Article from 2016-07-05
The first carriers of sea mines were the Black Sea steamers of the Russian Society of Shipping and Trade (ROPiT) "Vesta" and "Vladimir", which during the Russian-Turkish war were equipped with the necessary devices for laying mines. When in 1880 specialized funds were required for the mine defense of the Vladivostok military port, Vice Admiral I. A. Shestakov gave the assignment to build a completely new "military ship with sea qualities - a special military transport" capable of serving as a cargo ship in peacetime, and as a mine depot in a military one. Such a vessel was the Norwegian mine transport "Aleut", built in 1886 for the needs of the Russian fleet. However, actively used for coastal cruising, the protection of fur seal fisheries and hydrographic work, "Aleut" had a major drawback - it could not lay mines on the move and worked, as a rule, using mine rafts.
In 1889, Lieutenant V. A. Stepanov proposed to equip the ship with a low-lying closed mine deck, over which a T-shaped rail should be laid along the entire length, intended for transporting and dropping mines overboard at the distance required by safety requirements. This system made it possible to set mines at a speed of up to 10 knots at regular intervals. Stepanov's invention opened the way for the creation of a special minelayer, and in the same year the Naval Ministry announced a competition for the design and construction of two such ships for the Black Sea Fleet. According to the results of the competition, the project of the Swedish company "Motala" was recognized as the best - it was she who received the order for the construction of mine transports "Bug" and "Danube". In 1892, they entered service, becoming the first transports capable of secretly laying mines on the move.
The shipbuilding program of 1895 provided for the construction of four transports, two of them with "devices for service as barriers" of the "Bug" type of transport. However, the construction of the last two was postponed due to the urgent implementation of the additional program of 1898, adopted in connection with the aggravation of the political situation in the Far East. Subsequently, instead of one of them, the coal transport "Kamchatka" was laid, the fate of the second was determined on December 28, 1901. When considering the funds allocated to the Naval Department until 1905, it was revealed that "some insignificant balance is foreseen", in connection with which Admiral P. NS. Tyrtov ordered the construction of a new mine transport, but not according to the exact type of "Bug", but a cargo one, adapted for laying mines. It was proposed that all devices for mines be made collapsible and removable for possible storage on the shore.
At the end of January 1902, the St. Petersburg port received an order for the construction of a mine transport in a small stone slipway of the "New Admiralty"; on February 7, junior shipbuilder M. M. Egyteos, and later this position was carried out by ship engineers V. A. Afanasyev, V. M. Predyakin and V. P. Lebedev. Design issues were considered in the Naval Scientific Council and the General Medical School. Based on the experience of operating mine transports "Bug" and "Danube", various improvements were made. So, one of the responses from the Black Sea Fleet contained an interesting proposal to create a project of a ship with the qualities of a strong icebreaker, capable of operating in winter, as well as serving as a convoy and floating base of destroyer detachments; as an example the ship "Pelican" which was in the Austrian navy was called. All the information collected after discussion on April 30, 1902 at the MTK, lay on the table of the chief ship engineer of the Petersburg port of the senior shipbuilder D. V. Skvortsov and served as a guide in drawing up a transport project for the Revel port.
The main requirements for the ship's design (taking into account the changes made to the drawings of the Bug transport) were as follows: a displacement of 1300 tons was considered sufficient to accommodate 400 ball mines with anchors of the 1898 model (total weight 200 tons). For convenience, the feed rails were straightened, for which it was required to reduce the sheerness of the upper deck. In order to preserve seaworthiness, the camber of the bow frames in the upper part was increased; the feed formation was given the usual (straight) form, since the feed oversight created difficulties in mine laying; a balcony with removable handrails was provided for convenience when working with mines, "as is done on French cruisers …" With a two-shaft mechanical installation and a maximum speed of 13 knots, Belleville water-tube boilers were considered mandatory; the sailing armament included two tricycetes and a jib, and the artillery armament included four 47-mm rapid-fire guns. Detailed changes mainly concerned the following: they decided to make a steel living deck, increase the distance between the shelves for more space in the mine cellars, move the officers' quarters to the upper deck, if possible, install mechanical revolution counters in the aft part, Valesi counters in the engine room, and at the gate ports - telegraph and communication tube, to the bridge and to the engine room. Improved fire, drainage, as well as the system of flooding the cellars. In peacetime, the transport was supposed to be used for the lighthouse and pilotage service in the Baltic, therefore, it was planned to place four Pinch boilers with oil gas for refueling the buoys. Particular attention was paid to improving stability in comparison with the "Bug", which was distinguished by significant roll.
On December 4, 1902, the MTK approved the drawings and specifications of the Bug-type mine transport, submitted after a number of revisions, as well as the documentation of the twin-screw power plant designed by the Society of Franco-Russian Plants; instead of six Belleville boilers, it was decided to install four systems of the British company "Babcock and Wilcox", as more economical and cheaper, the drawings of which were presented by the Metal Plant in St. Petersburg. The assembly of transport (estimated cost 668,785 rubles) on the slipway began on January 8, 1903; On February 1, it was enlisted in the lists of ships of the fleet under the name "Volga", and on May 20, the official laying took place. According to the specification, the mine transport had a length between perpendiculars of 64 m (the maximum is 70, 3), a displacement in full load of 1453 tons.
Hull steel was supplied by the Aleksandrovsky, Izhora and Putilovsky plants; in addition, the Izhorians made a 50 hp spire and steering steam engine, and the Putilovites made forged fore and stern posts, a steering frame and cast propeller shaft brackets. The transport was supplied with two station anchors and one spare anchors, a verp and a stop anchor. Provided for two steam boats with a length of 10, 36 m, a longboat, a work boat, three yala and a whaleboat.
Under the contract dated April 30, 1903, the Franco-Russian plant undertook to supply two three-cylinder vertical triple expansion steam engines (cost 260 thousand rubles) with a slide valve drive with a Stephenson rocker (total indicator capacity 1600 hp).at 130 rpm); two four-blade propellers of the Gears system with a diameter of 2.89 m were made of manganese bronze, while the parts of the shafts that extended beyond the stern-tube bearings were protected from being corroded by sea water by coating with a special rubber compound. Two main and auxiliary refrigerators were provided with three centrifugal circulation pumps (150 t / h each). The deadline for submitting the mechanisms for mooring tests was set for August 1, 1904, subject to the launch of the transport on October 15, 1903.
According to the terms of the contract concluded on June 10, 1903 with the firm "Babcock and Wilcox", four steam boilers (pressure up to 14.7 kg / cm 2, cost 90 thousand rubles) were manufactured by the Metal Plant, with the exception of certain parts supplied from England … The boilers were supposed to be commissioned by January 1, 1904, subject to the launch of the transport in the fall of 1903. The boiler plant was served by two Vira feed bottoms (50 t / h each), and each one separately could feed all the boilers at their full load. The rest of the ship's equipment, also supplied mainly by private enterprises, included three steam dynamos (105 V, two 320 A each and one 100 A) to power two 60 cm floodlights, four electric turbopumps (300 m3 / h), for the drainage system, electric mine winches (five with a lifting capacity of 160 and four for 320 kg), one evaporator and a desalination tank, eleven Wartington pumps, two manual pumps 1.5 t / h each, for fresh and salt water. In addition to machine electric fans, there were seven more, two of which were portable. The ship was equipped with a Chatbourne response telegraph and electric rudder position indicators.
The approval of the drawings of the steam engines, which took six months, led to a temporary cessation of work on the hull and the disruption of the initial date for launching the transport into the water, in addition, the Putilovsky plant had to produce rejected propeller shaft brackets again. Thus, the loading of the boilers, also made late, began only in March 1904, and on July 22 they passed hydraulic tests. After the inspection of the launching device, simultaneously with the laying of the gunboat "Khivinets", on August 28, the mine transport "Volga" was launched. Changes made during construction (an increase in the mass of mechanisms to 266, 9 tons, a decrease in the number of mines to 312, etc.) led to a redistribution of loads and raised concerns about the stability of the ship. This, as well as insufficient speed and cruising range, forced the ITC to reject the proposal to send transport to the Far East during the Russo-Japanese War.
Mooring tests took place on April 30, 1905 (the pressure in two boilers was raised to 9 atm) during a factory test of six runs. On June 1, the ship reached a maximum speed of 12.76 knots, with the temperature in the engine and boiler rooms reaching 30 and 33 ° C, respectively. After going out to sea on June 7 to determine the deviation of the compasses, it was unexpectedly discovered that due to a malfunction of the filters, all water pipes and boxes are covered with a thick layer of cylinder oil; it took about ten days to remove it, as well as to clean the boilers. Official tests in full swing were held on June 18 very successfully: with a displacement of 1591.5 tons (overload 138.5 tons), the average speed was 13.48 knots (the highest 13.79) at a rotational speed of the left machine 135 and right 136 rpm (total indicated power 4635, 6 HP at an average steam pressure, "which was held very easily", 12, 24 kg / sq. cm); the total coal consumption of the four boilers is 1240 kg / h. According to the ship mechanic of the "Volga" captain E. P. Koshelev, all the remarks of the acceptance committee were eliminated by March 18, 1906. But with mine equipment, a lot went wrong. After the corrections carried out by the manufacturer ("GA Lesner and Co."), only mine anchors were placed in the bow and stern cellars (153 and 107, respectively), and on average - 200 combat and 76 training mines.
The first exits to the sea confirmed the fears of insufficient stability - the transport had an extraordinary roll and poor seaworthiness; not even 30 tons of ballast helped, since even with it the metacentric height was only 0.237 m instead of 0.726 according to the project. According to the MTC, the center of gravity has risen, apparently due to the "increase in mechanisms, weighting of the surface of the hull and a decrease in the stock of mines." At the meetings on August 14 and December 13, 1906, experts came to the conclusion that a radical means of eliminating these shortcomings is to broaden the hull to 11, 88 m over a length of 22 to 90 frames by disassembling the skin at a height of five singing, as was done on mine transports " Cupid "and" Yenisei ". Work on the broadening of the hull was carried out in Kronstadt, in the northern part of the Nikolaev dock, under the leadership of the corps of naval engineers Lieutenant Colonel A. I. Moiseev and the forces of the Baltic plant.
The displacement after the alteration of the hull reached 1710.72 tons (without 30 tons of ballast), the coal reserve increased by 36 tons and reached 185 tons, the cruising range increased to 1200 miles at full speed and 1800 economic, and the metacentric height - up to 0.76 m. In June 1908 trials, the Volga, reclassified on September 27, 1907 as a minelayer, developed a speed of 14.5 knots in full load (1 knot more than on official tests). Thus, as a result of the work carried out, all the main qualities of the minelayer have improved. With the adoption of mines of the 1905 model of the year, on the residential deck, from each side, lower rail tracks with a length of 49, 98 m were installed, on which up to 35 (maximum 40) mines of a new type were placed. For better communication, the navigator's cabin and mine gate ports were connected by two "loud-speaking" telephones of the French company "Le La".
After the entry of the "Volga" into service and before the start of the First World War, the ship trained personnel in setting up obstacles. On maneuvers in 1908, the only interceptor of the Baltic Fleet at that time, had to spend four days on setting 420 mines at the Hogland position. In November 1909, the ship entered a special detachment of minelayers, formed from Ladoga, Amur and Yenisei. Before the First World War, the 1904 Tölefunken spark radio station, installed in 1905, was replaced with a Marconi system radiotelegraph (0.5 kW, 100 miles). During the First World War, the Volga took an active part in the mine-blocking operations of the Russian fleet for laying mines of the samples of 1898, 1905 and 1912. At the end of 1914, it was decided to overhaul the mechanisms and install four steam boilers of the Belleville system. This decision was supported by the headquarters of the Baltic Sea Fleet Commander and, taking into account the extreme operational importance of the Volga minelayer, suggested using the Belleville boilers, previously manufactured for the Onega minelayer, to speed up the repairs. The renovation was carried out during 1915. Then mines were set again.
The Russian ships standing in Reval were threatened with capture by German troops, so the Volga moved to Helsingfors on February 27, 1918, and on April 10-17, together with other ships of the Baltic Fleet, she participated in the famous Ice cruise to Kronstadt. On August 10 and 14, she laid minefields in the area of about. Seskar, and in June of the following year was involved in an operation to suppress the rebellion at the forts Krasnaya Gorka and Seraya Horse, after which it was at the disposal of the chief miner of the Kronstadt port.
In 1922, the Volga was transferred to Petrograd to the Baltic Shipyard for repairs and weapons. On December 31, 1922, it received a new name - "January 9". Renovation work began on April 10 of the same year. On August 27, mooring tests took place, and on September 2, the flag and jack were raised on the ship. Having passed the factory running test of the machines on September 15, the ship in October came to Kronstadt to the Steamship Plant to continue repairs, after which 230 (maximum 277) mines were placed on the minelayer only of the 1912 model, for which stern and side rails were used to drop. Ammunition for four 47-mm guns consisted of 1000 rounds. The cruising range with the largest supply of coal of 160 tons and a speed of 8.5 knots reached 2200 miles. After a major overhaul (1937-1938), the ship was reclassified into a non-self-propelled floating base, and until July 1, 1943 was put into storage in the port, it provided the basing of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet ships. July 28, 1944transport was excluded from the lists of the fleet. From 1947 until the end of the seventies, the former minelayer was used as a live fish base, after which it was handed over for disassembly; however, for some reason it did not take place, and for a long time the ship's hull has been in the water area of the Coal Harbor in Leningrad.
This ship was the result of further development of the first Russian minelayers "Bug" and "Danube" based on the experience of their creation and operation. High quality of construction, sufficient safety margin allowed the Volga to be used for military and civil purposes for a long time.
