''Retivy'' was one of 29 s (officially known as
Project 7
A project is any undertaking, carried out individually or collaboratively and possibly involving research or design, that is carefully planned to achieve a particular goal.
An alternative view sees a project managerially as a sequence of eve ...
) built for the
Soviet Navy during the late 1930s. Completed in 1941, she was assigned to the
Pacific Fleet.
Design and description
Having decided to build the large and expensive
destroyer leader
Destroyer leader (DL) was the United States Navy designation for large destroyers from 9 February 1951 through the early years of the Cold War. United States ships with hull classification symbol DL were officially frigates from 1 January 1955B ...
s, the Soviet Navy sought Italian assistance in designing smaller and cheaper destroyers. They licensed the plans for the and, in modifying it for their purposes, overloaded a design that was already somewhat marginally
stable.
The ''Gnevny''s had an
overall length
The overall length (OAL) of an ammunition cartridge is a measurement from the base of the brass shell casing to the tip of the bullet, seated into the brass casing. Cartridge overall length, or "COL", is important to safe functioning of reloads i ...
of , a
beam
Beam may refer to:
Streams of particles or energy
* Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy
** Laser beam
* Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles
**Charged particle beam, a spatially localized g ...
of , and a
draft
Draft, The Draft, or Draught may refer to:
Watercraft dimensions
* Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel
* Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail
* Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a ves ...
of at
deep load
The displacement or displacement tonnage of a ship is its weight. As the term indicates, it is measured indirectly, using Archimedes' principle, by first calculating the volume of water displaced by the ship, then converting that value into we ...
. The ships were significantly overweight, almost heavier than designed, displacing at
standard load
The displacement or displacement tonnage of a ship is its weight. As the term indicates, it is measured indirectly, using Archimedes' principle, by first calculating the volume of water displaced by the ship, then converting that value into weig ...
and at deep load. Their crew numbered 197 officers and sailors in peacetime and 236 in wartime. The ships had a pair of geared
steam turbine
A steam turbine is a machine that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work on a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was invented by Charles Parsons in 1884. Fabrication of a modern steam turb ...
s, each driving one propeller, rated to produce using steam from three
water-tube boiler
A high pressure watertube boiler (also spelled water-tube and water tube) is a type of boiler in which water circulates in tubes heated externally by the fire. Fuel is burned inside the furnace, creating hot gas which boils water in the steam-gene ...
s which was intended to give them a maximum speed of . The designers had been conservative in rating the turbines and many, but not all, of the ships handily exceeded their designed speed during their
sea trial
A sea trial is the testing phase of a watercraft (including boats, ships, and submarines). It is also referred to as a " shakedown cruise" by many naval personnel. It is usually the last phase of construction and takes place on open water, and ...
s. Others fell considerably short of it, although specific figures for most individual ships have not survived. Variations in
fuel oil
Fuel oil is any of various fractions obtained from the distillation of petroleum (crude oil). Such oils include distillates (the lighter fractions) and residues (the heavier fractions). Fuel oils include heavy fuel oil, marine fuel oil (MFO), bu ...
capacity meant that the range of the ''Gnevny''s varied between at .
As built, the ''Gnevny''-class ships mounted four
B-13 guns in two pairs of
superfiring
Superfiring armament is a naval military building technique in which two (or more) turrets are located in a line, one behind the other, with the second turret located above ("super") the one in front so that the second turret can fire over the ...
single mounts fore and aft of the
superstructure
A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of physical structures such as buildings, bridges, or ships.
Aboard ships and large boats
On water craft, the superstruct ...
.
Anti-aircraft defense was provided by a pair of
34-K AA gun
Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based, ...
s in single mounts and a pair of
21-K AA guns as well as two
DK or DShK machine gun
A machine gun is a fully automatic, rifled autoloading firearm designed for sustained direct fire with rifle cartridges. Other automatic firearms such as automatic shotguns and automatic rifles (including assault rifles and battle rifl ...
s. They carried six
torpedo tube
A torpedo tube is a cylindrical device for launching torpedoes.
There are two main types of torpedo tube: underwater tubes fitted to submarines and some surface ships, and deck-mounted units (also referred to as torpedo launchers) installed abo ...
s in two rotating triple mounts; each tube was provided with a reload. The ships could also carry a maximum of either 60 or 95
mines
Mine, mines, miners or mining may refer to:
Extraction or digging
*Miner, a person engaged in mining or digging
* Mining, extraction of mineral resources from the ground through a mine
Grammar
*Mine, a first-person English possessive pronoun
M ...
and 25
depth charge
A depth charge is an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) weapon. It is intended to destroy a submarine by being dropped into the water nearby and detonating, subjecting the target to a powerful and destructive hydraulic shock. Most depth charges use ...
s. They were fitted with a set of Mars
hydrophone
A hydrophone ( grc, ὕδωρ + φωνή, , water + sound) is a microphone designed to be used underwater for recording or listening to underwater sound. Most hydrophones are based on a piezoelectric transducer that generates an electric potent ...
s for
anti-submarine work, although they were useless at speeds over . The ships were equipped with two K-1
paravanes intended to destroy mines and a pair of depth-charge throwers.
Construction and service
Major components for the ship that became ''Retivy'' were
laid down
Laying the keel or laying down is the formal recognition of the start of a ship's construction. It is often marked with a ceremony attended by dignitaries from the shipbuilding company and the ultimate owners of the ship.
Keel laying is one ...
at
Shipyard No. 198 (Andre Marti South) in
Nikolayev on 23 August 1936 as
323 and were then railed to
Shipyard No. 199 at
Komsomolsk-on-Amur
Komsomolsk-on-Amur ( rus, Комсомольск-на-Амуре, r=Komsomolsk-na-Amure, p=kəmsɐˈmolʲsk nɐɐˈmurʲə) is a city in Khabarovsk Krai, Russia, located on the west bank of the Amur River in the Russian Far East. It is located ...
,
Siberia
Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part o ...
, for completion where the ship was laid down again on 29 July 1937. She was
launched on 27 September 1939 and
commissioned on 10 October 1941.
[Rohwer & Monakov, p. 233] She was decommissioned in September 1991 and is now a museum ship and training ship at
Laohutan Bay,
Dalian
Dalian () is a major sub-provincial port city in Liaoning province, People's Republic of China, and is Liaoning's second largest city (after the provincial capital Shenyang) and the third-most populous city of Northeast China. Located on ...
.
Citations
Sources
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Further reading
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Retivy (1938)
Gnevny-class destroyers
1939 ships
Ships built at the Black Sea Shipyard
Museum ships in China