This transport was the only surviving ship in the Tsushima battle who managed to escape internment. During the fierce battle, the unarmed transport managed to escape death and break away from pursuit. In November 1905, he returned to his homeland, delivering to Libava 341 people rescued from the cruiser Ural, all his cargo, shells that were not useful for the squadron, and spare parts for the vehicles of the battleship Borodino. His life continued for many more years, including during the Second World War. But first things first.
The Russo-Japanese War required a significant strengthening of the composition of the Russian fleet by large-capacity ocean transport. Among other ships at the Vickers plant in Barrow (England), through the mediation of Maurice Le Boule, the Ministry of the Navy acquired the unfinished steamer Franche-Comté, which in April 1904 was brought to Libau, renamed Anadyr and enlisted in the second rank ships of the fleet.
The steamer turned out to be in such an unattractive state that the commander of the port, Rear Admiral A. A. Iretskov was forced to send the commander of the "Anadyr" Captain 2nd Rank V. F. Ponomarev for a personal report to the Chief of the Main Naval Staff on the state of affairs. According to Iretsky, the vessel was "an empty body with two cars, six boilers, winches for lifting weights, and nothing else." There were no equipped living quarters, a wardroom, galleys, dynamos, steam heating, engine telegraphs and communication pipes - everything without which "no ship can sail." To put the transport in order, it was necessary to "energetically and immediately proceed to the completion of at least the most necessary." The Rear Admiral asked the GMSH to open a special loan to "immediately attract the Riga and Libava factories", as well as to send a ship engineer to supervise the "extremely difficult work" on the conversion of passenger and cargo ships purchased abroad "for cruising and transport purposes."
After the Anadyr was docked, they began loading coal into all the holds, and then began work on additional equipment. Franche-Conte, as well as passenger ships (future auxiliary cruisers Don, Ural, Terek, Kuban, transports Irtysh and Argun), were acquired by order of the chief manager of merchant shipping and ports, Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich, and in the ITC and GUKiS about these courts "there was no information." The lack of a complete set of drawings, specifications and other documentation made it extremely difficult to complete the Anadyr.
He and the Irtysh were armed with eight 57-mm guns from among the eighteen French ones sent for the destroyers. Both transports received two 18, 14 and 6 oars, respectively, longboats, boats and whaleboats, which were removed from the cruisers Duke of Edinburgh and Memory of Azov. With the greatest length of 145.7 m, the displacement of the three-deck "Anadyr" was 17350 tons. Six cylindrical boilers of the Morrison system provided steam with two steam engines with a capacity of 4600 hp each. The highest speed achieved during the tests was 13.3 knots. With a 10, 6-knot course, the transport could cover 3500, economic (7, 8 knots) 5760 miles.
Two dynamos provided lighting (210 permanent and 110 portable incandescent lamps). Sixteen cargo booms were served by twelve winches, each with a lifting capacity of 3 tons. Two transverse and two "hinged" longitudinal coal pits could hold up to 1100 tons of fuel. The double bottom housed 1658 tons of ballast water, if necessary, 1100 tons were taken directly into the fourth hold (there were six holds on the ship in total). Two watermakers of the Circle system with a capacity of 10 tons / day fed two fresh water tanks with a capacity of 16.5 tons. The crew quarters could accommodate 220 crew members.
About 150 mines of obstacles and countermines, a small amount of ammunition and several small-caliber guns from the “catching up” detachment of Rear Admiral N. I. Nebogatov, as well as other cargoes for the needs of the squadron and about 7,000 tons of coal. Before the beginning of the Tsushima battle "Anadyr" was the lead in the convoy of transport ships. During the daytime battle on May 14, 1905, the transport received minor damage, including from a collision with the Rus transport. At night "Anadyr" lagged behind the squadron, and its commander, captain 2nd rank V. F. Ponomarev decided to turn south, refusing to break through to Vladivostok. Without going into the nearest ports, so as not to be interned, possessing a large supply of coal, the ship headed for Madagascar. On June 14, "Anadyr" arrived in Dieto-Suarez and, having received instructions from St. Petersburg, returned to Russia.
In Libau, in December 1905, wooden decks were replaced on the ship's spardeck and deckhouses. The following year, "Anadyr" was withdrawn to the armed reserve with a reduced personnel. Subsequently (1909-1910) stalls were equipped on the main deck for transporting landing horses, and a special device was created for keeping them clean. The poor condition of the boilers was the reason for the order in September 1910 to the Sosnovitsky Pipe-Rolling Plant of a large number of smoke and water-heating pipes, and also gave rise to the proposal of the Kolomna Machine-Building Plant Society dated March 3, 1910 to equip the transport with four diesel engines with a capacity of 3000 hp. each with the same number of 2100 kW dynamos and propeller motors. In case of a favorable decision, the Company undertook to “complete the first experience of using oil engines in conjunction with power transmission …”. On May 22, 1910, the Board of the Society received a preliminary, "conditional" order in the amount of 2840 thousand rubles. However, an interesting project of cardinal replacement of the ship's power plant remained on paper. Perhaps this was influenced by the unsuccessful tests in Kolomna of an experimental cylinder with a 3000 hp engine. with., in case of success of which the Company would receive the "final" order.
By order of the Maritime Department of February 25, 1911, the transports "Anadyr" and "Riga" were enlisted as auxiliary vessels at the Operating Fleet of the Baltic Sea. Until the outbreak of World War I (during the summer campaign), Anadyr usually made three voyages to Cardiff, England, delivering up to 9,600 tons of coal each time, and in winter entered the armed reserve in Sveaborg with a brigade of battleships. During the war, the ship was part of the Baltic Sea transport flotilla, could take more than 11,700 tons of coal into the holds, and over 2,640 tons of water in the double bottom space; transport could carry troops. Communication was reliably provided by the Siemens-Halske radio station of the 1909 model, the maximum speed of the ship in 1915 did not exceed 10.5 knots, the crew consisted of seven civilian officers and 83 lower ranks.
The presence in the Baltic Fleet of only "Angara" and "Kama" (August 1916) could no longer meet the increased need for urgent ship repair, although "the experience of equipping and using floating workshops for more than 10 years gave a brilliant result and showed full feasibility and vitality such an organization. " To service battleships, overhaul mechanisms of destroyers and submarines, the commander of the Baltic Sea Fleet Vice Admiral A. I. Nepenin recognized the need to "urgently" re-equip Anadyr into a floating workshop transport, equipping it with three times more metal-working machines than Angara, which required a loan of up to 4 million rubles. and a term of about seven months. On August 26, the naval minister, Admiral I. K. Grigorovich, on the report of the MGSH, who recognized the re-equipment of the transport as "expedient", drew a short resolution: "Desirable."
At the beginning of September 1916, the shipbuilding department of the GUK considered the issue of “equipping the Anadyr transport for workshops for servicing the ships of the lily fleet and destroyers of the Novik type and recognized it as quite suitable, provided it was kept in a“reliable”condition. Specific questions of the workshop equipment (number, composition, placement of machines) were resolved by the Mechanical Department of the GUK "in accordance with the instructions of the operating fleet and the experience of the existing floating workshops." On September 27, this problem was considered at a meeting of the GUK's technical council in close connection with the development of the coastal workshops of the Port of Emperor Peter the Great. The need to re-equip the "Anadyr" was motivated by the fact that the Baltic fleet had doubled in size, the insufficient repair capabilities of Sveaborg and Revel, and, most importantly, by the fact that servicing the existing fleet with a powerful autonomous floating workshop would significantly expand its operational zone. Great doubts were caused by the eight-month conversion period, which was recognized as unrealistic due to the difficulty of obtaining imported machine tools, so they decided to order the bulk of the equipment from the Russian firms Felzer and Phoenix. As a result, the meeting decided “to consider, due to wartime circumstances, the equipment of a workshop on the Anadyr transport for 350 workers”.
Vice Admiral A. I. Nepenin ordered to use as leaders "persons from the active fleet, as having combat experience … and better knowing the requirements for the workshop." All the work was entrusted to the Sandvik Shipyard and Mechanical Plant Joint Stock Company (Helsingfors), which also developed the technical documentation. Re-equipment, production of reinforcements and foundations, as well as the installation of machine tools should have cost about 3 million rubles, according to the calculations of the Mechanical Department of the Main Directorate, the purchase of machines, tools and accessories - 1.8 million rubles, materials - about 200 thousand rubles.
On November 8, 1916, the Managing Director of the Sandvik Plant, Adolf Engström, presented his own preliminary estimate. The restructuring of the interior, the installation of electrical equipment, telephone and telephone lines, machine tools, furnaces, engines, etc. was estimated at 5,709 thousand Finnish marks, the purchase of machine tools abroad at 490 thousand dollars. It was supposed to re-equip the ship within eight months after receiving the shipbuilding materials, and two more, necessary for the delivery of the machine tool park. Work began in early January 1917.
On the spardek, the officers' cabins had to be repaired; the middle superstructure, in which the living quarters of the workshop administration and the medical staff were equipped, was decided to be connected with the stern; a new command bridge and a forecastle with a wooden deck were built, under which living quarters and rooms for 134 artisans and sanitary facilities for all 350 workers were arranged. Freight were redesigned and new skylights were installed, the rigging of the masts was changed, from which extra arrows were removed. In the superstructure on the first (upper) deck, the cabins of officers and medical personnel were repaired, an infirmary was equipped, two crew quarters for 70 and 20 people, a galley and sanitary facilities. On the second (main) deck, new bulkheads, shafts and ladders were installed, hatches were altered, a cockpit for 102 workers and a galley for 350 workers, storerooms and workshops were equipped in the bow, and the cabins of foremen and a dining room were installed in the stern. On the third deck, new porticos for loading coal, cargo elevator shafts, various storerooms and an electrical repair shop, refrigerator compartments, a galley, a bathhouse, a laundry, etc. were made. In the bow there are living quarters for 132 workers and the cabins of the foremen; the fourth and fifth decks, which were newly manufactured, housed various workshops and two dining rooms for 350 workers (in the bow).
The hull was equipped with 220 new side windows with combat covers, watertight doors, three freight, kitchen and passenger elevators; similar deckhouses, ladders with handrails were installed on the decks, systems were installed: steam heating, ventilation, sanitary, fire and drinking water, a power plant was mounted as part of two Laval turbodynamo machines and the same dynamo machines rotating by means of Bolinder system motors. The bell alarm and telephone network were designed for 20 subscribers, the radio room was equipped on the back deck, and six electric cargo cranes were installed on the upper deck.
On the fourth deck, a forge with a hydraulic press, two steam and pneumatic hammers was installed in the stern of the engine room. The boiler workshop (hold No. 5) was supplied with rollers, punching presses, planing, drilling and grinding machines, power saws, scissors for cutting metal, bending and straightening plates. An electric freight lift connected this workshop to the upper deck. In holds No. 3 and 2 (the fourth deck) there was also a pipe-brewing and foundry workshop, the first of which was equipped with a hydraulic press, drilling and grinding machines. Under the foundry, which had a cupola, smelting and four oil crucible furnaces, there was a model workshop equipped with band and circular saws, planing, turning and drilling machines, workbenches; on the same third deck in hold No. 6, a common storage room with a freight elevator and a lower mechanical workshop were provided. Bow mechanical workshop (located in front of the boiler casing and equipped with a freight elevator). On the port side, rooms were equipped for two refrigerators and a compressor, on the upper deck an air line was laid, necessary for a pneumatic tool.
It was not possible to order machines and equipment in Russia, so at the end of 1916, a mechanical engineer, Major General M. K. Borovsky and Captain I rank V. M. Bakin: with the mediation of Lieutenant General F. Ya. Porechkin, after receiving the consent of the British government, they should place orders for machine-tool equipment, turbine generators and various materials for Anadyr and the workshops of the Port of Emperor Peter the Great (the total cost was estimated at 493 thousand pounds sterling), but until the spring of 1917 the question was on loans and placing orders remained open.
On April 27, the British government informed the Naval Ministry that the resolution of the problem was postponed until the representative of the Russian-English Committee in Petrograd received "confirmation of the urgency and the need to immediately fulfill significant orders", clarification of the sources of funding and the very possibility of manufacturing equipment. By the beginning of June 1917, the Sandvik plant spent 4 million rubles on the re-equipment of the "Anadyr" from the "revised" estimate. - almost half, in the same month, the Mechanical Department of the GUK finally received the consent of the head of the British military supply mission, General F. Bullet, for the "complete equipment" of the floating workshop and the placement of orders for machines and materials in England. At the meeting in the GUK, the question of the complete equipment "in the first place" was again raised, since the transport was in such a degree of readiness that "the machines could be installed immediately."The British Treasury nevertheless insisted on reducing the size of the deal, and it was possible to agree on part of the supplies with American firms. In the program for the delivery of goods from the United States for October, the Sea Transportation Department of the Main Directorate for Overseas Supply included machines with a total weight of 50 tons, but whether they arrived in Russia remains unknown.
On October 21, 1917, the state of affairs with "Anadyr" was considered at a meeting of the Central Committee of the All-Russian Navy (Tsentroflot) at the Central Executive Committee of the Soviet of Workers 'and Soldiers' Deputies. The Control and Technical Commission of the Centroflot came to the following conclusion: it is impossible to complete the refurbishment during the war because of the rapidly growing costs, all work should be stopped and Anadyr should be hastily prepared "for inclusion in the merchant fleet." On November 17, the chief of the GUK suggested that the chief mechanic of the Baltic Fleet headquarters suspend the perestroika work. It is curious that the commissar of the GUK, Alexander Doubtful, telegraphed on December 2, 1917 to Tsentrobalt and demanded that this complicated issue be completely clarified, insisting on the continuation of the refurbishment and protesting against the decision of a "certain commission." Nevertheless, the second assistant to the Minister of the Navy, Vice Admiral A. S. At the same time, Maksimov informed the headquarters of the fleet (Helsingfors) that he agreed to provide "any assistance" to the liquidation of the order, but believed that the persons who signed the contract should do this.
As part of the last echelon of the Ice Campaign from Helsingfors, the "Anadyr" arrived in Petrograd, where it stood idle for almost three years. The experience gained as a result of the operation of the "Angara" and "Kama" made it possible to develop a project to re-equip the "Anadyr" transport into a floating workshop with unique repair capabilities. If it were brought to life, the Baltic Fleet would have received one of the largest floating workshops, equipped with the latest technology of that time.
In March 1923, after repairs in Kiel, the transport, renamed "Decembrist", set off for the shores of the Pacific Ocean (March 1923) - this was the first voyage of a Soviet ship from the shores of the Baltic to the Far East. Seven months later, the steamer with valuable cargo returned to the Petrograd port, having covered more than 26 thousand miles, and then worked as part of the Baltic Shipping Company.
In the forties, the Decembrist continued to be the largest of the country's twin-screw cargo steamers. In the summer of 1941, a real "sea wolf", Stepan Polikarpovich Belyaev, became the captain of the ship. And at the end of the year, the transport went on a flight to the United States, then to England, where a convoy was formed to deliver military cargo to Murmansk. December 8, 1941 "Decembrist" together with other ships went to sea, accompanied by warships. We managed to get through the North Atlantic without any problems, and there was a storm and a dark polar night. Little remained to the Soviet port when the ships of the convoy turned back to help the British transport attacked by the Germans. The Decembrist was left without cover. On December 21, already at the entrance to the Kola Bay, the transport was attacked by two Heinkels. The maneuvering of the vessel was ineffective, since the German pilots operated at low altitudes, and the attacks followed one after the other. The crew tried to fire from all the weapons that were on board. And yet this time the ship was lucky. Of the three bombs dropped on the transport, two exploded in the water without causing harm. The third, unexploded 250-kilogram bomb was found in the twindeck of the fifth hold, where barrels of gasoline were transported! The sailors with the boatswain carefully carried the bomb and threw it overboard.
The Dekabrist became the first Soviet steamer to deliver strategic cargo from overseas during the war. The ship was unloaded quickly, and on January 13, 1942, the transport went overseas. The transport took part in two more polar convoys - PQ-6 and QP-5. However, after the infamous PQ-17 convoy, the Allies decided to temporarily abandon the convoys in favor of single attempts to break through the transports to Murmansk and Arkhangelsk.
In the spring of 1942, the transport left America with a cargo of ammunition and raw materials on board. The voyage went on without incident, but unexpectedly the ship was delayed in Iceland. Only at the end of October he was released on a further solo voyage. On board "Decembrist" there were 80 people: 60 - the crew of the ship and 20 - the military team, which served the cannons and machine guns. The transport was armed with two three-inch guns, four small-caliber rapid-fire "Oerlikon" cannons and six anti-aircraft machine guns.
On the way from Reykjavik to Murmansk, the Dekabrist was attacked by 14 torpedo bombers and two bombers. By noon, the transport received several deadly hits, the most devastating being a torpedo hit in the forepeak. Despite this, for another ten hours the crew fought for the survivability of the vessel by all available means. When it became clear that the ship could not be saved, the surviving sailors lowered four boats. The mainland tried to help, but the search operation conducted by submarine forces was unsuccessful. At this time, the storm scattered the boats, and only one of them, in which there was a captain and 18 sailors, reached the Island of Hope in ten days. After a hard winter on the island, three survived. In the summer of 1943 they were captured by German submariners. The men were sent to the camp in Tromsø, and the ship's doctor Nadezhda Natalich was sent to the women's camp in Hammerfurst. All three managed to survive and in the spring of 1945 were liberated by the advancing allied forces. It is also surprising that upon returning to the Far East, they again had the opportunity to work together - Natalich and Borodin under the command of Belyaev worked on the steamer "Bukhara". And the Decembrist still rests at the bottom of the Barents Sea, 60 miles south of Hope Island.
