Sinking
She sank on June 12, 1897 during a military exercise after hitting an uncharted pinnacle of rock near Vyborg in the Gulf of Finland in 30m of water. There were no fatalities. A gash along the ships bottom led to both boiler rooms flooding and a loss of power to her pumps. Drawbacks in her design with limited damage stability resulted in ineffective counter-flooding. Bulkheads were poorly riveted leading to leaks. The ship settled and sank slowly on an even keel.
A plan to refloat the ship by the Swedish Neptune Company was not carried out, divers recovered some items from the ship in 1898.
She was not popular in the Imperial Russian Navy. Rear Admiral Birilev, her former captain, is quoted as describing her as ".. a vile ship, it's good that she sank, and it is pointless to raise her" (Warship 2005, Conway's Maritime Press, p. 181)
Read more about this topic: Russian Coast Defense Ship Gangut (1888)
Famous quotes containing the word sinking:
“they smile in secret, looking over wasted lands,
Blight and famine, plague and earthquake, roaring deeps and fiery sands,
Clanging fights, and flaming towns, and sinking ships, and praying hands.”
—Alfred Tennyson (1809–1892)
“We of the sinking middle class ... may sink without further struggles into the working class where we belong, and probably when we get there it will not be so dreadful as we feared, for, after all, we have nothing to lose but our aitches.”
—George Orwell (1903–1950)
“We ask for no statistics of the killed,
For nothing political impinges on
This single casualty, or all those gone,
Missing or healing, sinking or dispersed,
Hundreds of thousands counted, millions lost.”
—Karl Shapiro (b. 1913)