Crimean scientists are exploring the Black Sea Fleet ship «St. Alexander»

Scientists will use high-precision instruments to examine the site of the death of the 66-gun battleship of the Black Sea Fleet «St. Alexander», which crashed off the coast of the western part of Crimea in 1786. Viktor Lebedinsky, head of the Center for Historical and Archaeological Research of Crimea and the Mediterranean at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told TASS.

The work that we are carrying out with the Tula branch of the Russian Geographical Society, led by Oleg Zolotarev, is planned at a higher level. Now the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences has received from the Ministry of Education and Science excellent, most modern search equipment — magnetometers, profilers, various types of sonars. Thanks to this, I think that there will be serious progress in terms of studying the area where the ship was losthe said.

According to the scientist, the new research equipment will help researchers look under the ground, find fragments of the ship’s hull, possibly guns, which are now under an impressive layer of sand and scattered throughout the Karadzhinskaya Bay in the village of Olenevka, Black Sea region.

Local residents told us that after strong storms, when the waves pull away the sand, fragments of wooden structures are exposed there. The fact that there are parts of ship structures lying there is almost 100%. Several logs were even washed ashore. Also, local residents raised there, as they said, bronze and copper dishes. This is what washes up in the sea as a result of strong storms.Lebedinsky said.

He also noted that work to survey the site of the death of the Russian battleship is planned to be resumed in 2025-2026, since access to the sea in this area is now limited.

Ship history

The ship was wrecked on her maiden voyage in September 1786, leaving Kherson, where she was built, for Sevastopol with a cargo of flour and several hundred passengers on board. None of them died.

The ship’s captain and watch commander were found guilty of the loss of the ship, and they were sentenced to be stripped of all ranks and ranks with reference to the galleys. However, they were acquitted by Prince G.A. Potemkin-Tavrichesky.

Scientists note the uniqueness of the study of the remains of the ship, since the “St. Alexander” is the only battleship of the Black Sea Fleet of the 18th century that was lost as a result of the crash. Finds from the wreck site have significant historical and museum value as genuine material evidence of the era of the birth and formation of the Black Sea Fleet.

Nakhodki

The crash site was discovered by Tula scuba divers in 2005. Interesting finds were made underwater: cast iron ballast bars, cannonballs, grapeshot charges, fragments of handguns and bladed weapons, personal belongings of the crew. The set of finds and their location irrefutably indicated that the site of the wreck of the ship “St. Alexander” had been found.

In 2016-2018, underwater archaeological exploration at the shipwreck site was continued by a joint expedition of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Tula branch of the Russian Geographical Society under the leadership of Viktor Lebedinsky and Oleg Zolotarev. A locking part of a bronze valve from a galley boiler, an eight-pound mortar and a lead lot, which appears in descriptions of the ship’s sinking, were discovered.

source: TASS