| Russian monitor Rusalka | |
|---|---|
 Rusalka drydocked, 1890 | |
| Career (Russian Empire) |  |
| Name: | Russalka |
| Namesake: | Rusalka |
| Ordered: | 26 January 1865[Note 1] |
| Builder: | Mitchell, St. Petersburg |
| Laid down: | 6 June 1866 |
| Launched: | 12 September 1867 |
| In service: | 1869 |
| Struck: | 26 October 1893 |
| Fate: | Sank in the Gulf of Finland, 7 September 1893 |
| Status: | Wreck discovered 2003 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type: | Charodeika-class monitor |
| Displacement: | 2,100 long tons (2,134 t) |
| Length: | 206 ft (62.8 m) (waterline) |
| Beam: | 42 ft (12.8 m) |
| Draft: | 12 ft 7 in (3.8 m) |
| Installed power: |
875 ihp (652 kW) 2 rectangular boilers |
| Propulsion: | 2 shafts, 2 Horizonal direct-action steam engines |
| Speed: | 8 knots (15 km/h; 9.2 mph) |
| Complement: | 172 officers and crewmen |
| Armament: | 2 × twin 9-inch (229 mm) Smoothbore guns |
| Armor: |
|
Rusalka (Russian: Русалка, Mermaid), was an ironclad monitor built for the Imperial Russian Navy in the 1860s. She was 204 feet long, had a beam of 42 feet, and carried armament of various calibers; her heaviest guns were two nine-inch cannon.[1]
The ironclad was on active service with the Russian Navy in the Baltic Sea from 1867 until she sank in the Gulf of Finland on 7 September 1893, while steaming from Reval (Estonian language: Tallinn ) to Helsingfors (Finnish language: Helsinki ). (Both Estonia and Finland were at that time part of the Russian Empire.) All 177 of her crew were lost.[1]
Loss of the Rusalka[]
Rusalka sailed from Reval (Tallinn) harbor at 08:30. She was escorted by the gunship Tucha ([ Туча] Error: {{Lang-xx}}: text has italic markup (help), Cloud) under commanding officer Lushkov, as monitors of that type were not seaworthy in high seas. Weather about 10:00 deteriorated into storm, with gale force winds and rain; Tucha lost her charge from sight but sailed on leaving her behind and arrived safely at Helsingfors at 15:00. There was no sign of the Rusalka but Lushkov notified nobody of these proceedings.
The alarm about the ship missing was not raised until late in the evening of 9 September, when lighthouse warden notified police about the corpse of a sailor and the lifeboat wreckage washed ashore discovered by fishermen on Sandhamn (Finnish language: Santahamina ) isle of Sveaborg (Finnish language: Suomenlinna ) archipelago, and news filtered through the "proper channels" to naval authorities.
The search for the Rusalka, in which fifteen ships took part, lasted for 37 days, until 16 October, when it was suspended due to the increasing cold and winter storms. Nothing was found.
In June and August 1894, further attempts were made to search for the sunken warship using a towed balloon for observers, but they found nothing, and on 15 August 1894 the search was officially recalled.
Cause of the sinking[]
Rusalka was due to leave port at dawn, around 07:30, which should have given her time to reach Helsingfors by noon, however her sailing was delayed by the late arrival of her master. Despite the worsening weather, she was ordered to proceed.
An examination of the wreckage showed no signs of an explosion. It was therefore assumed that heavy seas breaking over the ship could have entered the hatches into the interior of the ship, as these had been negligently secured, causing the ship to lose power, making it difficult to maintain its heading. Whatever the cause, Rusalka obviously broached and sank.
On 28–30 January 1894 a court of inquiry was held, in which the commanding Admiral Burachek was officially reprimanded, and the senior captain was dismissed from the service.
Monument[]
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Rusalka Memorial. |
On 7 September 1902, the ninth anniversary of the loss of the ship, a monument to the Rusalka was erected in Tallinn. Sculpted by Amandus Adamson, it takes the form of a bronze angel standing on a granite pedestal.
Discovery[]
In the spring of 2003 the Estonian Maritime Museum and the commercial diving company Tuukritööde OÜ launched the joint project of finding the ironclad Rusalka which had sunk 110 years earlier.[2] On 22 July 2003 the wreck of the Russalka was located in the Gulf of Finland, 25 kilometres (13 nmi) south of Helsinki water by the museum´s research vessel Mare.[2] On 24 July 2003, deep divers Kaido Peremees and Indrek Ostrat further pinpointed and videoed the wreck. The ironclad was discovered in an unusual position;[3] following her foundering, the vessel plunged, bow first, 74 meters directly downward into the muddy bottom of the gulf, and fixed herself in that position. The divers saw the stern of the lost vessel rising 108 feet (33 meters) above the sea bed.[1] An earlier announcement, that the wreck of the Rusalka had previously been found by Soviet EPRON military divers in 1933, proved to be inaccurate.
Notes[]
- ↑ All dates used in this article are New Style
Footnotes[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "The Wreck of the Mermaid". Archaeology. http://www.archaeology.org/0809/abstracts/mermaid.html. Retrieved 18 August 2008.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Finding of the ironclad "Rusalka"
- ↑ "Dive The Wreck Of The Russalka In The Baltic". YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=DkC396nHo6E#!. Retrieved 23 september 2013.
Bibliography[]
- Chesneau, Roger & Kolesnik, Eugene M., eds (1979). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860-1905. Greenwich, UK: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-8317-0302-4.
- McLaughlin, Stephen (2013). "Russia's Coles 'Monitors': Smerch, Rusalka and Charodeika". In Jordan, John. Warship 2013. London: Conway. pp. 149–63. ISBN 978-1-84486-205-4.
- Heine, Paul J. (1972). "Russian Monitors and Coast Defense Ships". Toledo, OH: Naval Records Club. pp. 304–05.
- Silverstone, Paul H. (1984). Directory of the World's Capital Ships. New York: Hippocrene Books. ISBN 0-88254-979-0.
- Watts, Anthony J. (1990). The Imperial Russian Navy. London: Arms and Armour. ISBN 0-85368-912-1.
External links[]
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Rusalka. |
- Башенная броненосная лодка "Русалка" (Russian)
- “Русалка” найдена! (Russian)
- The Wreck of the Mermaid
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Coordinates: 59°51′55″N 24°53′07″E / 59.86528°N 24.88528°E
The original article can be found at Russian monitor Rusalka and the edit history here.