Turkish monitor consisted of 51 people.
Russian boats spotted the Turkish ships at 2:30 am. Having reduced the speed to reduce the noise level, they went to rapprochement with the enemy, rebuilding for this in two columns led by "Tsarevich" and "Xenia". The attack of the enemy was launched by the boat "Tsarevich", which was controlled by Lieutenant Dubasov. The Turks noticed a mine boat when it was only 60 meters away. They tried to open cannon fire on him, but all attempts to fire cannon shots failed. Approaching the "Safe" at a 4-knot speed, "Tsarevich" hit the monitor with a pole mine on the port side, near the stern post. The mine exploded, the monitor immediately rolled, but did not sink. At the same time, the Turkish team fired intensive rifle fire at the boats, the cannons were also able to fire two shots, but the attack was supported by the boat "Ksenia", commanded by Lieutenant Shestakov. The blow was well thought out: a mine explosion occurred under the bottom of the Seyfi in the central part of the ship, after which the Turkish monitor went under water.
The first cavaliers of the war of 1877-1878, Lieutenants Dubasov and Shestakov
At this time, "Dzhigit" received a hole in the hull from a shell fragment, and the explosion of another shell almost completely filled the small boat with water. His crew had to stick to the shore in order to close up the hole and scoop the water out of the boat. The fourth participant in this raid, the Tsarevna mine boat, was unable to approach the enemy within the distance of a pole because of the fierce fire of the two remaining Turkish ships. After the sinking of the Seyfi, the boats laid down on a return course. Surprisingly, among their crews there were not only killed, but also wounded. The return of the boats to the base was successful, and the Turks were so demoralized by the loss of their ship that they were forced to withdraw the ships from the lower Danube, making it easier for the Russian troops to cross.
