Provornyi Class

Posted by F.F. on Monday 27th of January 2025 15:12

Sea of Okhotsk, named from eponym town.

en(point)wikipedia(point)org wiki Pacific_Fleet_(Russia)#History
«In 1731, the Imperial Russian Navy created the Okhotsk Military Flotilla (Охотская военная флотилия, Okhotskaya voyennaya flotiliya) under its first commander, Grigoriy Skornyakov-Pisarev, to patrol and transport government goods to and from Kamchatka. In 1799, 3 frigates and 3 smaller ships were sent to Okhotsk under the command of Rear-Admiral I. Fomin to form a functioning military flotilla. In 1849, Petropavlovsk-na-Kamchatke became the Flotilla's principal base, which a year later would be transferred to Nikolayevsk-on-Amur and later to Vladivostok in 1871. In 1854, the men of the Flotilla distinguished themselves in the defense of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy during the Crimean War, (1853–1856).
[…]
In 1860, the provisions of the Convention of Peking ceded parts of Outer Manchuria in northeastern China, including the modern day krai of Primorsky Krai to the Russian Empire. A large squadron under Rear Admiral A. A. Popov was sent from the Baltic Fleet to the Pacific Ocean.
[…]»

On Internet Archive (archive.org), History of the Russian Navy during the Reign of Peter the Great by a Contemporary Englishman (1724), Edited by Vice-Admiral Cyprian A. G. Bridge, K.C.B., Printed for the Navy Records Society, 1899; 10.74 Mo in PDF (historyofrussian00contuoft) or 9.32 Mo (historyrussianf00bridgoog). This book is useful regarding the Russian Navy until 1724, and has (pp. 130-132) a list of the Russian ships in the Baltic Sea between 1710 and 1723, no ship elsewhere being considered there (not even in the Black Sea). Pages 133 to 143 are a digest on the Swedish Navy history (pages 138 to 140 include a list of the Swedish ships) and on British subjects in the service of it (of note is the Sheldon dynasty of shipwrights).

I have a copy of a list published online, now disappeared, of all the Russian ships in the age of the ships of the line. It included ships in the Baltic Sea (the major part of the Russian fleet, because of the Swedish sea power), in the Black Sea, Azov Sea and Casbian Sea (mainly in the Black Sea, because of Ottoman rivalry, the Golden Horn Arsenal being the main Turkish arsenal).

So it seems almost no Russian ship except a flottilla was in the Pacific squadron. In fact no fleet of importance was there during centuries. From his embassy mission (1792-1793) Macartney himself noted that only a few frigates would be needed to deal with the whole Chinese fleet, the main one in the Pacific Ocean then, and the opium wars would prove he was right (for what junks looked like and how well they sailed, as they were in the late ⅹⅸᵗʰ century, see Keying junk, on wikipedia and on the Royal Museum of Greenwich websites; regarding the question of the ⅹⅴᵗʰ c. bao chuan, wikipedia's article has erased most of what I regarded as useful).

Posted by Cy on Sunday 26th of January 2025 19:35

The filter is correct to reject that answer, HMS is not part of the ships name.

Posted by Mike Tittensor on Sunday 26th of January 2025 11:07

Does anyone know the size of the Russian Pacific Squadron? How committed was the Czar to controlling this vast territory? The main naval bases would be Okhonsk and Sitka, yes? (PS: when I answered HMS Victory, the spam filter didn't like it)!