Battle of Cape Sarych

November, 1914 saw the unexpected in the Black Sea: a force of Russian pre-dreadnoughts drove off the former German battlecruiser Goben (officially the Turkish Yavuz Sultan Selim) near Cape Sarych.

Steve McLaughlin (stevem@sfpl.lib.ca.us) has provided an account of the battle
and a certain amount of discussion followed
Information about the ships .

Subsequently, Steve wrote Predreadnoughts vs a Dreadnought: The Action off Cape Sarych, 18 November 1914 published in Conway Maritime Press' Warship 2001-2002. He has also furnished this handy list of the Russian destroyers present at the battle:

Torpedo Brigade (Minnaia brigada)

First Division: Gnevnyi, flying the broad pennant of Captain 1st Rank M.P. Sablin, commander, Torpedo Brigade and Commander of the First Torpedo Division. The First Division also included two more ships of the Derzkii class, (1,190 tons, oil-burning, 35kts, 3 x 4in, 10 torpedo tubes; the other ships of this division were Bespokoinyi, Derzkii and Pronzitel'nyi, but it is not known which two of these were present during this action.)
Third Division (Captain 1st Rank Prince V.V. Trubetskoi): Leitenant Shestakov, Kapitan Saken, Kapitan-Leitenant Baranov and Leitenant Zatsarennyi (Leitenant Shestakov class, 635 tons, coal-fired, 24kts, 2 x 120mm, 3 torpedo tubes)
Fourth Division (Captain 1st Rank Gezekhus): Zhutkii, Zhivoi, Zharkii and Zhivuchii (Leitenant Pushchin class, 450 tons, coal-burning, 24kts, 2 x 75mm, 2 torpedo tubes)
Fifth Division: Zvonkii and Zorkii (also Leitenant Pushchin class).

The information was pulled together from a number of sources, and there are still some contradictions (especially with regard to the commanders of the Fourth and Fifth divisions). The book by R.M. Melnikov on the Dobrovolets type destroyers has information on the Black Sea boats in general.

Bernd Langensiepen (Langensiep@aol.com) adds:

Steve McLaughlin has written a very fine article, but I must make a correction. It was partly my mistake. He had used my book of the Ottoman Navy in which I given the number of casualties as 17. That was wrong. My book was written in 1992. Subsequently I have been able to get more official material from German and Turkey. The correct number of casualties are:

11 Germans
1 Turk

That number is taken from from the War Diary of the Goeben and a report by the Turkish Naval HQ dated 12.12.1914.

Last Updated: 4 September, 2002.

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