Orfey-class destroyer

The Orfey-class destroyers were built for the Baltic Fleet of the Imperial Russian Navy. They were modified versions of the earlier destroyer and the s. These ships were larger, had triple torpedo tubes and an extra 102mm 60 caliber Pattern 1911| gun. One ship, Engels, was fitted with a recoilless rifle for testing in 1934. Eight ships were completed during World War I, one of which was sunk during the Battle of Kassar Wiek. One ship fought against the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War.
Two ships were scrapped after the Russian Civil War; the five survivors participated in World War II.

Design and description

The Orfey-class ships were designed as an improved version of the. Orfey normally displaced and at full load. She measured long overall with a beam of, and a draft of. The Orfeys were propelled by two Curtis-AEG-Vulkan steam turbines, each driving one propeller using steam from four Normand boilers at a working pressure of. The turbines were designed to produce a total of for an intended maximum speed of using forced draft. During their sea trials, they only reached. The ships carried between of fuel oil which gave them a range of at. Their crew numbered 150.
The Orfey-class ships were originally intended to have an armament of two 60-caliber 102-millimeter Pattern 1911 Obukhov guns, one gun each on the forecastle and stern, a pair of Maxim machine guns on single mounts, and a dozen torpedo tubes in six double mounts. The Naval General Staff changed this to four triple mounts once they became available in 1914. Based on a battle between the destroyer and two German destroyers in August 1915, they decided to exchange the rearmost torpedo mount for two more 102 mm guns on the stern while the ships were still under construction. All of these guns were on the centerline and the stern guns interfered with each other's movements. It had a rate of fire of 12–15 rounds per minute. They fired shells out to a range of at an elevation of +30°. Each ship stowed 150 rounds per gun.
and were finished before the change was formally ordered and were completed to the 1914 specification with two guns and four triple torpedo mounts. The final configuration of the Orfeys' torpedo suite was one mount between the forward funnels and two mounts aft of the rear funnel. This change was implemented aboard and while they were fitting out in early 1916; these four ships were fitted with three reload torpedoes. The other four ships,,,, and were built to the final configuration without reloads. They probably most often used the M1912 torpedo which had a warhead. It had three speed/range settings: at ; at and at. The Orfey class could carry 80 M1912 naval mines or 50 larger ones. They were also fitted with a Barr and Stroud rangefinder and two searchlights.
The Naval General Staff made no provision for anti-aircraft defense in the design of the Orfeys. This was remedied by an order issued on 8 March 1916 for a 39-caliber Vickers anti-aircraft gun to be fitted on a platform between the rear torpedo mount and the stern guns. These guns proved to be unreliable and were replaced during 1917 by 38-caliber Pattern 1916 AA guns in Grom and Pobeditel while Orfey, Zabiyaka and Azard received Lender AA guns. It is uncertain if Letun, Samson or Desna received the Vickers gun during the war, but Samson had a Lender gun installed during 1917.
The "pom-pom" fired its shells at a rate of 300 rounds per minute out to at an elevation of +45°. The Lender gun's muzzle velocity of gave it a range of with its shell. It had a practical rate of fire of 10–12 rounds per minute. The Pattern 1916 gun used a shell that was fired at a velocity of to a range of at an elevation of 20°.

Ships

Built at Metal Works, St Petersburg

Ship	Name in Soviet service	Laid down	Launched	Completed	Fate
	Volodarsky	November 1913	23 October 1914	25 October 1915	Sunk by a mine, 28 August 1941
	Uritski	November 1913	23 October 1914	9 November 1915	transferred to the Northern Fleet, sunk as a target during nuclear test in 1953
	NA	23 October 1914	5 June 1915	4 May 1916	Broken up 1929, after sustaining irreparable mine damage in 1917
	NA	November 1913	15 Jun 1915	4 May 1916	Sunk during the Battle of Kassar Wiek, 14 October 1917
	NA	November 1914	5 October 1915	11 July 1916	Broken up 1925, after sustaining irreparable mine damage in 1916
	Engels	15 June 1915	22 October 1915	12 August 1916	Sunk by mines, 25 Aug 1941
	Zinoviev renamed Artem in 1928	July 1915	23 May 1916	10 October 1916	Sunk by mines, 28 August 1941
	Stalin	30 July 1915	23 May 1915	21 November 1916	transferred to the Soviet Pacific fleet via the Arctic in 1936, broken up 1953