Sailor Pyotr Koshka submarine

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The "Matros Pyotr Koshka" (named after a hero of Sevastopol defense in 1850s) was designed by navy leutenant Eugeniy Kolbasyev and build as a diversionary submarine, which could be disassembled into separate sections for transportation. The idea was, that it could be easily transported by railroad (all sections were designed to fit into standard railroad box car) or inside cargo hold of merchant steamer. Its intended use was to sneak into enemy harbors & attack warships here; also the idea of easy-to-deliver coastal defense weapon was suggested.

The famous Russian shipbuilder and naval engineer Alexey Krylov recalled in his memories that there were semi-anekdotical stories about this submarine being intended for overland transportation (on camel-driven carriages) to Persian Gulf in case of war with Britain.

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The submarine itself was composed of nine sections, that were connected with bolts. The hull was semi-filled with kapok fibre (not cork) to ensure floatability even in case of damage. The boat was fully-electric, with six electric motors rotating six screws, placed in central part of the hull on angled shafts. The idea was, that such arrangement would allow for very precise control, and would reduce the screws influence on torpedoes. There were two collar-type torpedo launchers (bow & stern), each for one 38-cm torpedo.

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The submarine was build in St. Petersburg, then send by railroad to Sevastolop, where it was tested in 1904-1906. The results were... not satisfactory. The submarine didn't hold the course, six-screw arrangement made her very unstable in movement, both the surface (about 80 km) and underwater (less than 20 km) range was considered unsatisfactory, and the torpedo tubes didn't work properly.

The navy eventually concluded that this submarine is useless for practical purposes, and returned it to the inventor. It was used as a floating boat pier for some time, then scrapped. Kolbasyev designed several larger (and more conventional) submarines in 1908-1910, but his designs, while reasonable, were deemed too complicated and costly.
 

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