In this article, we will continue talking about some of the features of the weight load of the cruisers Zhemchug and Izumrud.
Why is it necessary to analyze the weights of almost the same type of ships of domestic and foreign construction, such as the Novik and Izumrud? The fact is that a quick glance at the history of the construction of the cruisers of the Nevsky Plant shows a very disappointing picture of the quality of domestic shipbuilding. Here are the Germans - they were going to build a high-speed cruiser of 3,000 tons, and then - p-times! - and we were able to build it in a displacement of only 2,721 tons. And then we wanted to build a cruiser according to the German drawings, almost the same, only a couple of guns were added, and even allowed the speed to be reduced by one knot. But already in the project, the mass of this cruiser went for 3,100 tons, and in fact the "Izumrud" went for testing in a displacement of 3,330 tons, that is, with an additional overload of 230 tons! As a result, the weight of the "Izumrud" surpassed the "Novikovsky" by a colossal amount of 609 tons, and if you remember that the contract speed of the domestically built cruiser did not develop, then there is a completely apocalyptic picture of the failure of the domestic shipbuilding in comparison with the German one.
But is it?
Unfortunately, the weight summary of "Izumrud" for 3,330 tons is not available in the sources available to the author, and the existing comparison of the weights of "Novik" and "Izumrud" was carried out, most likely, for a certain design state of the cruiser, and, as can be seen below, of the project not yet final. Nevertheless, the ship's displacement has already reached 3,177 "long" tons (roughly 1 such ton = 1016 kg).
So, as mentioned earlier, the author will try to decompose the excess of the "Emerald" weights over the "Novik" into 2 components. It is known that domestic cruisers were built according to an improved project, in which an attempt was made to get rid of a number of Novik's shortcomings and representatives of the Naval Ministry in a number of cases deliberately went for the "advantage" - it is obvious that such an increase in displacement cannot be blamed domestic production culture. Having understood this, we will be able to understand how much of the above difference of 609 tons between the ships should be attributed to the customer's initiatives, and how much - to the worst quality of construction and / or weight discipline of the Nevsky Plant.
Alas, an error crept into the previous material: in the section devoted to artillery and mine weapons, it was indicated that "Emerald" under this article had an economy of 24 tons. In fact, this is not true, since such an economy, most likely, developed after the mines and mines were removed from the ship, and the artillery armament was still equal to the Novik. However, subsequently, 3 mine vehicles were returned to the cruiser and two 120-mm guns were additionally installed. Let's try to calculate the weight of the specified "additive".
Taking into account the fact that there were 5 381-mm mine vehicles on the Novik, it turns out that on average one such vehicle with ammunition weighed 4.8 tons, respectively, the weight of 3 of the same vehicles for the Izumrud was 14.4 tons. Two deck mounts 120 mm / 45 guns mod. 1892 weighed at least 7.5 tons each, a total of 15 tons. In addition, each gun was supposed to have 200 rounds, each of which weighed 36 kg. Thus, the mass of only the guns themselves and the ammunition for them, without additional racks, arbors for shells, etc. was 29, 4 tons, and taking into account mine weapons - 43, 8 tons or 43, 11 "long" tons. Consequently, in the final version, the total weight of the "Izumrud" cruiser under the articles "Artillery and mine weapons" and "Shells, charges" was at least 171, 11 tons, which is 19, 11 tons more than that of "Novik" (152 T). Moreover, this overweight, of course, cannot be attributed to construction overload due to the fault of the manufacturing plant.
Frame
A very interesting story happened with him. The fact is that during the tests of the Novik, the Russian representatives were confused by the weakness of the hull of a German-built ship: the trembling of individual parts of the hull and large cutouts in the living deck above the engine rooms caused special fears. The cruiser, nevertheless, was accepted into the treasury, that is, such a re-lightening of the design was still considered acceptable. However, Russian sailors and engineers did not want to receive ships with equally weak hull structures in the future, so a decision was made to strengthen the Zhemchug and Izumrud hulls.
We will not list in detail all the changes that the cruiser underwent: increasing the thickness of the stringers, installing carlings, and so on. We only note that as a result of the innovations, the longitudinal strength of the Izumrud and Zhemchug hulls increased (calculated) by about 7% from that of Novik. The price for this was an additional 55 tons of steel, spent on all types of reinforcements.
A similar situation has developed with the linoleum on the upper deck. This decision was considered acceptable for Novik. But linoleum, when water hit it, became slippery, which made it extremely difficult to move around the deck in fresh weather and to fire artillery, in addition, it quickly turned into rags. Therefore, the linoleum on the upper deck was quite rightly considered a "huge inconvenience" and on the "Pearl" and "Izumrud" they abandoned it in favor of the classic for warships flooring of teak planks 44, 45 mm (1 and ¾ inches) thick. It was a perfectly correct and wise decision, but it cost another 24 tons of additional weight. Thus, the total weight of the improvements, which the Naval Ministry completely deliberately went for, amounted to 79 tons.
And this is what happens. The Shikhau company designed a cruiser with a normal displacement of 3,000 tons, and provided for a hull for it, which in fact weighed 1,269 tons, or 42.3% of the normal displacement. Nevsky Zavod was going to build a cruiser with a displacement of 3,130 tons, but then increased it to 3,177 tons. It is not known, unfortunately, where exactly the weight was added, but even if we assume that the mass of the hull remained unchanged, it turns out that for a ship of 3,130 tons the hull was supposed to weigh 1,406 tons or 44.9%. But we are already talking about an improved, reinforced hull: if we exclude the associated weight gain of 79 tons, that is, provided that a hull was built in everything similar to Novik, the cruiser according to the project would receive a hull weight of 1,327 tons (1,406 tons minus 79 t) or 42, 39% of the normal displacement. In other words, the difference between the actual weights of the Novik and Izumrud hulls in relation to their planned displacement is hundredths of a percent! It can be assumed that if the "Izumrud" was built by the "Shikhau" company, then the mass of its hull would be 1,324 tons, that is, 42.3% of the planned normal displacement of 3,130 tons.
In other words, looking at the comparison table of the weight lists of "Novik" and "Izumrud", we see that the body of the latter is 137 tons heavier. But if we take into account the increase in mass as a result of the conscious decisions of the leadership of the Naval Ministry (79 tons), and take into account that the Emerald was designed by a larger ship than the Novik, which, naturally, requires a more massive hull, then the result will be completely different …Having introduced the appropriate adjustments, we understand that the difference in the weight of the Novik and Izumrud hulls, which could still be attributed to the worst quality of domestic construction, does not exceed some three tons! But, by the way, we are talking not only about the hull, but also about the armor protection of the cruiser and a number of equipment and "practical things", whose masses were referred to the article "Hull with devices".
In fact, there is no difference at all "for a bad Nevsky Zavod" between the mass of the Novik and Izumrud hulls according to the table above - the fact is that, in addition to strengthening the hull, Zhemchug and Izumrud also received an additional superstructure, which the Novik did not have, namely, the command cabin, located on the front bridge, over the battle. Probably, this cutting "with excess" covers the three-ton deviation calculated by us.
From the foregoing, it follows that all 137 tons of the difference indicated in the weight comparison table are either important improvements of the cruiser, or are caused by the large displacement of the Izumrud in comparison with the Novik, but by no means the low production culture at the Nevsky plant.
Rig and communications
As you know, the "wireless telegraph" installed on the "Novik" was extremely unsuccessful in its design and even in the most remarkable conditions could not provide communication at a distance of more than 15-17 nautical miles (up to 32 km). In addition, the single mast of a German-built cruiser made it difficult to place the antenna and prevented the use of the cruiser as a "rehearsal vessel", which, generally speaking, was considered one of the most important tasks of 2nd rank armored cruisers in the Russian Imperial Navy. In addition, the sources usually indicate that the only mast did not allow raising multi-flag signals - it is unclear how much this corresponds to the truth, but in any case it can be argued that due to the frank weakness of the radio station and the mast, Novik lost much in the ability to transmit information to other ships, which is completely unacceptable for a reconnaissance cruiser.
Well, "Pearl" and "Emerald", apparently, were completely devoid of these shortcomings. At the end of May 1904 F. K. Avelan ordered the installation of "German long-range wireless telegraphy devices" on the cruiser of the Nevsky Plant, and, most likely, this was done. In addition, domestic cruisers received an additional fore and mizzen mast, thus becoming three-masted ships. Despite the fact that the mizzen mast was made "dry", that is, it did not have yarns, the ships obviously did not experience problems either with rehearsing another's signal, or with raising their multi-flagged ones, as well as with the placement of wireless telegraph antennas. Interestingly, this decision had almost no effect on the ship's displacement: the two masts of the Emerald, 21, 3 and 18, 3 m high (rounded 70 and 65 feet), together with the yards and rigging, had a total weight of only 1.44 tons. This is the size of the petty savings of the Shihau company, which refused to install an additional spar on the Novik: German shipbuilders went to a significant deterioration in the ship's performance for the sake of one and a half tons!
"Emerald" under the heading "Masts, boats, davits" had, in comparison with "Novik", an overweight of 6 "long" tons, of which, as we can see, 1, 41 such tons were given by additional masts. As for the reasons for the rest of the excess, it is insignificant and, most likely, was in the different design of boats and boats used on the "Novik" and "Izumrud". However, in all likelihood, the metal boats "Novik" were somewhat more perfect than those installed on the "Izumrud". So we cannot consider the superiority of 4.59 tons as justified, and we attribute it to the worst production culture in comparison with the German one.
Crew
The number of crews of "Izumrud" and "Pearl" was 343 people for each cruiser, of which 14 were officers, including 2 staff officers, 8 chief officers, 3 mechanical engineers and 1 doctor. The number of officers coincides with the number of Novik officers calculated by us, but the German-built cruiser had a slightly smaller crew: the figure of 328 is considered a classic, according to some other data it can be 323 or 330 people. Obviously, a slightly larger number is justified by at least the presence of two additional 120-mm guns, the calculations of which clearly outnumbered the calculations of the two 381-mm mine vehicles in which Novik had an advantage. Thus, there is no reason to believe that the crews of Russian-built cruisers were inflated relative to the Novik.
Thus, we can say that the number of the Izumrud's crew exceeded that of the Novik by 4-6%. At the same time, the weight under the item “Team, luggage, provisions, water” at “Izumrud” is almost 18% higher. But, of course, such an overload cannot be reproached at the Nevsky Plant. Rather, here it should be said that on "Pearl" and "Izumrud" the indicated weights were determined more realistically, while "Shihau", fearing for reaching the contractual speed, saved on what it could. We have no reason to reproach domestic shipbuilders with 18 tons of transshipment under this item.
Other articles
As we said in the previous article, the transshipment of the Izumrud of 133 tons of feed water for the boilers is obviously either the design features of the Yarrow boilers, but most likely - simply the fact that the Sheikhau leadership was able to convince the representatives of the Maritime Ministry to transfer a significant part of the reserves such water from normal to full displacement. It is possible, however, that both of these factors played a role. Be that as it may, in no case is there any reason to write this overload in the "sins" of the Nevsky plant.
As for the article "Main mechanisms and boilers", the mass of which on "Izumrud" exceeds that of "Novik" by as much as 210 tons, this is obviously partly the "fault" of Yarrow boilers, which were simpler and more convenient in design, but at the same time, they are also heavier than the Shikhau boilers used at Novik. And besides, it is possible to "re-grading", when part of the boiler equipment of "Novik" appeared in the article "Ventilation, steam pipe, dynamo", where "Izumrud" somehow miraculously turned out to have 24 tons of savings (this is despite the larger number of boilers!) … Thus, it makes sense to combine both of these articles and consider the superiority of the power plant and other mechanisms of the "Izumrud" by 186 tons (210 - 24 tons) as a consequence of the use of another system of boilers - Yarrow - on a Russian-built cruiser. Again, the decision to use Yarrow boilers arose not because the Nevsky Zavod was unable to produce boilers of the Schultz-Thornycroft system, the modernized version of which was installed on Novik, but by the decision of the Maritime Ministry, whose specialists considered the Yarrow type most suitable for the Pearl. and "Emerald".
Of course, it may be that if Yarrow's boilers were made in Germany, they would have turned out to be somewhat lighter than what happened at the Nevsky plant. But whether this is so, and if so, how much easier the German-made boilers would be - one can only guess. Therefore, for now, we will leave 186 tons within the "reasonable" overload of the cruisers "Pearls" and "Izumrud".
Let's summarize our calculations. Let's take the normal displacement of the Novik and add to it the weights that the Naval Department deliberately took to increase, hoping to achieve certain benefits by increasing the displacement. Summing up the above figures, we get the total mass of such improvements in 494, 5 "long" tons. Accordingly, if the Nevsky Zavod worked with the same weight discipline as the Shikhau shipyard, the Izumrud would have to have a normal displacement of 3,215.5 tons.
But, as we know, the normal displacement of the Izumrud during the tests was 3,330 tons. Accordingly, the construction overload due to the fault of the Nevsky Plant was about 114.5 tons. The result, of course, is not the most pleasant, but also not critical: let us remember that the Boyarin, built at the Danish shipyard Burmeister og Vain, was overloaded by about the same amount - 100 tons. As for the Pearl, then with it, alas, everything is unclear. V. V. Khromov claims that the normal displacement of this cruiser was 3,250 tons, but A. A. Alliluyev and M. A. Bogdanov - that 3 380 t.
Of course, perhaps our calculation shifted somewhat in favor of the Emerald due to the fact that the overweight in machinery and equipment of 186 tons was attributed entirely to the design features of the Yarrow boilers, but even if this is not so, the overall picture of the Emerald overload testifies that it is unlikely that these boilers would be heavier than their counterparts, manufactured in England or Germany by more than 20-30 tons, which, again, is not too critical. And in any case, there can be no question of any "600-ton" overloads - as we can see, the difference in artillery weapons, a different type of boilers, etc. led to the fact that "Pearl" and "Emerald" had to become much heavier than "Novik".
Now let's try to consider the quality of the Nevsky plant from the other side.
Acceptance to the treasury
Like many other ships before and after them, the "Pearl" and "Emerald" were accepted by the fleet based on the results of acceptance tests. In fact, it was the results of official sea trials that created the cruisers of the Nevsky Plant a stable reputation of unsuccessful ships among lovers of the history of the fleet of our time. And all because the maximum speed reached on them was 23, 04 knots. for "Pearl" and only 22, 5 knots. for "Emerald". In other words, the sailing performance of the ships turned out to be very far from even the contractual 24 knots, let alone the 25.08 knots that Novik developed could only be dreamed of. And after all, at the same time, tests were constantly accompanied by one or another breakdown!
Nevertheless, anyone who takes the trouble to carefully read any monograph devoted to these cruisers will see that the results achieved during the tests are extremely far from the maximum speed that the Pearl and Emerald could actually develop. The fact is that not a single cruiser developed its full power during testing. Both of them, like Novik, had steam engines designed for 17,000 hp, but Zhemchug, having developed 23.04 knots, had only about 15,000 hp, and Izumrud - according to V. V. Khromov 10 746 hp, according to A. A. Alliluyev and M. A. Bogdanov - 13,500 HP According to the author, the data of A. A. Alliluyeva and M. A. Bogdanov, since the calculation through the Admiralty coefficient shows: if, with a displacement of 3,330 tons and a power of 13,500 hp. the cruiser developed 22.5 knots, then at 17,000 hp. he could develop 24, 3 knots. At the same time, if the "Emerald" managed to develop 22.5 knots in the same displacement with a power of only 10,746 hp, then at 17,000 hp. he would give 26.2 knots! Obviously, the latter is absolutely fantastic.
And why, in fact, did they not bring the power of the cruisers' power plants to the maximum possible during the official tests? The answer is very simple - wartime. The tests of both cruisers were carried out in violation of the established order.
The fact is that the sea trials of warships of those years were progressive. The level of technology that existed at that time did not allow immediately perfect assembly of such complex units as large steam engines, and, in fact, boilers. Therefore, usually, before trying to give full speed, the ship was tested with a lower power of the mechanisms, and it was increased only after they were convinced that its power plant was successfully coping with the previous one. Violation of the order of progressive tests could lead to extremely unpleasant consequences. Recall that the Germans ignored this and tried to accelerate the Novik to 24 knots during the very first tests. And what did it lead to? The tests were disrupted, as out of 7 trial trips to the sea from May to September 1901, 4 ended in major breakdowns of machines and propellers. In other words, the German-built power plant could not withstand such "abuse" and received serious damage, which then had to be eliminated for a long time.
And what did you do with "Pearl" and "Emerald"?
After testing the machines at the mooring lines (when the machines are working, and the cruiser remains at the wall of the plant), Zhemchug was allowed to go to Kronstadt on its own. Then, in a two-hour factory test, they brought the number of revolutions to 100 per minute, which, of course, was very far from full speed - in the final tests, when the cruiser showed 23.04 knots. his cars gave 155 (onboard) and 164 (central) rpm. After that, the sea trials were interrupted, although the cruiser went to sea twice: the first time to eliminate deviation, and the second to test artillery installations.
And then immediately followed by full-speed tests, which ended unsuccessfully. Then - the second, final tests, which … were not brought to the end - after the power of 15,000 hp was reached. and the cruiser developed 23, 04 knots. there was an accident. Steam pierced the gasket of the lower flange at the medium pressure cylinder of the right machine.
Thus, we see that the "Pearl" did not pass any progressive tests, because before the tests at full speed, it had only three outings at low speed. If we take, for example, the factory tests of the Bayan cruiser, then before making an attempt to reach the contractual 21-knot speed, he had preliminary 8-hour tests, during which he held an average of 19.25 knots. Attempt of "Novik" "impudently" to achieve 24 nodes led only to serious damage to its power plant, but "Pearl" got off with only relatively minor and easily removable malfunctions.
As a matter of fact, the fact that the cruiser's vehicles were accepted into the treasury the very next day after the tests, in which Zhemchug demonstrated 23.04 knots, does not at all mean that this was its maximum speed. This only suggests that the commission, seeing such a result with a power of 15,000 hp, was well aware that when reaching 17,000 hp, the cruiser will not only reach, but even surpass the contractual 24 knots. And, due to wartime, the members of the commission decided not to force the ship to confirm the obvious, but to use the time remaining before the exit, together with the 2nd Pacific Squadron, to eliminate all and all kinds of malfunctions and imperfections that could be identified, as well as performing other tests. Let's not forget that the squadron set off on a campaign on October 2, 1904, that is, only 2, 5 weeks after the tests of the "Pearl". At the same time, although the cruiser's cars were accepted into the treasury on September 14, 1904, the decision to accept the ship by the fleet was made only on January 5, 1905 (it was taken retroactively on the day the squadron left).
With the "Izumrud" it turned out even more "fun" - the cruiser, like the "Pearl", completed mooring trials at the wall of the plant, and then independently moved to Kronstadt. After that, on September 19, "Izumrud" went to its only preliminary tests, which ended unsuccessfully, while the ship's machines gave 120 rpm. And then, in fact, the official tests took place, in which the cruiser at 13,500 hp. developed 22, 5 knots, after which the machines and boilers were taken into the treasury.
Here, obviously, the same considerations played a role as in the case of the "Pearl" - the list of imperfections on the "Izumrud" was more, and it did not have time to leave for the Far East together with the squadron. He had to be sent later, as part of a special "catching up detachment", while the volume of outstanding work was so great that the cruiser had to put into operation some of its systems already during the campaign. It is obvious that, as in the case of the "Pearl", the selection committee preferred to pay maximum attention to checking the other mechanisms of the cruiser, rather than to drive it to a measured mile in order to make sure that the cruiser reached 24 knots. Simply because no one had any doubts about achieving this speed.
All of the above indicates that neither the Pearl, nor the Emerald should in any way be considered unsuccessful ships. Yes, the weight discipline of the Nevsky plant turned out to be lower than that of the Shikhau company, but it is quite within reason, and there is no doubt that if the cruisers had gone through a full cycle of tests and refinements in peacetime, they would have shown, and even surpassed the required under the contract they are 24 knots. That they would not have reached the speed of the Novik cannot be blamed on domestic shipbuilders if only because the elimination of the shortcomings of this cruiser led to an increase in the displacement of the Pearl and Izumrud by almost 500 tons. Moreover, the fact is that the cruisers built by the Nevsky Plant were generally able to withstand accelerated tests without serious damage to the power plant, testifies to the very high quality of assembly of their machines and boilers. It is interesting, by the way, that the members of the selection committee separately noted the "thoroughness of the assembly of cars" at the "Pearl".
Thus, we come to the conclusion that the only truly significant drawback of the construction of the cruisers "Pearls" and "Emerald" was that they simply did not have time to finish it, and both ships went on a long campaign and battle, without going through a full cycle of debugging mechanisms … But it is absolutely impossible to blame the Nevsky Zavod for this.
