ET 1913 g Novaya Verf Brilliant class destroyer

ET 1913 g Novaya Verf Brilliant class Destroyer
Class overview
Name	ET 1913 g Novaya Verf Brilliant class Destroyer
Operators	Far Eastern Imperial Navy
Class before	ET 1910 g Oniks class destroyer
Planned	9
Built	9
Active	9
General Characteristics
Type	Destroyer
Displacement	1200 tons standard 1520 tons full load
Length	102.4 metres (336 ft)
Beam	9.5 metres (31 ft)
Draught	3.53 metres (11.6 ft)
Propulsion	2 shafts, 2 AEG-Vulkan Steam turbines (see notes)
Power	4 watertube boilers 37,000 ihp (28,000 kW)
Speed	34 kts
Range	2600 nm at 21 kts
Complement	122
Armament	2 × 120mm/45 KO 1913 g gun 4 × 2 tubes for 18-inch (450 mm) torpedoes

Development

After the defeat in Far Eastern - Japanese war, the war experience and lessons were theraly analysed in the "Special committee of readjustment in naval affairs" which was formed after the humiliating defeat in the Tsusima straight. One of the main lessons of the war regarding torpedo ships were, that destroyers were far more versatile than just aggressive torpedo attackers. They performed vast range of different naval missions and thus the new requirement for future destroyers emphasized multipurpose capability. New type of destroyers were to operate in higher speeds and longer range with better sea keeping capabilities. This in return meant that the future destroyers would be considerably larger than the earlier ones. Novaya Verf build prototype ship for these new requirements called Oniks and after analyzing the performance of the new ship, a tender for total of 27 new destroyers were issued upon three shipyards; Novaya Verf in Dalny, Dalzavod in Vladivostok and Amurskiy Sudostroitelnyy Zavod in Nikolaev-na-Amure. Each shipyard were given design requirements but other than that, each company was responsible of designing their boats. It resulted 3 different group of relatively similar performance destroyers.

Novaya Verf's design was based on the earlier Oniks but had some differences according to the new design parameters. The short forecastle with the break was replaced with longer one and the bridge structure was placed above the forecastle deck. Ships carried 2 new 120mm/45 guns and 4 set of twin torpedo tubes. Later units of the class had one or two of the twin torpedo tubes replaced with additional 120mm guns. The boats had two-shaft machinery and only 4 boilers compared 6 to the Oniks class but with increased capacity and thus still making 37,000 hp. Initially the machinery was to be brought from Germany as it was the case with the Oniks class. However after the start of the First World War, German turbines were no longer available. Only the first 3 units received their original machinery. The remainder had indigenous machinery set which prolonged their construction considerably.

Ships in class

Name	Builder	Laid down	Launch Date	Entered Service	Fate
Brilliant	Novaya Verf, Dalny	July 1913	June 1914	November 1915	Extant in 1920
Izumrud	Novaya Verf, Dalny	July 1913	June 1914	November 1915	Extant in 1920
Ametist	Novaya Verf, Dalny	July 1913	June 1914	December 1915	Extant in 1920
Sapfir	Novaya Verf, Dalny	May 1914	August 1915	December 1916	Extant in 1920
Zhemchug	Novaya Verf, Dalny	May 1914	August 1915	December 1917	Extant in 1920
Rubin	Novaya Verf, Dalny	May 1914	August 1915	January 1918	Extant in 1920
Bazalt	Novaya Verf, Dalny	July 1915	October 1917	June 1919	Extant in 1920
Granat	Novaya Verf, Dalny	July 1915	October 1917	July 1919	Extant in 1920
Malakhit	Novaya Verf, Dalny	July 1915	October 1917	August 1919	Extant in 1920

See Also

Ships of Far Eastern Imperial Navy 1920