User:Seppiya/sandbox/Sokol-class Destroyer

The Sokol class (sometimes referred to as the Prytky class) was a class of torpedo boat destroyers built for the Imperial Russian Navy. RUSSIAN DESTROYER Sokol was ordered from the British Yarrow Shipbuilders in 1894, and served as the prototype for a series of 26 ships built in Russian shipyards.

Members of the class saw action during the siege of Port Arthur during the Russo-Japanese War.

By the outbreak of the First World War, the remaining ships were outdated but continued to serve in secondary roles. The surviving members of the class were withdrawn from active service in the 1920s.

Background and Construction
In 1892, British Third Sea Lord Admiral John Fisher ordered the development of a new type of warship for the that became the torpedo boat destroyer. This resulted in six ships, including two Havock class destroyers built by Yarrow Shipbuilders. To quickly build up a force of destroyers, Fisher insisted that other shipyards be allowed to build destroyers using Yarrow's design. Alfred Yarrow, unhappy with this decision and no longer feeling any obligation to the Royal Navy, began looking for export customers. In January 1894, he sent a letter to Russian Admiral Pavel Tyrtov, head of the General Directorate of Shipbuilding and Supplies (Главное управление кораблестроения и снабжений, GUKiS), offering a destroyer with an unprecedented speed of 29 kn. The Russian Naval Ministry was interested, and in April that year Yarrow arrived in Saint Petersburg to negotiate the contract for Sokol, which was signed on 11 June 1894 in London.

Sokol was launched on 22 August 1895, beginning trials on 29 August 1895. She outclassed the Russian Navy's earlier torpedo boats in armament, speed and operational range to such an extent that the Naval Ministry decided to stop building traditional torpedo boats in favour of the new type.

Russian-built Ships
Although Yarrow offered technical assistance, the GUKiS opted to rely entirely on the Russian Empire's domestic shipbuilding industry. The Russian-built ships were based on plans made of Sokol, incorporating modifications that included oil-fired boilers and stronger hull plating. The contract for the first pair (Korshun and Krechet) was signed 31 March 1896 with Wm. Crichton & Co. in Åbo. The order for the next pair (Yastreb and Nyrok) went to the state Izhora Shipyard in Kolpino.

Progress was slow and Korshun and Krechet were not launched until May 1898. Trials lasted from August 1898 to September 1899, with the oil-fired boilers proving unsatisfactory. They were returned to the shipyard to be converted to coal. Yastreb and Nyrok faced similar problems: launched in the autumn of 1898 they underwent unsuccessful trials from 1899-1900 and the conversion to coal delayed their entry into service until May 1902.

The next group of ships more closely followed the design of Sokol. Seven were ordered from the Izhora Shipyard as exact copies of Sokol, with coal-fired boilers, on 19 July 1897, with six intended for the Russian Far East. Once delays to Yastreb and Nyrok made the shortcomings of the Izhora Shipyard clear, the order was revised down to five ships (three for the Far East) built to a modified design which incorporated the thicker hull plating of the first group. In September 1898, 13 more destroyers were ordered from the Nevsky Zavod shipyard in Saint Petersburg, nine of which were destined for the Far East. These were copies of the Izhora ships, but with modified propulsion. The four ships remaining in the Baltic had four larger boilers of an improved design, capable of using both coal and oil as fuel. Those sent to the Far East continued to use eight smaller, easier to transport, coal-fired boilers.

Assembly in Port Arthur
12 Sokol class destroyers were sent to Port Arthur, as part of the naval buildup preceding the Russo-Japanese War. As it was impractical for the small ships to make the journey to the Far East, they were built in sections by the shipyards, before being transported to Port Arthur, where a shed with three slipways was built to assemble them. The first four disassembled destroyers arrived aboard the steamer Normaniya on 22 March 1900, but construction of the assembly shed had not yet begun. In April, an agreement was made with Nevsky Zavod to carry out the assembly process. All 12 disassembled Sokols had arrived by the end of the year, and the slipways were ready on 27 January 1901. The first Far Eastern Sokol to be launched was Baklan (renamed soon after to Kondor) on 3 August. By the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War, nine ships had been completed.

Black Sea Sokols
To provide modern destroyers for the Black Sea Fleet, four ships were ordered from the Okhta shipyard on 24 November 1898. These were copies of the four built for the Baltic Fleet by Nevsky Zavod, but with eight coal/oil boilers. Trials in 1901–02 revealed these ships to be of poor quality and highly unreliable. Despite these problems, they had to sail for the Black Sea between September and October 1902 to pass through the Turkish Straits during the window agreed with the Ottoman government. In January 1903 they arrived at Sevastopol, where they received their armaments and entered service.

Further Development
Three modified ships for the Far East were ordered from the Okhta Shipyard on 14 December 1903, followed by two more on 23 August 1905. They were assembled in Uliss Bay, Vladivostok after the loss of Port Arthur. They are usually considered a distinct class.

General Characteristics
The design of Sokol was based on HMS Hornet, the second Havock class destroyer built by Yarrow. She incorporated numerous modifications to fit the requirements of the Russian Navy. One visible difference was the use of a ram bow on Sokol. She was 58 m long overall and 57.7 m long at the waterline, with a beam of 5.6 m and maximum draught of 2.24 m at full load. Normal displacement was 220 t, increasing to 241.5 t fully loaded. To reduce the weight of the ship and maximise speed, Sokol was very lightly built. Her hull plating had a maximum thickness of 5 mm, requiring the use of high-strength nickel steel for the first time in a destroyer.

The design of the Russian-built ships was based on plans made of Sokol with several modifications. Their dimensions were similar to Sokol, with the exception of Korshun and Krechet, where the hull was lengthened to 60.8 m to accomodate three tanks for fuel oil.

The thickness of the hull plating was increased to 7.5 mm, improving its strength. This increased the displacement of the ships to 240 tonne normal and 258 tonne fully loaded and resulted in a further reduced contract speed of 26.5 knot.

Sokol had an official complement of 5 officers and 43 other ranks, while the Russian ships had 4 officers and 48 other ranks. In service, the crew of the ships could increase to as many as 55.

Machinery
Sokol had two three-cylinder vertical triple-expansion steam engines, fed by eight Yarrow boilers. There were two boiler rooms, with the boilers arranged side-by-side in pairs that each shared a funnel. The machinery was designed to deliver 3800 ihp at 400 rpm.

The Russian-built ships used copies of Sokol's engines, rated for the same power. These were found to be less reliable in service. The major difference between Sokol variants was the boilers. In the first four Russian ships, the coal-fired boilers were replaced by by oil-fired ones. However, disappointing performance led to these being returned to coal power.

total of 31 tonne of oil.

To accommodate the increased weight of the hull, the planned speed was reduced to 27.5 knot. For these ships, the length of the hull was not increased and remained at 58 m.

In one test, she reached a speed of 30.3 knots, possibly becoming the first ship in the world to exceed 30 knots.

Armament
The gun armament was arranged similarly to the Havock class. A single 75 mm Cannet Pattern 1892 was mounted on top of the conning tower, and three 47 mm Hotchkiss were carried, one on each beam and one at the stern. In total, there were 160 rounds of 75 mm and 800 rounds of 47 mm ammunition.

Torpedo armament differed more significantly; the fixed bow torpedo tube was eliminated, and the double turntable mount was replaced by two single 381 mm torpedo tubes. The torpedoes carried were 17 foot long Whitehead M1898s, with two ready for action in the tubes and four more disassembled for storage.



Modifications
From 1908-1912, the remaining ships in Russian service were overhauled and modified based on the experiences of the Russo-Japanese War.

The 47 mm guns were removed and replaced by an additional 75 mm at the stern. Other improvements included the addition of radio equipment.

Naming and Classification
Initially, all ships of the class were named after birds. On 22 March 1902 an order from the Naval Ministry assigned adjective names to all destroyers. The class as a whole continued to be known as the Sokols.

Until 1907, the Russian Navy did not use a separate classification for destroyers. Smaller destroyers were classified as torpedo boats (миноносец, minonosets), while the larger ones were classified as torpedo cruisers (минный крейсер, minny kreyser). The Sokols were officially torpedo boats, but a variety of unofficialy terms were used to distinguish them. These included istrebitel (истребитель, a literal translation of the English destroyer; now used to refer to fighter aircraft), kontrminonosets (контрминоносец, counter-torpedo boat) and eskadrenny minonosets (эскадренный миноносец, squadron torpedo boat). On 23 October 1907 eskadrenny minonosets (abbreviated to esminets, эсминец) was adopted to refer to all destroyer-type vessels in the Russian Navy.

Port Arthur
When Japan launched its surprise attack on Port Arthur on 8 February 1904, there were nine Sokol class destroyers in service there, with three more under assembly. Of these 12 ships, Steregushchy and Strashny were lost in surface actions, while Stroyny was mined and sunk. Additionally, Razyashchy, Silny and Storozhevoy were severely damaged and could not be repaired. Reshitelny and Rastoropny were sent on one-way trips as blockade runners, delivering messages to the Russian consul in Yantai. Japanese sailors illegaly seized the disarmed Reshitelny in the neutral port, and Rastoropny was scuttled shortly after arriving to avoid a similar incident. By the night of 1-2 January 1905, when the order to break out and head for neutral ports was given, only four remained operational. All of them managed to escape the Japanese blockade; Statny, Skory and Serdity were interned in Yantai, while Smely reached Qingdao. The damaged destroyers Silny, Storozhevoy and Razyashchy were scuttled to avoid capture.

Second Pacific Squadron
Prozorlivy, Pronzitelny and Rezvy joined the Second Pacific Squadron, sailing from the Baltic to releive Port Arthur. Neither reliable nor seaworthy enough to make the journey, all three ships were ordered to turn back.

Imperial Japanese Navy
Two members of the Sokol class were captured and used by the Imperial Japanese Navy. Reshitelny, seized at Yantai, was renamed to Akatsuki. She became the only Sokol class ship to fight at the Battle of Tsushima, where, during the night, she collided with and sank the Japanese Torpedo Boat No. 69. After the resulting damage was repaired, she was renamed again to Yamabiko and served until 1917. Silny was salvaged after the Japanese occupied Port Arthur, repaired in 1906 and renamed Fumutsuki, serving only briefly until 1913.

Baltic
Outdated by the start of the First World War, the Baltic Sokols served mainly as dispatch ships and minesweepers.

Finland
In the winter of 1917-18, all nine Sokols still in the Baltic found themselves trapped in Helsingfors. Only Prytky, Prochny and Retivy joined the Ice Cruise to Kronstadt; the other six ships remained and were captured by the White Finns. According to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, they were to be returned to the RSFSR, but only Porazhayushchy was. The other five were taken into Finnish service as S-class torpedo boats. The 1920 Treaty of Tartu required Finland to return the remaining ships; S3 and S4 were returned in 1922, but it became immediately clear that they were of little military value and both were scrapped. S1, S2 and S5 were instead sold to Finland for their scrap value, and continued to serve in the Finnish Navy. S2 was lost with all hands in a storm on 4 October 1925. Following this incident, S1 and S5 were withdrawn from active service and became target ships. S1 was sunk in 1930, while S5 survived until 1943–44, when she was scuttled in shallow waters as a decoy for Soviet bombers during the Continuation War.

Black Sea
Svirepy was seized by Pyotr Schmidt's mutineers in Sevastopol. on the night of 28 November 1905. That morning, Schmidt used the destroyer to sail past the entire fleet, hoping to gather support for the rebel cause, before heading to the transport Prut and freeing the Potemkin mutineers imprisoned aboard. Later that day, when loyalist ships opened fire on the rebels, Svirepy attacked the battleship Rostislav and gunboat Terets and was run aground after taking severe damage.

At the outbreak of the First World War, the four Sokols formed the Black Sea Fleet's 6th Torpedo Boat Division. The weakness of the Ottoman Navy allowed them to play a more active role than their Baltic counterparts. Based in Batum due to their short range, they raided ports and coastal shipping and supported the Russian Army along the coast, including amphibious landings. Stremitelny was on hand to rescue survivors from the hospital ship Portugal, torpedoed by German submarine SM U 33 on 30 March 1916. On 4 April U 33 was spotted and attacked by Strogy in Sürmene Bay. Although the submarine submerged quickly enough to avoid being rammed and sunk, her periscope was damaged forcing her to return to the Bosphorus.

Following the October Revolution and the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, Smetlivy and Stremitelny joined the fleet in sailing to Tsemes Bay ahead of the German advance, where they were scuttled on 18 June 1918. Svirepy and Strogy remained in Sevastopol throughout the German occupation and Russian Civil War. In 1921–23 they were repaired and taken into service by the Soviet Navy, renamed Shmidt and Marti respectively to honour the mutineers Pyotr Schmidt and André Marty. Both were finally decommissioned in 1929.

Volga and Caspian Sea
Pronzitelny and Pylky from the Baltic via the Mariinsk Canal System and arrived in Baku on 24 October 1907. In 1908, they were converted to oil propulsion. There was no need for fast destroyers in the Caspian, and both ships were decommissioned in 1911, with Pylky converted to a refuelling barge for diesel gunboats.