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.

[Black Sea Map]

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)

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:

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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