All eleven destroyers of the Lovki Class
were built in France and assigned to the Baltic Fleet. All were laid down in
1904, launched in 1905 and completed in 1906. Armament consisted of two 11-pdrs
mounted one each on the tops of the forward and aft conning towers and two
single tube 18-Inch torpedo mounts. Light guns were later added and during World
War One, ships of the class could also be equipped with ten mines. The four
Normand boilers generated 5,700 ihp, giving the destroyers a maximum speed of 27
knots. Displacing 335 tons, they were medium sized destroyers for the time but
were small by WWI standards. .
When World War One broke out, the class became active in mine warfare. Three
of the eleven were lost during the war. On December 12, 1914 Ispolnitelni
sank near Odensholm when one of the mines she was carrying exploded on deck. A
severe snowstorm was in progress at the time and sistership Letuchi
capsized near the Ispolnitelni. From
the total complement from both ships, only one crewman survived. Leitenant
Burakov was lost August 12, 1917 due to striking a mine. Six of
the survivors, including Likhoi, were scrapped in 1922 with the
last two of the class going to the breakers in 1923 and 1925.
Combrig has now released a 1:700 scale model of Likhoi.
The model shows the characteristic, rounded turtleback hull with a snap on flat
main deck. The photographs show all of the resin components.
Hull and Main Deck Dry Fitted |
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