1:42 Scale. Cruiser Askold
In the 9th century, Askold, the legendary ruler of Kiev,
crossed the Black Sea with his troops,
leading the first Rus' attack on Constantinople,
the capital of the Byzantine Empire.
A thousand years later, the name Askold was heard again on the seas.
It was given to a 1st rank protected cruiser of the Imperial Russian Navy,
a hero of two wars, and the favorite ship of the Emperor of Russia, Nicholas II.
At the end of the 19th century,
the Russian Empire was preparing for an inevitable confrontation with Japan.
In 1897, a special program
of "accelerated shipbuilding for the needs of the Russian Far East" was adopted.
Within this program, the naval command drew up technical requirements
for a 1st rank cruiser that would carry out long range reconnaissance for a squadron.
It was to be faster and more powerful than British and Japanese cruisers.
Germany shipyard owned by the famous Krupp company
was one of the winners of the international project’s contest.
Work began on October 24, 1898,
as soon as Krupp plants delivered the first shipment of metal,
even before the design documentation got the final approval.
Two months later, the cruiser was named Askold.
Length: 131.2 meters
Beam: 16.9 meters
Draft: 6.2 meters
Total displacement by project: 6,000 tons
The long and narrow hull of the cruiser with destroyer-like proportions
had excellent sea-going capability
and a power plant producing 23,500 horsepower,
which allowed her to develop a maximum speed of 24 knots.
The best nickel steel in the world, produced by Krupp factories,
was used to build the cruiser.
The armored turtle deck— the main protection element—
was from 40 to 100 millimeters thick.
The conning tower was armored with 150-millimeter plates.
The cruiser's artillery was quite powerful for her displacement.
When Askold was commissioned, she had twelve 152-millimeter
and twelve 75-millimeter Canet guns on board.
Apart from that, she carried another 13 small-caliber cannons and two machineguns.
Traditionally for the time, six torpedo tubes were installed in the Askold's hull.
They had no real combat value and most of them were removed
during repairs after the Russo-Japanese War.
During construction, the cruiser's project continued
to be modified according to the demands of the Russian navy.
For example, the location of the forecastle gun was changed
to increase the seagoing capabilities.
However, shipbuilders firmly refused to reduce the number of smokestacks,
fearing that it would impair the speed.
That's how the cruiser received her unique five-stack silhouette.
After Askold's sea trials, Nikolai Reytsenshtein
the head of the inspection board and the first captain of the ship,
wrote in his report,
"The Navy receives the fastest cruiser in the world."
On January 12, 1902, St. Andrew's flag,
jack, and pennant were raised on the ship during a solemn ceremony.
Soon after that, she sailed to Kronstadt
where the brand new cruiser was honored twice with a visit from Emperor Nicholas II.
She then faced a serious trial in the form of a six-month cruise
across three oceans to the Russian Far East.
Askold accomplished it with ease
and showed the impeccable reliability and high efficiency of all ship systems.
In February 1903, the cruiser arrived at Port Arthur
and joined the Pacific squadron.
The Russo-Japanese War was less than a year away.
In the evening of January 26, 1904,
Askold was the closest to the Japanese destroyers
that staged a surprise attack on Russian ships in Port Arthur's harbor,
but thanks to her well-trained crew, she managed to avoid any damage.
The next morning, Askold, together with other cruisers,
daringly attacked the main forces
of the Japanese fleet that approached Port Arthur,
in an attempt to draw the enemy's attention and give the Russian ironclads
a chance to form the battle line.
Several months of intense combat service later,
Askold had her moment of glory.
On July 28, the Russian squadron exited the harbor
to try to break through to Vladivostok
Askold led the line ahead of the cruiser squadron,
under the broad pennant of her former captain,
now Rear Admiral, Nikolai Reytsenstein.
During the day, the main forces of the Japanese and Russian fleets
clashed in a firefight twice.
At 18:30, the critical moment of the battle came:
the Russian flagship lost control
and the remaining ironclads turned back towards Port Arthur.
By that time, the broken formation of Russian ships
was surrounded by 45 enemy ships.
Then, Admiral Reytsenstein on the Askold's battle bridge,
decided to lead a breakthrough, drawing the enemy fire
and disregarding its own safety.
The signal "cruisers follow me" rose on the foremast,
smokestacks spewed black smoke, and Askold rushed towards the enemy.
Thanks to her speed, excellent maneuverability, and firing accuracy,
the cruiser managed to survive under a hail of fire from the Japanese ships.
Showered with shells, Askold led the battle from both sides.
Her hull shook tremendously from each shell hit,
but Askold steamed ahead at full speed, directly towards the Japanese ships
that tried to turn and get out of the Russian cruiser's way.
The pursuit continued throughout the night.
By the following morning, the last Japanese ships had fallen behind
and disappeared beyond the horizon,
having lost the battle against Askold's engines.
However, the Russian cruiser paid a high price for her heroic breakthrough.
Her hull had many breaches, only four of the main guns remained operational,
and 60 crewmen were killed or wounded.
Without the ability to fight her way to Vladivostok,
Askold had to be interned in the neutral Shanghai.
After the war with Japan and until 1914,
Askold was the flagship of the Siberian flotilla
and the biggest Russian warship in the Far East.
The years during World War I became the most difficult
and eventful in the entire service of the cruiser.
She swept the Pacific Ocean in search of coal vessels
that supplied the German ships of Admiral Von Spee
escorted convoys with Australian troops in the Indian Ocean,
bombarded German and Turkish coastal defenses in the Mediterranean,
and participated in the famous Dardanelles Campaign.
And in all these theaters of war, Askold was the main
or even the only representative of the Imperial Russian Navy.
From August 1914 to December 1915,
the cruiser's crew spent 294 days under general quarters,
with crews manning guns.
The ship fired twice as many shells than during her previous service,
including the Russo-Japanese War,
and all this without serious breakdowns and losses.
However, the intense service took its toll. The elderly cruiser spent 1916 in Toulon,
where she underwent a complete overhaul.
In December 1916, Askold was assigned to the Arctic Ocean flotilla.
But on her way from Toulon, the cruiser was hit by a severe storm
and required further repairs in England.
It wasn’t until 1917 that Askold entered the harbor of Murmansk
thus returning to Russia after crossing half of the world
and sailing thousands of miles.
In her homeland, the cruiser was engulfed by the whirlwind of the Civil War.
In 1920, Askold was seized by the British,
and in 1922 she was repurchased by the Soviet government,
but she was in bad shape and sold for scrap to Germany.
The famous Russian shipbuilder Alexey Krylov
who had sailed aboard the ship on her first voyage to the Far East,
witnessed the famous cruiser enter a dock in Hamburg where she was scrapped.
Thus ending the service record of the ship that Russian sailors called lucky.