REMEMBRANCE IN TIME - Index of

224
Remembrance in Time
Although to the credit allocated by that law was given another use, the idea of building
monitors was not abandoned. In 1905, War Minister, General Grigore Manu, obtained
from the government, for Navy, a loan of 12 million lei for construction of ships and
naval weapons. Lieutenant Commander Petre Demetriade, as Director for the Navy in the
War Ministry, a very energetic and enthusiastic officer, gave the best use for that money
as was recorded later in one of the works of the Rear Admiral Nicolae Negrescu iv ,
ordering the shipyard in Trieste the construction of four monitors, and at a shipyard in
England the construction of eight river patrol ships that were the first Romanian squadron
of battle on the Danube.
Monitors, whose construction at Stabilimento Technico Triestino of Trieste was
supervised by Commander Constantin Bălescu v , had the following features: displacement
680 tons, length 63 m, width 10.16 m, maximum draft of 1.60 m, and a speed of 23.1 km
/ hour vi . These ships were powered by two triple expansion engines of 800 hp and had a
crew of 113 people. In terms of armament of these vessels, given specific tasks were to
meet, it was necessary to be armed with 120 mm caliber guns and small cannons of 47
mm vii . Taking into account the need for execution of firing artillery upon pill boxes on the
shores, hidden in valleys and protected by various obstacles, it was decided that the
monitors had to be armed with howitzers. The whole artillery material was ordered to
Skoda-Werke Company in Pilsen. As Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Commander
Bălescu was sent to Pilsen to monitor the construction of guns and armor turrets, which
would endow monitors. In the Journal of the Navy checking commission is noted that the
March 1, 1906, was received a first batch of weapons necessary for monitors, consisting
of three 120 mm guns, two 120 mm howitzers and four 47 mm cannons. At the same
company in Pilsen was ordered and the required gun powder for ammunition, on which
clarifications are in the correspondence between representatives of the Skoda Company
and the Romanian Ministry of War in the fall of 1906 viii . In early 1907, the construction
of different parts of monitors was completed and their Skoda weapons consisted of three
120 mm guns, one installed in the bow and the other one in the aft, each protected by
armored turrets, two 120 mm howitzers each, four 47 mm guns each and two 6.5 mm
machine guns each installed on spardeck ix .
Regarding of the monitors’ armor it had different thickness, depending on exposure to
the artillery strikes. Thus, on the hull the armor had a thickness of 76 mm, on deck had 25
mm and the armored turrets had 50 to 75 mm thickness.
Since the passage of warships of any kind through the straits was banned under treaties
in force, the monitors could not be assembled in builder shipyard, instead were
transported, section by sections, by rail, to GalaŃi. On an improvised dockyard of the
Navy Arsenal in GalaŃi the vessels were assembled and permanently riveted, the
operation being carried out under teh supervision of a Trieste shipyard engineer and
Commander Bălescu x .
On September 19, 1907, in an official occasion, the launching ceremony of the four
monitors xi took place at the Navy Arsenal in GalaŃi which was named after four
Romanian political personalities of the late nineteenth century: MIHAIL
KOGALNICEANU, LASCĂR CATARGIU, ALEXANDRU LAHOVARI and ION C.
BRĂTIANU.
In June 1913 the Second Balkan War broke out, caused by Bulgaria, which attacked
former allies of the First Balkan War. Seeking to counter any attempt to form hegemony
in the Balkans, the Romanian government decided to enter the war against Bulgaria.