Russian torpedo boat Ismail

History
Imperial Russian Navy
Name: Izmail / 267
Builder: Nikolayev shipyard
Launched: 1886
Fate: Stricken 1908
General characteristics [1]
Class & type: Izmail class
Displacement: 76 long tons (77 t)
Length: 127 ft 7 in (38.89 m)
Beam: 11 ft 7 in (3.53 m)
Draught: 7 ft 6 in (2.29 m)
Installed power: 296 ihp (221 kW)
Propulsion: 1 shaft, Vertical compound, 1 locomotive boiler
Speed: 17.5 knots (32.4 km/h; 20.1 mph)
Complement: 21
Armament:
  • 2× 1 pdr revolvers
  • 2× 15 inches (380 mm) torpedo tubes

The Russian torpedo boat Ismail was the first ship in the Russian Navy's Black Sea Fleet to join the mutiny of the battleship Potemkin in 1905. It was the Potemkin's escort and had on board a complement of three officers, 20 sailors, two 37mm guns and two torpedo launchers. The Ismail brought rotten meat aboard the Potemkin in June 1905, an incident which sparked the mutiny. The commander of the Ismail was Lieutenant Pyotr Klodt von Yurgensburg, a 41-year-old Russian nobleman.[2]

Specifications

The Ismail had a top speed of 25 knots and was 127 feet long and 11 feet wide.[3]

Mutiny of the Potemkin

During the mutiny of the Potemkin on 14 June 1905 (according to the Western Calendar; 6 July 1905 according to the Julian Calendar), officers from that ship swam for safety towards the Ismail. Yurgensburg hesitated for 20 minutes before deciding to flee the scene, but the Ismail was prevented from doing so when its mooring line became caught in the anchor. When the signalman informed Yurgensburg that his ship was being fired upon with rifles by sailors from the Potemkin, he ignored a call to surrender but was eventually halted by three shots from the Potemkin's guns, the last damaging the Ismail's funnel. Yurgensburg then surrendered without a fight. All the officers on board the Ismail were taken to the Potemkin and replaced by five revolutionaries (two stokers, two machinists and a helmsman).

The Ismail protected the two launches and 40 sailors who took part in the funeral of the revolutionary sailor Grigory Vakulinchuk in Odessa. It also acted as a go-between when the battleship Georgii Pobedonosets briefly joined the uprising.[4]

On 23 June (6 July in the Julian Calendar) there was an attempted counter mutiny when some sailors rushed the helm, wanting to return to Sevastopol. They failed in their attempt to seize control of the Ismail and the torpedo boat accompanied the Potemkin to Constanţa under tow. On 24 June (7 July), only two hours from their destination, a wave severed the towline; but the Ismail stayed with the Potemkin until it reached port the next day. It was then allowed to set sail for Sevastopol.

References

  1. ↑ Chesneau and Kolesnik 1979, p. 212.
  2. ↑ Neal Bascomb, Red Mutiny, page 91
  3. ↑ Neal Bascomb, Red Mutiny, page 48
  4. ↑ Neal Bascomb, Red Mutiny, page 187

Further reading

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