History
Dvenadsat Apostolov was built by the Nikolayev Admiralty Dockyard at Nikolayev. She was laid down in 21 August 1889, launched in 13 September 1890, and sailed to Sevastopol for fitting out on 11 May 1892. She joined the fleet on 17 June 1893, but she was not fully ready for service until 1894. In 1895 she was used to test a new system of laying mines by rails that had been invented by Lieutenant A. P. Ygrumov and also to evaluate the proper dimensions for anti-torpedo nets and their booms. For this last test torpedoes were fired at the ship with the anti-torpedo nets deployed. One gun, of an unknown calibre, burst in 1903, killing one man and wounding two others.
Dvenadsat Apostolov participated in the failed attempt to recapture the mutinous battleship Potemkin on 30 June 1905. She attempted to ram Potemkin but sailors sympathetic to the mutiny reversed the engines and then prevented an attempt by Captain Kolands to blow his own ship by severing the detonating wires.
The Naval Technical Committee proposed to reboiler her in 1907 with new Belleville water-tube boilers, but this was forestalled by a plan to reuse those of the Chesma. Simultaneously a proposal to rearm her with four ten-inch guns in two turrets and several 6-inch guns in a new casemate was made by the Naval General Staff. This was estimated to cost 1,275,000 roubles and would only add 15 long tons (15 t) to her displacement, but both proposals were rejected by the Naval Technical Committee which believed it was a waste of money given her obsolete layout. The General Staff made another proposal in 1909 to rearm her as with smaller guns as a guardship intended to defend Sevastopol from attacks by enemy light forces. This was initially approved by the Navy Minister, Admiral Ivan Grigorovich in June 1909, but this was later reversed.
Dvenadsat Apostolov was transferred to the Sevastopol Port Authority on 1 April 1911, stricken from the Navy List and disarmed on 15 April. She became a depot ship for submarines in 1912. Renamed as Blokshiv (hulk) No. 8 on 4 September 1914, she was used on various harbour duties. Immobile, she was captured by the Germans in Sevastopol in May 1918 and handed over to the Allies in December 1918. She was captured by both sides during the Russian Civil War, but was abandoned by the White Russians when they evacuated the Crimea. Her machinery was removed in 1921. She was used as a stand-in for the Potemkin during the filming of The Battleship Potemkin, while reportedly serving as a mine storage hulk, before she was sold for scrap on 28 January 1931.
Read more about this topic: Russian Battleship Dvenadsat Apostolov
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