Russian monitor Rusalka

Rusalka (Русалка, Mermaid), was an ironclad monitor built for the Imperial Russian Navy in the 1860s. She was 204 feet long, had a beam of 42 feet, and carried armament of various calibers; her heaviest guns were two nine-inch cannon.

The ironclad was on active service with the Russian Navy in the Baltic Sea from 1867 until she sank in the Gulf of Finland on 7 September 1893, while steaming from Reval (Tallinn) to Helsingfors (Helsinki). (Both Estonia and Finland were at that time part of the Russian Empire.) All 177 of her crew were lost.

Loss of the Rusalka
Rusalka sailed from Reval (Tallinn) harbor at 08:30. She was escorted by the gunship Tucha (Туча, Cloud) under commanding officer Lushkov, as monitors of that type were not seaworthy in high seas. Weather about 10:00 deteriorated into storm, with gale force winds and rain; Tucha lost her charge from sight but sailed on leaving her behind and arrived safely at Helsingfors at 15:00. There was no sign of the Rusalka but Lushkov notified nobody of these proceedings.

The alarm about the ship missing was not raised until late in the evening of 9 September, when lighthouse warden notified police about the corpse of a sailor and the lifeboat wreckage washed ashore discovered by fishermen on Sandhamn (Santahamina) isle of Sveaborg (Suomenlinna) archipelago, and news filtered through the "proper channels" to naval authorities.

The search for the Rusalka, in which fifteen ships took part, lasted for 37 days, until 16 October, when it was suspended due to the increasing cold and winter storms. Nothing was found.

In June and August 1894, further attempts were made to search for the sunken warship using a towed balloon for observers, but they found nothing, and on 15 August 1894 the search was officially recalled.

Cause of the sinking
Rusalka was due to leave port at dawn, around 07:30, which should have given her time to reach Helsingfors by noon, however her sailing was delayed by the late arrival of her master. Despite the worsening weather, she was ordered to proceed.

An examination of the wreckage showed no signs of an explosion. It was therefore assumed that heavy seas breaking over the ship could have entered the hatches into the interior of the ship, as these had been negligently secured, causing the ship to lose power, making it difficult to maintain its heading. Whatever the cause, Rusalka obviously broached and sank.

On 28–30 January 1894 a court of inquiry was held, in which the commanding Admiral Burachek was officially reprimanded, and the senior captain was dismissed from the service.

Monument
On 7 September 1902, the ninth anniversary of the loss of the ship, a monument to the Rusalka was erected in Tallinn. Sculpted by Amandus Adamson, it takes the form of a bronze angel standing on a granite pedestal.

Discovery
In the spring of 2003 the Estonian Maritime Museum and the commercial diving company Tuukritööde OÜ launched the joint project of finding the ironclad Rusalka which had sunk 110 years earlier. On 22 July 2003 the wreck of the Russalka was located in the Gulf of Finland, 25 km south of Helsinki water by the museum´s research vessel Mare. On 24 July 2003, deep divers Kaido Peremees and Indrek Ostrat further pinpointed and videoed the wreck. The ironclad was discovered in an unusual position; following her foundering, the vessel plunged, bow first, 74 meters directly downward into the muddy bottom of the gulf, and fixed herself in that position. The divers saw the stern of the lost vessel rising 108 feet (33 meters) above the sea bed.

An earlier announcement, that the wreck of the Rusalka had previously been found by Soviet EPRON military divers in 1933, proved to be inaccurate.