Vsevolod-class Sloop-of-war

• 2 lost

• 1 preserved

Copper

• copper anti-fouling

Wood

• soviet redwood

• 25mm keel iron w/ 5mm copper plating

• 80mm ram bow iron w/ 5mm copper plating

###### *From: Russian Maritime Forces*

The Vsevolod (Rossi: Всеволод) class was a class of 3 topsail sloop-of-wars of the Russian Navy. These small ships were used by their navies as a tender or armed merchant ships due to their small hulls and they have become the last sail-only warship design and built during the Beremets period, all three ships would be built between (O.S.) 1708 and 1714 (308 - 314A.C.) Unless given the circumstances, these ships were still used in combat for their speed compared to it's contemporaries, this was further intensified with the fitting of an screw steam engine which made Vsevolod the fastest ships of their time and were assigned as scout ships and long-endurance patrol ships.

The Vsevolods were constructed in the civilian drydocks of Dukolets Shipyard in the Putiv'l Prefecture. Built out from the necessity of the Russian Navy's caution towards growing piracy in their immediate coastal territories, some ships of the class were also involved in the exploration of new lands and expansion for the Russian state.

## Design and Construction

### Hull

From the (O.S.) late 1690s, Russia's timber industry grew some 25% over the years with the discovery of soviet redwood trees and their viability for new warship construction under the provision of Chief Naval Commander Yumalin Beremets. The vast amount of redwood timber stocks allowed the Russian Navy to build new sail-powered ships using existing stockpiles, the Navy called for the construction of sloop-of-wars which were fast, with good endurance and sufficiently armed to be capable of engaging all types of threats that the Russians could encounter out at sea while keeping costs low since the heavy industry of Russia was not as capable of producing machineries and advanced weapons on hand.

The second and third ships of the class were made of composite construction, as biofouling on the Vsevolod became very apparent and caused many problems forcing them to frequently be at the docks, the frame, keel and sternpost were cast iron, with below waterline parts of the hull were coppered.

These sloops weighed 13.5 t'yali (1,000 tons) and was 4 minoga (53.2 meters) long and used a barentique sail plan; three masts consisting of a square rig foremast, and a fore-and-aft rigged main. The relatively large size did not stop the Vsevolod-class to go at an impressive 9 knots (17.6km/h) for it's weight class, the ship could go faster with the help of a 2-cylinder horizontal compound-expansion steam engine which developed 280 kilowatts of power to drive a single shaft and screw. This inclusion of an engine was designed specifically from designers from Putiv'l shipyards when first conceiving the Vsevolod-class, however the availability of such engines was limited which meant that construction of these ships were intentionally supposed to be a screw steamer class, it was only then that the inclusion of steam engines was included in (O.S.) 1712 when the first two ships were refitted with them.

240 crew and officers would serve on the Vsevolod.

### Armament

#### M6 60 Pounder (119.7mm) Rifled Naval Guns

The ship's primary battery consists of 8 M6 60 pounder 119.7mm naval guns. These guns are fitted on a center turret battery found in the centerline between the Vsevolod's funnel and foremast and which was protected by iron plating. These guns could be depressed −2° and elevated to +4° and could fire at a range of 7.6 daleko (5,000 meters) with a muzzle velocity of 400 - 557 meters per second.

   The M6 is the main armament for many of the Russian Navy's warships from (O.S.) 1700 to 1756. These guns had a bore length of 4 arshina (4.2 meters) and were rifled, 16 grooves 1 mer (0.8mm) deep with a twist rate of 1:30, two of these are fitted onto the center turret and were muzzle loaded, making them poor at reloading (8−16 rounds per minute). This ship carried a total of 80 rounds for these guns and included common (K) palliser (N) and common lyddite (KH), was for use against ship and shore based targets.

#### M9 2 pounder (39.9mm) Smoothbore Swivel Guns

The ship's secondary battery consists of 2 M9 39.9mm swivel guns with the mounts situated along the ship's deck. These guns are the smallest armament in the Vsevolod and were the main secondary / tertiary weapon on Russian Navy warships. They were employed for use against close-range targets and enemy boarding crews where they have found effective service as one. These guns typically were fitted with a 1 t'syatsha (1.056 kilogram) common (K) high-explosive shells.

The secondary purpose of the M9 guns were for use in causing effective fire damage against enemy ships however the armour protection of competing warships improved, the M9 lost their effectiveness and were considered obsolete and were phased out in favour of the 60mm canet guns some decades later.

#### BB-1 Delayed-fuse Explosive Charge

The BB-1 is a delayed-fuse explosive charge (commonly referred to as a depth charge) were the third primary weapon in the Vsevolod-class. There is a pair of racks holding 8 BB-1 charges each on the Vsevolod which they launched via a roll-ramp. The BB-1 weighed 150 t'syatsha (158.4 kilograms, with a 148 kilogram explosive weight). These charges had a time delay of 5 to 10 seconds and were designed to engage seamonsters or even as a weapon for boarding ships.

## Service Record

#### Vsevolod

The first ship of the class would serve in Vidlitsa as part of the Russian Navy Academy's main training ship during (O.S.) Marts 1709 (March 309A.C.). While in commission the Vsevolod would be refitted on (O.S.) Iyun (June of the same year) and were moved to the Tulukitsa Flotilla where they were assigned to deliver troops and supplies until Avgust where Vsevolod would take on water while mooring into the Tulukitsa port delivering lyddite in it's cargohold, the issue was found to have been from the biofouling which rotted a section in the ship's fore hold and caused considerable flooding damage and was forced to stay in drydock for repairs. Of all 250kg lyddite that the Vsevolod had delivered were waterlogged and almost caused an explosion while crew were attempting to prevent the flood after a lit oil lamp dropped onto the cargo, but the ensuing fire was put out by the flood.

Much of Vsevolod's issues were fixed with the second and third ship of the class where the design was immediately modified with the use of a composite hull.

#### Kuzmich

The second ship, Kuzmich was deployed to Tulukitsa after the completion of it's construction and served in that fleet, serving alongside the gunboat Nemozedhanik as escorts for trade ships between the Putiv'l Prefecture and it's home port. In (O.S.) 1738 (338A.C.) both Kuzmich and Nemozedhanik were loaded reinforcements at Vistino on (O.S.) 12 Yanvar (12 January) during a seamonster siege and departed for another run to rearm for Mustovoy Bor to be fitted with depth charges and support the Russian Navy against the seamonster Bol'shoy (Rossi: Большой), on 25 Yanvar Kuzmich survived unscathed during a surprise attack, leaving Nemozedhanik sinking, only rescuing 28 sailors during the scramble. Kuzmich would encounter Bol'shoy after departing from Mustovoy Bor while escorting trade galleys and managed to defeat the seamonster during a 12-hour face-off. Among the three ships on the Vsevolod-class, Kuzmich would been the most active and successful, being awarded two Order of Glory medals.

Kuzmich would survive up until the start of the 1st Great Cryptid War as a training ship (in 1765) then permanently put in a dry berth in the Tulukitsa War Memorial in O.S. 1780 (380A.C.) as a museum ship.

#### Netsvetsov

The third and last ship Netsvetsov would be employed to the north of the Uuotovio Prefecture as a research and surveillance ship. They are the ships responsible for contributing to Russian catrography for discovering the Kripta (Rossi: Крипта) Sea and the Altay (Rossi: Алтай) Strait. Much of Netsvetsov's history mostly remained a mystery after it's untimely dissappearance in (O.S.) 1775 (375A.C.), leaving little to no evidence of the ship's fate and the documents that the ship had carried.