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Class overview
Builders	Yarrow Shipbuilders, London Wm. Crichton & Co., Turku Izhora Shipyard, Kolpino
Operators	Imperial Russian Navy
Completed	27

Background

In 1892, British Third Sea Lord Admiral John Fisher ordered the development of a new type of warship that became the torpedo boat destroyer. This resulted in six ships comprising the Daring, Havock and Ferret classes built by Thornycroft, Yarrow and Laird respectively. Fisher insisted that other shipyards be allowed to build destroyers using Yarrow's design in order to quickly build up a force of destroyers. This offended Alfred Yarrow, who, no longer feeling any obligation to the Royal Navy, began looking for export customers.

In January of 1894, Yarrow sent a letter to Russian Admiral Pavel Tyrtov, head of the General Directorate of Shipbuilding and Supplies (Главное управление кораблестроения и снабжений, GUKiS), proposing to build a new destroyer with an unprecedented speed of 29 knots. The Russian Naval Ministry was interested, and in April that year Yarrow arrived in Saint Petersburg to negotiate the contract. The price was an early stumbling block; Yarrow initially asked for £38,000, similar to the cost of the destroyers built for the Royal Navy, but the Russians considered this too expensive. Yarrow settled for £36,000 and on 30 May 1894 the contract was signed in London.

Construction of the ship proceeded rapidly. Sokol began her trials on 17 August 1895. She arrived in Kronstadt on DATE and entered service on DATE. Sokol outclassed older Russian torpedo boats in speed, armament and operational range to such an extent that the Russian Naval Ministry decided to stop building traditional torpedo boats and focus instead on ships of the new type.

Russian-built Ships

Although Yarrow offered to provide assistance, the Russians chose to rely entirely on their domestic shipbuilding industry.

Characteristics

Hull and Construction

The Russian-built ships had plating up to 7.5 mm thick, which made them sturdier but resulted in increased displacement and reduced speed.

Propulsion

The Russian-built ships had similar engines, but were noted to be less reliable.

Most ships had eight water-tube boilers, but some had four.

Sokol was designed to carry up to 60 tonnes of coal for fuel, giving a maximum range of 1,200 miles (1,900 km) at 16 knots (30 km/h), and 2,500 miles (4,000 km) at 10 knots (19 km/h).

Trials were conducted under ideal conditions, without armament or stores and employing expert stokers and high-grade coal. As a result, the speed of the ships in service was typically three to four knots slower than on trials, even for the exceptional Sokol.

Crew

Sokol had a crew of 48 men: 5 officers and 43 other ranks. The Russian-built ships had 4 officers and 48 other ranks for a total of 52 crewmen. In practice, the crew of the ships was sometimes increased to as many as 55 men. Conditions for the crew were poor due to the small size of the ships.

Service

Russo-Japanese War

Russian commander Admiral Stepan Makarov described them as "dashing sea Cossacks".

The destroyers at Port Arthur were organised in two squadrons. The first consisted of 12 more modern, mainly foreign built ships, while the second contained 12 Sokol class destroyers, as well as the Boxer Rebellion trophy Leytenant Burakov (formerly Hai Hua).

included 9 Sokol class destroyers: Reshitelny, Razyashchiy, Rastoropny, Serdity, Smely, Storozhevoy, Steregushchiy, Skory, Silny, under construction Strashny, Stroyny and Statny. Most of these ships were kept in reserve, and, of the second squadron, only Rastoropny and Skory were active in the month preceeding the war.

Port Arthur

Rastoropny was one of only two Russian destroyers (alongside the Kit class Besstrashny) on patrol the night of 8-9 February 1904 when Japanese destroyers launched their surprise attack. Under orders to avoid combat, the Russian ships returned to report the encounter, while the Japanese squadron was scattered in the ensuing confusion.

Immediately after the attack, Russian ships set out to search for the Japanese. All of the Sokols except Serdity, which was undergoing repairs, took part. They failed to locate the Japanese force and the only notable action occured when the cruiser Boyarin mistakenly fired on Silny, inflicting no damage. During the surface engagement the following day, the Russian destroyers were ordered to attack three times, but were called off on each occasion and did not play a major part in the battle, suffering no damage as a result.

In the following months, the Russian destroyers mounted regular patrols. On 11 February, Storozhevoy attempted to scuttle the abandoned Boyarin, which had struck a mine, but neither of her two torpedoes were successful and Boyarin was left to drift. On 24 February, Steregushchiy, Storozhevoy and Skory fought an inconclusive skirmish with Japanese destroyers.

Final Battle

On 8 March, Admiral Stepan Makarov arrived to command the Russian fleet. One of his first moves was to dispatch the destroyers Reshitelny and Steregushchiy to scout the coast of the Liaodong Peninsula and nearby islands. They set out on the evening of 9 March. At around 21:00, they spotted the searchlight of a Japanese ship in Dalian Bay and moved to investigate. They were spotted by a force of Japanese destroyers and took cover behind an island. The Russian destroyers remained hidden until 3:00 before beginning their return to Port Arthur.

Monument to Steregushchiy

Three hours later, they encountered the four Japanese destroyers Usugumo, Shinonome, Sazanami and Akebono returning from a raid. The Russians attempted to evade the Japanese, but they were cut off from the port. Soon, the Japanese destroyers were sailing parallel to the Russians and opened fire. Reshitelny, leading the Russian formation, was hit but managed to reach the safety of the Russian shore batteries, causing the Japanese to focus entirely on the trailing Steregushchiy. At 6:40, a hit damaged her boilers and further damage followed, dashing any hopes of breaking through to Port Arthur. Steregushchiy continued to fight, scoring numerous hits on the Japanese destroyers but receiving severe damage in return. By the time the battle ended at 7:10, of 53 officers and crewmen, only four of her crew survived to be rescued. The Japanese attempted to take the crippled destroyer under tow at 8:10 but she broke free soon after. Before they could make a second attempt, Makarov arrived with the cruisers Bayan and Novik and drove them off, leaving Steregushchiy to finally sink at 9:20.

The actions of Reshitelny's commander Fyodor Bosse were controversial. He was criticised by some for abandoning Steregushchiy, but Admiral Makarov reasoned that Steregushchiy was doomed, and his decision had prevented the loss of both destroyers. Bosse received the Order of St George 4th Class "for breaking through the enemy to his port." The four survivors were brought to Japan aboard the cruiser Tokiwa, where they recieved a letter from Japanese Naval Minister Yamamoto Gonnohyōe praising their bravery.

Shortly after the sinking, a story appeared in the newspaper Novoye Vremya about the sinking of Steregushchiy. It claimed that, when the Japanese had taken the destroyer under tow, two Russian sailors had locked themselves in her hold and opened the seacocks, sacrificing themselves to deny the Japanese their prize. The story spread rapily and captured popular imagination in Russia. Sculptor Konstantin Izenberg designed a monument to the "two unknown hero-sailors" that received the approval of Emperor Nichoas II in 1908.

However, the legend soon began to fall apart. Stories from the repatriated survivors were contradictory; one of them claimed that he had been the one to open the seacocks in the engine room (in fact, none of the Sokol class had seacocks in their engine rooms). The historical division of the Naval General Staff presented a report to the Emperor, arguing that fiction should not be immortalised, to which he replied that the monument could still stand to commemorate the destroyer's heroic final battle. The monument on Kamennoostrovsky Prospekt was inaugurated on 9 May 1911.

http://russiaflot.ru/korbrmin/343-minonoscy-tipa-sokol.html