The Ships of Brawling Battleships Steel: Russia Battleship Imperatriza Ekaterina

Laid down on November 30, 1911, launched on June 6, 1914 and commissioned on October 5, 1915, Imperatriza Ekaterina carried a main armament of twelve 12 inch main guns mounted three per turret; one centerline forward, one centerline aft and two centerline amidships that could fire to both sides. Ekaterina was one of the three-ship Imperatrica Marija battleship class for the Black Sea Fleet. This class had its armor better placed that in the earlier Gangut class, improving the ships’ staying power. She was powered by turbines with coal-fired boilers and supplementary oil burners. The name honored Catherine II the Great (1729–1796, ruler from 1762), the German princess who married the heir to the Russian throne, usurped her husband (Czar Peter III) after he came to power and became the greatest (and most romantic) of Russia’s monarchs. The Russian Navy’s strategic problem was that it was largely eliminated during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904 and the empire had to rebuild to maintain its three separate fleets, one in the Black Sea, one in the Baltic Sea and one in the Pacific Ocean, each facing different opponents and operating conditions. The Imperatrica Marija battleships were designed for operations in the Black Sea. The ship had an eventful career during the Great War. In late 1915, the ship was renamed Imperatrica Ekaterina (the name is sometimes listed with and sometimes without the Roman numeral II). Imperatrica Ekaterina conducted several sorties against the Bulgarian coast. She fought skirmishes with both the Turkish battle cruiser Yavuz Sultan Selim (ex-German Goeben–on January 7–8, 1916–both ships were slightly damaged) and the German light cruiser Breslau (on April 4–5, 1916) and bombarded the Turkish coaling ports three times. Renamed Svobodnaja Rossija on April 29, 1917, the ship continued her bombardment sorties and fought another skirmish with the Breslau. A mutiny occurred on the ship on November 1, 1917. Bound by treaty to be turned over to the Germans, this was prevented and, on June 16, 1918, Svobodnaja Rossija was sunk off Novorossijsk (on the eastern coast of the Black Sea) by torpedoes from the Russian destroyer Kerch . A 1930 salvage attempt was unsuccessful.

See other battleships: Imperator Aleksandr III, Dante Alighieri, Dreadnought