Evstafi Class Battleship - World War I

World War I

Evstafi, as the newest ship in the Black Sea Fleet, was the flagship of Vice Admiral Andrei Eberhardt for the first year or so of World War I. Two weeks after the Russian declaration of war on the Ottoman Empire on 2 November 1914, the Black Sea Fleet set out to bombard Trebizond on 15 November. The force consisted of the pre-dreadnoughts Evstafi, Ioann Zlatoust, Pantelimon, Rostislav, Tri Sviatitelia and three cruisers escorted by three destroyers and 11 torpedo boats. They did this successfully on the morning of 17 November and then turned west to hunt for Turkish shipping along the Anatolian coast before setting course for Sevastopol later that afternoon. The following day, while en route, the ships were intercepted by the German battlecruiser Goeben and the light cruiser SMS Breslau in what came to be known as the Battle of Cape Sarych.

Despite the noon hour the conditions were foggy and the capital ships initially did not spot each other. The Black Sea Fleet had experimented on concentrating fire from several ships under the control of a "master ship" before the war and Evstafi held her fire until Ioann Zlatoust, the master ship, could see Goeben. When the gunnery commands were finally received they showed a range over 4,000 yards (3,700 m) in excess of Evstafi's own estimate of 7,700 yards (7,000 m), so Evstafi opened fire using her own data before Goeben turned to unmask its broadside. She scored a hit with her first salvo as a 12-inch shell partially penetrated the armor casemate protecting one of Goeben's 15-centimetre (5.9 in) secondary guns. It detonated some of the ready-use ammunition, starting a fire that burnt out the casemate and killed its crew.

Goeben returned fire shortly afterward and hit Evstafi in the middle funnel; the shell detonated after it passed through the funnel and destroyed the antennae for the fire-control radio, which meant that Evstafi could not correct Ioann Zlatoust's inaccurate range data. The other ships either used Ioann Zlatoust's incorrect data or never saw Goeben and failed to register any hits on the German ship. Goeben hit Evstafi four more times, although one shell failed to detonate, before Rear Admiral Wilhelm Souchon decided to turn away and break contact after fourteen minutes of combat. Evstafi suffered 34 killed and 24 wounded from those hits, and only fired between 12 and 16 twelve-inch shells, as well as 14 eight-inch and 19 six-inch shells. Ioann Zlatoust fired only six shells from her main armament.

Several armour plates on Evstafi required replacement after the battle and they were taken from the old pre-dreadnought Dvenadsat Apostolov, allowing the repairs to be complete by 29 November. On 9 January 1915 Breslau and the Ottoman cruiser Hamidiye encountered the Russian fleet while returning from a bombardment mission in the eastern part of the Black Sea. During a minor engagement Breslau hit Evstafi's forward turret, temporarily putting it out of action, after which the two cruisers escaped using their superior speed.