Balk, Sergey Zakharovich. Pskr "Balaklava" and tug "Sergei Balk" at completion in Sevastopol Sergei Balk tug
SEA TOW TYPE “SERGEY BALK” PROJECT 23470
30.12.2016
On December 27, 2016, the Project 23470 sea tugboat “Sergey Balk” was launched on the territory of PJSC Yaroslavl Shipyard.
According to tradition, a bottle of champagne was broken on the side of the ship. The honorary right to become the godmother of the ship was given to Irina Pupysheva, an employee of workshop No. 15.
The designer of the vessel is Central Design Bureau “Baltsudoproekt”.
JSC Yaroslavl Shipyard, which builds ships of any complexity and various purposes, has been one of the main suppliers of sea tugs for decades.
The total number of tugs, primarily under projects 745, 745MBS and 1454, since 1974, when the enterprise began to purposefully develop and expand the towing line of its activities, amounted to about 80 units.
04.07.2017
On June 29, 2017, on the territory of PJSC Yaroslavl Shipbuilding Plant (management company JSC VPFinsudprom), the sea tug project 23470 Andrey Stepanov was launched.
“Andrey Stepanov” is the second vessel in a series of tugs of Project 23470, built by PJSC Yaroslavl Shipyard for the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. The lead tug in the series is Sergei Balk.
According to tradition, during the launching ceremony, the chief accountant of the plant, Natalya Zaikina, broke a bottle of champagne on the side of the tug, becoming the godmother of this vessel.
The launching ceremony of the sea tug "Andrey Stepanov" took place during the International Maritime Defense Show IMDS-2017 in St. Petersburg, in which the Yaroslavl Shipyard took an active part.
The designer of the vessel is the Baltsudoproekt Central Design Bureau (a division of the FSUE Krylov State Scientific Center).
Yaroslavl Shipyard
SERGEY BALK TYPE SEA TUG, PROJECT 23470
The vessel is designed and built to the class of the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping KM Arc4 AUT1 FF3WS E€PP Tug. Designer: Central Design Bureau “Baltsudoproekt”.
Purpose of a sea tug:
performing sea towing of ships, floating objects and structures in ice and clear water;
pilotage of vessels in port waters and berthing;
escort operations at sea;
extinguishing fires on floating and onshore objects, extinguishing fuel burning on the water;
refloating of ships and vessels.
Navigation area: Unlimited. Work in freezing seas - in accordance with the ice reinforcement class Arc 4.
On March 24, 2014, a state contract was concluded with the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation No. З/1/1/0135/GK-14-DGOZ for the construction of two sea tugs of project 23470 with the manager. 410, 411. The estimated cost of the contract is 4.585 billion rubles.
On October 30, 2014, at the Yaroslavl Shipyard (management company CJSC VP FINSUDPROM), the keel-laying ceremony of the lead sea tugboat of Project 23470, serial number 410, took place.
The state contract for the manufacture and supply of two sea tugs of Project 23470 for the needs of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation was concluded between the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation and JSC Yaroslavl Shipyard on March 24 of this year.
The first tug will be delivered by Yaroslavl shipbuilders to the Black Sea Fleet by November 25, 2016, the second - to the Pacific Fleet by November 25, 2017.
On the initiative of the Yaroslavl Shipyard in connection with the upcoming 110th anniversary of the tragic events of the Russian-Japanese War of 1904-1905. By order of the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy dated September 16, 2014 No. 809, sea tugboats of Project 23470, being built at the Yaroslavl Shipyard, were assigned the actual names “Sergey Balk” and “Andrey Stepanov” in honor of the heroes of the Russian-Japanese War - the commanders of the auxiliary fleet vessels.
Due to the imposed sanctions, there was a delay in the start of construction due to the need to rework the original project after the decision was made to replace foreign suppliers with Russian ones and postpone the construction schedule from 2014 to 2015.
On July 23, 2015, on the territory of PJSC Yaroslavl Shipbuilding Plant (management company JSC VPFINSUDPROM), a solemn ceremony of laying down the second sea tug of project 23470 serial number 411 “Andrey Stepanov” took place.
The laying of the lead tug of this project, “Sergey Balk,” took place on October 30, 2014.
The state contract for the manufacture and supply of two sea tugs of Project 23470 for the needs of the Russian Ministry of Defense was concluded on March 24, 2014.
On the initiative of the Yaroslavl Shipyard in connection with the 110th anniversary of the tragic events of the Russian-Japanese War of 1904–1905. By order of the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy dated September 16, 2014 No. 809, sea tugboats of Project 23470, being built at the Yaroslavl Shipyard, were given the actual names “Sergey Balk” and “Andrey Stepanov” in honor of the heroes of the Russian-Japanese War - commanders of the auxiliary fleet vessels.
The laying ceremony of the project 23470 sea tug "Andrey Stepanov" was attended by senior officials of the Russian Ministry of Defense and other interested government organizations, Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Yaroslavl Region Mikhail Krupin and representatives of the authorities of the Yaroslavl Region and the city of Yaroslavl, as well as the heads of the plant and design organization.
On December 27, 2016, the Project 23470 sea tugboat “Sergey Balk” was launched on the territory of PJSC Yaroslavl Shipyard.
“Sergey Balk” is the lead vessel in a series of five tugs of Project 23470, being built at YaSZ by order of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.
According to tradition, a bottle of champagne was broken on the side of the ship.
CHARACTERISTICS
Displacement, t approx. 3200
Deadweight, t approx. 700
Maximum length, m 69.75
Length according to vertical line, m 66.23
Length between perpendiculars, m 64.02
Maximum width, m 15.0
Maximum draft, m 5.2
Side height to VP, m 6.7
Load capacity, t 200
Main electrical power plant
Three main diesel generators with a capacity of approx. 2850 kW each, driven by medium-speed diesel engines type MAN 9L27/38 (or similar), power approx. 2970 kW each.
Autonomy in terms of food supplies, days. OK. 30
Cruising range at speed 14 knots, miles 3000
Tank capacity
Diesel fuel (filling 98%), cubic meters approx. 316
Lubricating oil, cubic meters m ok. 10.0
Drinking water, cubic meters approx. 104
Fresh water (technical), cubic meters m ok. 2.0
Thermal oil, cubic meters m ok. 14.2
Collected oil, cubic meters approx. 65
Mooring thrust, t approx. 80
Sources: Yaroslavl Shipyard, alexeyvvo.livejournal.com, etc.
Main events
Top career
Captain 1st rank
Balk (second) Sergei Zakharovich- Russian naval officer. Born on April 4, 1866. Participated in the defense of Port Arthur during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904 - 1905. He was distinguished by enormous physical strength, courage, initiative and scandalous antics. Became the prototype of numerous anecdotal stories. In January 1913, he was transferred as commander to the Riga transport, fell into depression, started drinking, and on the night of February 27, 1913, shot himself.
Introductory part
Silver medal “For saving the dead”, with a bow for re-awarding.
The life of Sergei Zakharovich Balk was not marked by striking military exploits or discoveries recorded on the tablets of the history of the Russian fleet. However, his memory is still alive today. Being an extraordinary personality, he attracted the attention of many contemporaries, was depicted in memoirs (N. I. Kravchenko, G. K. Graf, G. O. Gadd, M. Yu. Gordeev) and literary works. We can say that his life was bright, like a good sea story. Actually, it consisted of adventures captured in naval folklore.
Captain 2nd Rank S.Z. Balk is a vanishing type of naval officer - a sailing ship, his education does not go beyond a purely maritime specialty. Succumbing to alcoholism, in peacetime, Captain 2nd Rank Balk is in many cases an undesirable element for service, but his determination and selfless courage shown in war, his impeccably honest and sympathetic nature give the right to a condescending attitude towards his shortcomings. Beloved by his subordinates, in wartime cap. 2 r. Balk will make heroes out of them, and in peaceful times, he will force them to willingly carry out any difficult task, any emergency work, surprising those around them with the speed of its execution. The life of S.Z. Balk is inextricably linked with the ship on which he sails; he has no shore attachments; as a commander, he is known in the navy for his daring control of his ship and his care for its regular and emergency supplies and structure. Cap. 2 r. The beam must be saved for wartime |
Biography
Sergei Zakharovich Balk was born on April 4, 1866 in the village. Aleksandrovka, Buzuluk district, Samara province, in the family of a hereditary nobleman of the St. Petersburg province, a retired captain of the guards artillery, and later an actual state councilor, Zakhar Zakharovich Balk. He may have been the grandson of Admiral Zakhar Zakharovich Balk (1796–1870). Following his older brother Pavel, he graduated from the Naval School in 1887. He was not distinguished by his academic success - in the graduation list compiled by average score, his name is in the very middle.
Service
Port ship "Strong" near the corvette "Vityaz"
His service began in the Baltic, but already in 1889 he went on a foreign voyage on the frigate "General-Admiral", in 1890-1892. sailed abroad on the cruiser "Minin". In December 1893, he was promoted to lieutenant for distinction.
In the summer of 1894, he distinguished himself by leading the work of raising sunken rails on the river. Golchikha. This cargo, intended for the construction of the Siberian Railway, was delivered to the mouth of the Yenisei in 1893 from England, but sank during ice drift. Balk, who had about 50 people at his disposal with a minimum of equipment, organized round-the-clock work, as a result of which 2,268 of the 2,916 sunken rails were raised.
Further service took place in the Pacific Ocean: in 1895–1896. on the squadron battleship "Emperor Nicholas I", in 1896–1897. – on the 1st rank cruiser “Admiral Nakhimov”, in 1897–1898. - on the seaworthy gunboat "Gremyashchiy".
In 1901, he was appointed temporary commander of the harbor ship Strongman, the only ship capable of serving effectively with the Pacific Squadron as a tug and dewatering vessel. Balku often presented himself with opportunities to prove himself. For example, on November 7, 1902, during a storm near Port Arthur, the towing cable of the steamship Sibiryak broke, and a barge with people was carried out to sea. The Strongman, sent out to sea, found the barge the next day off the Chinese coast and, despite the strong waves, brought it to Arthur. He took part in the rescue of the minelayer "Yenisei", which was almost thrown onto the rocks near the fortress during a typhoon.
Defense of Port Arthur
Battleship "Retvizan" 1902
From the first days of the war with Japan, the “Strong Man” team, carefully selected and trained by him, provided invaluable assistance to ships damaged in battle. Correspondent N.I. Kravchenko reproduced the words of S.Z. Balk, who described his participation in the rescue of the squadron battleship Retvizan damaged by a torpedo:
The commander of the port ship, who did not fire a single shot at the enemy, was awarded two military orders and a golden saber with the inscription “For bravery”! After the surrender of Port Arthur, Sergei Zakharovich blew up the “Strong Man” and at night with his team on a mine boat he broke through to Chief. "Strongman" was subsequently raised by the Japanese and served in the Japanese Navy during both World Wars under the name Yodohashi Maru.
Siberian military flotilla
Destroyer "Silent"
After the defeat in the war with Japan and the mutiny in Vladivostok, the mood among the officers of the Siberian Flotilla - the remnants of a once strong squadron - was bad. Drunkenness and the various “stories” it generated were commonplace. However, the conflict with the commandant of the Nikolaevsk-on-Amur fortress, whose main character in August 1906 was the commander of the destroyer “Besshumny”, captain 2nd rank Sergei Zakharovich Balk, overshadowed all others.
At the invitation of Balk, the “Silent” was carried by the staff captain of the 6th East Siberian Rifle Regiment, Boris Ivanovich Bunin, who was on leave and awaiting enlistment in the reserves. On August 21, 1906, the commandant of the Nikolaevsk-on-Amur fortress, ladle I.K. Gandurin, received a notice that Bunin was being sought for prosecution on charges of “inaction of the authorities.” On August 22, Bunin was sent a summons to the commandant and when the staff captain appeared, he was arrested. Balk, having learned about what had happened late that evening, was furious. At about 2 a.m. on August 23, he led 13 sailors armed with rifles with fixed bayonets to the office of the Nikolaev Fortress Infantry Regiment, where the detainee was located. The purpose of the “operation” was explained to them, and at the same time they received instructions “not to offend the soldiers.”
Bunin, who assessed the situation, tried to calm his liberators, but Sergei Zakharovich did not listen to him and took him to the destroyer. On the morning of August 23, the commanders of the destroyers stationed at the same roadstead persuaded Balk to hand over Bunin to the military authorities. Of course, the story became public; the telegram that arrived from Vladivostok on the 24th contained an order for the arrest of Balk.
The investigation interviewed the participants in the incident, after which a commission of doctors, appointed by order of the Minister of Naval Affairs, Vice Admiral A. A. Birilev, declared Balk “insane at the time of the commission of the criminal act.” The case was transferred to St. Petersburg. On November 20, Birilev reported in detail all the circumstances to the sovereign, emphasizing the “completely exceptional circumstances of this case” and the “inconvenience of sending it to trial,” as well as the merits of the accused, and proposed to dismiss the case, keeping the culprit in prison for two or three months, on the grounds of insanity The officer was not even mentioned in the report.
The Emperor approved the minister’s proposal, agreeing to the three-month imprisonment of S.Z. Balk, which was announced on the same day in order No. 729 for the Naval Department with a purely symbolic wording: “for abuse of power, expressed in opposition to the orders of the head of the military-land department and failure to show due respect to the same superior, the senior in rank.”
Baltic Fleet
Transport workshop "Kama"
Further service took place in the Baltic, where from July 1907 he commanded the destroyer Attentive. The Russian fleet was gradually changing, eliminating its pre-war shortcomings, and Balk completely unexpectedly found itself in a dead end. He had no combat experience of his own and no special knowledge. He made a good, dashing destroyer commander. The destroyers in the Baltic were new, but of outdated types; they would most likely be able to achieve success in combat operations when operating in a group, and Balk was not adapted to this. He could control a destroyer well, but he could hardly fight according to the technical capabilities of ships of the new era.
But they remembered the outstanding abilities of Sergei Zakharovich; it was to him that the commander of the 1st detachment of mine ships N.O. von Essen ordered the refloating of the destroyer Mechanical Engineer Zverev, which had been involved in an accident on July 3, 1907.
On July 24, 1908, S.Z. Balk was appointed commander of the destroyer "Ussuriets", and on December 22 of the same year he was transferred to the "Border Guard", which he commanded until November 10, 1911. On December 6, 1910, he was promoted to captain of the 1st rank, and this, as strange as it may seem, became a sentence. It was time to clear the command bridge of the Border Guard, making way for others. The coastal service did not interest him, and the commander of the Naval Forces of the Baltic Sea, Vice Admiral N. O. von Essen, understood perfectly well that it was not worth appointing Balk as commander of a cruiser, battleship or destroyer division.
Balk was appointed commander of the new transport-workshop "Kama", intended for the maintenance and repair of destroyers, and successfully commanded it throughout 1912, after which in January 1913 he was transferred as commander to the huge transport "Riga" - a base and a floating ammunition depot and supplies for a brigade of battleships.
Death
Finding himself on a transport frozen in the ice of the Sveaborg harbor, and even faced with problems getting acquainted with the ship’s financial documents, upset by a number of thefts that happened in February, Balk began drinking again. In the last week of February, he drank a lot, hardly slept, began to talk, and in a conversation with the ship’s doctor B.A. Kedrin mentioned that he would have to commit suicide. The doctor treated it like a drunken joke. On February 26, Balk also drank, but less. At 1 o'clock in the morning on February 27, civilian messenger A.I. Drozdov entered Sergei Zakharovich's cabin. “As soon as I had time to report to him: “The bath is ready,” the commander said to me: “Tell my brother and lady not to bury me, but to throw me into the sea,” and immediately put the revolver he was holding in his right hand into his mouth and fired.” .
On the evening of the same day, Balk’s body was sent to the coastal military hospital. On the ice, along the route, stood the Riga team. The head of the battleship brigade, Vice Admiral N.S. Mankovsky, and the commanders of the ships that spent the winter in the roadstead came to say goodbye. On March 2, after the corresponding funeral services, S.Z. Balk was buried in the Helsingfors cemetery.
Captain 1st Rank S.Z. Balk - legendary and real, or a few words about naval folklore
As you know, many officers of the Imperial Russian Navy were very fond of drinking. And, of course, after drinking, talk. About voyages, about commanders and colleagues, about women. Many stories acquired the characteristics of legends, becoming naval folklore passed on from mouth to mouth. One of the most striking characters in such tales at the beginning of the 20th century was Sergei Zakharovich Balk.
Recently, the so-called “oral history” has been gaining popularity in the West, based not on written sources, but on interviews taken from participants in events. This trend has also come to Russia - conferences are held, courses are taught at universities, foundations finance research projects. The best of these studies are aimed not so much at recreating how certain events took place, but at identifying the characteristics of human memory. Why are some memories carefully preserved, others are forgotten, as if relieving a person of unnecessary burden, and others are transformed and distorted over time? What is the reason for these distortions? How much can you trust memory (including collective memory)? Isn't this too flimsy material? These questions are important not only for the adherent of “oral history”, because to one degree or another they arise before any researcher if he picks up someone’s memoirs. In addition, we, as students of a traditional, source-based school, in the new direction are most interested in verifying the information obtained during interviews with the help of documents.
Another impetus for writing this article was the youthful impressions of one of the authors from reading the wonderful stories of Sergei Adamovich Kolbasyev “Arsene Lupin”, “Dzhigit”, “River”, etc. Perhaps there is nothing more vivid, memorable, frank about the Naval Cadet Corps, about the fate of former officers in the Red Fleet was not written. Of course, the stories that one of the heroes, the charming commander of the destroyer “Dzhigit” Alexey Petrovich Konstantinov, told to despondent officers in the difficult summer of 1917, attracted attention. Some of them, dedicated to the adventures of Sergei Balk, were so unusual and incredible that it was impossible to understand whether this was the author’s fantasy or stories about a real person. When in 1990 one of the authors of the article came to work at the TsGAVMF, he immediately, in his free time, began to look for something about S.A. Kolbasyev and his heroes. It turned out that Sergei Zakharovich Balk really existed! At the same time, the future writer entered the Naval Corps in 1915, and the life of the “sea wolf” was cut short at the very beginning of 1913. Apparently, Kolbasyev could only know about Balka from naval folklore. It was these stories that he apparently heard after the revolution, while serving in the Red Fleet, that he reproduced in his story. With a certain degree of convention, these stories can be viewed as “oral historical” evidence.
The life of Sergei Zakharovich Balk (1866–1913) was not marked by spectacular military exploits or discoveries recorded on the history tablets of the Russian fleet. However, his memory is still alive today. Being an extraordinary personality, he attracted the attention of many contemporaries and was depicted in memoirs (N.I. Kravchenko, G.K. Graf, G.O. Gadd, M.Yu. Gordeev) and literary works. We can say that his life was bright, like... a good sea story. Actually, it consisted to a certain extent of adventures captured in naval folklore.
With the permission of the writer’s daughter, Galina Sergeevna Kolbasyeva, we present in full a fragment about S.Z. Balka from the story “Dzhigit”:
“Captain Sergei Balk had a black beard like a shovel. He was a man of incredible physical strength and an excellent sailor: having entered Portsmouth on a destroyer, he lowered a whaleboat at sixteen knots and did not drown anyone.
He had peculiar habits. Every morning I drank a glass of vodka and ate very sparingly. The messenger handed him two bagels on a plate: one whole and one broken in half. He sniffed the broken steering wheel, turned the whole one in his hands and gave it back.
During the Japanese War, he commanded a rescue tug in Port Arthur and during the surrender of the fortress he declared that he would blow up his ship. According to the terms of the capitulation, this was not supposed to be done, and the notorious scoundrel Stoessel sent his adjutant to him to prohibit him.
The adjutant arrived in a boat and looked - the ship was at anchor, but there were no people on it. I climbed onto the deck - the deck was empty. I saw a light in one of the cabin windows and went to look for the light. He opened the door and saw: some hefty black-bearded uncle sitting at the table all alone and cooling off with some tea.
-Are you the commander here?
- I am the commander.
The adjutant began to tell him why he had been sent, but Balk waved his hands: no official conversations until the lieutenant had tea with him. There's no hurry anyway.
The protests didn't help. The adjutant had to sit down and say: “Thank you.”
They drank for a long time and even sweated, because it was very hot in the control room. Finally, Balk turned his glass upside down, put a spoon on it, smiled very affectionately and asked the adjutant to state his case in all details.
He explained, and Balk answered with the same smile:
“You shouldn’t have worried, my dear.” – He stood up, patted him on the shoulder and suggested: “Let’s tick.” I have six pounds of pyroxylin in my hold, the cord is designed to last for twenty minutes, and I set it on fire about eighteen minutes ago.
Well, we barely managed to get out. The ship was torn into small pieces.
Sergei Balk loved the team and lived well with them, but did not respect his superiors, especially the ground ones, too much. One day - it seems, in Nikolaevsk-on-Amur - he stood at anchor with his destroyer and flew into an exceptionally beautiful story.
One of his sailors made a splash on the shore, was caught and put in the guardhouse. Balk, as soon as he found out about this, urgently gave a semaphore to the commandant of the fortress: I ask, they say, to return my sailor to me, so that I can punish him to the fullest extent of maritime laws. It didn't work out. The commandant, of course, refused.
Then Balk called the four willing members of the team, distributed weapons to them and, at the head of a landing party of four people, landed on the shore.
He approached the guardhouse, shouted to the guard: “Great, well done!”, immediately snatched the rifle from his hands and set up his guard.
Then he went up to the duty officer. He also kindly greeted him, but squeezed his hand so hard that he immediately lost his ability to think. He woke up locked in a closet and only then realized that his keys had been taken away.
Balk freed his sailor without much difficulty, calmly returned with him to the destroyer and decided to weigh anchor, because he had nothing else to do in Nikolaevsk.
At the semaphore I received an order to personally appear before the commandant of the fortress, but, as one would expect, he preferred to climb onto the bridge and command:
- The spire has gone!
This is where the most wonderful parsley began. At the nearest coastal battery, people ran in all directions and began to pull off the covers from the cannons, and the semaphore transmitted a second, more decisive order:
– Stop shooting from anchor immediately. The fortress's guns are aimed at the destroyer.
- Ha! - said Bulk. - Combat alert, sight fifteen cables, rear sight seventy-five, aiming point at that white house over there. – And he answered the fortress with a semaphore:
– The destroyer’s guns are aimed at the commandant’s dacha. I kiss you deeply.
And so the destroyer left, because the commandant at the dacha had children, a wife, a samovar, a canary and all the other home comforts dear to the commandant’s heart.
The ground authorities, naturally, made a terrible fuss, but the headquarters of the Siberian Flotilla resolutely stood up for Balk. Probably because he was glad to have at least some entertainment.
There was all sorts of correspondence and confusion due to the fact that it was impossible to understand who was subordinate to whom. It ended with the naval ministry becoming stubborn in defiance of the military, and the matter was reported to the tsar himself.
The king, as you know, was a middle-aged man with very average mental abilities. He suddenly remembered some familiar, quite convincing phrase and, out of the blue, put down a resolution:
“Winners are not judged.”
Alexey Petrovich knocked the ash out of his pipe, filled it with fresh tobacco and continued his story.
The legendary Captain Balk, to the general laughter of the entire crew, bathed a crooked engineer from the Admiralty shipyard in the Neva water.
Then on the streets of Shanghai he eliminated a fight between English and Russian sailors. He grabbed the fighters by the collar, ordered: “Kiss!”, pushed their foreheads together and, throwing them to the ground, took on the next couple.
He was always full of determination and dark humor, and his life was simple. And when his superiors, for many sins, transferred him from a destroyer to a transport, he drank the last glass of vodka, sniffed his traditional bagel and put a bullet in his forehead.
And it seemed that he was sitting right there next to him in the wardroom, huge, black-bearded, with his arms crossed on his stomach and a wide, benevolent smile.
And it was calm."
Sergei Zakharovich Balk was born on April 4, 1866 in the village. Aleksandrovka of the Buzuluk district of the Samara province, in the family of a hereditary nobleman of the St. Petersburg province, a retired captain of the guards artillery, later an actual state councilor Zakhar Zakharovich Balk. He may have been the grandson of Admiral Zakhar Zakharovich Balk (1796–1870). Following his older brother Pavel, he graduated from the Naval School in 1887. He studied without distinction - in the graduation list compiled by average score, his name is in the very middle.
His service began in the Baltic, but already in 1889 he went on a foreign voyage on the frigate "General Admiral", in 1890-1892. sailed abroad on the cruiser "Minin". In December 1893, he was promoted to lieutenant for distinction. In the summer of 1894, he distinguished himself by leading the work of raising sunken rails on the river. Golchikha. This cargo, intended for the construction of the Siberian Railway, was delivered to the mouth of the Yenisei in 1893 from England, but sank during ice drift. Balk, who had about 50 people at his disposal with a minimum of equipment, organized round-the-clock work, as a result of which 2,268 of the 2,916 sunken rails were raised.
Further service took place in the Pacific Ocean: in 1895–1896. on the squadron battleship "Emperor Nicholas I", in 1896–1897. – on the 1st rank cruiser “Admiral Nakhimov”, in 1897–1898. - on the seaworthy gunboat "Gremyashchiy". Here it is appropriate to quote the certification drawn up for Sergei Balk in 1898 by the commander of the seaworthy gunboat “Gremyashchy”, captain 2nd rank V.F. Rudnev (future commander of the cruiser “Varyag” during the legendary battle): “In the performance of the most difficult official assignments he does not meet no obstacles; performs seriously and accurately, with complete enthusiasm.” “He has good knowledge of maritime affairs, a reliable watch commander. In combat service, knowledge requires supplementation.” “Honest rules and views, a straightforward person, somewhat rude. A good comrade and subordinate."
The same motive - constant readiness to act in emergency situations - is heard in other certifications. Thus, the commander of the transport “Ermak”, captain 2nd rank D.F. Yuriev, who was generally critical of Balk, noted in July 1900: “He has a great attraction to circumstances that are out of the ordinary and caused by storms, war, disasters, difficult and risky expeditions, because he longs for exploits and heroism; such circumstances awaken in him energy and zeal and under such circumstances will be of great benefit.”
Sergei Zakharovich more than once personally rushed to save people in trouble, for which he was awarded a silver medal for saving the dead (1890), a bow for it (1893), and then a similar gold medal.
Perhaps it was precisely this opinion about S.Z. Balka that predetermined the choice of his superiors - in 1901 he was appointed temporary commander of the port ship "Strong", the only ship capable of effectively serving in the Pacific Ocean Squadron as a tug and drainage vessel. Balku often presented himself with opportunities to prove himself. For example, on November 7, 1902, during a storm near Port Arthur, the towing cable of the steamship Sibiryak broke, and a barge with people was carried out to sea. The Strongman, sent out to sea, found the barge the next day off the Chinese coast and, despite the strong waves, brought it to Arthur. He also distinguished himself during the accident of the Yenisei minelayer, which was almost thrown onto the rocks near the fortress during a typhoon.
By the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War, all the Pacific officers knew Sergei Zakharovich very well - his huge black and red “shovel” beard, his bearish gait, his cap twisted at the back of his head, his loud voice and big fists, his courage bordering on recklessness and readiness to do anything, the most difficult assignment, absolute honesty, the ability to defend his opinion prompted by experience, selfless love for ships and the sea, amazing physical strength and endurance, and, of course, his recklessness in revelries on the shore, which became the talk of the town. The sailors also knew him well - not every officer knew how to inspire so much respect for himself and so maintain his authority in various situations, and at the same time, he did not hesitate to “play” with barbells, chains and two-pound weights together with the sailors of the “Strong Man”. And everyone together also respected internal independence. Here it is impossible not to quote a line from a slightly later certification in 1908: in the column “does it require coercion” it is written – “requires friendly supervision, does not give in to coercion.”
Balk's finest hour was the defense of Port Arthur. From the first days of the war with Japan, the “Strong Man” team, carefully selected and trained by him, provided invaluable assistance to ships damaged in battle. The commander’s soul was sometimes torn between the desire to directly participate in battles and the awareness of the importance of his work. Correspondent N.I. Kravchenko reproduced the words of S.Z. Balk, who described his participation in the rescue of the squadron battleship “Retvizan”, damaged by a torpedo: “Sometimes, regret awoke in me that I was not on the destroyer, that I could not bark: “full move,” and, coming close, don’t let him go, but poke him, the scoundrel, with a mine, but then, when you see how calmly my “Strong Man” works under this fire, when you think that maybe thanks to our work the best battleship is saved, one from our largest units, it became easier.”
Even in the difficult autumn of 1904, Balk’s sense of humor did not change. One of the participants in the defense of the fortress recalled how he and Balk went to the port officials to “knock out” the necessary materials. For better success, they waited until the shelling of the port area began. After the next explosion, entering the office, Balk said in a loud bass voice: “Gasp! After all, the damned one exploded at your very doors. Okay, apparently they took aim!” After this, there were no objections from the frightened officials - positive resolutions were immediately written on the demands.
In a rare case, the commander of a port ship, who did not fire a single shot at the enemy, was awarded two military orders and a golden saber with the inscription “For Bravery”! A characteristic detail is that Balk valued his subordinates very highly. This was noted in his essays by N.I. Kravchenko, and this is also evidenced by the petitions of S.Z. Balk for rewarding his sailors, who continued to insist on his own back in 1907. True, the colorful story given in the story by Sergei Kolbasyev about the explosion of the “Strong Man” “on the day of the surrender of the fortress does not entirely correspond to the truth - firstly, the ships were blown up with the blessing of the authorities, and not in spite of it, and secondly, the ship was not “torn into small pieces”, as the writer reported - the “Strong Man” was raised by the Japanese and under the name "Iodohashi-maru" he served in the Japanese Navy during both world wars. And it’s unlikely that S.Z. Balk had time to “cool off with some tea” that night - he broke through to Chifa on a mine boat. It must be admitted that after the defeat in the war with Japan and the mutiny in Vladivostok, the mood among the officers of the Siberian Flotilla - the remnants of a once strong squadron - was bad. Drunkenness and the various “stories” it generated were commonplace. However, the conflict with the commandant of the Nikolaevsk-on-Amur fortress, whose main character in August 1906 was the commander of the destroyer “Besshumny”, captain 2nd rank Sergei Zakharovich Balk, overshadowed all others. S.A. Kolbasyev could not help but tell the reader about it.
The same story was attributed to his hero - Lieutenant Mosyagin - by the writer, revolutionary and second lieutenant in the Admiralty Sergei Aleksandrovich Garin (until May 1917 - Garfield). This author himself served in the Far East in 1906 and could not help but know about Balka’s adventure. His version was somewhat different - the hero of the story released from custody not a sailor, but a casual acquaintance who had sailed for some time on his ship, army lieutenant Social Democrat Sakhnovsky. “Sakhnovsky, on his word of honor that the lieutenant would not give him up, admitted that he was not hunting at all, but was hiding from the authorities. It turned out that he was a Social Democrat, had been working in the party for a long time, but the other day he was shot down on military proclamations found by the gendarmes in his attic. The lieutenant was facing immediate arrest, but he disappeared, thinking of getting to the railway to go to Russia. But I got lost.
Mosyagin thought about it.
“You, that’s what...” he finally said, “stay calm on my destroyer - no one will touch you here!” I, brother, am a socialist at heart, but somehow all this has not yet formed, so I cannot call myself an open socialist. But, in any case, I won’t give you up, but at the first convenient moment I will float you to Russia!.. Do you understand?..
“But they’ll arrest me as soon as they find out that I’m on your destroyer?..” exclaimed Sakhnovsky.
- Hey, my friend, it’s not so easy!.. Every military ship enjoys the right of territoriality, and no one will dare to take you from my destroyer! And if they tried, I would meet them with fire!
“Will it be okay for you to harbor a political figure?”
- I don’t care! What will they do to me? On my flotilla there are eighteen seventy-five-millimeter, and eighteen rapid-fire, and the same number of mine vehicles. Total - fifty-four guns!.. And they have two lousy guns “from the time of the Ochakovskys and the conquest of the Crimea”!.. Yes, I’ll arrange such a Mukden for them that the sky will become hot!.. They should be afraid of me, not I of them!
Finally, we arrived back at the port. Did the serf authorities already know that Sakhnovsky was with Mosyagin, or did someone inform upon the arrival of the flotilla, but only on the next day of Mosyagin’s arrival did the commandant’s adjutant appear and demand that Sakhnovsky come to headquarters for arrest.
Mosyagin replied:
“Tell the commandant, Mr. Adjutant, that the person in question is really with me and bows to him!” He himself will not come, but if it would please the commandant to take him by force, you are welcome!..
This answer from the lieutenant led the fortress administration into great confusion. It was dangerous not to react to it for fear of undermining military prestige, but with what and how to react?!
Mosyagin had already been recognized during his stay on the Amur. They heard about his “exploits” both in Vladivostok and in Russia, and knew that this “crazy” lieutenant was capable of anything.
Night has come. While they were conferring and deliberating in the fortress, Sakhnovsky also thought and came to the conclusion that the most beneficial thing for the current situation was to voluntarily report to headquarters and surrender into the hands of his superiors. By this, by the way, he relieved Mosyagin of responsibility for further concealment.
Sakhnovsky did just that. Taking advantage of the fact that Mosyagin had fallen asleep, he drove ashore, reported to headquarters, and was immediately arrested and taken to the guardhouse.
When the lieutenant woke up and found out that the lieutenant was not there, he became furious. And he immediately sent the midshipman to the commandant with an ultimatum: “If in four hours Lieutenant Sakhnovsky is not on the destroyer, the flotilla will open fire on the city!”
The fortress became agitated. A real military council gathered. They said that if the lieutenant had carried out his crazy idea, he could smash both the fortress and the city to smithereens.
And Mosyagin ran around his destroyer like an angry lion...
“How?!.. He, Mosyagin, took Sakhnovsky under his protection, and yet they still dared to arrest him?!”
And suddenly he ordered the team to gather, distributed them guns and cartridges, lined them up on the shore and led them on a forced march into the city. Having arrived, he headed to the guardhouse and began to storm it... Luckily for him, the guard officer was confused and ran away. Mosyagin rushed to the sentry, with a deft blow he knocked the gun out of his hands and ordered him to be tied up, and he himself ran into the room where Sakhnovsky was located, and when he refused to go with him, he tied him up, put him on his shoulders and carried him to his destroyer...
The scandal was huge. Telegrams were sent to St. Petersburg and to the commander-in-chief, and soon a telegram arrived announcing the immediate arrest of Lieutenant Mosyagin and his trial by military court.
Mosyagin was threatened with execution. It was wartime, the fortress was under siege, and if the lieutenant had not been a Knight of St. George, he would have been tried in a field court right there on the spot. And it is very likely that the embittered local military would have shot him with pleasure. But they decided to send Mosyagin to Vladivostok, and from there with a special officer to St. Petersburg.”
What is the truth here and what is a legend? S.A. Garin is somewhat closer to the truth. Indeed, on the “Silent”, at the invitation of Balk, sailed the staff captain of the 6th East Siberian Rifle Regiment, Boris Ivanovich Bunin, who was on leave and awaiting enlistment in the reserves. On August 21, 1906, the commandant of the Nikolaevsk-on-Amur fortress, polovnik I.K. when writing the story in 1917, there were motives). On August 22, Bunin was sent a summons to the commandant and when the staff captain appeared, he was arrested. Balk, having learned about what had happened late that evening, was furious. At about 2 a.m. on August 23, he led 13 sailors armed with rifles with fixed bayonets to the office of the Nikolaev Fortress Infantry Regiment, where the detainee was located. The purpose of the “operation” was explained to them, and at the same time they received instructions “not to offend the soldiers.” Balk, the first to enter the room, immediately squeezed the throat of sentry V.K. Borodin with a firm hand, so that he could not even utter a word; The sailors who arrived in time immediately covered the mouths of the soldier and the messenger who was in the office. Bunin, who assessed the situation, tried to calm his liberators, but Sergei Zakharovich did not listen to him and took him to the destroyer. At the same time, Balk’s hands were shaking so much from excitement that he could not light a cigarette for a long time.
The climactic lines in Sergei Adamovich Kolbasiev's narration about this story - about aiming cannons at the commandant's dacha - are, of course, from the realm of legends. Although the coastal guns were indeed aimed at the destroyer. In reality, on the morning of August 23, the commanders of the destroyers stationed at the same roadstead persuaded Balk to hand over Bunin to the military authorities. Of course, the story became public; the telegram that arrived from Vladivostok on the 24th contained an order for the arrest of Balk. The investigation interviewed the participants in the incident, after which a commission of doctors, appointed by order of the Minister of Naval Affairs, Vice Admiral A.A. Birilev, declared Balk “insane at the time of the commission of the criminal act.” The case was transferred to St. Petersburg. On November 20, Birilev reported in detail all the circumstances to the sovereign, emphasizing the “absolutely exceptional circumstances of this case” and “the inconvenience of sending it to trial,” as well as the merits of the accused, and proposed to dismiss the case by keeping the culprit in the fortress for two or three months; The report did not even talk about the officer’s insanity. The Emperor approved the minister’s proposal, agreeing to a three-month imprisonment for S.Z. Balk, which was announced on the same day in order No. 729 for the Naval Department with a purely symbolic wording: “for abuse of power, expressed in opposing the orders of the head of the military-land department and failure to show due respect to the same superior, the senior in rank.”
S.Z. Balk’s further service took place in the Baltic, where from July 1907 he commanded the destroyer Attentive. The Russian fleet was gradually changing, eliminating its pre-war shortcomings, and Balk completely unexpectedly found itself in a dead end. He had no combat experience of his own and no special knowledge. He made a good, dashing destroyer commander, but... The destroyers in the Baltic were new, but of outdated types. They were most likely to be able to achieve success in combat operations when operating in a group, and Balk was not adapted to this. He could control a destroyer well, but he could hardly fight according to the technical capabilities of ships of the new era. But they remembered the outstanding abilities of Sergei Zakharovich - it is no coincidence that, for example, it was he who was the commander of the 1st detachment of mine ships N.O. von Essen ordered the refloating of the destroyer Mechanical Engineer Zverev, which had been involved in an accident on July 3, 1907.
Harald Karlovich Graf later recalled: “Captain 2nd Rank Zakhar (sic! - A.E.) Zakharovich Balk was distinguished by his special love for ... “dashing.” He was to a certain extent a historical figure, thanks to his extreme strength and adventures in his youth. He was a good sailor, but he could not be considered a good officer.” Captain 1st Rank I.A. Storre, who compiled the certification for 1908, was less categorical: “Captain 2nd Rank S.Z. Balk is a vanishing type of naval officer - a sailboat, his education does not go beyond a purely maritime specialty. Succumbing to alcoholism, in peacetime, Captain 2nd Rank Balk is in many cases an undesirable element for service, but his determination and selfless courage shown in war, his impeccably honest and sympathetic nature give the right to a condescending attitude towards his shortcomings. Beloved by his subordinates, in wartime cap. 2 r. Balk will make heroes out of them, and in peaceful times, he will force them to willingly carry out any difficult task, any emergency work, surprising those around them with the speed of its execution.
S.Z. Balk’s life is inextricably linked with the ship on which he sails; he has no shore attachments; as a commander, he is known in the navy for his daring control of his ship and his care for its regular and emergency supplies and structure. Cap. 2 r. The beam must be saved for wartime.”
On July 24, 1908, S.Z. Balk was appointed commander of the destroyer "Ussuriets", and on December 22 of the same year he was transferred to the "Border Guard", which he commanded until November 10, 1911. On December 6, 1910, he was promoted to captain of the 1st rank, and this, as strange as it may seem, became a sentence. It was time to clear the command bridge of the Border Guard, making way for others. He was not interested in the coastal service, and the commander of the Baltic Sea Naval Forces, Vice Admiral N.O. von Essen understood perfectly well that it was not worth appointing Balk as commander of a cruiser, battleship or destroyer division.
Let us note in parentheses that in the literature there are often statements that the “Border Guard” was Essen’s favorite destroyer. There is a temptation to point out the special favor of the admiral towards S.Z. Balk, who commanded this ship for almost four years. However, acquaintance with the documents paints a completely different picture. Nikolai Ottovich held the flag on the Border Guard in August-October 1907, after which he did not sail on it for a long time. In 1908, the Essen flag flew on the destroyers “Sibirsky Strelok” (April 15 – July 1), “Gaydamak”, “Vidny”, “Don Cossack” and “Okhotnik”, in 1909 - on the “Moskvityanin”, then on transport "Ocean", destroyers "Emir Bukhara" and "Strong", from August 28 - on the cruiser "Rurik". Subsequently, the destroyers Okhotnik (1910; commander, captain 2nd rank Baron V.E. Grevenits, was also the head of the operations department of the headquarters of the head of the Active Baltic Sea Fleet), Ukraina (1911), and General Kondratenko were most often used for inter-base transitions. "(1911), "Border Guard" (1911, a total of 39 days), "Kazanets" (1912). The “Border Guard” began to be regularly used on August 1, 1912, when its commander was adjutant captain 2nd rank M.A. Kedrov. In 1913, when Kedrov was replaced by A.V. Kolchak, Essen spent at least 64 days on the ship - a sixth of the year.
Let us recall that S. Kolbasyev attributed the transfer of Balk from a destroyer to a transport to his “many sins.” We think this is not so. We could not find any mention of such in the documents. Obviously, Essen decided to use him in the most effective way - he appointed him commander of the new transport-workshop "Kama", intended for the maintenance and repair of destroyers. Sergei Zakharovich Balk successfully commanded it throughout 1912, after which in January 1913 he was transferred as commander to the huge transport “Riga” - a base and floating warehouse of ammunition and supplies for a brigade of battleships.
Finding himself on a transport frozen in the ice of the Sveaborg harbor, and even faced with problems getting acquainted with the ship’s financial documents, upset by a number of thefts that happened in February, Balk began drinking again. It seems that he did not succeed in contact with the ship's officers, and, as it seems to us, he did not strive for it. In the last week of February, he drank a lot, hardly slept, began to talk, and in a conversation with the ship’s doctor B.A. Kedrin mentioned that he would have to commit suicide. The doctor treated it like a drunken joke. On February 26, Balk also drank, but less. At 1 o'clock in the morning on February 27, civilian messenger A.I. Drozdov entered Sergei Zakharovich's cabin. “As soon as I had time to report to him: “The bath is ready,” the commander said to me: “Tell my brother and lady not to bury me, but to throw me into the sea,” and immediately put the revolver he was holding in his right hand into his mouth and fired.” .
On the evening of the same day, Balk’s body was sent to the coastal military hospital. On the ice, along the route, stood the Riga team. The head of the battleship brigade, Vice Admiral N.S. Mankovsky, and the commanders of the ships that spent the winter in the roadstead came to say goodbye. On March 2, after the corresponding funeral services, S.Z. Balk was buried in the Helsingfors cemetery. The fleet commander did not participate in the farewell, as he was in St. Petersburg, where he was present at the funeral of the head of the Main Hydrographic Directorate A.I. Vilkitsky and the wife of the Minister of the Navy I.K. Grigorovich who died on February 27.
Comparing literary monuments with documents allows us to see in naval folklore a feature characteristic of the formation of historical memory - the gradual glorification and romanticization of the past. As the writer M. Ancharov said, “Romance is moving away from an object at a distance sufficient to view it.”
A series of two sea tugs of Project 23470 for the needs of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation will be built at JSC Yaroslavl Shipyard in accordance with the contract dated March 24, 2014, concluded between the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation and JSC Yaroslavl Shipyard.
At the initiative of the Yaroslavl Shipyard, in connection with the upcoming 110th anniversary of the tragic events of the Russian-Japanese War of 1904–1905, sea tugs of Project 23470, being built at the Yaroslavl Shipyard, were assigned the actual names " Sergey Balk" and "Andrey Stepanov" in honor of the heroes of the Russian-Japanese War - the commanders of the auxiliary fleet ships.
Project 23470 was developed by the Baltsudoproekt Central Design Bureau, St. Petersburg.
The vessel is designed and built to the class of the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping KM Arc4 AUT1 FF3WS EPP Tug.
Purpose of a sea tug: performing sea towing of ships, floating objects and structures in ice and clear water; pilotage of vessels in port waters and berthing; escort operations at sea; extinguishing fires on floating and onshore objects, extinguishing fuel burning on the water; refloating of ships and vessels.
Lead sea tug of project 23470 “Sergey Balk”, construction number 410, . The ceremony of laying down the sea tug was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation of Russia, OJSC Rosoboronexport, the Border Service of the FSB of Russia, the Central Design Bureau Baltsudoproekt, the authorities of the city of Yaroslavl and the Yaroslavl region and other departments. December 27, 2016 on the water. On July 16, 2018, it was at its destination for completion and transfer to the Navy. Will be delivered to the Black Sea Fleet. According to a message dated August 4, 2019, state tests.
Main characteristics of the vessel: Maximum length 69.75 meters, maximum width 15.0 meters, side height to the top 6.7 meters, maximum draft 5.2 meters.
At the stern end of the vessel there is a helipad for receiving and taking off helicopters.
The presence of a crane with a lifting capacity of 20 tons with a boom reach of 13 meters with active heave compensation allows the tug to independently perform cargo operations and service the helipad both in calm water and in sea conditions.
The tug is named in honor of the commander of the auxiliary vessel Balk Sergei Zakharovich (1866–1913), who from the beginning of his service established himself as a decisive and purposeful officer, in emergency situations showed exceptional courage and composure, repeatedly personally rushed to save drowning people, for which he was awarded the silver medal “For salvation of the perished” (1890), a bow to it (1893), and then a similar gold medal.
In 1901–1904 commanded the port vessel (rescue tug) “Silach” at the Port Arthur naval base. In this position he proved himself to be a competent sailor and a skilled organizer of emergency rescue operations. For example, on November 7, 1902, during a storm near Port Arthur, the towing cable of the steamer Sibiryak broke, and a barge with people was carried out to sea.
The Strong Man, sent to help, found the barge the next day off the Chinese coast and, despite the strong waves, brought it to Port Arthur. He also distinguished himself during the accident of the Yenisei minelayer, which was almost thrown onto the rocks near the fortress during a typhoon.
From the first days of the war with Japan, the Strongman, under the command of Sergei Balk, provided invaluable assistance to ships damaged in battle. Sergei Zakharovich was widely known and loved by officers and sailors who took part in the defense of Port Arthur, who noted his courage bordering on recklessness and readiness to carry out any, even the most difficult, assignment, absolute honesty, independence of opinion, selfless love for ships and the sea, care for his subordinates, amazing physical strength and endurance.
Despite the complex character of Sergei Balk, his exploits were highly appreciated by the command. In a rare case, the commander of a port ship, who did not fire a single shot at the enemy, was awarded two military orders and a golden saber with the inscription “For Bravery.”
After the end of the Russo-Japanese War, Sergei Balk continued to serve in the Baltic Fleet as commander of destroyers and auxiliary vessels, and in July 1907 he carried out a successful operation to refloat the destroyer Mechanical Engineer Zverev. Tragically died in February 1913.
Memories of Sergei Balka were preserved in the memoirs of many officers of that time and in the literary works of the famous marine painter Sergei Kolbasyev.
According to a message dated January 11, 2016, Techi Rus (part of Severstal-metiz OJSC, the hardware group of Severstal PJSC) for the supply of rope products for the ship.
The second sea tug of project 23470. Laid down on July 23, 2015. Will be delivered to the Pacific Fleet before November 25, 2017.
Specialists from the Sevastopol-based Perseus Ship Repair Plant LLC continue to complete the construction of new units for the Black Sea Fleet and the border department of the FSB of Russia, reports.
These include the sea tug "Sergey Balk" (project 23470) and the border patrol ship "Balaklava" (project 10410B).
The sea tug arrived in Sevastopol in July of this year, having carried out a towed passage along inland waterways from Yaroslavl. The vessel was laid down at the Yaroslavl shipyard in 2014 and launched in December 2016. The tug is planned to be handed over to the Black Sea Fleet in the first quarter of 2019. The service of “Sergei Balk” will take place in the 205th detachment of support vessels of the Black Sea Fleet (Sevastopol).
PSKR "Balaklava" was also delivered to the Sevastopol plant from Yaroslavl via inland waterways. His arrival became known on November 10. Next year it will be transferred to the Crimean Department of the Border Service of the FSB, based in Sevastopol.
The Project 23470 sea tug has a displacement of 3.2 thousand tons, its length is about 70 m, its width is 15 m, its draft is 5.2 m. Its cruising range is 3 thousand miles, its endurance is 30 days. Speed – up to 14 knots. There is a helipad on board.
PSKR "Balaklava" is designed to protect the border, the territorial sea, and combat piracy and terrorism. Its displacement is 375 tons, length is 49.5 m, width is 9.2 m, draft is 2.6 m. Cruising range is 1.5 thousand miles, autonomy is 10 days. Speed – up to 32 knots. Armed with Kord machine guns (12.7 mm) and an AK-630M artillery mount (30 mm).
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