:Russian battleship Imperatritsa Mariya

Image:ImperatritsaMariya1914.jpg]]

Imperatritsa Mariya was {{convert|168|m|ftin|sp=us}} long at the waterline. She had a beam of {{convert|27.43|m|ftin|sp=us}} and a draft of {{convert|8.36|m|ftin|sp=us}}. Her displacement was {{convert|23600|LT|t|lk=on|0}} at load, {{convert|1000|LT|t|abbr=on|0}} more than her designed displacement of {{convert|22600|LT|t|abbr=on|0}}.McLaughlin, p. 228 She proved to be very bow-heavy in service and tended to ship large amounts of water through her forward casemates.Budzbon, p. 303 The ammunition for the forward {{convert|12|in|mm|0|adj=on}} guns was reduced from 100 to 70 rounds each, while the {{convert|130|mm|adj=on|sp=us|1}} ammunition was reduced from 245 to 100 rounds per gun, in an attempt to compensate for her trim. This did not fully cure the problem, but Imperatritsa Mariya was lost before any other changes could be implemented.McLaughlin, p. 237

The ship was fitted with four Parsons-type steam turbines imported from John Brown & Company of the United Kingdom. They were designed for a total of {{convert|26000|shp|kW|lk=on}}, but produced {{convert|33200|shp|kW|abbr=on|0}} on her sea trials using steam produced by 20 mixed-firing triangular Yarrow boilers with a working pressure of {{convert|17.5|atm|kPa psi|-1|abbr=on|lk=on}}. Designed speed was {{convert|21|kn|lk=in}}. Her maximum coal capacity was {{convert|1700|LT|t|0}} plus {{convert|500|LT|t|abbr=on}} of fuel oil, which gave her a range of {{convert|1640|nmi|lk=in}} at maximum speed. All of her electrical power was generated by three Curtis {{convert|360|kW|adj=on}} main turbo generators and two {{convert|200|kW|adj=on}} auxiliary units.McLaughlin, pp. 229, 235–237

Her main armament consisted of a dozen 12-inch Obukhovskii Pattern 1907 guns mounted in four triple gun turrets distributed the length of the ship. Her secondary armament consisted of twenty 130 mm B7 Pattern 1913 guns mounted in casemates. They were arranged in two groups, six guns per side from the forward turret to the rear funnel and the remaining four were clustered around the rear turret. She was fitted with four 75mm 50 caliber Pattern 1892 anti-aircraft guns, one mounted on the roof of each turret. Four {{convert|17.7|in|mm|0|adj=on}} submerged torpedo tubes were carried, two tubes on each broadside abaft the forward magazine.McLaughlin, pp. 233–234

File:Panorama with Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova and her family in Sebastopol, 1916.jpg photo of the battleship Imperatritsa Mariya, while being inspected by the Romanov imperial family in the port of Sevastopol (27 May 1916). The grand duchess Anastasia is clearly visible on the right.]]

Imperatritsa Mariya, named after Tsarina Maria Feodorovna,Silverstone, p. 377 mother of Tsar Nicholas II, was built by the Russud Shipyard at Nikolayev, Russian Empire. She was laid down on 30 October 1911 along with her sister ships Imperator Aleksander III and Imperatritsa Ekaterina Velikaya, but this was merely a ceremonial event as the design had not yet been finalized nor the contract signed. She was launched on 19 October 1913 and arrived in Sevastopol on 13 July 1915, where she completed her fitting out during the next few months and conducted sea trials. On 1 October she provided cover for the Black Sea Fleet's pre-dreadnoughts as they bombarded targets in Kozlu, Zonguldak and Karadeniz Ereğli. She did much the same when older battleships bombarded targets in Bulgaria on 20–22 October and then Varna itself on 27 October. The light cruiser Midilli narrowly escaped a running engagement with the Imperatritsa Mariya on 4 April 1916 as the battleship narrowly missed her several times before she could disengage. Three months later both Imperatritsa Mariya and Imperatritsa Ekaterina Velikaya, alerted by intercepted radio transmissions, sortied from Sevastopol in an attempt to intercept the ex-German battlecruiser Yavuz as she returned from a bombardment of the Russian port of Tuapse on 4 July. The Yavuz dodged north and avoided the Russians by paralleling the Bulgarian coastline back to the Bosphorus. The Midilli mined the harbor of Novorossiysk on 21 July, but the Russians, again alerted by radio intercepts, attempted to catch her on her return journey. Midilli was lured into range of Imperatritsa Mariya{{'}}s guns the next day when the cruiser pursued the {{ship|Russian destroyer|Schastlivy}}, but she managed to escape with only splinter damage.McLaughlin, pp. 231, 242, 304–306

image:Линейный корабль Императрица Мария после постановки в док и откачки воды, 1919 год.jpg

On the morning of 20 October 1916, a fire was discovered in the Imperatritsa Mariya{{'}}s forward powder magazine while at anchor in Sevastopol, but it exploded before any efforts could be made to fight the fire.McLaughlin, p. 306 Sailors led by Engineer-Mechanic Midshipman Ignatyev, however, managed to flood the forward shell magazine before the explosion at the cost of their own lives. Their action probably prevented a catastrophic detonation and all of the other magazines were flooded as a precaution. About forty minutes after the first explosion, a second occurred in the vicinity of the torpedo compartment that destroyed the watertight integrity of the rest of the forward bulkheads. Imperatritsa Mariya began to sink by the bow and listed to starboard. She capsized a few minutes later, taking 228 sailors with her. The subsequent investigation determined that the explosion was probably the result of spontaneous combustion of the nitrocellulose-based propellant as it decomposed.McLaughlin, pp. 242, 306–307

Following a complex salvage operation, the ship was eventually refloated on 18 May 1918 and moved into Sevastopol's Northern Dry Dock on 31 May, still upside down. The chaos of the Russian Revolution and Civil War prevented further repair work, although her 130 mm guns were removed. By 1923, the wooden blocks supporting her in place were rotting. She was floated out and grounded in shallow water in 1923. She was approved for scrapping in June 1925 and officially stricken on 21 November 1925, although the work did not begin until 1926 when she was refloated and moved back into the dry dock. Her gun turrets, which had fallen out of the ship when she capsized, were later salvaged. Two of them were used as the 30th Coast Defense Battery defending the city during the Siege of Sevastopol in World War II.McLaughlin, pp. 242, 310

{{Reflist|group=Note}}

{{Reflist|2}}

• {{cite journal|last1=Brown|first1=David K.|last2=McCallum|first2=Iain|year=2001 |title= Ammunition Explosions in World War I|journal= Warship International|volume=XXXVIII |issue=1|pages=58–69|issn=0043-0374|name-list-style=amp|author1-link=David K. Brown}}
• {{cite book|editor1-last=Gray|editor1-first=Randal|title=Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921 |year=1985 |location=Annapolis, Maryland|publisher=Naval Institute Press |isbn=0-85177-245-5 |last=Budzbon|first=Przemysław |pages=291–325|chapter=Russia}}
• {{Cite book|last=McLaughlin|first=Stephen|title=Russian & Soviet Battleships|publisher=Naval Institute Press |location=Annapolis, Maryland|year=2003|isbn=1-55750-481-4}}
• {{cite book|last=Silverstone|first=Paul H.|title=Directory of the World's Capital Ships|year=1984|publisher=Hippocrene Books|location=New York|isbn=0-88254-979-0}}

{{Commons category|Imperatritsa Mariya (ship, 1913)}}

• [http://web.ukonline.co.uk/aj.cashmore/russia/battleships/imperatritsamaria/imperatritsamaria.html Specifications]
• [http://flot.sevastopol.info/eng/ship/dreadnoughts/impmariya.htm Brief article on the Black Sea Fleet website]

{{Imperatritsa Mariya class battleship}}

{{October 1916 shipwrecks}}

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Category:Imperatritsa Mariya-class battleships

Category:World War I battleships of Russia

Category:1913 ships

Category:Maritime incidents in 1916

Category:Ships sunk by non-combat internal explosions

Category:World War I shipwrecks in the Black Sea

Category:Shipwrecks of Russia