NMS ''Fulgerul'' was a gunboat of the

Romanian Navy The Romanian Naval Forces () is the principal naval branch of the Romanian Armed Forces and operates in the Black Sea and on the Danube. It traces its history back to 1860. History The Romanian Navy was founded in 1860 as a river flotilla on ...

built in France in 1873. She was the first warship to carry the Romanian flag across the sea. She briefly saw service with the Imperial Russian Navy as ''Velikiy Knyaz Nikolay'' during the Romanian War of Independence. ''Fulgerul'' was transferred to border guards in 1910, and ended her days in 1968 as an oil fuel store at Galati.

Construction and specifications

''Fulgerul'' was built at

La Seyne-sur-Mer La Seyne-sur-Mer (; "La Seyne on Sea"; ), or simply La Seyne, is a commune in the Var department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in Southeastern France. La Seyne-sur-Mer, which is part of the agglomeration of Toulon, is situated adja ...

near

Toulon Toulon (, , ; , , ) is a city in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of southeastern France. Located on the French Riviera and the historical Provence, it is the prefecture of the Var (department), Var department. The Commune of Toulon h ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, by

Forges et Chantiers de la Mediterranée Forges or Les Forges may refer to: In Belgium * Forges, Belgium, a village and a former municipality that is now a part of Chimay, Wallonia In France * Forges, Charente-Maritime, in the Charente-Maritime department * Forges, Maine-et-Loire, in ...

at a cost of 130,000 lei. She was launched and completed in 1873. Her displacement amounted to 85 tons. She was armed with one gun and her power plant generated an output of 25 hp. ''Fulgerul'' measured in length, with a beam of and a draught of . The gunboat was also armored, her gun being a

Krupp Friedrich Krupp AG Hoesch-Krupp (formerly Fried. Krupp AG and Friedrich Krupp GmbH), trade name, trading as Krupp, was the largest company in Europe at the beginning of the 20th century as well as Germany's premier weapons manufacturer dur ...

weapon with the caliber of 87 mm. This was initially installed in a turret, but that was found to be unsatisfactory and was removed. She was powered by a steam engine, her top speed amounting to 7 knots. Her bow and aft both ended in iron

rams In engineering, reliability, availability, maintainability and safety (RAMS)Galați Galați ( , , ; also known by other #Etymology and names, alternative names) is the capital city of Galați County in the historical region of Western Moldavia, in eastern Romania. Galați is a port town on the river Danube. and the sixth-larges ...

between late 1873 and early 1874, by the Romanian Admiral Ioan Murgescu. She thus became the first warship of the Romanian Navy to carry the Romanian flag across the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

and the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal sea, marginal Mediterranean sea (oceanography), mediterranean sea lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bound ...

. The delivery voyage was made without the Krupp gun, which was sent separately by land, for fear of difficulties when passing through Ottoman waters; despite this the ship was detained at

Çanakkale Çanakkale is a city and seaport in Turkey on the southern shore of the Dardanelles at their narrowest point. It is the seat of Çanakkale Province and Çanakkale District.Dardanelles The Dardanelles ( ; ; ), also known as the Strait of Gallipoli (after the Gallipoli peninsula) and in classical antiquity as the Hellespont ( ; ), is a narrow, natural strait and internationally significant waterway in northwestern Turkey th ...

for several days for inspection, but permitted to continue as she was unarmed. She finally arrived at

Galati Galati may refer to: * Galați, a city in eastern Romania. * Galati Mamertino, municipality in the Metropolitan City of Messina in Sicily, Italy * Galați County Galați () is a county (județ) of Romania, in Moldavia region, with the capital c ...

on 14 April 1874, and the gun was fitted. She was commissioned on 15 June 1874 and also functioned as a training ship. The gunboat was part of the Danube Flotilla during the

Romanian War of Independence The Romanian War of Independence () is the name used in Romanian historiography to refer to the phase of the Russo-Turkish War (1877–78), in which Romania, fighting on the Russian side of the war, gained independence from the Ottoman Empire. On ...

of 1877. During the war, she was incorporated by agreement in the

Imperial Russian Navy The Imperial Russian Navy () operated as the navy of the Russian Tsardom and later the Russian Empire from 1696 to 1917. Formally established in 1696, it lasted until being dissolved in the wake of the February Revolution and the declaration of ...

as ''Velikiy Knyaz Nikolay'' (Grand Duke Nicholas) and employed, with a mostly Russian crew as a

minelayer A minelayer is any warship, submarine, military aircraft or land vehicle deploying explosive mines. Since World War I the term "minelayer" refers specifically to a naval ship used for deploying naval mines. "Mine planting" was the term for ins ...

, laying mine barrages across the Danube in order to restrict the movement of Ottoman warships. At the end of the war in 1878, she was returned to the Romanian navy and reverted to ''Fulgerul''. After another period as a training ship up to 1882, she was declared militarily obsolete in 1886. On 1 April 1910, ''Fulgerul'' was allotted to a newly-created unit of marine border guards and was listed in service in

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

as a coastguard cruiser.Dumitru Enache, ''Istoria trupelor române de grăniceri'', Editura Militară, 1987, p. 214 (in Romanian) By then she was armed with one 6-pdr and one 1-pdr guns. Later, she was reduced to an oil fuel store and later used as such by the shipbuilding yard at Galati. In 1968 ''Fulgerul'' was given to the shipyard branch of the

Union of Communist Youth The Union of Communist Youth ( Romanian: '; UTC) was the Romanian Communist Party's youth organisation. Like many Young Communist organisations, it was modelled after the Soviet Komsomol. It aimed to cultivate young cadres into the party, as ...

(UTC) which sent her for scrapping.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fulgerul World War I naval ships of Romania Ships built in France 1873 ships World War I gunboats Gunboats of the Romanian Naval Forces Steam rams