Imperatritsa Mariya class battleship

The "Imperatritsa Mariya"-class (Russian: Императрица Мария) were the first HMS|Dreadnought|1906|2 battleships built for the Black Sea Fleet of the Imperial Russian Navy. All three ships were built by Rossud Dockyard, Nikolayev.

The ships mounted 12 × convert|305|mm|in|abbr=on guns in four triple-turrets, had a displacement of about 24,000 tons fully loaded, and a maximum speed of convert|21|kn|km/h|0. They were generally similar in layout and capabilities to contemporary Gangut-"class" battleships.

The class consisted of three ships:

*"Imperatritsa Mariya" ("Императрица Мария") was launched in 1913 and arrived in Sevastopol on 30 June 1915, where during the next few months it completed its fitting out and sea trials. From late 1915 onward the ship took part in combat operations. On 20 October 1916 the ship was sunk by an internal explosion while in Sevastopol harbor. The subsequent investigation determined that the explosion was probably accidental, though sabotage could not be completely ruled out. The sinking shook Russian public opinion, and immediate plans were made to raise the battleship and put it back into service. Following a complex salvage operation, the ship was eventually raised and placed in drydock in May 1918. However, in the chaos of the Russian Revolution and Civil War, no further repair work was done, and the ship was scrapped in 1927.

*"Imperatritsa Ekaterina Velikaya" ("Императрица Екатерина Великая") was launched in 1914, originally named "Ekaterina II", and renamed "Svobodnaya Rossiya" ( "Свободная Россия", "Free Russia") in 1917. She twice engaged the German battlecruiser SMS "Goeben" while the latter was in Turkish service as "Yavuz Sultan Selim". The ship was scuttled on June 18, 1918 in Novorossiysk to prevent it from falling in German hands. She was scrapped in the 1930s, her turrets and guns used as coastal defense batteries near Sevastopol, along with those of sister-ship "Imperatritza Mariya". The guns saw action against Nazi forces during World War II.

*"Imperator Aleksander III" ("Император Александр Третий")was launched in 1914, renamed "Volya" ("Воля", "Freedom") in 1917 and then "General Alekseev" ("Генерал Алексеев" )in 1920. The ship did not take part in operations during World War I due to long delays in the delivery of its machinery from Britain, but was able to go to sea by 1917 and conduct a series of trials. However, final outfitting was interrupted by the chaos of the Russian Revolution and she was never fully completed. In 1918 the ship was under German control for a few months. After Germany's surrender it was seized by the British, who moved it to İzmir in Turkey. In 1919 it passed under the control of White Russian forces and returned to the Black Sea, where it fought in the Russian Civil War against the Red Army, mainly by carrying out shore bombardments. With the collapse of the White Russian armies in Southern Russia in 1920, the battleship participated in their evacuation and then sailed to the Mediterranean, where it was interned in Bizerta. With the French recognition of the USSR in 1924 the ship passed to Soviet control, but it never returned to service and was scrapped in France.

The battleship "Imperator Nikolai I", an evolutionary development of this class, was under construction but never completed.

See also: War in the Black Sea

External links

* [http://ship.bsu.by/main.asp?id=100078 Information about the class (in Russian)]
* [http://flot.sevastopol.info/ship/linkor/impmariya.htm Data on Imperatritsa Mariya (in Russian)]
* [http://flot.sevastopol.info/ship/linkor/impekaterinvel.htm Data on Imperatritsa Ekaterina Velikaya (in Russian)]
* [http://flot.sevastopol.info/ship/linkor/impalex3.htm Data on Imperator Aleksander III (in Russian)]
* [http://flot.sevastopol.info/ship/linkor/impnikolay1.htm Data on Imperator Nikolai I (in Russian)]
* [http://web.ukonline.co.uk/aj.cashmore/russia/battleships/imperatritsamaria/alexandriii.html Page in English]

References

*Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships