Russian destroyer Novik (1911)

For other uses, see Novik (disambiguation).
Novik as originally completed
History
Russian Empire
Name: Novík
Builder: Putilovsky Plant, St. Petersburg
Laid down: 1 July 1910
Launched: 4 July 1911
Commissioned: 9 September 1913
Fate: Joined the Bolsheviks, November 1917
General characteristics
Type: Destroyer
Displacement:
  • 1,260 tonnes (1,240 long tons; 1,390 short tons) (normal)
  • 1,590 tonnes (1,560 long tons; 1,750 short tons)
Length: 102.4 m (335 ft 11 in)
Beam: 9.5 m (31 ft 2 in)
Draught: 7.2 m (23 ft 7 in)
Propulsion:
  • 3 shafts, AEG-Vulcan turbines
  • 6 Vulcan water-tube boilers
  • 39,000 shp (29,100 kW)
Speed: 37.3 knots (69.1 km/h; 42.9 mph) (trials)
Range: 2,000 nmi (3,700 km) at 21 knots (39 km/h)
Complement: 142 men
Armament:

Novík was a destroyer of the Russian Imperial Navy, commissioned in 1913 where she served with the Baltic Fleet during World War I. She joined the Bolsheviks in November 1917 and was later renamed Yakov Sverdlov.

History

The first ship of its class, Novik was completed in 1910 at the Putilovsky Plant. She was originally designed by AG Vulcan Stettin. The class included 52 other ships in four groups:

Novik was one of the best ships of the type during the First World War. Novik -class ships were the first destroyers to be powered by oil instead of coal. When first commissioned she was the fastest ship in the world.[1]

World War I

During the night of 6/7 May 1915 Novik, in company with ten other destroyers, mined the approaches to the port of Liepāja which was being attacked by the Germans. There was an inconclusive encounter between cruisers of the Russian covering force and the German light cruiser SMS München, but the destroyers were undetected. One of the mines laid that night blew off the bow of the new German torpedo boat V 107 when she entered Liepāja on the morning of 8 May and rendered her unrepairable. Novik escorted the armored cruiser Rurik on a mission to shell the German port of Memel, but they became separated from the rest of the force in heavy fog and encountered the German armored cruiser SMS Roon. Rurik opened fire, but was soon forced to turn away by a (false) submarine contact and lost sight of the Germans. During the Battle of the Gulf of Riga in August 1915, Novik and three other destroyers set the German destroyer V 99 on fire. V 99 struck two mines while attempting to break out of the Gulf and was sunk. During the night of 19/20 November 1915 Novik led seven Russian destroyers to attack German patrols off Windau. They sank the auxiliary patrol boat Norburg and escaped before German reinforcements could arrive. On the night of 13 May 1916, she led two of her half-sisters in search of German iron ore convoys sailing along the Swedish coast. They found a convoy of ten freighters escorted by four auxiliary patrol boats near Häfringe Island. The freighters fled for Swedish waters while the escorts turned to engage the Russians. The Russians sank the auxiliary cruiser Hermann, even though they refused to close the escorts believing them to be far stronger than they actually were, but the freighters escaped and no other damage was inflicted.[2]

In November 1917 she joined the Bolsheviks and was later renamed Yakov Sverdlov in 1923.

See also

Notes

  1. Breyer, p. 56
  2. Halpern, pp. 192, 195, 197, 205, 209

References

Media related to Novik (ship, 1911) at Wikimedia Commons

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