Russian battleship Potemkin The Russian battleship " Potemkin " ( , " Prince Potemkin of Tauris " ) was a pre - dreadnought battleship built for the Imperial Russian Navy ' s Black Sea Fleet . The ship was made famous by the rebellion of the crew against their oppressive officers in June 1905 ( during the Russian Revolution of 1905 ) . It later came to be viewed as an initial step towards the Russian Revolution of 1917 , and was the basis of Sergei Eisenstein ' s silent film " The Battleship Potemkin " ( 1925 ) . Following the mutiny in 1905 , the ship ' s name was changed to " Panteleimon " . She accidentally sank a Russian submarine in 1909 and was badly damaged when she ran aground in 1911 . " Panteleimon " participated in the Battle of Cape Sarych shortly after Russia declared war on the Ottoman Empire in late 1914 during World War I . She covered several bombardments of the Bosphorus fortifications in early 1915 , including one where she was attacked by the German battlecruiser ; " Panteleimon " and the other Russian pre - dreadnoughts , managed to drive her off . The ship was relegated to secondary roles after the first dreadnought entered service in late 1915 and reduced to reserve in 1918 in Sevastopol . " Panteleimon " was captured when the Germans took Sevastopol in May 1918 and was handed over to the Allies after the Armistice in November 1918 . Her engines were destroyed in 1919 by the British when they withdrew from Sevastopol to prevent the advancing Bolsheviks from using them against the White Russians . She was abandoned when the Whites evacuated the Crimea in 1920 and was finally scrapped by the Soviets in 1923 . Design and construction . Planning . A slipway would become available at the Nikolayev Admiralty Shipyard in 1896 , and planning began in 1895 for a new battleship to utilize it . The Naval Staff and the commander of the Black Sea Fleet , Vice Admiral K . P . Pilkin , decided on a copy of the design , but they were overruled by General Admiral Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich who decided that the long range and guns of the " Peresvet " class were inappropriate for the narrow confines of the Black Sea . He ordered that an improved version of be designed ; he wanted a higher forecastle to improve the ship ' s seakeeping qualities and Krupp cemented armour as well as Belleville boilers . The design process was complicated by numerous changes demanded by various departments of the Naval Technical Committee , but the design was finally approved on 12 June 1897 , although design changes continued to be made and slowed the ship ' s construction . Construction and sea trials . Construction of " Potemkin " began on 27 December 1897 and she was laid down at the Nikolayev Admiralty Shipyard on 10 October 1898 . She was named in honour of Prince Grigory Potemkin , a Russian soldier and statesman . The ship was launched on 9 October 1900 and transferred to Sevastopol for fitting out on 4 July 1902 . She began sea trials in September 1903 and these continued , off and on , until early 1905 when her gun turrets were completed . Properties . " Potemkin " was long at the waterline and long overall . She had a beam of and a maximum draft of . She displaced , over more than her designed displacement of . " Potemkin " s crew consisted of 26 officers and 705 enlisted men . Power . The ship had a pair of three - cylinder vertical triple - expansion steam engines that had a total designed output of . Twenty - two Belleville boiler s provided steam to the engines , each of which drove one propeller . The eight boilers in the forward boiler room were oil - fired and the remaining 14 were coal - fired . On 31 October 1903 , she reached a top speed of with her boilers at a pressure of during her sea trials . Leaking oil caused a serious fire on 2 January 1904 that caused the navy to convert her boilers to coal firing at a cost of 20 , 000 rubles . She carried a maximum of of coal at full load that provided a range of at a speed of . Armament . The main armament consisted of four 40 - calibre guns mounted in twin gun turret s fore and aft . The electrically operated turrets were derived from the design of those used by the s . These guns had a maximum elevation of + 15° and their rate of fire was very slow , only one round every four minutes during gunnery trials . They fired a shell at a muzzle velocity of . At an elevation of + 10° the guns had a range of . " Potemkin " carried 60 rounds for each gun . The sixteen 45 - calibre , Canet Pattern 1891 quick - firing ( QF ) guns were mounted in casemate s . Twelve of these were placed on the sides of the hull and the other four were positioned at a corner of the superstructure . They fired shells that weighed with a muzzle velocity of . They had a maximum range of when fired at an elevation of + 20° . The ship stowed 160 rounds per gun . Smaller guns were carried for defence against torpedo boat s . These included fourteen 50 - calibre Canet QF guns : four in hull embrasure s and the remaining 10 mounted on the superstructure . The ship carried 300 shells for each gun . They fired an shell at a muzzle velocity of to a maximum range of at an elevation of 13° . She also mounted six Hotchkiss gun s . Four of these were mounted in the fighting top and two on the superstructure . They fired a shell at a muzzle velocity of . " Potemkin " carried five underwater torpedo tube s : one in the bow and two on each broadside . She carried three torpedoes for each tube . While the model of torpedo in use changed over time , the first torpedo that the ship would have been equipped with was the M1904 . It had a warhead weight of and a speed of with a maximum range of . In 1907 telescopic sight s were fitted for the 12 - inch and six - inch guns . Either later that year , or in 1908 , rangefinder s were installed . The bow torpedo tube was removed in 1910 – 11 as was the fighting top . The following year , the main gun turret machinery was upgraded and the guns were modified to improve their rate of fire to one round every 40 seconds . Two anti - aircraft ( AA ) guns were mounted on the ship ' s superstructure on 3 – 6 June 1915 and they were supplemented by two 75 mm AA guns , one on top of each turret , probably during 1916 . In February of that year , the ship ' s four remaining torpedo tubes were removed . At some point during the war , her 75 mm anti - torpedo boat guns were also removed . Protection . The maximum thickness of the Krupp cemented armour waterline belt was which reduced to abreast the magazine s . It covered of the ship ' s length and plates protected the waterline to the ends of the ship . The belt was high , of which was below the waterline , and tapered down to a thickness of at its bottom edge . The main part of the belt terminated in transverse bulkheads . Above the belt was the upper strake of six - inch armour that was long and closed off by six - inch transverse bulkheads fore and aft . The upper casemate protected the six - inch guns and was five inches thick on all sides . The sides of the turrets were thick and they had a two - inch roof . The conning tower ' s sides were nine inches thick . The nickel - steel armour deck was two inches thick on the flat amidships , but thick on the slope connecting to the armour belt . Fore and aft of the armoured citadel , the deck was to the bow and stern . In 1910 – 11 , additional armour plates were added fore and aft ; their exact location is unknown , but they were probably used to extend the height of the two - inch armour strake at the ends of the ship . Service . The mutiny . During the Russo - Japanese War of 1904 – 05 , many of the Black Sea Fleet ' s most experienced officers and enlisted men were transferred to the ships in the Pacific to replace losses . This left the fleet with primarily raw recruits and less capable officers . With the news of the disastrous Battle of Tsushima in May 1905 morale dropped to an all time low and only needed a spark to set off a major catastrophe . The Central Committee of the Social Democratic Organization of the Black Sea Fleet , called " Tsentralka " , had started preparations for a simultaneous mutiny on all of the ships of the fleet , although the timing had not been decided . On 27 June 1905 , " Potemkin " was at gunnery practice near Tendra Island off the Ukrainian coast when many enlisted men refused to eat the borscht made from rotten meat partially infested with maggot s when it was delivered to the warship by the " Potemkin " s escort , the torpedo boat ( No . 627 ) . The uprising was triggered when Ippolit Giliarovsky , the ship ' s second in command , allegedly threatened to shoot crew members for their refusal . He summoned the ship ' s marine guards as well as a tarpaulin to protect the ship ' s deck from any blood in an attempt to intimidate the crew . Giliarovsky was killed after he mortally wounded Grigory Vakulinchuk , one of the mutiny ' s leaders . The mutineers killed seven of the " Potemkin " s eighteen officers , including Captain Evgeny Golikov and Giliarovsky , and captured " Ismail " . They organized a ship ' s committee of 25 sailors , led by Afanasi Matushenko , to run the battleship . The committee decided to head for Odessa flying a red flag and arrived there later that day at 22 : 00 . A general strike had been called in the city and there was some rioting as the police tried to quell the strikers . The following day the mutineers refused to land armed sailors , and assist the revolutionaries behind the strikes take over the city , as they preferred to await the arrival of the other battleships of the Black Sea Fleet . Later that day they captured a military transport , the " Vekha " , that arrived in the city . The riots continued as much of the port area was destroyed by fire . On the afternoon of 29 June , Vakulinchuk ’ s funeral turned into a political demonstration and the army attempted to ambush the sailors that participated in the funeral . In retaliation , the ship fired two six - inch shells at the theatre where a high - level military meeting was scheduled to take place , but missed . The government issued an order to send two squadrons to Odessa either to force the " Potemkin " crew to give up or sink the battleship . " Potemkin " sortied on the morning of 30 June to meet the three battleship s " Tri Sviatitelia " , , and of the first squadron , but the loyal ships turned away . The second squadron arrived with the battleships and later that morning and Vice Admiral Aleksander Krieger , acting commander of the Black Sea Fleet , ordered the ships back to Odessa . " Potemkin " sortied again and sailed through the combined squadrons as Krieger failed to order his ships to fire . Captain Kolands of " Dvenadsat Apostolov " attempted to ram " Potemkin " and then detonate his ship ' s magazines , but he was thwarted by members of his crew . Krieger ordered his ships to fall back , but the crew of " Georgii Pobedonosets " mutinied and joined " Potemkin " . The following morning , loyalist members of " Georgii Pobedonosets " retook control of the ship and ran it aground in Odessa harbour . The crew of " Potemkin " , together with " Ismail " , decided to sail for Constanta later that day where they could restock food , water and coal . The Romanians refused to provide the supplies so the ship ' s committee decided to sail for the small , barely defended , port of Theodosia in the Crimea where they hoped to resupply . The ship arrived there on the morning of 5 July , but the city ' s governor refused to give them anything other than food . The mutineers attempted to seize several barges of coal the following morning , but they were ambushed by the port ' s garrison , killing or capturing 22 of the 30 sailors involved . They decided to return to Constanta that afternoon . " Potemkin " reached its destination at 23 : 00 on 7 July and the Romanians agreed to give asylum to the crew if they would disarm themselves and surrender the battleship . " Ismail " s crew decided the following morning to return to Sevastopol and hand themselves in . Before the crew disembarked , Matushenko ordered that the ship ' s Kingston valve s be opened so " Potemkin " would sink to the bottom of the harbour . Later service . The battleship was easily refloated , but the salt water had damaged her engines and boilers . She had to be towed back to Sevastopol , where she arrived on 14 July . The ship was renamed " Panteleimon " ( ) , after Saint Pantaleon , on 12 October 1905 . Some members of " Panteleimon " s crew joined a mutiny that began aboard the cruiser in November , but it was easily suppressed as both ships had been earlier disarmed . " Panteleimon " received an experimental underwater communications set in February 1909 . Later that year , she accidentally rammed and sank the submarine at night on 11 June , killing the 16 crewmen aboard the submarine . While returning from a port visit to Constanta in 1911 , " Panteleimon " ran aground on 2 October and it took several days to refloat her . She received temporary repairs although the full extent of the damage to her bottom was not fully realized for several more months . The ship participated in training and gunnery exercises for the rest of the year ; a special watch was kept to ensure that no seams were opened while firing . Permanent repairs , which involved replacing a large number of her hull frames and plating as well as the replacement of her boiler foundations , lasted from 10 January to 25 April 1912 . The navy took advantage of these repairs to overhaul her engines and boilers . " Panteleimon " , flagship of the 1st Battleship Brigade , accompanied by the pre - dreadnoughts , , and " Tri Sviatitelia " , covered the pre - dreadnought " Rostislav " while she bombarded Trebizond on the morning of 17 November 1914 after Russia declared war on the Ottoman Empire . They were intercepted by the German battlecruiser " Goeben " and the light cruiser the following day on their return voyage to Sevastopol in what came to be known as the Battle of Cape Sarych . Despite the noon hour the conditions were foggy and the capital ships initially did not spot each other . Although several of the other ships opened fire and hit " Goeben " once , " Panteleimon " held her fire as her turrets could not see the German ships before they disengaged . " Tri Sviatitelia " and " Rostislav " bombarded Ottoman fortifications at the mouth of the Bosphorus on 18 March 1915 , the first of several bombardments intended to divert troops and attention from the on - going Gallipoli Campaign , but only fired 105 rounds before sailing north to rejoin " Panteleimon " , " Ioann Zlatoust " and " Evstafi " . " Tri Sviatitelia " and " Rostislav " were to have repeated the bombardment the following day , but heavy fog prevented the operation . On 3 April , " Goeben " and several ships of the Turkish navy raided the Russian port at Odessa ; the Russian battleship squadron sortied to intercept them . The battleships chased " Goeben " the entire day , but were unable to reach effective gunnery range and were forced to break off the chase . On 25 April " Tri Sviatitelia " and " Rostislav " repeated their bombardment of the Bosporus forts . " Sviatitelia " , " Rostislav " and " Panteleimon " bombarded the forts again on 2 and 3 May . This time a total of 337 main gun rounds were fired in addition to 528 six - inch shells between the three battleships . On 9 May 1915 , " Tri Sviatitelia " and " Panteleimon " returned to bombard the Bosphorus forts , covered by the remaining pre - dreadnoughts . " Goeben " intercepted the three ships of the covering force , although no damage was inflicted by either side . " Tri Sviatitelia " and " Pantelimon " rejoined their consorts and the latter scored two hits on " Goeben " before she broke off the action . The Russian ships pursued her for six hours before giving up the chase . On 1 August , all of the Black Sea pre - dreadnoughts were transferred to the 2nd Battleship Brigade , after the dreadnought entered service . On 1 October the new dreadnought provided cover while " Ioann Zlatoust " and " Pantelimon " bombarded Zonguldak and " Evstafi " shelled the nearby town of Kozlu . The ship bombarded Varna twice in October 1915 ; during the second bombardment on 27 October , she entered Varna Bay and was unsuccessfully attacked by two German submarines stationed at Varna . " Panteleimon " supported Russian troops in early 1916 as they captured Trebizond and participated in an anti - shipping sweep off the northwestern Anatolian coast in January 1917 that destroyed 39 Turkish sailing ships . On 13 April 1917 the ship was renamed " Potemkin - Tavricheski " ( ) and then to " Borets za svobodu " ( – " Freedom Fighter " ) on 11 May 1917 . Reserve and decommissioning . She was placed in reserve in March 1918 and was captured by the Germans at Sevastopol in May . They handed the ship over to the Allies in December 1918 after the Armistice . The British wrecked her engines on 19 April 1919 when they left the Crimea to prevent the advancing Bolsheviks from using her against the White Russians . The ship was captured by both sides during the Russian Civil War , but was abandoned by the White Russians when they evacuated the Crimea in November 1920 . " Borets za svobodu " was scrapped beginning in 1923 , although she was not stricken from the Navy List until 21 November 1925 . Legacy . The immediate effects of the mutiny are difficult to assess . It may have influenced Tsar Nicholas II ' s decisions to end the Russo - Japanese War and accept the October Manifesto , as the mutiny demonstrated that his régime no longer had the unquestioning loyalty of the military . The mutiny ' s failure did not stop other revolutionaries from inciting mutinies later that year ( Sevastopol Uprising ) . Vladimir Lenin , leader of the Bolshevik Party , called it a " dress rehearsal " for his successful revolution in 1917 . The Soviets seized upon the mutiny as a propaganda symbol for their party and unduly emphasized their role in the mutiny . In fact , Matushenko explicitly rejected the Bolsheviks because he and the other leaders of the mutiny were Socialists of one type or another and cared nothing for Communism . This appropriation is nowhere clearer than in Eisenstein ' s 1925 film " Battleship Potemkin " , filmed aboard the derelict battleship " Dvenadsat Apostolov " . He emphasised the role of the Bolsheviks , and implied that the mutiny failed because Matushenko and the other leaders were not better Bolsheviks . Eisenstein made other changes to dramatize the story , ignoring the major fire that swept through Odessa ' s dock area while " Potemkin " was anchored there , combining the many different incidents of rioters and soldiers fighting into the famous sequence on the steps , and showing a tarpaulin thrown over the sailors to be executed .