Pre-Dreadnought Potemkin

[Brian James]

Pre-Dreadnought Battleship Panteleimon (Ex Potemkin), pictured at Sevastopol in 1914...She became famous when the crew rebelled against the officers in June 1905 (during that year's revolution), which is now viewed as a first step towards the Russian Revolution of 1917...After the mutineers sought asylum in Constanța, Romania, and after the Russians recovered the ship, her name was changed to Panteleimon. She 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. She covered several bombardments of the Bosphorus fortifications in early 1915, including one where the ship was attacked by the Ottoman Battlecruiser Yavuz Sultan Selim – Panteleimon and the other Russian Pre-Dreadnoughts present drove her off before she could inflict any serious damage. The ship was relegated to secondary roles after Russia's first Dreadnought Battleship entered service in late 1915. She was by then obsolete and was reduced to reserve in 1918 in Sevastopol...Panteleimon was captured when the Germans took Sevastopol in May 1918 and was handed over to the Allies after the Armistice in November 1918. Her engines were destroyed by the British in 1919 when they withdrew from Sevastopol to prevent the advancing Bolsheviks from using them against the White Russians. The ship was abandoned when the Whites evacuated the Crimea in 1920 and was finally scrapped by the Soviets in 1923.

[Brian James]

Pre-Dreadnought Battleship Panteleimon (Ex Potemkin) pictured at Sevastopol under the German flag after her seizure in 1918...The Pre-Dreadnought Tri Sviatitelia in the background.