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Sunday 16 April 2017

Potemkin (Russian battleship)

The Russian battleship Potemkin was a pre-dreadnought battleship built for the Imperial Russian Navy's Black Sea Fleet and launched on October 9, 1900. She was named for Grigori Potemkin (1739-91) who was for 20 years Catherine the Great's chief advisor and built the Black Sea Fleet.

The Imperial Russian battleship Panteleimon (former Potemkin), 1906

Potemkin was 371 feet 5 inches (113.2 m) long at the waterline and 378 feet 6 inches (115.4 m) long overall.

Potemkin's crew consisted of 26 officers and 705 enlisted men.

The crew's rebellion against the officers on June 27, 1905 (during that year's revolution) is now viewed as a first step towards the Russian Revolution of 1917.

Matushenko, the leader of the mutiny, is seen to the left of centre

After the mutineers sought asylum in Constanța, Romania, and the Russians recovered the ship, her name was changed to Panteleimon.

The Panteleimon accidentally sank a Russian submarine in 1909 and was badly damaged when she ran aground in 1911.

During World War I, Panteleimon participated in the Battle of Cape Sarych in late 1914 and covered several bombardments of the Ottoman Bosphorus fortifications in early 1915.

The ship was relegated to secondary roles after the first Russian dreadnought battleship entered service in late 1915.

Panteleimon was captured when the Germans took Sevastopol in May 1918 and was handed over to the Allies after the Armistice in November 1918.

She was abandoned when the White Russians evacuated the Crimea in 1920 and was finally scrapped by the Soviets in 1923.

The 1905 mutiny inspired Sergei Eisenstein's 1925 silent propaganda film The Battleship Potemkin.


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