Only a few of our compatriots who are interested in history have heard of the Pallada cruiser. And this is completely unfair - perhaps it was thanks to him that the history of all mankind went in a completely different way! Therefore, the ship deserves to be told in more detail about it.
Building a ship
Let's start with the fact that the ship was launched in 1906. For its time, it turned out to be quite modern and belonged to the Bayan-class cruisers. In total, the Russian Empire had four such ships. And it was Pallada that became the last of those built at the Admir alty shipyard in St. Petersburg - time and progress are inexorable and dictate new requirements for military equipment.
Alas, the ship did not last long. But we will talk about this a little later.
Key Features
Now let's talk about the main characteristics of the cruiser "Pallada", so that even a person unfamiliar with the basics of shipbuilding can appreciate it.
Displacement was 7800 tons - quite decent for its time. Forcomparison, the much more famous cruiser "Varyag" had a displacement of only 6500 tons.
At the same time, the total length of the hull was 137 meters, and the width was 17.5 meters! The draft was also very impressive - more than six meters, which ensured high stability and the ability to go to sea even during the most severe storm.
Two powerful propellers made it possible to reach speeds of up to 21 knots - almost 39 kilometers per hour. And the cruising range was impressive - without refueling, the Pallada could travel 3900 nautical miles - more than seven thousand kilometers.
The crew consisted of 23 officers, as well as 550 lower ranks - midshipmen, sailors and others.
Ship armament
Many experts already at the beginning of the twentieth century predicted the inevitability of a major war that would affect all European countries, including Russia. Therefore, the cruiser "Pallada" received quite powerful weapons.
Of course, first of all, these are two 203 mm cannons - a few successful hits from such guns were quite enough to sink even the largest ship.
In addition, eight smaller guns were in service - 152 mm each. To work on smaller targets, 22 75-mm guns were intended. Finally, in case you had to defend yourself from aircraft or destroy enemy manpower, eight machine guns were installed on the ship.
But that's not all. Although torpedoes were new to military affairs in the early twentieth century, and some experts seriously underestimatedtheir power and danger, "Pallada" received two 457 mm torpedo tubes. Even one good salvo was enough to destroy a large enemy ship.
Two cruisers of the same name
Quite often, when the conversation about the cruiser "Pallada" comes up, a serious dispute arises between novice experts. Some argue that it was built at the end of the nineteenth century and was destroyed during the years of the Russo-Japanese War. And others believe that they built and launched the Pallada after the end of this war. Which one is right?
In fact, neither side is wrong. The fact is that in 1899 such a cruiser was actually built. It belonged to the class of armored cruisers of the First rank. It got its name in honor of the ancient Greek goddess of wisdom - Pallas Athena. Alas, he served the Fatherland for a very short time and already in February 1904 was sunk by a torpedo launched from a Japanese destroyer.
But the glorious ship has not been forgotten! And when new battleships of the Russian Imperial Fleet were being built, it was decided to "revive" it, giving it a second life. So there was a new "Pallada", launched just a few years after the death of the first.
Feat "Pallada"
As mentioned above, this glorious cruiser has influenced the entire history of mankind. And this is not an exaggeration at all.
The fact is that during the First World War "Pallada" was assigned to the B altic Fleet. thirteenIn August 1914, she, along with another cruiser called Bogatyr, discovered the German cruiser Magdeburg, which had run aground. It happened near the island of Osmussaar, located in the Gulf of Finland. The cruiser Amazon and the destroyer V-26 were sent to help Magdeburg. They managed to remove part of the crew from the stuck ship, but after a short battle with the Russian ships, they were forced to retreat. As a result of the battle (of course, the Magdeburg crew was not going to surrender without a fight), the ship was damaged, and part of the crew (15 people) died. The remaining 56 people, including Corvette Captain Habenicht, raised the white flag.
It was possible to remove the guns from the ship - mostly 105-millimeter ones, which were subsequently installed on light ships of the B altic Fleet - gunboats and patrol ships.
However, not the guns became the main trophy. As it turned out, there were secret cipher books on board the Magdeburg containing a code that Entente experts had been struggling to uncover for many months!
According to the instructions in this situation, the captain of the ship was to destroy the books in the firebox. However, due to the damage received, the firebox flooded. Then Khabenicht decided to destroy them in another way - to drown them in the sea. But the Russian sailors noticed this - quickly realizing that the enemy was trying to destroy valuable documents, the captains ordered the divers to explore the bottom. And soon three books were found.
Ancient Greek herethe goddess of wisdom Pallas Athena smiled at her "namesake". As it turned out, the books were the most complete collection of naval codes. Perhaps this trophy became one of the most important in the history of the First World War. And for the German Navy, this was the most serious loss in those years.
One of the three books was handed over to the allies - Great Britain. As a result, all German messages intercepted by Russian and English courts, and, as the enemy believed, securely encrypted, were easily read.
Habenicht himself was held captive until the end of the war under increased control so that he could not report to the command that the codes were captured by the enemy.
Thanks to the decoding of the code, it was possible to influence not only the hostilities unfolding at sea, but also the course of the war in general. The war was shortened by at least months, saving many thousands of lives on both sides of the conflict.
Place and circumstances of death
Alas, the crew of the Pallada cruiser did not have to rejoice at the successful start of their career for long. Already at the end of September, about a month and a half after the feat described above, the ship was torpedoed.
A German submarine lay at the bottom of the Gulf of Finland for two days and on September 28 (October 11, old style) went hunting. In the morning she met two ships returning after a change of patrol - they were the Pallada and the Bayan. Having let them in just three cables (less than half a kilometer), the German submariners fired a volley of twomissiles. It would be frankly difficult to miss from such a distance, and the sailors on the Pallada relaxed after heavy duty, believing that nothing threatened them near their native shores. As a result, both torpedoes reached their target. And, apparently, the hit led to the detonation of ammunition on the ship. A terrible explosion thundered, instantly destroying the entire ship, along with almost six hundred people on board.
"Bayan" had no means of anti-submarine protection (during the First World War, many even wise and far-sighted military did not perceive submarines as something dangerous) and was forced to leave the place in an anti-submarine zigzag.
Thus, the Pallada became one of the first Russian ships in history to be killed by an enemy submarine.
Captains of "Pallada"
In the ranks of "Pallada" spent only eight years - from 1906 to 1914. But during this time, three captains managed to change!
From the day of launching and until 1908 Alexey Petrovich Ugryumov was the captain, later transferred to the armored cruiser Rurik.
From 1907 to 1912 the ship was commanded by Butakov Alexander Grigorievich. After the service, he was transferred to the Bayan cruiser, already mentioned earlier.
Finally, from 1912 to the sad 1914, the post of captain was held by Magnus Sergei Reingoldovich, under whose command the ship gained fame and died.
"Pallada" today
For a long time it was not possible to establish the place of deathfamous cruiser. Only in 2000, a group of scuba divers from Finland managed to find a Russian armored cruiser near the Hanko Peninsula. Most likely, it was "Pallada". But for 12 years, the find was kept secret. Only in 2012, information about this appeared in the Helsingin Sanomat newspaper.
Today, the cruiser lies at a depth of about 60 meters and is one of the most popular sites for recreational divers and marine military archaeologists.
Conclusion
Our article has come to an end. Now you know more about the glorious cruiser "Pallada", which for a short service managed to change the history of mankind and die in battle without lowering the flag, as befits a ship of the Russian fleet.
