If something works, why touch it? Of course, it is not the most profitable or the most innovative motto in the history of technology; but there are times when he is the smartest. Let them tell Andrei Alexandrovich Popov, the architect of one of the most curious and unfortunate ships of the Russian Navy, they even named it: “popovkas”, armed warships, boats… and form. circular. Just like giant water lilies.

In the second half of the 19th century, Andrei A. Popov, an officer in the Imperial Russian Navy, came to the unorthodox conclusion that what his country’s fleet really needed. wafer boats. It sounds crazy, but Popov wasn’t the first to consider the advantages of such a model, nor was his logic seen calmly and on paper so exaggerated.

After the Crimean War and the end of the Treaty of Paris, the Black Sea was turned into a vast military free space, where Russia was not comfortable, at least in theory. Without warships or fortifications protecting the area, it was subject to the Ottoman Empire. As if that weren’t enough, the measure did not contribute to their desire to gain direct access to the Mediterranean. A solution was needed. And as soon as possible.

Saint Petersburg in his favor pretty clear ideas: I wanted warships that were very suitable for the environment, capable of defending the strategic Kerch Strait shores and the mouth of the Dnieper River. And above all, frighten all the enemies roaming the area.

Clear ideas on paper…

Analyzing the situation, Popov concluded that it was best to opt for structures that were light, well-armed, and had a circular design that looked more like donuts than ships…which was really interesting. He wasn’t the only one convinced that in some cases such a design was more interesting than the traditional stylized ship configuration.

The advantages of ships with a wide beam had already been outlined by the prestigious Scottish engineer John Elder, and far from Glasgow or Saint Petersburg, they also caught the interest of Edward Reed. Reasons were not lacking, as they remembered in Va de barco and La Brújula Verde.

at least on paper.

Extending its beam to the maximum, the hull reduced the draft and the surface that needed to be armored. Not to mention that it theoretically gains the capacity to carry large-caliber guns. Speed ​​was lost, true, but that wasn’t something that could be mitigated by good engines.

Popov briefly outlined a ship capable of handling in it. shallow waters and display a weapon that will scare the most painted foes. Maybe its configuration was a bit odd, but it didn’t matter much in the engineering applied to the war.

The idea was sound enough to convince the Admiral of the Navy, Grand Duke Kontsntin Nikolayevich, that Popov was able to move from paper to shipyard. It was decided to produce four units, and after several prototypes, for which the Tsar himself was nicknamed “popovka”, the ship began to be produced in April 1871 and was completed almost on New Year’s Eve of the same year.

Although Nikolayevich initially chose a large design, 46 meters in diameterEquipped with four cannons and more than 6,000 tons of displacement, its bill was so stratospheric that it had to settle for a slightly smaller and more tuned version of 29m. Baptized as Novgorod, it would have slightly exceeded 30 m with a draft of 4.1 m and a displacement of about 2,500 tons.

The wafer shape wasn’t the only thing wondering about Novgorod.

Its logistics looks like it came out of a Kafka story. When the ship was finished, the Navy decided to dismantle it and move piece by piece he first got on a train and then went to St. By barge from St. Petersburg to Nikolaev, the final destination on the Black Sea coast. Novgord was not launched until mid-1873.

Picture showing the arrival of Novgorod to Sevastopol.

Engraving showing Vice Admiral Popov’s ship in 1878.

View of one of the “popovkas” with its propellers visible.

It was not the only “popovka” to cross the waters. In 1972, the construction of a similar ship began in Nikolaev himself, later known as Vice Admiral Popov, saluting the senior officer who proposed the model. The ship was completed in 1876, during the outbreak of the Eastern War, which lasted from 1877 to 1878, when Novgorod was mainly focused on the defense of the Odessa coastline.

The legend of “Popovka” (not quite epic)

Circular boats were Good idea As Popov believed at the beginning of the same decade? No, it makes one believe, although the result is not as bad as the fame of the “popovka”, which is rightly said to return with the force of each blow.

The truth is that there was a bug in the bases of the ship’s guns that affected the gunfire, and the technicians had to fix it, as Va de Barcos points out. The alleged uncontrolled turn, in any case, is not the only one, but one of the strange ships of officer Popov.

Its structure was stable when sailing in calm areas, but when sailing in strong currents, things got complicated. Maneuvering the balls between the ups and downs was not easy.

He wasn’t particularly agile in the turns either, making slow maneuvers, lying down. very limited speedIt had a speed of 6.5 knots, and the use of steam engines required the transport of a significant amount of coal—the Green Compass pointed to—reducing its autonomy.

“They couldn’t navigate the open sea and slower than turtles. On the other hand, the force of the shots caused the ship to turn on its own. These ships could only have played a minor role as a means of coastal defense, but not in a prominent way,” says Igor Kasatonov, the former commander of the Black Sea Fleet, in statements collected by Russia Beyond. Worse still, they were not well thought out to house a crew either.

Despite their secret service records to the Novgorod Chronicle and Vice Admiral Popov, they still had a few pages to write. Of course, without the great episodes. In the following years they continued to modernize, their weapons were strengthened and they were assigned to the scenario in which they best defended themselves, coastal defense. They retired in 1903, and after a frustrated sale in 1911, did they point their bows? to the junkyard where the last part was written.

Or not.

“popovka” it wasn’t just them boats exploring the possibilities of extending the beam to unprecedented levels. Popov’s theories were to be tested on another ship called the Livadia, which was launched in July 1880 with a slightly more streamlined design that kept it from looking like a large circle. Even today, until the 21st century, a circular boat remains in service.

Pictures | Wikimedia, Zandcee, Красовский Н.П.