Tri Svyatitelya (Three Saints) (1893/1898)
This one-off coastal battleship, built at Nikolayev for service on the Black Sea, can be seen as a development of the Navarin model of low-freeboard battleship with an oblique-sided carapace amidships. The little-known Svyatitelya was most notable as a predecessor of Potemkin and the Evstafi class battleships. Laid down in 1893, launched in 1896 and commissioned in 1898, she was a considerably larger pre-dreadnought than her predecessors in Russia's Black Sea fleet. Compared to earlier Black Sea battleships, she was 25-30% bigger and carried her guns in armored turrets from her inception. Her secondary armament of eight 6" guns was closer to the 12 Apostles' four than to the Potemkin's 16. Compared to the Potemkin and her spawn, the Tri Svyatitelya had a flush deck and much lower freeboard forward, making her a wet ship in the Black Sea's notoriously stormy weather. She had two stovepipe funnels to the Potemkin's three, but otherwise was quite close in layout to the later ship. Like the low profile, the shape of the redoubt was derived from the Navarin with its obliquely angled bulkheads fore and aft. Tri Svyatitelya was also the first to model the swept-back bridge wings made famous by Potemkin (see plan.) The latter ship's principal design differences were to add a raised forecastle and reap the benefits of more weatherly performance, and to substitute elliptical turrets for cylindrical ones. Photo above shows the enigmatic Tri Svyatitelya in her original rig, c. 1900, with government-issue gunhouses slung low on the masts and peacetime paint scheme.
Plans and Specifications
Specifications for the Tri Svyatitelya:
Dimensions: Dimensions 377'9" x 78'x 28'6" Displacement: 12,540 tons std.; 13,300 tons deep laden. Armament: (4) 12" (2x2); as built:* (8) 6"; (4) 4.7"; (10) 47mm and (4) 37mm guns; (2) 18" submerged torpedo tubes. Armor: Belt: 8"; deck: 3"/2"; turrets: 16". Fuel capacity: 900 tons of coal. Propulsion: (2) inverted vertical triple expansion engines developing 10,600 ihp, shafted to twin screw. Speed: 16 kts. Range: 4,000nm @ 10 kts. Fuel capacity: 900 tons of coal. Crew: 744.
*After 1912 refit: Secondary armament changed to (14) 6" (152 mm) QF, (4) 47mm, (4) 37mm.
Metric specifications:
Dimensions: Dimensions 115.14m x 23.8m x 8.7m Displacement: 12,540 tons std.; 13,300 tons deep laden. Armament: (4) 305 mm (2x2); as built:* (8) 152 mm; (4) 120 mm; (10) 47mm and (4) 37mm guns; (2) 450 mm submerged torpedo tubes. Armor: Belt: 205 mm; deck: 75/50 mm; turrets: 406 mm. Fuel capacity: 900 tons of coal. Propulsion: (2) vertical triple expansion engines developing 7,904.4 kW, shafted to twin screw. Speed: 29.63 km/hr. Range: 7,408 km @ 18.5 km/hr. Crew: 744.
Ship's History
Following the utter débacle of the Russo-Japanese War, the Russian Admiralty had to pick up the pieces and start over. Though the ships sunk at Port Arthur and Tsushima were still being paid for and access to the treasury was not so free as before the Russo-Japanese conflict, new methods and strategies were tried. One obvious place to start was with marksmanship. The "Second Pacific Fleet" of Adm. Rozhdestvensky had spent 7 months at sea with only a single round of target practice despite having green crews; under the circumstances it is not surprising that most of the shells they fired at Tsushima flew wide of the mark. As part of naval reform, all the ships of the Black Sea fleet had their armament upgraded in 1911-12; for Tri Svyatitelya this consisted of an additional six 6" quick-firing (QF) guns and a decrease in the smaller calibres. Though inadequate by itself to win the Great War, the Russian Navy's renewed enthusiasm for gunnery took the Turks and Germans by surprise when the time came.
As noted above, the Russian Admiralty had become somewhat complacent about its lock on the Black Sea. This complacency was shattered by the arrival of the Goeben and Breslau at Constantinople in the first week of hostilities. By September 1914 these two powerful German warships were flying Turkish colours. Their highly disciplined crews (now wearing Turkish fezzes) were preparing to lay waste to the Russian cities on the Black Sea. This they did on October 27 with a surprise bombardment of Sevastopol, Odessa and Novorossisk, precipitating hostilities between Russia and Turkey and forcing Turkey into the Great War on Germany's side. To meet this challenge, the Russians reorganized the Black Sea Fleet's heavy units, forming a bombardment unit to concentrate their 12" firepower to fight the ex-Germans. They used advanced director firing to coordinate the salvos of all four of the 12"-gunned ships. The unit would also wage economic warfare on Turkey by bombarding shore facilities, disrupting coal shipments for the Turkish navy and railroads, and harassing and sinking Turkey's merchant shipping. In a few months, Russia's new dreadnoughts would be ready to join the fray; but in the meantime her pre-dreadnoughts would have to hold the line.
Tri Svyatitelya at sea off Sevastopol following her 1912 refit. Gone are the spiky round fighting tops and other mast platforms, replaced by unadorned pole masts. And the midships redoubt fairly bristles with new 6-inch QF guns. Yet despite the grey paint and new guns, this is still an updated Victorian war machine, with her circular turrets, clusters of ventilators, and flimsy openwork flying bridge.
The core of the bombardment group was the two Evstafi class battleships, joined by their near-sister Pantaleimon/Potemkin. These were the latest pre-dreadnoughts in the Russian Black Sea fleet and, besides being a homogeneous operating group, had the combined firepower of twelve 6" guns (152 mm). To this partnership the older Tri Svyatitelya brought her newly upgraded 12" guns (305 mm) and her arsenal of intermediate weapons. The much smaller Rostislav was the junior partner, adding her four 10" guns to the squadron's hitting power, but acting as flagship. The group soon showed its worth by disabling Turkey's chief coal port at Zonguldak, sinking 16 freighters and colliers. On Nov. 18, 1914 about 20 mi. south of Yalta, the five Russian battleships engaged the Goeben and Breslau -- the ex-Germans got the worst of it in this action, known as the Battle of Cape Sarych. The flagship Evstafi did most of the damage to Goeben while the rest of the flotilla, misdirected by the fire control in Zlatoust (deceived by tricky, foggy visibility), shot far over the nearby target. At the tail of the Russian line, Tri Svyatitelya and Pantaleimon could hardly see the German ships and did not even join in the cannonade. They did have the satisfaction of hearing the dreaded dreadnought and her consort had run away with obvious damage after only 14 minutes in action. Then in December, the Goeben struck a mine and was forced into drydock for some months. The minelaying operation which wrought this havoc had taken place the day before Goeben's nasty contact, covered by the Russian battleship brigade.
The bombardment fleet's job was to hold the line until the new dreadnoughts could sail forth. They performed splendidly, with more than 2 dozen sorties through early 1916, some of them in support of the new dreadnoughts, 2 of which were operational by then. Using their great guns in support of land operations, the battleships assisted in offensives against the Bulgarians and Turks, presaging the rôle battleships would play in WWII. Despite the loss of the new dreadnought Imperatritsa Mariya from a magazine explosion, the Russians held control of the northern and eastern Black Sea when the flames of revolution enveloped Russia in 1917.
The tale of all the Black Sea fleet ships is a communal tragedy after the Bolsheviks took over in Petrograd. They ceased offensive operations and tied up at Sevastopol on hearing of the Revolution. The Soviets and Germany signed the Peace of Brest-Litovsk in early 1918, formally ending hostilities in return for substantial Russian territorial concessions. In brazen violation of the Treaty, Austro-German forces rampaged through Ukraine, looting and pillaging. The Germans reached Sevastopol in April 1918, only to be driven out after the Armistice of November 1918. White troops backed by an Anglo-French expeditionary force siezed the city and its naval dockyard.
The following year, the Whites were driven out by Trotsky's Red Army. Before quitting the town, the British wrecked the engines of all the naval ships in port and scuttled them, rightly supposing that the new régime would lack the technical facilities and interest in sea power to ever repair them again. Ships disabled in this incident (April 25, 1919) included the battleships Potemkin, Evstafi, Ioann Zlatoust, and Tri Svyatitelya and the cruiser Pamiat Merkuriiya. The Civil War raged on until November 1920, when the Whites were finally defeated and their remnants trickled out the Bosporus to become expatriates. The ruined battleships were gradually broken up between 1921 and 1925.
A Thrice Sanctified Photo Gallery
A profile view of the ship in her original fit.
Tri Svyatitelya from the stern, original rig.
Tri Svyatitelya at dockside in original trim.
Tri Svyatitelya as modernized before WWI, profile view.
