From Combrig
1/700 Koreyets gunboat (Combrig)
Specifications:
Displacement 1418 t
Waterline length 66.6 m
Width 10.7 m
Draft 3.8 m
Shaft rating 1724 hp
Speed, max 13.5 knots
Armament: 2 203 mm
1 152 mm
4 107 mm
2 47 mm Hotchkiss
4 37 mm Hotchkiss
1 64 mm Baranovsky
1 381 mm torpedo launcher
Armor:
- decking 10 mm
Crew 179
The Koreyets was a seagoing gunboat with barkentine rigging and well-articulated
ram bow. She was laid down at the Bergzund shipyard, Stockholm on the request
of the Russian Naval Ministry in 1886, launched on 7 August 1886 and entered
the inventory of the Russian Fleet in 1888. The ship spent the greater
part of her service in foreign cruises, mainly in the Far East. Her rigging
and sparring was gradually reduced in the course of the service. The main
armament – 35 caliber cannons firing black gun powder, were not replaced,
which together with low speed predetermined the ship’s low combat abilities
by the beginning of the XX century. During the first decade of the new
century she was mainly employed as a duty ship in foreign ports. The Koreyets
met the outbreak of the Russian-Japanese war together with the Varyag 1st
rank cruiser and the Sungari transport in the Korean port Chemulpo. On
27 January 1904 these Russian ships, blocked by the surpassing Japanese
squadron, made an attempt to break through, which was unsuccessful in spite
of tenacious efforts. The Koreyets remained undamaged and had no casualties.
In order to avoid capture the gunboat was blasted by the crew in Chemulpo
and entirely demolished.
During her service in the Far East the gunboat featured the standard
paint job for foreign cruises with her sides, life-boats, cannon shields,
deckhouses being painted white; smoke-stack cowls – black; smoke-stacks
yellow; decking, bridge coating – natural wood, cannon barrels – burnished
steel; stern nameplate – gilded. When the war broke out, the ship was repainted
into the combat coloring of the first Pacific Squadron – all above-water
structures were painted olive-drab except for smoke-stack cowls.
More info can be found on the Combrig website at:
www.Modelships.info/Combrig
