The victorious magnificent and majestic cruiser "Gromoboy" once swayed on the waves of the Pacific Ocean and guarded the borders of imperial Russia. He even got a special name, power and strength seemed to be laid in this amazing ship.
General information
According to the primary idea, this ship was to become a worthy follower of the cruiser "Rossiya". At that time, no one could have guessed that the Gromoboy was the latest armored cruiser in the country. The ship turned out to be powerful and met all the requirements of its time. After settling all the documentation nuances, and also after the ship passed all the planned tests, it was sent to the Far East in order to complement the Russian Pacific squadron. Only now the cruiser "Gromoboy" seemed to be haunted by troubles and failures.
History of Creation
At the time when Gromoboi was still in the project, Russia's main naval competitor was Great Britain with its strongest ships. Exactly seven years Emperor NicholasThe second decided to spend on the construction of completely new cruisers that could compete with any power at sea. In 1895, it was decided to take the drawings of the cruiser Rossiya as the basis for the project, which had already plied the seas and very successfully.
K. Ya. Averin and F. Kh. Offenberg are shipbuilders who were entrusted with the creation of the Thunderbolt. The emperor personally approved them for this position, and also approved each of the drawings. According to them, several steam engines were to be installed on the cruiser, as well as armor exceeding twenty centimeters in thickness. The B altic Shipyard was chosen as the place where the giant was supposed to come from. At the same time, only the highest quality steel was used in the construction. And with a weight of fifteen thousand tons, this giant had to be fast as well.
The construction of the ship was decided to start in 1897. It took years to implement such a large-scale project, the biggest difficulty was the supply of expensive and high-quality steel to the B altic Plant. There were big problems associated with the strikes of workers and the reconstruction of enterprises. This slowed down the launch of the ship into the water. And yet, a few years later, the cruiser "Gromoboy" went on its first voyage.
Build Features
Unfortunately, the turmoil with the Thunderbolt began at the construction docks. The fact is that the builders were forced to change the length and thickness of the ship's armor. According to the project, it was supposed to be twenty centimeters thick, but it became only five centimeters, which, as many believed, was no good. Also, the guns did not get armor, for the protection of which they only prepared metal shields. All this, of course, is unfortunate, although there was a positive moment. The ship ended up being lighter than planned. This allowed him to achieve greater speed on the water.
Armaments
This cruiser could reach a maximum speed of up to nineteen knots per hour, from the armament we can name a couple of Baranovsky cannons, several underwater torpedo tubes, mine artillery units, more than five hundred different-caliber guns.
The cruiser "Gromoboy", whose armament cannot be called weak, "ate" a lot of coal, because all the holds were filled to the brim with it and ammunition. If we talk about specifics, then even though the cruiser began to weigh twelve tons instead of the planned fifteen, she needed to take at least 1,700 tons of coal on each flight to maintain full speed.
Trials
The first water launch cannot be called absolutely successful. It was carried out in 1900 and revealed all the defects and shortcomings of the construction, the main of which was that the ship simply could not sail, when moving, it immediately began to roll forward strongly, even buried its bow into the ground, which caused it to flood all holds and lower decks. To this was added the fact that on the move it vibrated very strongly, which was a problem for aimed shooting from a cruiser. It was difficult for sailors to move around the decks. Relentless work was carried out on all the problems, and by the end of the yeareach of them was successfully eliminated. We can even say that the last test justified all expectations, because the cruiser "Gromoboy" overtook itself. He managed to reach speeds of over twenty knots per hour.
Gromoboy, as planned, was supposed to carry out its first flight to the Far East, it was already almost winter. Only now problems in the design surfaced again. The captain immediately noticed that the ship was listing nose down, significantly. Instead of getting back to the calculations and correcting the matter properly, the engineers simply decided to move the heavy anchor and part of the cargo to the back of the ship, which corrected the matter. Finally, the ship was on course.
Gromoboy in action
Those sailors who happened to serve on the Gromoboy later recalled that the ship was quite comfortable and suitable for long-distance voyages. And that the captain, and the whole team, were very proud of the speed that the cruiser could develop. In 1901, the team even took part in the festivities about the fact that the Constitution was adopted in Australia.
The ship had a fresh water supply of more than a thousand tons, the crew had the opportunity not to enter the port at all and continue their journey without stopping for more than a hundred days in a row. This, of course, is a big plus, but only now there was a huge minus for the vessel. The sailors had to live in terrible conditions on the ship, because there was practically no free space on the ship. It was difficult both physically and mentally.
It was this ship that once alarmed the whole of Great Britain, because, unlike other units of the Russian fleet, it could compete with any English ship. In England, the flotilla was modernized as soon as the Gromoboy left the docks, and by the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War, Great Britain was again ahead of Russia in shipbuilding.
Yes, and during the war, the cruiser had a very hard time. The Japanese inflicted a lot of damage on the ship, so Gromoboy had to undergo long-term repairs again, which lasted right up to 1906. Then the cruiser showed itself during training exits, and in the First World War he again fought with the enemy. But at the beginning of the revolution, it was ordered to put it in the dock for repairs, from where it no longer went to sea. It was sold for scrap.
Thus, the wonderful cruiser of the Russian fleet, which, according to the descriptions of contemporaries, could serve for many more years, was simply disposed of. But it's a pity! In the memory of descendants, the cruiser "Gromoboy" is a real hero.
