Ruvelkan Battlecruiser Khoytka

Khoytka in 1907.
History
Ruvelkan Socialist Republic
Name:	Khoytka
Namesake:	Siege of Khoytka
Ordered:	1 February 1904
Builder:	Soós, Barna & Antal, Mátészalka
Laid down:	23 June 1904
Launched:	16 September 1906
Commissioned:	5 October 1906
Fate:	Transferred to the Imperial Navy.
Principality of Ruvelka
Acquired:	7 December 1914
Commissioned:	11 December 1914
Struck:	12 March 1938
Fate:	Scuttled on 11 May 1934 during the Invasion of Ruvelka to prevent capture; hull eventually broken up for scrap in 1940
General characteristics
Class and type:	Khoytka-class battlecruiser
Displacement:	22,979 tons standard 25,400 tons fully loaded
Length:	186.6 meters
Beam:	29.4 meters
Draft:	9.19 meters
Propulsion:	4 × steam turbines 24 × water-tube boilers 4 × shafts each driving four-bladed propellers 38,246 kW (51,289 shp)
Speed:	28.4 knots (52.6 km/h)
Range:	4,120 nmi at 14 knots
Complement:	1,053 officers and crew
Armament:	Guns: 10 × 28cm/50 (5 × 2) 12 × 15cm/40 guns (12 × 1) 12 × 9cm/45 guns (12 × 1)
Armor:	Belt: 76 – 280 mm Deck: 25 – 76 mm Barbettes: 90 – 230 mm Turrets: 75 – 230 mm

Khoytka was a battlecruiser built for the Ruvelkan Red Navy leading up to the Third Chryse War and Ruvelka’s first post-dreadnought warship. Khoytka was to be the first of the planned Khoytka-class battlecruisers, but complications with her construction and the shelling of the second hull during the Third Chryse War rendered Khoytka the only ship of the class to be built and put to sea. Although there were later plans by the Socialist Republic to revisit procuring her sister ships, the outbreak of the Ruvelkan Civil War cancelled any tentative plans for expanding the Ruvelkan Navy.

Although the overall performance of the Red Navy was poor during the Third Chryse War, the Khoytka was the only notable exception. Khoytka was often sortied on her own or in battlegroups with allied Górska. She was a very modern design prescribing to the new uniform battery seen in dreadnought designs across Tyran; it was later revealed in the lead up to the Siduri War that the Ruvelkans received significant assistance from communist-sympathetic Cacertian naval officer Ninnia Regula.

On 30 November 1914, then Captain Sára Vörös—by then a member of the Imperial Separatist Movement—ordered the Khoytka to put to sea from its homeport in Mátészalka. When the 1914 December Uprising began the next month, Captain Vörös informed Red Navy command the intention of her crew to defect. The Khoytka played a key role in the Imperial capture of Mátészalka in February, spending the remainder of the war providing naval gunfire for Imperial operations along the northern coast of Ruvelka. After the civil war, the Khoytka continued to serve in its capacity as the flagship of the navy and ferried Princess Rózsá Prohászka to several state visits.

In late 1933, the Khoytka was put in for a refit at her homeport in order to modernize her equipment and armament. The refit was only partially completed by the time of the Invasion of Ruvelka. Crew of the Ruvelkan Imperian Navy attempted to bypass the engine repairs to get the vessel underway, but these efforts proved unsuccessful. With elements of the Army of the Syaran Republic quickly advancing, the decision was made to scuttle the ship to prevent it from falling into enemy hands.

The Syarans refloated the ship in 1936 and commissioned her as the Repentant Sinner, although she never left port and was utilized as an anti-aircraft platform during the Liberation of Ruvelka. The Syarans scuttled her again in January 1938. Her wreck was again raised after the conclusion of the Siduri War, but deemed too costly to refit and repair. She was eventually scrapped in 1940.

Design

The launch of the HMS Eerika Waterly-Davion by the Cacertian Imperial Navy in April 1902 resulted in a region-wide naval arms race. Although the Ruvelkan Socialist Republic only possessed a small navy, the ongoing arms build ups in in Syara and Górska incentivized the Red Navy to develop a modern warship. There was significant debate whether the warships should be a dreadnought battleship or a battlecruiser; ultimately Admiral Nándor Bács successfully argued for a battlecruiser since the majority of Ruvelka’s current fleet already consisted mainly of cruisers and armored cruisers.

During the design and development process, there was additional debate regarding the size of the ship’s main guns. While originally designed to be armed with 28 cm cannons, there was a portion of the Naval Office that advocated for increasing the caliber to 30 cm to allow it to outrange is contemporaries. However, Admiral Bács, with support of the Design Bureau, counter-argued that increasing the number of guns from eight to ten would instead be more practical given the numerical superiority of the likely navies should would engage in combat.

Once the design for the new battlecruiser was finalized, it was planned for four ships to be built and the contract to construct the first two vessels was awarded to Soós, Barna & Antal Metalworks in Mátészalka. The class and first ship were named after the Siege of Khoytka, the final battle fought during the Ruvelkan Red War.

The Khoytka was 186.6 meters long and 29.4 meters wide, displacing 22,979 standard tons which made her over twice as heavy as the Tatabánya-class cruisers which were the heaviest warships in the Ruvelkan arsenal before the completion of the Khoytka. As part of her designed survivability, the Khoytka possessed fifteen watertight compartments and a double bottom that ran for nearly 80% of the length of her keel. At sea, she was considered to handle well even in heavy seas, but was slow to answer the helm and not particularly maneuverable, losing up to 60% speed at full rudder.

Although not known until the mid 1920s, it was revealed that Ruvelka’s Design Bureau had received significant assistance from a Cacertian naval officer, Captain Ninnia Regula, in designing the Khoytka. Captain Regula, who was stationed in Mátészalka as a gesture of goodwill from the Cacertian Empire, was sympathetic to the communist cause and provided significant technical data from the HMS Serena Waterly.

Armament

The forward turret of the Khoytka and some members of her crew in Mátészalka on 17 September 1906.

The primary armament was ten 28cm/50 guns in five twin turrets that allowed for a maximum elevation of 16° which resulted in a firing range of 19,100 meters. One turret was located fore, two aft in superfiring positions, and two wing turrets mounted en echelon. The guns fired 302 kg armor-piercing and semi-armor-piercing shells at a muzzle velocity of 895 m/s and three rounds per minute. The normal main battery ammunition load as 810 shells, averaging 81 sells per gun.

The Khoytka’s secondary armament consisted of twelve 15cm/40 guns mounted in casemated pivot mounts, six on each side. The guns had a maximum range of 18,800 meters with 1,800 high explosive and armor-piercing shells stored aboard at 150 shells per gun. She was also equipped with twelve 9cm/45 guns that were intended for use as defense against torpedo boats and destroyers. The 9cm/45 guns fired 9 kg shells at a rate of nearly 15 rounds per minute and up to a range of 10,700 meters; approximately 3,200 shells were stored aboard.

Armor

Khoytka was equipped with cemented and nickel steel armor not dissimilar from the type found on Cacertian warships. It was believed that the base schematics for CNRC cemented armor were provided to the Ruvelkans through Captain Regula, but despite the similarities they were not completely identical.

Since Khoytka was anticipated to operate outside of a standard line of battle, her armor was drastically increased in comparison to previous Ruvelkan designs. The main belt was armored with 10 cm in the bow, 27 cm in the citadel, and 10 cm aft. The casemate mounted guns were protected with 15 cm of armor vertically and 3.5 cm on the rooftops; the main turrets had 23 cm of armor on the front, 18 cm on the sides, and 9 cm on the rooftops. Deck armor and sloped areas were both 5 cm.

Propulsion

The propulsion of the Khoytka consisted of four-shaft steam turbines in two sets with twenty-four coal-fired water-tube boilers divided into four boiler rooms. The four steam turbines were divided into high and low-pressure pairs with the high-pressure pairs located on the external shafts and the low-pressure pairs in between. Each turbine powered a single shaft equipped with a 3.75 meter diameter propeller.

The ship’s powerplant was designed to produce 38,246 kW of power that could propel the Khoytka to a top speed of 25.5 knots, but during her initial sea trials prior to combat deployment she was capable of producing 63,092 kW that could bring her up to a speed of 28.4 knots. The Khoytka’s range at 14 knots was 4,120 nautical miles. The electrical powerplant consisted of six turbo generator that delivered 1,200 kW of power at 225 volts.

Construction

Khoytka’s hull was laid down by Soós, Barna & Antal Metalworks in Mátészalka on 23 June 1904 and construction was conducted at a steady pace. It was hoped that she would be at sea within two years, but the outbreak of the Third Chryse War and the entrance of the Socialist Republic on the side of Górska complicated her construction.

Word of her construction eventually reached Syara and the Navy of the Syaran Republic dispatched a flotilla that bombarded Mátészalka’s port facilities in August 1905 which damaged the hull of the Khoytka’s sister ship beyond repair. In an effort to continue her construction in secret, the Khoytka’s hull was completed to seaworthiness and she was floated to nearby Rahahoysk to be completed. A wooden decoy was erected in her original drydock.

Construction resumed in secret and mostly at night; during the day, her entire berth would be camouflaged so as to avoid being spotted by Syaran pickets. The Khoytka completed her fitting out in nearly a year later and was launched on the night of 16 September 1906 from her hiddern berth at Rahahoysk. She took on her crew from Mátészalka the next day and immediately set sail for Górska along with a flotilla of four cruisers.

Service History

Third Chryse War

Main article: Third Chryse War

Ruvelkan Civil War

Main article: Ruvelkan Civil War

Siduri War

Main article: Siduri War