Who blew up the battleship "Empress Maria"? Battleship "Empress Maria" of the Black Sea Fleet

From the conclusion of the commission that tested the ship: “The air refrigeration system of the artillery cellars of the Empress Maria was tested for a day, but the results were uncertain. The temperature of the cellars almost did not drop, despite the daily operation of refrigeration machines.

Captain 2nd rank A. Lukin

"Pre-dawn breeze. The silhouettes of ships, graying in the early morning mist, turn their bows to him. Pulled cold. Dew wet the deck, the towers. The sentries wrapped themselves more tightly in sheepskin coats - the officer in charge of the watch, midshipman Uspensky, glanced at his watch. Wake up in a quarter of an hour. I went up to the wheelhouse once again to look at the book with the orders of the senior officer. On all ships, the flasks struck at 6 am.

Wake up!

Horns blew. Whistles whistled. Sleepy people run out reluctantly. Downstairs, by the ladders, the sergeant majors bassist cheer them on. The team huddled in the washbasins, at the first tower ...

The ship shook. The cabin was shaking. The lamp went off. Confused as to what had happened, the senior officer jumped up. An inexplicable crack was heard. An ominous glow illuminated the cabin.

In the washbasin, putting their heads under the taps, the team snorted and splashed when a terrible blow rumbled under the forward tower, knocking half the people off their feet. A fiery stream, shrouded in poisonous gases of a yellow-green flame, burst into the room, instantly turning the life that had just reigned here into a pile of dead, burned bodies ... ".

Sailor T. Yesyutin

“There was such a deafening explosion that I involuntarily froze in place and could not move further. Lights all over the ship went out. There was nothing to breathe. I realized that gas was spreading through the ship. In the lower part of the ship, where the servants were placed, an unimaginable cry arose:

— Save!

- Give me the light!

- We're dying!

In the darkness, I could not come to my senses and understand what finally happened. In desperation, he rushed up the compartments. On the threshold of the fighting compartment of the tower, I saw a terrible picture. The paint on the walls of the tower burned with all its might. Beds and mattresses were burning, comrades were burning, who did not have time to get out of the tower. With a scream and a howl, they rushed around the fighting compartment, rushed from one side to the other, engulfed in fire. The door leading out of the tower onto the deck is a continuous flame. And all this whirlwind of fire rushed into the tower just from the deck, where everyone had to break out.

I do not remember how long I was in the fighting compartment. From gases and heat, my eyes were very watery, so that I could see the entire fighting compartment of the tower, engulfed in fire, as if through mica. On me, in one place, then in another, the vest began to light up. What to do? No commanders are seen, no commands are heard. There was only one way out: throwing himself through the flaming door of the tower, the only door that gave access to the deck. But there is no strength to rush out of the fire into an even greater fire. And standing still is also impossible. The vest is on fire, the hair on the head is on fire, the eyebrows and eyelashes are already burned.

The situation is desperate. And suddenly, I remember, one of the team of Comrade Morunenko (served since 1912), was the first to rush through the blazing door - onto the deck. We were struck by such heroism, and all the sailors, and I with them, one by one, began to rush through this terrible door. I do not remember how I flew through the furiously raging fire. I still don't understand how I survived...

Swimming was difficult. Throat dried up. I felt sick. The burnt places hurt from the salt water. The right leg was cramping. It became difficult not only to swim, but even to stay on the water. Well, I think it's gone! Salvation is nowhere to be seen. He looked back and was even frightened: he swam, swam, and left the ship only some twenty or thirty meters away. This circumstance, I remember, greatly debilitated me. I began to faint and no longer swam, but only tried to stay on the water. To this end, I greedily grabbed the floating pieces of wood from the deck of the ship and tried to hang on to them. But the forces were falling, and the shore was still far away.

At that moment I saw that a small two-oared boat was coming towards me. When she came up to me, I began to grab her sides, but I could not climb into her. Three sailors were sitting on the boat, and with their help I somehow got out of the water. Others floated near us. We did not have time to save them, and the poor fellows went to the bottom. Not because the boat did not want to take them - the sailors on it made every effort to save them - but they could not do anything.

At this time, a longboat from the battleship "Catherine the Great" approached us. The boat is very large and could take on board up to 100 people. We managed to approach the side of the longboat and transfer to it. We began to rescue the drowning. It turned out not to be so easy. There were no poles, no circles, no hooks. I had to give the floating and exhausted man an oar, then take him by the hands and drag him on board. But we still caught 60 people, took 20 people from other boats and went to the battleship Catherine the Great. This ship was not far from our flaming ship. We approached the board of the Ekaterina. Many of the burned and wounded sailors could not go. They were supported by less disfigured sailors. We were accepted onto the ship and sent straight to the infirmary for dressing.”

The conclusion of the commission to investigate the events: “There were significant deviations from the statutory requirements regarding access to the artillery cellar on the battleship Empress Maria. In particular, many tower hatches did not have locks. During the stay in Sevastopol, representatives of various factories worked on the battleship. There was no surname check of the artisans.”

“In the depths of the bay near the North Side, the battleship Empress Maria, which exploded in 1916, floats with a keel up. The Russians continuously worked to raise it, and a year later, they managed to raise the colossus with a keel up. Under water, a hole in the bottom was repaired, and heavy three-gun turrets were also removed under water. Unbelievably hard work! Day and night, the pumps worked, which pumped out the water located there from the ship and at the same time supplied air. Finally, his compartments were drained. The difficulty now was to put it on an even keel. It almost succeeded - but then the ship sank again. They started work again, and after a while, the Empress Maria again sailed up with a keel. But how to give it the right position, there was no decision on this matter.

After the Russo-Japanese War, the Black Sea Fleet retained all of its warships. It included 8 battleships built in 1889-1904, 3 cruisers, 13 destroyers. Two more battleships were under construction - "Evstafiy" and "John Chrysostom".

However, reports that Turkey is going to significantly strengthen its fleet (including dreadnoughts) demanded adequate measures from Russia. In May 1911, Emperor Nicholas II approved a program for the renewal of the Black Sea Fleet, which provided for the construction of three battleships of the Empress Maria type.

The Gangut was chosen as a prototype, however, taking into account the features of the theater of operations, the project was thoroughly reworked: the proportions of the hull were made more complete, the power of the mechanisms was reduced, but the armor was significantly strengthened, the weight of which now reached 7045 tons (31% of the design displacement against 26% by " Gangute).

Reducing the length of the hull by 13 meters made it possible to reduce the length of the armor belt and thereby increase its thickness. Moreover, the size of the armor plates was adjusted to the pitch of the frames - so that they served as an additional support that prevents the plate from being pressed into the hull. The armor of the main turrets became much more powerful: walls - 250 mm (instead of 203 mm), roof - 125 mm (instead of 75 mm), barbet - 250 mm (instead of 150 mm). An increase in width at the same draft as that of the Baltic battleships should have led to an increase in stability, but this did not happen due to overloading of the ships.

These battleships received new 130-mm guns 55 calibers (7.15 m) long with excellent ballistic characteristics, the production of which was mastered by the Obukhov plant. The artillery of the Civil Code did not differ from the "ganguts". However, the towers had a slightly larger capacity due to a more convenient arrangement of mechanisms and were equipped with optical rangefinders in armored tubes, which ensured autonomous firing of each tower.

Due to a decrease in the power of the mechanisms (and speed), the power plant has undergone some changes. It consisted of high and low pressure Parsons turbines located in five compartments between the third and fourth towers. The boiler plant consisted of 20 Yarrow-type triangular water-tube boilers installed in five boiler rooms. The boilers could be fired with both coal and oil.

Slightly increased the normal supply of fuel. But the Black Sea dreadnoughts suffered more from overload than their Baltic counterparts. The matter was aggravated by the fact that, due to an error in the calculations, the Empress Maria received a noticeable trim on the bow, which further worsened the already unimportant seaworthiness. In order to somehow rectify the situation, it was necessary to reduce the ammunition capacity of two main caliber bow turrets (up to 70 shots instead of 100 according to the state), the mine artillery bow group (100 shots instead of 245), and shorten the starboard anchor chain. On the "Emperor Alexander III" for the same purpose, they removed two bow 130-mm guns and eliminated their ammunition cellars.

During the war, the Black Sea dreadnoughts were used quite actively (mainly to cover the actions of maneuverable tactical groups), but only one of them, "Empress Catherine the Great", who met the German-Turkish battlecruiser Goeben in December 1915, was in a real battle. The latter used his advantage in speed and went to the Bosphorus from under the volleys of the Russian battleship.

The fate of all the Black Sea dreadnoughts was unhappy. The most famous and at the same time the most mysterious tragedy occurred on the morning of October 7, 1916 on the inner roads of Sevastopol. Fire in artillery cellars and the series caused by it powerful explosions turned the "Empress Maria" into a pile of twisted iron. At 7:16 a.m., the battleship capsized and sank. The victims of the disaster were 228 crew members.

In 1918 the ship was raised. The 130-mm artillery, part of the auxiliary mechanisms and other equipment were removed from it, and the hull stood in the dock with the keel up for 8 years. In 1927, the "Empress Maria" was finally dismantled. The towers of the Civil Code, which fell off during a rollover, were raised by the Epronovites in the 30s. In 19Z9, the battleship's guns were installed on the 30th battery near Sevastopol.

The battleship Catherine II outlived her brother (or sister?) by less than two years. Renamed "Free Russia", it sank in Novorossiysk, having received four torpedoes from the destroyer "Kerch" on board during the flooding (by order of V.I. Lenin) of part of the ships of the squadron by its own crews.

"Emperor Alexander III" entered service in the summer of 1917 already under the name "Will" and soon "went from hand to hand": the Andreevsky flag on the hafel of its mast was replaced by Ukrainian, then German, English and again Andreevsky, when Sevastopol was in the hands of the Volunteer Army . Renamed again, this time to General Alekseev, the battleship remained the flagship of the White Fleet on the Black Sea until the end of 1920, and then went to Bizerte with Wrangel's squadron. There, in 1936, it was dismantled for metal.

The French kept the 12-inch cannons of the Russian dreadnought, and in 1939 presented them to Finland. The first 8 guns reached their destination, but the last 4 arrived in Bergen almost simultaneously with the start of the Nazi invasion of Norway. So they got to the Germans, and they used them to create the Atlantic Wall, equipping them with the Mirus battery on the island of Guernsey. In the summer of 1944, these 4 guns opened fire on Allied ships for the first time, and in September they achieved direct hit to the American cruiser. The remaining 8 guns in 1944 went to the Red Army in Finland and were "repatriated" to their homeland. One of them has been preserved as a museum exhibit at the Krasnaya Gorka fort.

Naval history different countries the world is full of mysteries. Such a complex machine as a warship is saturated with equipment, weapons and machines, improper handling of which can lead to the death of the ship. But this still does not explain everything. The catastrophe is most often so fleeting and large-scale that there is no one to tell about all its circumstances. The wreckage is a pile of twisted metal, usually lying at the bottom, so the investigation and finding out the causes are extremely difficult. So it was with the Japanese ships Fuso, Kongo, Mutsu, Yamato, the American dreadnought Arizona, the Italian cruiser Roma, the Soviet Marat, the English Barham and Hood. AT postwar period martyrology replenished "Novorossiysk". The death of the battleship "Empress Maria" in October 1916 can be attributed to hard-to-explain historical facts.

Series of the best battleships

Contrary to popular belief, the origin of which can be explained by the specific approach of Soviet party leaders to the national pre-revolutionary history, the Russian Empire was not a backward country. The discoveries of our scientists have forever entered the treasury of world science. Russian electrical engineers developed the world's first three-phase power supply systems, invented an asynchronous motor and wireless communication. All these achievements found their application in the design of new ships of the Imperial Navy, launched into series in 1911. There were three of them: the battleship "Empress Maria" became the first of them. "Empress Catherine the Great" and "Emperor Alexander III" generally repeated it Constructive decisions, although, as is most often the case, they were built taking into account the production process new ideas. Already in the spring of 1914, the head unit was launched. It happened just in time. World War, which began seemingly suddenly with shots that thundered in Sarajevo, was not really a surprise. Battleships of the type "Empress Maria" significantly leveled the balance of power in the proposed maritime theater of operations. The Russian fleet healed Tsushima wounds.

Porphyritic name

A series of ships received the names of royal persons of the Russian State. It is interesting that only the battleship "Empress Maria" of the Black Sea Fleet was named after the living, well-being at that time, the widow of Alexander III, nee Danish princess Louise Sophia Frederica Dagmar, who has become a real Russian patriot, by the way, despite her foreign origin. However, this has already happened, suffice it to recall Catherine the Great, whose name was given to another battleship of the same type. Without a doubt, this woman deserved such an honor, besides, she was the mother of Nicholas II. Her role in Russian history is great, and her strength of character, kindness and righteousness of life successfully competed with external beauty.

The fate of Maria Feodorovna is tragic, she died in her homeland, in Denmark (1928), at the same time being in exile and personifying the share of all those Russians who happened to eat the bitter bread of a foreign land, "without leaving crusts." And before that, she lost dear and close people: two sons, a daughter-in-law, four granddaughters and a grandson.

Ship characteristics

The battleship "Empress Maria" was an outstanding ship in all respects. He was moving rapidly, developing a speed of almost 24 knots (about 40 km / h) when loading 2 thousand tons of coal and 600 tons of fuel oil, he had an autonomy of eight days, the team consisted of 1260 sailors and officers. Power point- turbine type, it consisted of two machines of 10,000 liters each. with.

Battleships - special type naval technology, they differ high level artillery armament. Four gun turrets were equipped with three 12-inch guns (each produced by the famous one. In addition to the main caliber, an auxiliary one was also presented, in the amount of 32 pieces. These guns had various purposes, including anti-aircraft guns, which indicated the ability of Russian engineers to think ahead and take into account the growing threat of air attack.There was another design feature, which distinguished the battleship "Empress Maria". The drawings of superstructures were drawn up taking into account maximum magnification sector of fire, so the power of the volley depended little on the angle of the target in relation to the course.

The exits of the torpedo tubes were located below the waterline, which was a revolutionary achievement at the time. A layer of armor 250 mm thick encircled the hull, and the deck was also protected by it. special words deserves the ship's electrical system. The battleship "Empress Maria" was powered by six dynamos (today they are called generators). All heavy mechanisms were rotated by electric motors, in particular, there were 22 of them on each artillery tower.

Such a ship could perform combat missions even in our time.

How the battleship fought

In the autumn of 1915, the intensity of naval battles in the Black Sea reached its peak. Turkey, an ally of Austria-Hungary, showed regional activity, the German submarine fleet. In response, the Black Sea Fleet subjected the ports of the northern Ottoman coast - Eregli, Kilimli, Zunguldak and Kozlu to artillery bombardment. On the flagship battleship, "Maria", Admiral Kolchak was in charge of naval operations. All new sunken enemy ships appeared on the team's account. The German cruiser Breslau, rushing to the aid of the Turkish fleet, was unable to complete its task in February and with difficulty broke away from the Russian battleship, having received multiple damage. During the whole of 1916, another German raider, "Gabin", only three times ventured into the Black Sea basin from the Bosphorus Strait, and then only briefly and unsuccessfully. From her last trip to the Sevastopol Bay, the battleship Empress Maria returned on October 6, 1916.

Victims and survivors

Unlike many others, this majority of the team managed to survive. According to various sources, from 1260 crew members immediately died from 152 to 216 people. The number of wounded and burned people ranged from one and a half hundred to 232 people. Despite the urgent medical care, another one and a half hundred sailors died in hospitals. Thus, the death of the battleship "Empress Maria" resulted in the death of three hundred and fifty people (according to the maximum estimate), which is approximately 28% of the entire crew. There could have been many more victims, but, fortunately, almost all the sailors who were not on duty participated in the prayer service that took place on the aft deck. As they say, God saved.

eyewitness testimony

What happened on the battleship in the early morning of October 7 was told by the surviving crew members. In a sense, the whole of Sevastopol, awakened by a terrible roar, can be called a witness. People who accidentally saw the whole picture of the disaster from the shore and other ships of the Black Sea Fleet claim that the foremast, forward tube and conning tower were blown off the ground by the very first explosion. But the main reason why the struggle for life turned out to be useless was the destruction of the hull, expressed in the rupture of the side to a level below the waterline, after which the outboard water began to flow into the compartments. The fire, meanwhile, continued. In a matter of minutes, the commander of the Black Sea Fleet arrived on the ship to supervise the rescue operations, fireboats and tugboats arrived in time, but nothing could be done. Less than an hour later, ammunition detonated in the cellar of the bow tower, several more explosions were heard, the battleship received negative buoyancy, the overkill turned over and sank.

Fight for survival

The sailors throughout the disaster acted in accordance with the Charter and performed their duties as ordered by the staffing table. At 7:20, the sailors of the fourth casemate, who were on watch, noticed a strange hissing coming from behind the partition of the cellar of the forward tower next to them. They immediately reported to their immediate supervisor about what was happening, managed to unroll fire hoses and supplied water. It only took two minutes. The sailors who were replaced after the watch at that time were washing before rest, all of them were burned by the hellish flame of the explosion. The power supply was interrupted, the light went out. The explosions continued (there were 25 of them in total), 130-mm caliber shells detonated. Meanwhile, on the orders of the senior mechanical engineer, midshipman Ignatiev tried to start fire pumps. He did not succeed, the brave sailor died. An attempt to flood the cellars of the second bow tower to create a water barrier was also unsuccessful, there was simply not enough time for this. Realizing that everyone could not be saved, the commanders gave the command to the sailors to leave, while they themselves remained to certain death, trying to fulfill their duty. After the ship was raised, the remains of the heroes were found and interred ...

Version master: accident

People tend to look for clues to everything inexplicable. The more mysterious the circumstances, the more complex and confusing they are usually interpreted. Therefore, the official version of the commission of inquiry that the explosion on the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet occurred due to self-ignition of ethereal powder vapors caused disappointment for many. However, it most likely was. shells long time along with the caps were in the barrels, especially when the battleship was hunting for the Gabin, and this could provoke a detonation. But there is another version, according to which the mysterious death of the battleship "Empress Maria" did not happen by chance.

German spies

Some circumstances also speak in favor of the "sabotage" hypothesis. were carried out on the ship repair work, access control was weak, and what could prevent the infiltrator from planting a microfuze in the cellar, like that that was discovered on the Italian dreadnought "Leonardo da Vinci" in the summer of 1915? Moreover, many hatches were not locked. Another fact speaks at first glance in favor of espionage wrecking: in 1933, the NKVD neutralized the residency of German intelligence, headed by a certain Verman. According to the arrested person, he was recruited before the revolution. And he was interested in the achievements of Russian military electrical engineering, including the schemes of the Empress Maria. The Chekists did not pay attention to this at that time. Whether Verman was a spy is unknown, then people confessed to anything.

The ship was cut up for scrap in 1926. All that remains is the memory of what the battleship Empress Maria was like. There is a model of it in the Nakhimov Museum, in the homeland of the naval commander - in the Smolensk region. Another skilfully executed layout - on a large scale - adorns the exposition of the Nikolaev Museum of the History of Shipbuilding and the Fleet.

Battleship"Empress Maria"

By the middle of the XIX century. sailing ships of the line reached perfection. Numerous steamships have already appeared in the fleets, and the propeller propeller has successfully proved its many advantages. But the shipyards of many countries continued to build more and more "white-winged beauties".

On April 23, 1849, the 84-gun ship "Empress Maria" was laid down at the Nikolaev Admiralty, which became the last sailing battleship of the Russian Imperial Navy.

"Empress Maria" was built according to the same drawings, according to which the ship "Brave" was built earlier in Nikolaev. Its displacement was 4160 tons, length - 61 m, width - 17.25 m, draft - 7.32 m; the sail area is about 2900 m2. The builder of the ship is Lieutenant Colonel of the Corps of Ship Engineers I.S. Dmitriev. On two closed artillery decks and the upper deck, the state was supposed to install 84 guns: 8 bombing 68-pounders, 56 36-pounders and 20 24-pounders. The latter included both conventional cannons and carronades. In fact, the ship was more guns- 90 is usually indicated, but the available information often contradicts each other. The crew numbered (again according to the state) 770 people.

"Empress Maria"

The ship was launched on May 9, 1853, and already in July, the Empress Maria, commanded by the captain of the second rank P.I. Baranovsky, made the transition from Nikolaev to Sevastopol. In early August, they went to sea for testing, and then the new battleship took part in the exercises.

At this time, things were moving towards another war: just on May 9, the Russian delegation, headed by His Serene Highness Prince A.S. Menshikov left Turkey. Diplomatic relations were torn apart. Following this, Russian troops entered Moldavia and Wallachia. Britain and France supported Turkey and decided to send squadrons to the Sea of ​​Marmara. In the current conditions, the governor of the Caucasus, Prince M.S. Vorontsov turned to the emperor with a request - to strengthen the troops in Transcaucasia. The order followed, and in September the Black Sea Fleet was entrusted with the task of transferring the 13th infantry division. For this, a squadron was assigned under the command of Vice Admiral Pavel Stepanovich Nakhimov. On September 14, the landing of troops on ships began in Sevastopol, and on the 17th, the squadron went to sea. On board the "Empress Maria" were 939 officers and lower ranks of the Bialystok regiment. The landing of troops and the unloading of carts and artillery was carried out by the Black Sea on September 24 in Anakria and Sukhum-Kale.

Events at the Black Sea theater developed rapidly. Turkey first declared war Russian Empire, and 5 days after that, on October 20, Nicholas I declared war on Turkey. At this time, the "Empress Maria" was cruising as part of the squadron of P.S. Nakhimov. Unfortunately, the autumn weather on the Black Sea thoroughly battered the Russian ships, some of them were damaged. As a result, by November 11, Nakhimov had only 84 cannon "Empress Maria" (flagship), "Chesma" and "Rostislav" and the brig "Eney". It was on that day in Sinop that they managed to find a woman who had come there the day before. Turkish squadron under the command of Osman Pasha. The enemy was blocked, but it was not possible to attack Sinop - there were not enough forces. The Turks had seven large frigates, three corvettes and two steamships.

Reinforcements approached Nakhimov on the 16th - as part of the squadron of F.M. Novosilsky included 120 cannon " Grand Duke Constantine", "Paris" and "Three Saints". Now the superiority in forces has passed to the Russians (they had even larger frigates - the Kagul and Kulevchi).

On the morning of November 18, the ships, lining up in two columns, began to move towards Sinop. When they almost came close to the enemy ships stretched out in an arc along the coast, they opened fire at 12:28. Two minutes later, Nakhimov ordered Baranovsky to anchor. He hurried a little - the ship had not yet reached the place prescribed by the disposition. Because of this, Chesma turned out to be practically turned off from the battle.

Nakhimov's flagship was fired upon by four enemy ships and coastal batteries. But as soon as the Russians opened fire, the situation immediately changed. The superiority in the number and caliber of guns, the better training of the gunners, had an effect. Already at 13 o'clock the Turkish flagship frigate "Avni Allah", unable to withstand the fire of the "Empress Mary", riveted the chain and tried to get out of the battle. Then the gunners shifted their fire to another frigate, the Fazli Allah. He held out until 13:40, after which the caught fire "Turk" threw himself ashore. Then the guns of the "Empress Maria" suppressed the 8-gun coastal battery, and also fired at the still resisting enemy ships. In total, the battleship fired 2180 shots at the enemy.

At 14:32, Nakhimov ordered to stop the battle, but it took a long time to finish off the Turkish ships that had not lowered their flags or suddenly revived batteries. It was all over by 6 pm. Only the steamer-frigate "Taif" was able to escape. At the exit to the sea, the Russians tried to intercept him sailing frigates, as well as the steamer-frigates of the squadron of Vice Admiral V. A. Kornilov (Chief of Staff of the Black Sea Fleet) who arrived in time for the battle. After an unsuccessful chase, Kornilov returned to Sinop, and two admirals met on the road.

An eyewitness to the events recalled: “We pass very close along the line of our ships, and Kornilov congratulates the commanders and teams, who respond with enthusiastic cries of “hurrah”, the officers wave their caps. Approaching the ship "Maria" (Nakhimov's flagship), we board the boat of our steamer and go to the ship to congratulate him. The ship was completely pierced with cannonballs, the shrouds were almost all killed, and with a rather strong swell, the masts swayed so much that they threatened to fall. We board the ship, and both admirals throw themselves into each other's arms. We all also congratulate Nakhimov. He was magnificent: a cap on the back of his head, his face was stained with blood, and the sailors and officers, most of whom are my acquaintances, are all black from powder smoke. It turned out that the “Maria” had the most killed and wounded, since Nakhimov was the leader in the squadron and from the very beginning of the battle he was closest to the Turkish firing sides.

Indeed, the "Empress Maria" suffered seriously: 60 holes in the hull, including in the underwater part, a mutilated mast (the bowsprit was broken, the topmasts and masts were damaged). The crew suffered heavy losses - 16 sailors were killed, four officers, including Baranovsky, three non-commissioned officers and 52 sailors were wounded. The state of the ship turned out to be such that Kornilov convinced Nakhimov to transfer the flag to the less damaged Grand Duke Konstantin. When the winners left Sinop on November 20, the "Empress Maria" was taken to Sevastopol in tow by the steamer-frigate "Crimea".

The victory was very much appreciated Russian emperor and the whole society. The winners received many awards - orders, promotions, cash payments. The ships, despite the apparent severity of the damage, were also repaired fairly quickly. But the coin also had a second side: Menshikov warned Nakhimov not without reason that the destruction of Sinop was undesirable. It was this circumstance that prompted Britain and France to launch a fierce anti-Russian campaign, which in the spring of 1854 led to war. Now the Black Sea Fleet was inferior to the enemy numerically and, most importantly, technically. The presence of screw battleships and steamships with powerful machines gave the Allies a huge advantage. It has become the main reason unwillingness of the command to go to sea for a decisive battle.

The landing of the allies in the Crimea and the defeat of the Russian troops on land created a direct threat to the main base of the Black Sea Fleet - Sevastopol. To avoid a breakthrough of the Anglo-French squadron into the Sevastopol bays, on September 11, 1854, five battleships and two frigates had to be sunk in the outer roadstead. The struggle for Sevastopol was long and fierce, both sides suffered heavy losses. The crews of almost all Russian ships (with the exception of steamships) fought on land; naval guns. On August 27, 1855, the French occupied Malakhov Kurgan. The next day, Russian troops left the southern side of Sevastopol and retreated to the northern side along the pontoon bridge. In this regard, the remaining ships of the Black Sea Fleet were flooded in the Sevastopol roadstead, among them was the Empress Maria.

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