At the end of October 1878, the imperial wheeled yacht "Livadia" jumped out on the stones near the Crimean coast and died. It was assumed that a new one would be built, similar to the one that died, but with increased speed and cruising range, however, Vice Admiral Popov A.A., who had become the chairman of the Marine Technical Committee by that time, put forward another option. Gulyaev E.E. on his instructions, he developed a project for a yacht, which had the shape of an ellipse in plan. Andrei Alexandrovich, considering this form as the starting point for choosing the type of the future battleship of the Black Sea Fleet, decided on a full-scale experiment. This was understood not only by Russian specialists, but also by English ones. So, for example, in 1879, The Times wrote: “... comfort and stability are the main qualities that were pursued during the design of the yacht, and if the maximum stability in the yacht is provided by a known form, then possible changes and the addition of armor can make it, on the same principle, no less stable artillery platform. It's no secret that the yacht being created is an experience ... ".

In addition to ensuring stability, safety and navigational comfort, the design focused on achieving a speed of 14 knots for the new ship. According to the results of experiments with Popov's second round ship on the Black Sea, as well as model tests carried out in England, the main dimensions of the yacht were determined with a draft of 1.9 meters, which meets all the requirements put forward. To verify the results, at the request of the designers and future builders, the paraffin models of the hull were subjected to new tests at the beginning of 1879 under the direction of Tiedemann in Amsterdam. Tiedemann, who is the chief engineer of the Dutch fleet and a very famous shipbuilder, Froude's conclusions confirmed and guaranteed that the ship would reach a speed of 14 knots, provided that the power plant capacity was more than 8500 horsepower (the project assumed a power of 10-11 thousand horsepower) .

In the middle of the year, the project, agreed with the shipbuilding company John Elder and Co. (England), was finally prepared. In August, after Pierce, the chief builder of the company, assured in writing the possibility of creating such a ship, personal permission of Emperor Alexander II to build a yacht in England followed. Pierce and Kazi M.I., a well-known Russian shipbuilder, signed an agreement on September 5. This document had not quite the usual conditions. Their essence was the obligation not only to build the yacht itself according to Russian drawings, with the installation of steam mechanisms of its own manufacture on it, but also to guarantee that it would achieve a speed of 15 knots. The company had to pay heavy fines for each undeveloped 0.1 knots, and if the ship would reach a speed of less than 14 knots, the customer had the right not to accept it at all, but to take only the power plant, for which he was obliged to make contractual payments during the construction process. The calculation for the yacht with the success of the tests followed after it was delivered. For exceeding the speed of 15 knots and the power of 12 thousand liters. With. builders received impressive bonuses. The latter was supposed to stimulate the company to create perfect power plants, which were intended not only for the new yacht, but also, if successful, for future Russian ships and the battleship Peter the Great, since his cars, as well as the popovok cars, could not develop design capacities.

The construction period of the vessel was short in English: the final date of delivery was July 1, 1880. Moreover, after signing the contract during an audience with the Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich, Pierce offered to hand over the yacht ahead of schedule! Work at the shipyard, which was located in Ferrol (on the outskirts of Glasgow, on the River Clyde), began immediately after the signing of all documents. A month later, the author of the project, Gulyaev E.E., who was appointed to supervise the construction, reported on the manufacture of templates for metal structures and the completion of the preparation of the slipway. Two-thirds of the set of the second bottom by the beginning of November were riveted ... Then Popov A.A. intervened again, having achieved the highest permission to furnish the yacht's premises in England. Popov motivated this by the fact that “it is desirable to test the ship in its finished form” and carrying out such work in the Nikolaev Admiralty would be too expensive. An additional contract was concluded on November 10: the shipbuilders received not only an additional payment, but also a real opportunity to postpone, if necessary, the terms of the yacht's readiness. Despite this, work continued according to the original plans.

On January 5, 1880, a yacht called "Livadia" was included in the lists of ships of the fleet, and 10 days later a commander was appointed - captain 1st rank Vogak I.K. (former first commander of both Novgorod and Peter the Great) ... The official laying of the vessel took place on March 25; at this time, the hull plating was already mounted. Four months later, on June 25, the yacht was launched. The ceremony was attended by Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich (who later became Admiral General of the Russian Navy, a consistent ill-wisher of Popova A.A.).

The yacht "Livadia", which was launched in a high degree of readiness, with a propeller-steering complex and superstructures, had such an original look that the "Time", which traditionally did not place drawings of domestic ships on its pages, made an exception. This double-hulled vessel was figuratively described by newspapermen as a "bull on a halibut". In fact, the yacht (upper hull) was a vessel cut along the waterline, 33.53 m wide and 79.25 m long, installed on a semi-submerged pontoon, which had an elliptical shape, a maximum width of 46.63 and a length of 71.63 meters . The height amidships was no more than 5.49 meters, the bottom was flat, and had three keels: the middle one in the diametrical plane, as well as the side ones, each of which was at a distance of 5.49 meters from the middle one. According to Gulyaev E.E. "... the yacht could be longer ... to suit the taste of the majority ...", however, this led to the need to increase the power of her machines and reduce stability. Shallow draft was defined by the designer as an "outstanding feature" that allowed to reduce wave resistance, which, at high speeds in ships such as popovkas, was, by Froude's definition, the most significant. From this it is clear that this design was applied in order to reduce the ship's draft in order to achieve the specified speeds. In this form, the combination of the named design features of the Livadia yacht really proves the originality of the ideas of its designers.

The general arrangement of the yacht "Livadia": a - longitudinal section; b - hold plan; c - section along the midship frame

The design of the lower hull (the sailors called it "pancake") was unique. Designed based on the experience gained in the construction of popovki, it provided an unprecedented level of unsinkability. The second bottom, which was 1.07 meters high and 0.76 meters at the ends, extended from the plating amidships to the full length. It was divided into 40 waterproof compartments; two longitudinal vertical bulkheads ran along the entire side, the space between the side and the bulkheads was also divided into 40 compartments. Covered with a convex deck shaped like an inverted saucer, the pontoon served as an annular solid base for the upper part of the ship, where the living quarters were located, as well as the royal apartments, and the second bottom served as the foundation for three vertical steam engines of double steam expansion (design power of each 3500 hp. .) and 10 cylindrical boilers. The pontoon housed coal pits, auxiliary mechanisms, ship supplies ...

Significant difficulties had to be overcome in determining the local and general strength of the steel structures of the pontoon, the junction of the hulls (annular stringer), which gave rise to those. problems of their provision. To the credit of the British and Russian engineers, these difficulties were largely overcome. The entire set was made of "Simenson" mild steel, the bulkheads and plating of the pontoon were made of iron sheets; the sheathing of the yacht itself and the deck are pine. The height of the yacht from the keels to the roof of the upper superstructures was 14 meters. The issue of application of the driving force was given special attention. During the construction of the yacht "Livadia", by the end of 1879, a self-propelled steel model on a scale of 1:10 was assembled and tested until the spring of next year. On a scale model worked out the location of the screws, dimensions and pitch. The test methodology was developed by Tiedemann, and the experiments were carried out by both English and Russian engineers. As a result, the deadwoods of the shafts were brought out in such a way that the yacht's propellers were mostly below the bottom, and the middle propeller, as on the Vice-Admiral Popov, was installed 760 mm further from the stern and deeper than the side propellers. The diameter of each screw with four blades was 4.72 meters, the average pitch was 3.81 meters, the rest - 6.25 meters; manganese bronze served as the material for them.

The premises were illuminated with the help of electric "Yablochkov candles"; electrical equipment was supplied from Russia. Throughout the yacht there was plumbing, 23 auxiliary steam mechanisms and a rudder drive. Similar to popovkas, a device for maneuvering the ship with the help of on-board vehicles was placed on the bridge. Three large mahogany steam boats were ordered in England as raid boats of the Livadia, the length of which was 8.5 m, 9.8 m and 11.9 m. The rowboats were used from the deceased Livadia. The total volume of halls, salons and cabins intended for the king and his retinue was 3950 m3, which was 6.7 times higher than that of its predecessor. The huge "reception" of the emperor, having a height of about 4 meters, resembled the rooms of Louis XVI in Fontainebleau. The reception room also housed a functioning fountain and flower beds surrounding it... The living room, located on the middle deck, was furnished in the Crimean Tatar spirit, while the rest of the rooms were decorated in a modern English style. The decoration of command rooms and officers' cabins was not included in the contracts and had to be carried out after the arrival of the yacht in the Black Sea.

Despite the “original design”, the ship looked great on the outside, the smooth hull was covered with a shiny black lacquer, and the light gray pontoon practically merged with the surface of the water.

The completion of the yacht afloat took almost three months. In August, all boilers were loaded (8 three-furnace boilers were installed across the pontoon, two more half-boilers were installed along the sides behind them), and in early September, the main machines, which were tested on mooring lines on August 10-19. Major General A.I. Sokolov, summoned to England, took part in these works. and Zarubin I.I. - the most experienced mechanical engineer of the fleet.

On September 24, the yacht Livadia, driven by Pierce and the factory crew, left the shipyard pool and, under the middle car, headed for Greenock down the river; just in case, she was taken by three tugboats. The ship entered the bay on the same day, and easily reached a speed of 12 knots.

Tiedeman, the chief consultant, noted that the ship kept on course perfectly and how the boat obeyed the helm. The next day, factory tests were carried out. Several Russian officers were invited to the yacht, as well as 12 sailors from the team assigned to the yacht. According to Sokolov A.I. managed to develop a speed of 15 knots, while the wind was oncoming!

On the 26th, an official six-hour test took place, to which Pierce invited the commission of the Naval Ministry, headed by Vice Admiral Likhachev I.F. The average speed of the Livadia was 14.88 knots with a power of 10.2 thousand liters. With.; due to the difference in the pitch of the propellers, the machines worked with a different number of revolutions: on-board 84, the average 90 revolutions per minute. Tiedemann noted that during operation, the circulation radius of all three machines was "somewhat large", but recognized this as insignificant, since it was possible to turn with the help of side propellers "in a much smaller space." The yacht was tested on a measured mile on September 27: according to the average data of 6 runs, the highest speed was 15.725 knots, and the power was 12354 horsepower. And this is provided that during the completion of the ship's hull, it was somewhat overgrown and sat somewhat deeper than expected, due to the heavier interior decoration and superstructure. The draft was 2.1 meters, and the displacement was 4420 tons.

Calculations and experiments were confirmed. Everyone was happy. The company was paid 2.7 million rubles, including 414 thousand rubles of bonuses. All European newspapers wrote about Popov A.A. and Gulyaev E.V.

Upon completion of the tests, the Russian team switched to Livadia, which arrived from the Baltic Fleet in August (the staff was exceeded and consisted of 24 officers, 321 lower ranks). On September 30, the yacht was received from the factory, and immediately, raising the guis and pennant, she began her campaign.

During the ferry to the Black Sea, it was planned to train the crew. Back in August Popov A.A. reported that the transition must be carried out: "with such a development of the power of machines as to enable the machine personnel to look around and become well acquainted with the control and operation of the machines." The yacht left the Greenock raid on 3 October. As guests of honor, on board were the shipbuilders Pierce, Reid and Tiedeman, as well as Admiral Steward, controller of the English fleet. Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich boarded in Brest and, "Livadia" under the admiral general's flag, on October 7 continued sailing to Cadiz through the Bay of Biscay. By this time, the draft of the yacht was: bow 2.9 meters, stern - 3.0 meters (taking into account the deep, average deadwood - 5.44 meters).

The cruise until midnight on October 8 took place at a speed of about 12 knots under favorable conditions. The wind that rose at night quickly got stronger, a strong oncoming swell appeared. From two o'clock in the morning the waves began to hit the bow of the pontoon - these impacts, at first rare, became more frequent with the increase in the height of the waves and the strengthening of the wind. The course was forced to be reduced to 4 knots, but the blows did not stop. Reed, who was very restrained in his assessments, wrote: “the blows to the flat bottom were terrible at times ...” I.K. Vogak reported the same thing in his report: “... one of the blows was especially strong, and made an impression on everyone as from a blow with a solid object ...” At 10 o'clock in the morning it turned out that the first double-bottom compartment was flooded; I urgently had to change course and head to the port of Ferrol (Spain).

The height of the waves, according to eyewitnesses, reached 6-7 meters, while the pitching did not exceed 3.5 degrees on board, and the keel - 9 degrees in a span of 5.5 degrees in the bow and 3.5 degrees in the stern. The screws were not exposed. “Nothing fell on the ship,” the commander’s report said: the high candelabra and table setting remained motionless as if in a calm, neither the water in the glasses nor the soup in the bowls spilled.

How did the Livadia, led by experienced sailors, land in the very center of the storm, and at the same time go against the wave? It is all the more incomprehensible, given that there were shipbuilders on board, who, even during the tests, hinted that the yacht was good “with not too big waves”. As the captain of the second rank Verkhovsky V.P., a member of the selection committee, noted, “the yacht was never intended for ocean navigation, and therefore the Black Sea is enough to judge its qualities ... in any case, there is no reason to expose it to daily exposure to heavy storms even on the Black Sea. The largest passage to Poti from Odessa ... the yacht will easily make it in 30 - 35 hours, and there will be no urgent need to leave the port in the very storm ... "

Reid refers to the admiral general, who believed that one should not miss an opportunity and "make a thorough test and therefore the yacht was sent into the very mouth of the Biscay storm." Verkhovsky also writes about this, but more diplomatically: “there were those who wanted to meet ... a storm, they wanted us to be patted, so that the excitement and wind were stronger ... and without this ... a complete judgment about the qualities of the vessel is impossible ... ". Whether the sailing leader himself decided on such a “test” or was advised and helped, remains unknown.

Divers in the Ferrol Bay found from the left side in the bow of the pontoon, a dent 5 meters long with cracks and gaps in the skin sheets, broken and bent frames. One double-bottom and five onboard compartments were flooded. The cause of the damage was initially considered to be a collision with debris, about which a message was sent to the Government Gazette, but after a more thorough examination, both foreign and Russian specialists came to the conclusion that the damage was caused by wave impacts!

Repairs had to be carried out by the crew afloat under the guidance of ship mechanical engineers: the European docks could not accommodate the Livadia, and Standfilsky was only being refitted in Sevastopol.

Only seven and a half months later, the yacht left the Spanish port, continuing its passage on April 26, 1881. Now the campaign was led by Vice Admiral Shestakov I.A. They walked carefully and leisurely, sheltering from bad weather in ports or under the coast. The Livadia entered the Sevastopol Bay on the morning of May 27. 3890 miles were covered in 381 running hours, while more than 2.9 thousand tons of coal were used. Shestakov I.A. in a special note, he noted the ease of control, the straightness of the course, the absence of pitching and comfort. However, he stated that even with a slight swell, regardless of speed, “the blows to the cheekbones of the pancake twitched”, and in the oncoming excitement “blows to the nose were very noticeable”, while the superstructures vibrated. Despite this, the admiral considered the carefully and well-made yacht "worthy of existence", however ... after testing "in various weather."

"Livadia", while her fate was being determined, completed, as it turned out, her only voyage across the Black Sea. The yacht on May 29, under the flag of the commander of the Black Sea Fleet, crossed to Yalta and, having received the Admiral General and his brother, Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolaevich, went on board to Batum, from where she returned three days later. The passengers were unlucky: there was a storm and superstructures were shaking from blows to the pontoon of the waves.

In mid-June, the yacht was raised at Standfilsky Dock. There she was examined by members of the commission, which was appointed by the Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich, the new head of the maritime department. Confirming the opinion that had developed back in Ferrol, the commission recognized that the damage was received from the impacts of the waves. The design of the pontoon hull, especially in the bow, was considered unsatisfactory for resisting such impacts. The marine technical committee agreed with these conclusions. It was ordered "for safe navigation" to replace all damaged parts with new ones with reinforcement in the bow of the set.

During the stay in the dock (three weeks), the underwater part of the pontoon was only cleared of greenery and shells, and then painted. Repair work was not carried out, only three strips were applied to the discovered cracks in the skin sheets. By this time, the leadership of the ministry had decided to conduct repeated sea trials according to a specially developed instruction.

On August 3–12, the Livadia yacht passed a measured mile near Sevastopol 136 times. In the process, 312 diagrams were taken, the trim and draft were carefully kept constant. Before the test for the maximum speed, the yacht was prepared for several days, but it was not possible to reach a speed of 15 knots. With the highest power developed by the machines (9837 horsepower), the average speed was 14.46 knots. Such an affront caused confusion in the ranks of the commission, and it came to the point that the builders were accused of deceit. But a member of the commission, captain of the second rank Vlasyev G.A. proved the inaccuracy of the test instructions, as well as the lack of appropriate skills on the part of the engine crew in maintaining the maximum steam output of the boilers. The Marine Technical Committee supported Vlasyev, also noting the low quality of the coal used. The manager of the Naval Ministry drew attention to the fact that the difference in power values ​​when conducting tests in England and Russia reaches 2.5 thousand liters. s., and irritably noted that this fact "completely destroys any technical considerations and calculations in the design of new ships with a known task."

The yacht left for Nikolaev on August 15, where it was soon "disarmed". In September, her team was replaced by the Black Sea team and sent back to the Baltic. Property and furniture were slowly brought to the warehouses of the port; the vessel was delicately referred to in the press as a "former ... yacht".

The official conclusion about the weakness of the hull in the underwater part served as a verdict for the new type of vessel. However, this "weakness" was only a consequence of the main drawback: the heavy blows of the yacht's hull in waves, noted during all voyages, but in Biscay manifested with the greatest force. It was this phenomenon, which later became known as "slamming", that deprived the Livadia yacht of seaworthiness.

The inventor himself was one of the first to realize this. In May, in response to a note from Admiral Shestakov I.A., he honestly admitted: “about this shortcoming ... I can say that the small deepening of the yacht, due to the limited displacement, is an error that was not foreseen by me to such an extent, in which it affected in practice ... ". In a letter to Popov A.A. the admiral-general was told even more precisely: “the pitching of the yacht, which occurs as a result of a small depression and a flat bottom, produces a phenomenon that is not found on other ships in such dimensions as the design of the yacht has ... during pitching at angles of more than 3 1 / 4 degrees aft, the bottom of the bow is exposed, which results in: complete destruction of buoyancy, which generates tension in the yacht's hull fastening system; the impacts of the bottom against the waves ... are so strong that the convenience and safety of navigation are completely violated ... "

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The yacht "Livadia" had a displacement of 1964.5 tons, a length of 81.2 meters and steam engine 460 horsepower. In terms of comfort, the Livadia surpassed all the yachts of the royal family. The decoration project was developed by the court architect Ippolit Monighetti, who then held the post of chief architect of the Tsarskoye Selo Palace. The fantasies of the architect Monighetti were not limited in funds, and the royal yacht turned out to be unusually beautiful and luxurious and cost the treasury at 1.75 million rubles. In terms of luxury and richness of the interiors, the Livadia was more perfect than all the personal ships of the royal people of the world.

The yacht "Livadia" was a floating royal palace, a real treasure, a symbol of the greatness of the Russian Empire and the highest prestige of the august Romanov family, perhaps hoping that the yacht would eventually become a museum.

Evil fate seemed to hover over the most luxurious and fastest sailing and wheeled steamer of the Russian Navy from the very beginning of its construction.
The most beautiful imperial the yacht was laid down at the shipyard in Nikolaev in the spring of 1870 , in the year of birth of V.I. Lenin, who destroyed the Romanov dynasty.

In March 1881 on the 10th anniversary of the laying of his beloved yacht Livadia, Emperor Alexander II (1818 - 1881) was killed by a bomb thrown by a Narodnaya Volya

In the summer of 1873 the yacht "Livadia" for the first time delivered Emperor Alexander II with his august family from Sevastopol to Yalta, and his summer residence in the Crimea - the Livadia Palace, built by architect Nikolai Petrovich Krasnov.

The yacht “Livadia” showed its remarkable seaworthiness during the war with Turkey, the crew of the yacht was able to sink the enemy ship they met and safely get away from two Turkish battleships chasing her for 18 hours! None of the Russian imperial yachts had enemy ships destroyed in battle. The guns of yachts, as a rule, are intended for salutes and cannot withstand the powerful military guns of ironclads and cruisers.

The yacht “Livadia” could have served the Russian Empire for a long time, but an insidious wind of change blew into its sails, which prepared for it a series of mystical failures and fatal coincidences. Departing from Sevastopol to Odessa, the yacht "Livadia" in foggy night October 22, 1878 ran into underwater reefs near the westernmost cape of Crimea - Tarkhankuta. It happened during a strong autumn storm, when Tarkhankut Lighthouse , as luck would have it, it didn’t shine for 15 minutes, they changed the burnt wick.

At first, no one doubted that the ship would survive - its hull was not damaged, there were no holes. They tried to remove the yacht from the stones, but the weather deteriorated sharply, huge waves beat the Livadia with furious force, she tilted heavily, the situation became critical. Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, who was on board the yacht in that campaign the only royal passenger, chose not to risk the lives of the crew and ordered everyone to leave the ship. None of the 16 officers and 227 lower ranks died.

The storm grew stronger every hour, and October 25, 1878 it became finally clear that the royal yacht "Livadia" could no longer be saved. Note that over the years on this day the Bolsheviks stormed the Winter Palace, The October Revolution began brought the death of the Romanov dynasty !

Powerful storm waves broke the ship in two, its bow was carried ashore by the waves. Due to the storms that continued to rage, it was not possible to save all the property of the royal yacht, although the remains of the ship's hull remained for a long time on the pitfalls of Tarkhankut. On the night of December 7, the Livadia, broken by a storm, sank to the bottom.

Photo http://ttkufo34.ru/

The search for the royal yacht "Livadia"

Over time, about the royal yacht that sank off the coast of Tarkhankut October 25, 1878 , totally forgotten. Local residents kept a legend that some kind of paddle steamer lay in the Tarkhankut Bay, but no one remembered which one, and could not accurately indicate the very place of the crash.

Even the name of the yacht "Livadia" passed to another ship, which became a laughingstock for the entire fleet. Later, according to the project of Admiral Popov, a new yacht was built, also called “Livadia”, but this flat-bottomed steamer looked like a miserable freak compared to the sunken royal yacht. The royal family abandoned it, they soon renamed it, but did not find application, and so ended its inglorious life at the pier ...

Some historians did not believe at first that Tula diver Oleg Zolotarev found the very first luxurious royal yacht “Livadia”, and considered that he had found in the Black Sea the wreckage of the second yacht, designed by Admiral Popov.

— It's like God leads me to the goal Oleg smiles. - Professional underwater archaeologists are amazed - I come with my Tula guys, dive into the sea, and from the first dive I find a ship that I had been looking for for decades. Of course, this is luck, happiness. But after all, I figured out this place at home ...


Helped find "Livadia" a lucky break. At the London Sotbis auction, an antique painting by Russian marine painter Alexander Bogolyubov “The Last Moments of the Imperial Yacht Livadia”. The painter with photographic accuracy depicted the royal yacht dying near the rocks; it remained to find the point where it sank along the rocky terrain.

In 2010 Oleg Zolotarev Together with colleagues from Tula and scientists from the Kiev National Shevchenko University, they examined the bottom, found fragments of ceramics, fragments of porcelain and faience dishes, copper nails, which proved that it was the royal yacht that was resting under a layer of sand.

—They measured the remains of the paddle wheels and the crankshaft of the steam engine, - says Oleg. — The results confirmed the first assumptions: the distance between the inner sides of the paddle wheels was 11 meters, which was consistent with the archival data on the width of the Livadia yacht. The metal detector showed the presence of placers of small copper nails, individual fasteners and fragments of copper plating in the bottom soil. We picked up fragments of marble tiles and figured cornices. They may have been used in the decoration of fireplaces or bathrooms.

The artifacts found at the bottom could become exhibits of the exhibition held in Moscow in honor of the 400th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty, but all the finds remained in the Crimea.

Over the years, military and civilian ships quite often crashed near the rocky coast of Tarkhankut, divers continue to find valuable artifacts of past centuries in these places.

They also found another treasure - weapons and many items with Russian 66-gun ship of the line of the 18th century "Saint Alexander". This ship was also found by Oleg Zolotarev the first time.

“Next summer we want to continue researching the Livadia and St. Alexander, Oleg shares his plans. - In mind, there are points of death of several more historical ships, but I will not name their names yet ...

The caution of Oleg Zolotarev is understandable, his fears for the fate of the find are not unfounded, as soon as he made public the place where the Livadia lies, pirates rushed to the royal yacht. The Black Drivers sell to collectors whatever they can pick up from the bottom. Even a copper nail from the plating of the imperial yacht becomes gold with "black divers". Thank God that the relics of the unfortunate Livadia remaining at the bottom are covered with a thick layer of sand. May the royal treasures from the fatal ship bring trouble to no one! The hull of the royal yacht "Livadia" still lies on the bottom of the sea covered with sand ...
Based on an article by Grigory Telnov, first published in the newspaper "Life"

It was built by the English shipbuilding company John Elder and Co. at the shipyard in Ferrol (outskirts of Glasgow) "for service off the coast of Crimea." The yacht was designed by the senior shipbuilder of the MTC E. E. Gulyaev on the instructions of the chairman of the MTC (Marine Technical Committee) Vice Admiral A. A. Popov. The construction was supervised by the chief builder of John Elder and Co. Pierce. The contract for the construction of a "round" yacht was signed on September 5, 1879. Under the terms of the contract, it was planned to build according to Russian drawings before July 1, 1880, install steam engines of our own manufacture and guarantee that the yacht would reach a speed of 15 knots. For each undeveloped 0.1 knot, the company paid heavy fines, and if the ship went at a speed of less than 14 knots, the customer had the right not to accept it at all, but to take only the power plant, for which he was obliged to make contractual payments during the construction process . If the tests were successful, the payment for the yacht followed after its delivery. For exceeding the speed limits of more than 15 knots and power (12,000 hp), builders received significant bonuses. The last condition was to stimulate the company to create perfect power plants, intended not only for the yacht, but also, with success, for future Russian ships.

The hull of the yacht was completely made of mild "Siemenson" steel and consisted of two hulls, the pontoon lining and bulkheads were made of iron sheets; the decks and sheathing of the yacht itself are pine. The upper hull, the yacht itself, was a vessel cut along the waterline, 79.25 meters long and 33.53 meters wide. The lower hull, a semi-submerged pontoon, had an elliptical shape in plan, 71.63 meters long and a maximum width of 46.63 meters. Its height amidships did not exceed 5.49 meters, and the bottom was flat, with three keels: the middle one in the diametrical plane and the side ones, each of which was 5.49 meters apart from the average, this provided an unprecedented, for that time, level of unsinkability. The second bottom stretched along the entire length of the pontoon, separated from the skin by a height of 1.07 meters at the midsection and 0.76 meters at the ends and divided into 40 watertight compartments. Two longitudinal vertical bulkheads ran along the entire side, the space between which and the side was also divided by transverse bulkheads into 40 compartments. Covered with a convex, in the form of an inverted saucer, deck, the pontoon served as a solid annular base for the upper part of the yacht, where all the living quarters and royal apartments were located, and the second bottom was the foundation for three vertical double-expansion steam engines with a design capacity of 3500 hp each. each and 10 cylindrical boilers. The pontoon also accommodated coal pits and auxiliary mechanisms and ship's stores. The shallow draft of the yacht was defined by the designer as an “outstanding feature”, which made it possible to reduce wave resistance, which, according to Froude, was the most significant in wide vessels, such as popovkas, at high speeds. The total height of the yacht from the keels to the roof of the upper superstructures was 14 meters. The premises were illuminated with electric "Yablochkov's candles"; All electrical equipment was supplied from Russia. There was plumbing throughout the yacht and 23 auxiliary steam mechanisms, including a rudder drive. The yacht was finished with great luxury, the interior was comfortable. The total volume of cabins, salons and halls intended for the king and retinue was 3950 m3. The huge "reception" of the emperor, about 4 meters high, resembled the rooms of Louis XVI in Fontainebleau; there was also an active fountain surrounded by a flower bed. The living room on the middle deck was furnished in the Crimean Tatar spirit, the rest of the rooms were decorated in a modern English style.
The decoration of the officers' cabins and command rooms was carried out on the Black Sea, after the arrival of the yacht from England.

The yacht's rescue equipment included 3 large mahogany steam boats, 11.9, 9.8 and 8.5 meters long, respectively, as well as old rowboats that were used by the first Livadia.

The main steam power plant, with 10 boilers and three John Elder and Co. steam engines with a capacity of 3500 hp each. each, which rotated three four-bladed bronze propellers. The propellers had a diameter of 4.72 meters, the average pitch was 3.81 meters, and the rest - 6.25 meters. The deadwood shafts of the yacht were brought out in such a way that the screws with most of their diameter were below the bottom, while the middle screw was placed 0.76 meters further from the stern and deeper than the side ones. The steam engine is vertical, double steam expansion with steam distribution mechanism and reverse function. The boilers are cylindrical, and 8 identical three-furnace boilers were installed across the pontoon, and 2 semi-boilers - behind them along the sides. On factory tests, the yacht has developed a speed of 15 knots, and with a headwind. On September 27, 1880, the yacht was tested on a measured mile: according to the averaged data of six runs, its highest speed was equal to 15.725 knots, and the power plant power was 12,354 hp. And this despite the fact that the hull of the vessel during the completion of the construction was somewhat overgrown and sat deeper than expected, due to the heavier superstructure and interior decoration than in the calculations. The draft reached 2.1 meters, and the displacement was 4420 tons.

The armament of the yacht consisted of:

1. No data

The yacht "Livadia" made its only voyage across the Black Sea, under the flag of the chief commander of the Black Sea Fleet, she moved to Yalta and, having taken on board the Admiral General and his brother, Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolaevich, headed to Batum, from where she returned three days later. The passengers were not very lucky: the sea was stormy and the superstructures were shaking from the impact of the waves on the pontoon. Emperor Alexander III in 1882 ordered “... to deal with the yacht at all costs. Even when I (Shestakov) said that a prison was needed in Sevastopol, I expressed my readiness to give Livadia to this use. In April 1883, the yacht became the Opyt steamer. For several years the ship stood idle, and then the ship turned into a blockship "Experience", used both as a barracks and as a warehouse. He stood in Sevastopol until 1926, when he was decommissioned completely.

The yacht was built at the shipyard in Ferrol (England).

The yacht entered service with the Black Sea Fleet in 1880.

Tactical and technical data of the yacht "Livadia" In total, ships were built in 1880 - 1 unit.
Black Sea wheeled imperial yacht. The only one that directly participated in the hostilities and the only one that died in a shipwreck.
In the summer of 1825, Emperor Alexander I acquired the Oreanda estate not far from Yalta. The architect A. I. Stackenschneider built a magnificent palace there, completed in the spring of 1852. In the autumn of the same year, Nicholas I, with the Empress and younger children, rested in this palace for the only time, spending about a month and a half there. Naturally, the question arose of transporting the "August" family to a new building.
Since at that time there were no royal yachts on the Black Sea, an 18-oar boat specially built there in 1840, armed with one small carronade for salutes, was brought from Nikolaev. In 1860, Oreanda passed into the possession of Grand Duke Admiral General Konstantin Nikolayevich. He ordered the construction of a small wheeled 4-gun steamer for the voyages of the imperial family on the Black Sea, which became the first Black Sea royal yacht. The wooden steamship "Tiger" with a three-masted barquentine was built in the Nikolaev Admiralty in 1855-1858. Although the "Tiger" was listed as part of the Black Sea Fleet for 14 years (until 1872), almost no information was preserved about the voyages of the royal family on it, except for the mention of the transition in August 1861 of Alexander II with his family from Sevastopol to his new estate Livadia, from 1866 which became the favorite residence of Russian emperors in the Crimea. Since the trips of the imperial family to the Black Sea began to acquire a certain regularity, it became necessary to replace the old "Tiger" with a new comfortable yacht "for service off the coast of Crimea." Previously, in 1868, the issue of acquiring a steamship in England and “turning into a yacht for the sovereign emperor” was considered, but then a decision was made to build a yacht in the Nikolaev Admiralty. The construction of the yacht, named "Livadia", began at the end of 1869, but the official laying of the vessel took place on March 19, 1870.
The yacht was designed and built by the well-known Black Sea shipbuilder, Captain of the Corps of Ship Engineers L. G. Shvede, who completed the work by the summer of 1873. The new 4-gun wooden wheeled yacht was not inferior to the Baltic “Derzhava” in terms of comfort and decoration of the royal premises, and even surpassed the latter in the design of the “royal cabin” in the stern of the yacht and the dining room on the middle deck, designed by the architect Monighetti. During the construction of the Livadia, L. G. Shvede in 1872 made a drawing of the alleged bow decoration of the yacht in the form of an oval convex shield with the image of a double-headed eagle. The Livadia received a bow decoration in the form of a double-headed eagle crowned with a crown, similar to that installed on the Derzhava.
Imperial steam wheeled yacht "Livadia" after commissioning. 1873

In the summer of 1873, a new yacht, having become part of the Black Sea Fleet, came to Sevastopol, from where it delivered the Empress and her family to Yalta.
In March 1874, the Livadia went into practical navigation. In the western part of the Mediterranean Sea, the yacht successfully withstood an 11-point storm, showing excellent seaworthiness. It should be noted that the Livadia is the only one of the imperial yachts that participated in the hostilities of the Russian fleet. During the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878, under the command of Captain 1st Rank F.E. Kroun, she cruised off the Romanian and Bulgarian coasts and sank a Turkish two-masted kocherma on August 21. Seen by two Turkish armored ships, the yacht withstood an 18-hour chase and safely left under the protection of the Sevastopol batteries.
The three-year service of Livadia ended tragically. On the way from Sevastopol to Odessa, on a foggy night from October 21 to 22, 1878, she jumped onto a reef near the Tar-Khankut lighthouse on the western coast of Crimea. For 47 days, from October 22 to December 7, "Livadia" stood on the rocks. After a series of unsuccessful attempts by the command of the Black Sea Fleet to save the ship, everything of value that was possible was brought ashore, giving the hull to the sea waves.
It was supposed to build a new one, similar to the deceased, increasing its speed and cruising range, but Vice Admiral A. A. Popov, who by that time had become the chairman of the ITC, put forward another option. On his instructions, E. E. Gulyaev developed a project for a yacht that has an elliptical shape on the basis of Novgorod. Considering this form as the starting point for choosing the type of the future Black Sea battleship, Andrei Aleksandrovich decided on a full-scale experiment. This was understood by specialists not only in Russia, but also in England. Thus, The Times wrote in 1879: “... stability and comfort are the main qualities that were pursued in the design of the yacht, and if the maximum stability is provided in the yacht by a known shape, then the addition of armor and possible changes can make it, on the basis of the same principle, no less stable artillery platform. It's no secret that a new yacht is an experience...”.
In addition to ensuring stability, comfort and safety of navigation, the main attention in the design was given to achieving a speed of 14 knots for the new vessel. According to the results of experiments on Vice-Admiral Popov in the Black Sea and model tests in England, the main dimensions of the future yacht were determined with a draft of 1.9 m, satisfying all the proposed requirements. To verify the data obtained, at the request of both the designers and future builders, the paraffin models of her hull were subjected at the beginning of 1879 to new tests in Amsterdam under the direction of Tiedemann. This highly renowned shipbuilder and chief engineer of the Dutch Navy confirmed Froude's conclusions and guaranteed that the ship would achieve a speed of 14 knots, with a propulsion power of more than 8500 hp. With. (in the project, the power was assumed to be 10,000-11,000 hp).
General location of the imperial screw yacht "Livadia"

In the middle of the year, agreed with the English shipbuilding company John Elder and Co., the project was finally prepared. In August, after a written assurance from the chief builder of Pierce's company about the possibility of creating such a vessel, Alexander II's personal permission to build a new yacht in England followed. On September 5, Pierce and the famous Russian shipbuilder M.I. Kazi signed a contract. The conditions of this document were not quite usual. Their essence was the obligation of shipbuilders not only to build the ship itself according to Russian drawings, with the installation of its own production of steam mechanisms, but also to guarantee that the yacht would reach a speed of 15 knots. For each undeveloped 0.1 knot, the company paid heavy fines, and if the ship sailed at a speed of less than 14 knots, the customer had the right not to accept it at all, but to take only the power plant, for which he was obliged to make contractual payments in the process the buildings. If the tests were successful, the payment for the yacht followed after its delivery. For exceeding the limits of speed (15 knots) and power (12,000 hp), builders received significant bonuses. The last condition was to stimulate the company to create perfect power plants, intended not only for the yacht, but also, with success, for future Russian ships and the battleship Peter the Great, whose machines, like those of the Novgorod series, did not develop their design capacity.
The construction period was short in English: until July 1 of the next, 1880. Moreover, during a personal audience with Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich after signing the contract, Pierce offered an early delivery of the yacht! Work at the shipyard, located in Ferrol (on the River Clyde, on the outskirts of Glasgow), began immediately after the signing of the documents. Appointed to oversee the construction, the author of the project, E. E. Gulyaev, reported a month later on the manufacture of templates for metal structures and the complete preparation of the slipway. By the beginning of November, two-thirds of the set of the second bottom had already been riveted ... Then A. A. Popov intervened again, who achieved the highest permission to decorate the yacht's premises in England, referring to the "desirability of testing the ship in its finished form" and the high cost of such work in the Nikolaev Admiralty. On November 10, another contract was signed: shipbuilders received, in addition to an additional fee, a real opportunity to postpone, if necessary, the yacht's readiness date. Nevertheless, the work continued according to the initial calculations.
On January 5, 1880, the yacht was included in the lists of the ships of the fleet under the name "Livadia", and 10 days later received a commander - captain 1st rank I.K. Vogak (former first commander of both Novgorod and Peter the Great) ... On March 25, the official laying of the vessel took place; at this time, the casing of the hulls was already mounted. Exactly four months later - on June 25, the yacht was launched. The ceremony was attended by Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich (the future Admiral General of the Russian Navy and a consistent detractor of A. A. Popova).
Yacht Livadia in the dock

"Livadia", launched in a fairly high degree of readiness, with superstructures and a propeller-steering complex, had such an original look that the English "Times", which traditionally did not place drawings even of domestic ships on its pages, made an exception for the yacht. This double-hulled vessel was figuratively described by newspapermen as a "bull on a halibut". Indeed, the yacht itself (upper hull) was a vessel 79.25 m long and 33.53 m wide, cut along the waterline, installed on a semi-submerged pontoon (lower hull), which had an elliptical shape in plan, 71.63 m long and maximum 46.63 m wide. Its height amidships did not exceed 5.49 m, the bottom was flat, with three keels: the middle one in the diametrical plane and the side ones, each of which was 5.49 m apart from the average one. According to E. E. Gulyaev "... the yacht could be somewhat longer ... and narrower to satisfy the taste of the majority ...", but this would lead to the need to increase the power of the machines and reduce stability. Shallow draft was defined by the designer as an “outstanding feature” that made it possible to reduce wave resistance, which, according to Froude, was the most significant for wide vessels, such as Novgorod, at high speeds. From this it is clear that the design of two parts-hulls was actually applied from the desire to reduce the draft of the yacht as much as possible in order to achieve a given speed. In this form, the combination of the named features of the Livadia design really proves the complete originality of the ideas of its creators.
Imperial yacht "Livadia" on the slipway

The design of the lower hull of the yacht (the sailors called it "pancake") was unique. Designed taking into account the experience of building Novgorod, it provided an unprecedented, for that time, level of unsinkability. The second bottom stretched for the entire length, spaced from the skin to a height of 1.07 m at the midsection and 0.76 m at the ends and divided into 40 watertight compartments; along the entire side there were two longitudinal vertical bulkheads, the space between which and the side was also divided by transverse bulkheads into 40 compartments. Covered with a convex, in the form of an inverted saucer, deck, the pontoon served as a solid annular base for the upper part of the yacht, where all the living quarters and royal apartments were located, and the second bottom was the foundation for three vertical double-expansion steam engines with a design capacity of 3500 hp each. With. each and 10 cylindrical boilers. Coal pits and auxiliary mechanisms and ship supplies fit in the pontoon ...
Imperial screw yacht "Livadia" after launching

Significant difficulties had to be overcome in determining the overall and local strength of the steel structures of the pontoon and the junction of the hulls (annular stringer), which, in turn, gave rise to technical problems in their provision. To the credit of Russian and British engineers, these difficulties were largely overcome. The entire set was made of mild "Simenson" steel, the pontoon lining and bulkheads were made of iron sheets; the decks and sheathing of the yacht itself are pine. The total height from the keels to the roof of the upper superstructures was 14 m. Special attention was paid to the application of the driving force. During construction, by the end of 1879, they assembled and tested a self-propelled steel model of a yacht on a scale of 1:10 by the spring of next year, on which they worked out the location of the propellers, their pitch and dimensions. The test methodology was developed by Tideman, and the experiments were carried out by both Russian and English engineers. As a result, the deadwood shafts of the yacht were brought out in such a way that the screws with most of their diameter were below the bottom, while the middle screw, as on Vice-Admiral Popov, was placed 0.76 m further from the stern and deeper than the side ones. The diameter of each four-blade propeller was 4.72 m, the pitch of the middle one was 3.81 m, the rest was 6.25 m; The material was manganese bronze.
Imperial yacht "Livadia" in Naples. May 1881

The premises were illuminated with electric "Yablochkov's candles"; All electrical equipment was supplied from Russia. There was plumbing throughout the yacht and 23 auxiliary steam mechanisms, including a rudder drive. On the bridge, similarly to popovki, they put a device for maneuvering the direction of the vessel with the help of onboard vehicles. As raid boats, yachts in England ordered 3 large mahogany steam boats, respectively, 11.9, 9.8 and 8.5 m long. Rowing vessels were used old, from the first Livadia. The total volume of cabins, salons and halls intended for the king and retinue was 3950 m3 - 6.7 times higher than that on the lost yacht. The huge "reception" of the emperor, about 4 m high, resembled the rooms of Louis XVI in Fontainebleau; there was also an active fountain surrounded by a flower bed... The living room on the middle deck was furnished in the Crimean Tatar spirit, the rest of the rooms were decorated in a modern English style. The decoration of the officers' cabins and command rooms was not included in the contracts and had to be carried out after the vessel arrived at the Black Sea.
General view of the yacht Livadia at the pier

Despite the “absolutely original design”, the ship looked great from the outside, the smooth hull was covered with a shiny black lacquer, and the light gray pontoon almost merged with the water surface.
It took almost three months to complete the construction of the yacht afloat. In August, all the boilers were loaded (8 identical three-furnace boilers were installed across the pontoon, and two half-boilers were installed behind them along the sides), and in early September, the main machines, which were already tested on mooring lines from 10 to 19 of the same month. The most experienced mechanical engineers of the fleet, Major Generals A. I. Sokolov and I. I. Zarubin, who were called to England from the summer, took part in these works.
On September 24, the Livadia, led by the builder Pierce and the factory team, left the shipyard pool and passed down the river under the middle car to Greenock; just in case, she was taken by three tugboats. On the same day, the yacht entered the bay, easily reaching 12 knots.
General view of the dining room

The chief consultant Tiedeman noted that the ship kept well on course and obeyed the helm like a boat. The next day, factory tests took place. Several Russian officers and 12 sailors from the team assigned to the yacht were invited to the ship. According to A. I. Sokolov, it was possible to develop a speed of 15 knots, and with a headwind!
living room corner

On the 26th, Pierce invited on board the commission of the Naval Ministry, chaired by Vice Admiral I.F. Likhachev, for an official six-hour trial. "Livadia" showed an average speed of 14.88 knots. with a power of 10200l. With.; the machines, due to the difference in the pitch of the propellers, worked with different speeds: the average was 90, the side ones were 84 rpm. The same Tideman noticed that when all three machines were operating, the circulation radius was “somewhat large,” but recognized this as insignificant, since it was possible to turn “in a much smaller space” with the help of side propellers - like on priests. On September 27, the yacht was tested on a measured mile: according to the averaged data of six runs, its highest speed was equal to 15.725 knots, and the power plant power was 12,354 hp. With. And this despite the fact that the hull of the vessel during the completion of the construction was somewhat overgrown and sat deeper than expected, due to the heavier superstructure and interior decoration than in the calculations. The draft reached 2.1 m, and the displacement -4420 tons.
Boudoir table in one of the rooms

Calculations and experiments brilliantly confirmed. Everyone was happy. The company received 2.7 million rubles, including 414 thousand rubles, premiums. About A. A. Popov and E. V. Gulyaev wrote in all European newspapers.
Upon completion of the tests, the Russian team, which arrived in August from the Baltic Fleet, switched to the yacht (it exceeded the staff and consisted of 24 officers and 321 lower ranks). On September 30, the yacht was received from the factory and on the same day, raising the flag, guis and pennant, she began the campaign.
Corner of one of the living rooms (smoking room),

The ferry to the Black Sea was also planned as a training voyage “with only such a development of the power of machines,” A. A. Popov reported back in August, “to enable all machine personnel to calmly look around and become well acquainted with the operation and control of machines.” After preparations, on October 3, the yacht left the Greenock raid. On board, as guests of honor, were the shipbuilders Pierce, Tiedeman and Reid, as well as the controller of the English fleet, Admiral Steward. In Brest, Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich boarded and, under the flag of the Admiral General, the Livadia on October 7 went further, across the Bay of Biscay to Cadiz.
View of the cabinet

Until midnight on October 8, the campaign took place in favorable conditions, at a speed of 12-13 knots. The wind that rose at night quickly grew stronger, spreading a strong oncoming swell. From two o'clock in the morning on October 9, the waves began to hit the bow of the pontoon of the yacht - at first rare, these blows became more frequent with increasing wind and wave heights. The course had to be reduced to 4-5 knots, but the blows did not stop. Reed, who was very restrained in his assessments, wrote: “wave impacts on the flat bottom of the yacht were terrible at times ...” I.K. Vogak also reported the same in the report: “... one of them was especially strong, impression as from a blow on a solid object ... ”At 10 o’clock in the morning they discovered that the first double-bottom compartment was filled with water; urgently had to change course and head to the Spanish port of Ferrol.
According to eyewitnesses, the wave height reached 6-7 m, while the side roll did not exceed 3.5 ° on board, and the keel roll did not exceed 9 ° in a span of 5.5 ° forward and 3.5 ° aft. The screws were never exposed. “Nothing fell on the yacht,” the commander reported: the table setting and high candelabra remained motionless as if in a calm, neither the soup in the bowls, nor the water in the glasses had ever spilled.
View of one of the bedrooms

How did the Livadia, led by experienced sailors, get into the very center of the storm, and even go against the wave? This is all the more incomprehensible, since there were shipbuilders on board who hinted, even during trials, that the yacht was good “with not too large waves”. As a member of the selection committee, Captain 2nd Rank V.P. Verkhovsky, “the yacht was never intended for ocean navigation, and therefore the Black Sea is enough to judge its qualities ... in any case, there is no reason to expose it even on the Black Sea to the daily actions of a heavy storm . The largest passage from Odessa to Poti ... the yacht will easily make it in 30 or 35 hours, and of course there will be no extreme to leave the port in the very storm ... "
Reid refers directly to the Admiral General, who, in his words, believed that the opportunity should not be missed "to make a thorough test of the yacht, and therefore we headed into the very jaws of the Biscay storm." About the same, but more diplomatically, Verkhovsky writes: “there were those who wanted to meet ... a good storm, they wanted us to be shaken, so that the wind and excitement were stronger ... and without this ... a complete judgment about the qualities of a yacht is impossible ...". Whether the leader of the campaign himself decided on such a "test" or he was helped and advised remains unknown.
View of the boudoir

In the Ferrol Bay, divers found in the bow of the pontoon, on the left side, a 5-meter dent with tears and cracks in the skin sheets, bent and broken frames. Five side compartments and one double-bottom compartment were flooded. Initially, a collision with floating debris was considered the cause of the damage, about which a message was sent to the Government Gazette, but after a thorough examination, both Russian and foreign experts came to the unanimous opinion that the damage was caused by wave impacts! The repair had to be carried out afloat by a team led by ship's mechanical engineers: not a single European dock could accommodate the Livadia, and Standfilsky at that time was only being re-equipped in Sevastopol to receive the yacht.
Only seven and a half months later, the corrected yacht left the Spanish port, continuing its passage on April 26, 1881. Now they were led by Vice Admiral I. A. Shestakov. They walked slowly and carefully, hiding from the weather under the coast or in ports. On the morning of May 27, "Livadia" entered the Sevastopol Bay. She covered 3890 miles in 381 running hours, spending more than 2900 tons of coal. In a special note, I. A. Shestakov noted the ease of steering the yacht, the straightness of its course, comfort and the absence of pitching. However, he stated that regardless of the speed, even with a slight dead swell, “the blows to the cheekbones of the pancake twitched”, and in the oncoming wave “blows to the nose were very noticeable”, while the superstructures “walked” (vibrated). Nevertheless, the admiral considered the well and carefully made yacht "worthy of existence", but ... after testing "under all circumstances of the sea and weather."
View of the cabinet

While her fate was being determined, the Livadia completed its only, as it turned out, voyage across the Black Sea. On May 29, under the flag of the chief commander of the Black Sea Fleet, she crossed to Yalta and, taking on board the Admiral General and his brother, Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolaevich, headed for Batum, from where she returned three days later. The passengers were not very lucky: the sea was stormy and the superstructures were shaking from the impact of the waves on the pontoon.
In mid-June, the yacht was raised in the Standfilsky dock, where it was examined by members of the commission appointed by the new head of the maritime department, Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich. Confirming the opinion that had developed back in Ferrol, the commission recognized that the damage to the yacht was received from wave impacts and considered the design of the pontoon hull, especially in the bow, unsatisfactory to resist these impacts. The MTC agreed with these conclusions and prescribed "for safe navigation" to replace all damaged parts with new ones with a reinforcement of the set in the bow.
During the three weeks of docking, the underwater part of the pontoon was only cleared of shells and greenery, and then repainted. Repair work was not carried out, only three strips were put on the discovered cracks in the skin sheets. By this time, the leadership of the ministry decided to conduct repeated sea trials of the yacht according to specially developed instructions.
View of part of the living room

From 3 to 12 August "Livadia" 136 times passed the measured mile near Sevastopol. 312 diagrams were taken, the draft and trim were carefully kept constant. Before the test for the maximum speed, the yacht was prepared for several days, but it was not possible to achieve a 15-knot speed. With the highest power developed by the machines (9837 hp), the average speed was 14.46 knots. Such an affront caused confusion in the ranks of the commission, it came to accusations of the builders of deceit. However, a member of the commission, Captain 2nd Rank G. A. Vlasyev, thoroughly proved the inaccuracy of the test instructions and the lack of skills of the engine crew in maintaining the full steam output of the boilers. The MTK supported Vlasyev, noting, in addition, the low quality of the coal used. The manager of the Naval Ministry, drawing attention to the difference in power during tests in England and Russia, which reached 2500 liters. s., irritatedly noted that such a fact “completely destroys all sorts of calculations and technical considerations when designing new ships with a known task for us.”
On August 15, the yacht left for Nikolaev, where it was soon “disarmed”. In September, her team was sent back to the Baltic, replacing the Black Sea. Property and furniture began to be slowly brought to the warehouses of the port; in the press, the ship was delicately referred to as a "former ... yacht." The official conclusion about the weakness of the design of the underwater part of the hull served as a verdict for a new type of vessel. However, this "weakness" was only a consequence of the main drawback of the yacht: heavy hull blows in waves, noted in all voyages, but with the greatest force manifested in Biscay. It was this phenomenon, later called "slamming", that deprived the Livadia of seaworthiness.
The inventor himself was one of the first to realize this. Back in May, answering a note from Admiral I. A. Shestakov, he honestly admitted: “about this shortcoming ... I can positively say that the small deepening of the yacht, which was due to its limited displacement, is an error that I did not foresee in such the extent to which it has affected practice ... ". In a personal letter from A. A. Popov to the Admiral General, it was even more precisely stated: “the pitching of the yacht due to 1) a small depression 2) a flat bottom produces a phenomenon that is not found on other ships in the dimensions that the design of the yacht has ... with a keel rolling from angles of 3 1/4 ° and more to the stern, the bottom of the bow is exposed, which results in: a) the complete destruction of the buoyancy of the bow compartments, which generates tension in the entire system of fixing the hull of the yacht; b) the impact of the bottom on the waves ... so strong that both the convenience and the safety of navigation are completely violated ... "
View of the dining room

The era of experiments by Admiral A. A. Popov ended with the accession to the Russian throne of Alexander III, who had long been hostile to Admiral General Konstantin Nikolayevich, and, accordingly, to the leadership of the naval department and to the "restless admiral" A. A. Popov , who, according to the emperor, was engaged in "rounding off domestic naval architecture." The emperor immediately put his brother at the head of the ministry. A. A. Popov was replaced by I. A. Shestakov, who became the next, in 1882, the manager of the Naval Ministry. But Andrei Alexandrovich continued to defend a new type of round vessel. According to E. E. Gulyaev, he even developed the “strongest unsinkable battleship” of the Livadia form; in a single-hull elliptical design with vertical sides, 8 305-mm guns were placed, the displacement was 11250 tons, the draft was 4.1 m. .".
Trying to save the yacht, A. A. Popov turned to the disgraced Konstantin Nikolayevich and I. A. Shestakov: go out to sea. She does not have to chase the enemy, she is not intended to cruise in the oceans, she does not need to be in hurricanes ... "However, according to I. A. Shestakov," The sovereign agreed to deal with the yacht at all costs. Even when I said that a prison was needed in Sevastopol, I expressed my readiness to give Livadia to this use. As a result, it was not possible to carry out new sea trials in 1882, which could be useful for the design, in the future, of new power plants. Moreover, A. A. Popov was offered to cover the amount of bonuses issued to British builders from his personal funds, allegedly without the knowledge of the leadership of the ministry! Only after four years of litigation did the treasury take over the "loss".
Blokshiv "Experience" (former yacht "Livadia") in Sevastopol. In the foreground is the mine cruiser "Kazarsky"

In April 1883, the yacht turned into the Opyt steamer. For several years the ship stood idle: the MTC intended to use it as a transport, unique in terms of capacity, draft and speed, for transporting troops and equipment; it was planned to leave two side steam engines, and use the middle one on the new Baltic battleship. It was indeed removed, but installed on the Minin cruiser during its repair. The rest of the cars at the end of the century were also sent to the Baltic for the cruisers General-Admiral and Duke of Edinburgh. When unloading the machines, some of the wooden superstructures were dismantled; the huge rooms on the upper deck disappeared in the mid-80s. The steamer turned into a blockship "Experience", used both as a barracks and as a warehouse ... At the beginning of the 20th century, it was handed over to the port of Sevastopol, but in 1913 it was again included in the lists of the fleet as "Blokshiv No. 7". He stood in Sevastopol until 1926, when he was decommissioned completely. Black Sea veterans recalled that they saw its unusual skeleton back in the late 30s.

Yesterday I saw this yacht "Livadia" in person on a magnificent model and I really wanted to have my own exactly the same pontoon house.

Original taken from humus V Imperial yacht "Livadia"

Black Sea wheeled imperial yacht. The only imperial yacht that directly participated in the hostilities and the only yacht that died in a shipwreck.
In the summer of 1825, Emperor Alexander I acquired the Oreanda estate not far from Yalta. The architect A. I. Stackenschneider built a magnificent palace there, completed in the spring of 1852. In the autumn of the same year, Nicholas I, with the Empress and younger children, rested in this palace for the only time in his life, spending about a month and a half there. Naturally, the question arose of transporting the "August" family to a new building.
Since there were no royal yachts on the Black Sea at that time, an 18-oared boat, specially built there in 1840, armed with one small carronade for salutes, was brought from Nikolaev. In 1860, Oreanda passed into the possession of Grand Duke Admiral General Konstantin Nikolayevich. He ordered the construction of a small wheeled 4-gun steamer for the voyages of the imperial family on the Black Sea, which became the first Black Sea royal yacht. The wooden steamship "Tiger" with a three-masted barquentine was built in the Nikolaev Admiralty in 1855-1858. Although the "Tiger" was listed as part of the Black Sea Fleet for 14 years (until 1872), almost no information was preserved about the voyages of the royal family on it, except for the mention of the transition in August 1861 of Alexander II with his family from Sevastopol to his new estate Livadia, from 1866 which became the favorite residence of Russian emperors in the Crimea. Since the trips of the imperial family to the Black Sea began to acquire a certain regularity, it became necessary to replace the old "Tiger" with a new comfortable yacht "for service off the coast of Crimea." Previously, in 1868, the issue of acquiring a steamship in England and “turning into a yacht for the sovereign emperor” was considered, but then a decision was made to build a yacht in the Nikolaev Admiralty. The construction of the yacht, named "Livadia", began at the end of 1869, but the official laying of the vessel took place on March 19, 1870.
The yacht was designed and built by the well-known Black Sea shipbuilder, Captain of the Corps of Ship Engineers L. G. Shvede, who completed the work by the summer of 1873. The new 4-gun wooden wheeled yacht was not inferior to the Baltic “Derzhava” in terms of comfort and decoration of the royal premises, and even surpassed the latter in the design of the “royal cabin” in the stern of the yacht and the dining room on the middle deck, designed by the architect Monighetti. During the construction of the Livadia, L. G. Shvede in 1872 made a drawing of the alleged bow decoration of the yacht in the form of an oval convex shield with the image of a double-headed eagle. The Livadia received a bow decoration in the form of a double-headed eagle crowned with a crown, similar to that installed on the Derzhava.
First steamImperialwheeled yacht "Livadia" after commissioning. 1873 There's also a double decker.

In the summer of 1873, a new yacht, having become part of the Black Sea Fleet, came to Sevastopol, from where it delivered the Empress and her family to Yalta.
In March 1874, the Livadia went into practical navigation. In the western part of the Mediterranean Sea, the yacht successfully withstood an 11-point storm, showing excellent seaworthiness. It should be noted that the Livadia is the only one of the imperial yachts that participated in the hostilities of the Russian fleet. During the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878, under the command of Captain 1st Rank F.E. Kroun, she cruised off the Romanian and Bulgarian coasts and sank a Turkish two-masted kocherma on August 21. Seen by two Turkish armored ships, the yacht withstood an 18-hour chase and safely left under the protection of the Sevastopol batteries.
The three-year service of Livadia ended tragically. On the way from Sevastopol to Odessa, on a foggy night from October 21 to 22, 1878, she jumped onto a reef near the Tar-Khankut lighthouse on the western coast of Crimea. For 47 days, from October 22 to December 7, "Livadia" stood on the rocks. After a series of unsuccessful attempts by the command of the Black Sea Fleet to save the ship, everything of value that was possible was brought ashore, giving the hull to the sea waves.
It was supposed to build a new one, similar to the deceased, increasing its speed and cruising range, but Vice Admiral A. A. Popov, who by that time had become the chairman of the ITC, put forward another option. On his instructions, E. E. Gulyaev developed a project for a yacht that has an elliptical shape on the basis of Novgorod. Considering this form as the starting point for choosing the type of the future Black Sea battleship, Andrei Aleksandrovich decided on a full-scale experiment. This was understood by specialists not only in Russia, but also in England. Thus, The Times wrote in 1879: “... stability and comfort are the main qualities that were pursued in the design of the yacht, and if the maximum stability is provided in the yacht by a known shape, then the addition of armor and possible changes can make it, on the basis of the same principle, no less stable artillery platform. It's no secret that a new yacht is an experience...”.
In addition to ensuring stability, comfort and safety of navigation, the main attention in the design was given to achieving a speed of 14 knots for the new vessel. According to the results of experiments on Vice-Admiral Popov in the Black Sea and model tests in England, the main dimensions of the future yacht were determined with a draft of 1.9 m, satisfying all the proposed requirements. To verify the data obtained, at the request of both the designers and future builders, the paraffin models of her hull were subjected at the beginning of 1879 to new tests in Amsterdam under the direction of Tiedemann. This highly renowned shipbuilder and chief engineer of the Dutch Navy confirmed Froude's conclusions and guaranteed that the ship would achieve a speed of 14 knots, with a propulsion power of more than 8500 hp. With. (in the project, the power was assumed to be 10,000-11,000 hp).
General location of the imperial screw yacht "Livadia"

In the middle of the year, agreed with the English shipbuilding company John Elder and Co., the project was finally prepared. In August, after a written assurance from the chief builder of Pierce's company about the possibility of creating such a vessel, Alexander II's personal permission to build a new yacht in England followed. On September 5, Pierce and the famous Russian shipbuilder M.I. Kazi signed a contract. The conditions of this document were not quite usual. Their essence was the obligation of shipbuilders not only to build the ship itself according to Russian drawings, with the installation of its own production of steam mechanisms, but also to guarantee that the yacht would reach a speed of 15 knots. For each undeveloped 0.1 knot, the company paid heavy fines, and if the ship sailed at a speed of less than 14 knots, the customer had the right not to accept it at all, but to take only the power plant, for which he was obliged to make contractual payments in the process the buildings. If the tests were successful, the payment for the yacht followed after its delivery. For exceeding the limits of speed (15 knots) and power (12,000 hp), builders received significant bonuses. The last condition was to stimulate the company to create perfect power plants, intended not only for the yacht, but also, with success, for future Russian ships and the battleship Peter the Great, whose machines, like those of the Novgorod series, did not develop their design capacity.
The construction period was short in English: until July 1 of the next, 1880. Moreover, during a personal audience with Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich after signing the contract, Pierce offered an early delivery of the yacht! Work at the shipyard, located in Ferrol (on the River Clyde, on the outskirts of Glasgow), began immediately after the signing of the documents. Appointed to oversee the construction, the author of the project, E. E. Gulyaev, reported a month later on the manufacture of templates for metal structures and the complete preparation of the slipway. By the beginning of November, two-thirds of the set of the second bottom had already been riveted ... Then A. A. Popov intervened again, who achieved the highest permission to decorate the yacht's premises in England, referring to the "desirability of testing the ship in its finished form" and the high cost of such work in the Nikolaev Admiralty. On November 10, another contract was signed: shipbuilders received, in addition to an additional fee, a real opportunity to postpone, if necessary, the yacht's readiness date. Nevertheless, the work continued according to the initial calculations.
On January 5, 1880, the yacht was included in the lists of the ships of the fleet under the name "Livadia", and 10 days later received a commander - captain 1st rank I.K. Vogak (former first commander of both Novgorod and Peter the Great) ... On March 25, the official laying of the vessel took place; at this time, the casing of the hulls was already mounted. Exactly four months later, on June 25, the yacht was launched. The ceremony was attended by Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich (the future Admiral General of the Russian Navy and a consistent detractor of A. A. Popova).
Yacht Livadia in the dock

"Livadia", launched in a fairly high degree of readiness, with superstructures and a propeller-steering complex, had such an original look that the English "Times", which traditionally did not place drawings even of domestic ships on its pages, made an exception for the yacht. This double-hulled vessel was figuratively described by newspapermen as a "bull on a halibut". Indeed, the yacht itself (upper hull) was a vessel 79.25 m long and 33.53 m wide, cut along the waterline, installed on a semi-submerged pontoon (lower hull), which had an elliptical shape in plan, 71.63 m long and maximum 46.63 m wide. Its height amidships did not exceed 5.49 m, the bottom was flat, with three keels: the middle one in the diametrical plane and the side ones, each of which was 5.49 m apart from the average one. According to E. E. Gulyaev "... the yacht could be somewhat longer ... and narrower to satisfy the taste of the majority ...", but this would lead to the need to increase the power of the machines and reduce stability. Shallow draft was defined by the designer as an “outstanding feature” that made it possible to reduce wave resistance, which, according to Froude, was the most significant for wide vessels, such as Novgorod, at high speeds. From this it is clear that the design of two parts-hulls was actually applied from the desire to reduce the draft of the yacht as much as possible in order to achieve a given speed. In this form, the combination of the named features of the Livadia design really proves the complete originality of the ideas of its creators.
Imperial yacht "Livadia" on the slipway

The design of the lower hull of the yacht (the sailors called it "pancake") was unique. Designed taking into account the experience of building Novgorod, it provided an unprecedented, for that time, level of unsinkability. The second bottom stretched for the entire length, spaced from the skin to a height of 1.07 m at the midsection and 0.76 m at the ends and divided into 40 watertight compartments; along the entire side there were two longitudinal vertical bulkheads, the space between which and the side was also divided by transverse bulkheads into 40 compartments. Covered with a convex, in the form of an inverted saucer, deck, the pontoon served as a solid annular base for the upper part of the yacht, where all the living quarters and royal apartments were located, and the second bottom was the foundation for three vertical double-expansion steam engines with a design capacity of 3500 hp each. With. each and 10 cylindrical boilers. Coal pits and auxiliary mechanisms and ship supplies fit in the pontoon ...
Imperial screw yacht "Livadia" after launching

Significant difficulties had to be overcome in determining the overall and local strength of the steel structures of the pontoon and the junction of the hulls (annular stringer), which, in turn, gave rise to technical problems in their provision. To the credit of Russian and British engineers, these difficulties were largely overcome. The entire set was made of mild “Simenson” steel, the pontoon lining and bulkheads were made of iron sheets; the decks and cladding of the yacht itself are pine. The total height from the keels to the roof of the upper superstructures was 14 m. Special attention was paid to the application of the driving force. During construction, by the end of 1879, they assembled and tested a self-propelled steel model of a yacht on a scale of 1:10 by the spring of next year, on which they worked out the location of the propellers, their pitch and dimensions. The test methodology was developed by Tideman, and the experiments were carried out by both Russian and English engineers. As a result, the deadwood shafts of the yacht were brought out in such a way that the screws with most of their diameter were below the bottom, while the middle screw, as on Vice-Admiral Popov, was placed 0.76 m further from the stern and deeper than the side ones. The diameter of each four-blade propeller was 4.72 m, the pitch of the middle one was 3.81 m, the rest was 6.25 m; The material was manganese bronze.
Imperial yacht "Livadia" in Naples. May 1881

The premises were illuminated with electric "Yablochkov's candles"; All electrical equipment was supplied from Russia. There was plumbing throughout the yacht and 23 auxiliary steam mechanisms, including a rudder drive. On the bridge, similarly to popovki, they put a device for maneuvering the direction of the vessel with the help of onboard vehicles. As raid boats, yachts in England ordered 3 large mahogany steam boats, respectively, 11.9, 9.8 and 8.5 m long. Rowing vessels were used old, from the first Livadia. The total volume of cabins, salons and halls intended for the king and retinue was 3950 m3 - 6.7 times higher than that on the lost yacht. The huge "reception" of the emperor, about 4 m high, resembled the rooms of Louis XVI in Fontainebleau; there was also an active fountain surrounded by a flower bed... The living room on the middle deck was furnished in the Crimean Tatar spirit, the rest of the rooms were decorated in a modern English style. The decoration of the officers' cabins and command rooms was not included in the contracts and had to be carried out after the vessel arrived at the Black Sea.

General view of the yacht Livadia at the pier

Despite the “absolutely original design”, the ship looked great from the outside, the smooth hull was covered with a shiny black lacquer, and the light gray pontoon almost merged with the water surface.
It took almost three months to complete the construction of the yacht afloat. In August, all boilers were loaded (8 identical three-furnace boilers were installed across the pontoon, and two half-boilers were installed behind them along the sides), and in early September, the main machines, which were already tested on mooring lines from 10 to 19 of the same month. The most experienced mechanical engineers of the fleet, Major Generals A.I. Sokolov and I.I. Zarubin, who were called to England in the summer, took part in these works.
On September 24, the Livadia, led by the builder Pierce and the factory team, left the shipyard pool and passed down the river under the middle car to Greenock; just in case, she was taken by three tugboats. On the same day, the yacht entered the bay, easily reaching 12 knots.

General view of the dining room

The chief consultant Tiedeman noted that the ship kept well on course and obeyed the helm like a boat. The next day, factory tests took place. Several Russian officers and 12 sailors from the team assigned to the yacht were invited to the ship. According to A. I. Sokolov, it was possible to develop a speed of 15 knots, and with a headwind!
living room corner

On the 26th, Pierce invited on board the commission of the Naval Ministry, chaired by Vice Admiral I.F. Likhachev, for an official six-hour trial. "Livadia" showed an average speed of 14.88 knots. with a power of 10200l. With.; the machines, due to the difference in the pitch of the propellers, worked with different speeds: the average was 90, the side ones were 84 rpm. The same Tideman noticed that when all three machines were operating, the circulation radius was “somewhat large,” but recognized this as insignificant, since it was possible to turn “in a much smaller space” with the help of side propellers - like on popovki. On September 27, the yacht was tested on a measured mile: according to the averaged data of six runs, its highest speed was equal to 15.725 knots, and the power plant power was 12,354 hp. With. And this despite the fact that the hull of the vessel during the completion of the construction was somewhat overgrown and sat deeper than expected, due to the heavier superstructure and interior decoration than in the calculations. The draft reached 2.1 m, and the displacement -4420 tons.
Boudoir table in one of the rooms

Calculations and experiments brilliantly confirmed. Everyone was happy. The company received 2.7 million rubles, including 414 thousand rubles, premiums. About A. A. Popov and E. V. Gulyaev wrote in all European newspapers.
Upon completion of the tests, the Russian team, which arrived in August from the Baltic Fleet, switched to the yacht (it exceeded the staff and consisted of 24 officers and 321 lower ranks). On September 30, the yacht was received from the factory and on the same day, raising the flag, guis and pennant, she began the campaign.
Corner of one of the living rooms (smoking room),

The ferry to the Black Sea was also planned as a training voyage “with only such a development of the power of machines,” A. A. Popov reported back in August, “to enable all machine personnel to calmly look around and get well acquainted with the operation and control of machines.” After preparations, on October 3, the yacht left the Greenock raid. On board, as guests of honor, were the shipbuilders Pierce, Tiedeman and Reid, as well as the controller of the English fleet, Admiral Steward. In Brest, Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich boarded and, under the flag of the Admiral General, the Livadia on October 7 went further, across the Bay of Biscay to Cadiz.
View of the cabinet

Until midnight on October 8, the campaign took place in favorable conditions, at a speed of 12-13 knots. The wind that rose at night quickly grew stronger, spreading a strong oncoming swell. From two o'clock in the morning on October 9, the waves began to hit the bow of the pontoon of the yacht - at first rare, these blows became more frequent with increasing wind and wave heights. The course had to be reduced to 4-5 knots, but the blows did not stop. Reed, who was very restrained in his assessments, wrote: “wave impacts on the flat bottom of the yacht were terrible at times ...” I.K. Vogak also reported the same in the report: “... one of them was especially strong, impression as from a blow on a solid object ... ”At 10 o’clock in the morning they discovered that the first double-bottom compartment was filled with water; urgently had to change course and head to the Spanish port of Ferrol.
According to eyewitnesses, the wave height reached 6-7 m, while the side roll did not exceed 3.5 ° on board, and the keel roll did not exceed 9 ° in a span of 5.5 ° forward and 3.5 ° aft. The screws were never exposed. “Nothing fell on the yacht,” the commander reported: the table setting and tall candelabra remained motionless as if in a calm, neither the soup in the bowls, nor the water in the glasses had ever spilled.
View of one of the bedrooms

How did the Livadia, led by experienced sailors, get into the very center of the storm, and even go against the wave? This is all the more incomprehensible, since there were shipbuilders on board who hinted, even during trials, that the yacht was good “with not too large waves”. As a member of the selection committee, Captain 2nd Rank V.P. Verkhovsky, “the yacht was never intended for ocean navigation, and therefore the Black Sea is enough to judge its qualities ... in any case, there is no reason to expose it even on the Black Sea to the daily actions of a heavy storm . The largest passage from Odessa to Poti ... the yacht will easily make it in 30 or 35 hours, and of course there will be no extreme to leave the port in the very storm ... "
Reid refers directly to the Admiral General, who, in his words, believed that the opportunity should not be missed "to make a thorough test of the yacht, and therefore we headed into the very jaws of the Biscay storm." About the same, but more diplomatically, Verkhovsky writes: “there were those who wanted to meet ... a good storm, they wanted us to be shaken, so that the wind and excitement were stronger ... and without this ... a complete judgment about the qualities of a yacht is impossible ...". Whether the leader of the campaign himself decided on such a "test" or he was helped and advised remains unknown.
View of the boudoir

In the Ferrol Bay, divers found in the bow of the pontoon, on the left side, a 5-meter dent with tears and cracks in the skin sheets, bent and broken frames. Five side compartments and one double-bottom compartment were flooded. Initially, a collision with floating debris was considered the cause of the damage, about which a message was sent to the Government Gazette, but after a thorough examination, both Russian and foreign experts came to the unanimous opinion that the damage was caused by wave impacts! The repair had to be carried out afloat by a team led by ship's mechanical engineers: not a single European dock could accommodate the Livadia, and Standfilsky at that time was only being re-equipped in Sevastopol to receive the yacht.
Only seven and a half months later, the corrected yacht left the Spanish port, continuing its passage on April 26, 1881. Now they were led by Vice Admiral I. A. Shestakov. They walked slowly and carefully, hiding from the weather under the coast or in ports. On the morning of May 27, "Livadia" entered the Sevastopol Bay. She covered 3890 miles in 381 running hours, spending more than 2900 tons of coal. In a special note, I. A. Shestakov noted the ease of steering the yacht, the straightness of its course, comfort and the absence of pitching. However, he stated that regardless of the speed, even with a slight dead swell, “the blows to the cheekbones of the pancake twitched”, and in the oncoming wave “blows to the nose were very noticeable”, while the superstructures “walked” (vibrated). Nevertheless, the admiral considered the well and carefully made yacht "worthy of existence", but ... after testing "under all circumstances of the sea and weather."
View of the cabinet

While her fate was being determined, the Livadia completed its only, as it turned out, voyage across the Black Sea. On May 29, under the flag of the chief commander of the Black Sea Fleet, she crossed to Yalta and, taking on board the Admiral General and his brother, Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolaevich, headed for Batum, from where she returned three days later. The passengers were not very lucky: the sea was stormy and the superstructures were shaking from the impact of the waves on the pontoon.
In mid-June, the yacht was raised in the Standfilsky dock, where it was examined by members of the commission appointed by the new head of the maritime department, Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich. Confirming the opinion that had developed back in Ferrol, the commission recognized that the damage to the yacht was received from wave impacts and considered the design of the pontoon hull, especially in the bow, unsatisfactory to resist these impacts. The MTC agreed with these conclusions and prescribed "for safe navigation" to replace all damaged parts with new ones with a reinforcement of the set in the bow.
During the three weeks of docking, the underwater part of the pontoon was only cleared of shells and greenery, and then repainted. Repair work was not carried out, only three strips were put on the discovered cracks in the skin sheets. By this time, the leadership of the ministry decided to conduct repeated sea trials of the yacht according to specially developed instructions.
View of part of the living room

From 3 to 12 August "Livadia" 136 times passed the measured mile near Sevastopol. 312 diagrams were taken, the draft and trim were carefully kept constant. Before the test for the maximum speed, the yacht was prepared for several days, but it was not possible to achieve a 15-knot speed. With the highest power developed by the machines (9837 hp), the average speed was 14.46 knots. Such an affront caused confusion in the ranks of the commission, it came to accusations of the builders of deceit. However, a member of the commission, Captain 2nd Rank G. A. Vlasyev, thoroughly proved the inaccuracy of the test instructions and the lack of skills of the engine crew in maintaining the full steam output of the boilers. The MTK supported Vlasyev, noting, in addition, the low quality of the coal used. The manager of the Naval Ministry, drawing attention to the difference in power during tests in England and Russia, which reached 2500 liters. s., irritatedly noted that such a fact “completely destroys all sorts of calculations and technical considerations when designing new ships with a known task for us.”
On August 15, the yacht left for Nikolaev, where it was soon “disarmed”. In September, her team was sent back to the Baltic, replacing the Black Sea. Property and furniture began to be slowly brought to the warehouses of the port; in the press, the ship was delicately referred to as a "former ... yacht." The official conclusion about the weakness of the design of the underwater part of the hull served as a verdict for a new type of vessel. However, this "weakness" was only a consequence of the main drawback of the yacht: heavy hull blows in waves, noted in all voyages, but with the greatest force manifested in Biscay. It was this phenomenon, later called "slamming", that deprived the Livadia of seaworthiness.
The inventor himself was one of the first to realize this. Back in May, answering a note from Admiral I. A. Shestakov, he honestly admitted: “about this shortcoming ... I can positively say that the small deepening of the yacht, which was due to its limited displacement, is an error that I did not foresee in such the extent to which it has affected practice ... ". In a personal letter from A. A. Popov to the Admiral General, it was even more precisely stated: “the pitching of the yacht due to 1) a small depression 2) a flat bottom produces a phenomenon that is not found on other ships in the dimensions that the design of the yacht has ... with a keel rolling from angles of 3 1/4 ° and more to the stern, the bottom of the bow is exposed, which results in: a) the complete destruction of the buoyancy of the bow compartments, which generates tension in the entire system of fixing the hull of the yacht; b) the impact of the bottom on the waves ... so strong that both the convenience and the safety of navigation are completely violated ... "
View of the dining room

The era of experiments by Admiral A. A. Popov ended with the accession to the Russian throne of Alexander III, who had long been hostile to Admiral General Konstantin Nikolayevich, and, accordingly, to the leadership of the naval department and to the "restless admiral" A. A. Popov , who, according to the emperor, was engaged in "rounding off domestic naval architecture." The emperor immediately put his brother at the head of the ministry. A. A. Popov was replaced by I. A. Shestakov, who became the next, in 1882, the manager of the Naval Ministry. But Andrei Alexandrovich continued to defend a new type of round vessel. According to E. E. Gulyaev, he even developed the “strongest unsinkable battleship” of the Livadia form; in a single-hull elliptical design with vertical sides, 8 305-mm guns were placed, the displacement was 11250 tons, the draft was 4.1 m. .".
Trying to save the yacht, A. A. Popov turned to the disgraced Konstantin Nikolayevich and I. A. Shestakov: go out to sea. She does not have to chase the enemy, she is not intended to cruise in the oceans, she does not need to be in hurricanes ... "However, according to I. A. Shestakov," The sovereign agreed to deal with the yacht at all costs. Even when I said that a prison was needed in Sevastopol, I expressed my readiness to give Livadia to this use. As a result, it was not possible to carry out new sea trials in 1882, which could be useful for the design, in the future, of new power plants. Moreover, A. A. Popov was offered to cover the amount of bonuses issued to British builders from his personal funds, allegedly without the knowledge of the leadership of the ministry! Only after four years of litigation did the treasury take over the "loss".
Blokshiv "Experience" (former yacht "Livadia") in Sevastopol. In the foreground is the mine cruiser "Kazarsky"

In April 1883, the yacht turned into the Opyt steamer. For several years the ship stood idle: the MTC intended to use it as a transport, unique in terms of capacity, draft and speed, for transporting troops and equipment; it was planned to leave two side steam engines, and use the middle one on the new Baltic battleship. It was indeed removed, but installed on the Minin cruiser during its repair. The rest of the cars at the end of the century were also sent to the Baltic for the cruisers General-Admiral and Duke of Edinburgh. When unloading the machines, some of the wooden superstructures were dismantled; the huge rooms on the upper deck disappeared in the mid-80s. The steamer turned into a blockship "Experience", used both as a barracks and as a warehouse ... At the beginning of the 20th century, it was handed over to the port of Sevastopol, but in 1913 it was again included in the lists of the fleet as "Blokshiv No. 7". He stood in Sevastopol until 1926, when he was decommissioned completely. Black Sea veterans recalled that they saw its unusual skeleton back in the late 30s.