Career As A Target Hulk
Stalingrad's hull was towed from Nikolayev on 19 May 1955 by three tugs, but was driven ashore by high winds on 23 May at the southern entrance to Sevastopol Bay. She grounded on a very rocky bottom in very shallow water only about 50 m (160 ft) from shore. A number of the ordinary methods to refloat a ship couldn't be used because she was very nearly empty and so nothing could be off-loaded and the rocky bottom meant that it couldn't be excavated out from underneath her. The first attempt used brute force provided by the cruisers Molotov and Kerch to unsuccessfully tow her off. Several other attempts were made using explosive charges to create shock waves that would pivot her stern into deeper water in combination with tugs attempting to pull her around, but these were counterproductive in that several holes were blown in her sides which flooded several compartments and grounded her that much more firmly. At this time a more detailed assessment was made of the situation and 259 steel projections were discovered on the underside of her hull, left over from her launching cradles. These ranged in length from 40–169 mm (1.6–6.7 in) and totally invalidated all calculations about the amount of force required to free her.
The capsizing of the battleship Novorossiysk in Sevastopol harbor on 29 October 1955 delayed salvage operations on the Stalingrad until the end of the year. The hull had to be patched, the water pumped out and all the projections removed to raise the stern slightly with pontoons, pivot into deeper water, then trim it down to elevate the bow off the bottom and pull it free. These preparations were very time-consuming and it wasn't until mid-July 1956 that it could be pulled off the rocks into Sevastopol harbor where she was given more permanent repairs. She was then moved to the Naval Firing Range between Yevpatoria and Sevastopol where it was used as a target for seven P-1 or KSS anti-ship missiles fired from the converted Sverdlov-class cruiser Admiral Nakhimov in December 1956. The missiles penetrated the upper and main decks and devastated the upper hull, but there was no appreciable change in the ship's draught. Details are not known about other tests, although she reportedly served as a target for P-15 Termit (SS-N-2 Styx) missiles and a wide variety of armor-piercing munitions. By the early 1960s her usefulness had come to an end and she was scrapped, possibly in 1962.
Read more about this topic: Stalingrad Class Battlecruiser
Famous quotes containing the words career as a, career, target and/or hulk:
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