Jacobi mine

Last updated
Jacobi mine
TypeMine
Place of originRussian Empire
Service history
In service Russian Navy
Used byRussian Empire
Production history
DesignerMoritz von Jacobi
Designed1853
Manufacturer1853
Specifications
WarheadBlack Powder
Warhead weight14 kilograms (31 lb)

The Jacobi mine was an early naval mine designed in 1853 by German born, Russian engineer Moritz von Jacobi. It was employed by Russia, in the Baltic Campaign of the Crimean War.

Contents

Mine

The German-born Russian engineer Moritz von Jacobi designed the Jacobi naval mine in 1853. An anchor tied the mine to the seabed; a cable connected it to a galvanic cell which powered it from the shore, the power of its explosive charge equated to 14 kilograms (31 lb) of black powder. [1]

In the summer of 1853 the Committee for Mines of the Ministry of War of the Russian Empire approved the production of the Jacobi mine. What became the Crimean War formally started between the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire in October 1853. [2] France and Great Britain declared war on Russia in March 1854. [3] In 1854 the Russians laid 60 Jacobi mines in the vicinity of the Forts Pavel and Alexander (Kronstadt), in order to deter the British Baltic Fleet and its allied French fleet from attacking them. (The Royal Navy arrived in the Baltic in April 1854; the French force in June 1854.) The Jacobi mines gradually phased out their direct competitors, the Nobel mines, on the insistence of admiral Fyodor Litke. [1]

Notes

Citations
  1. 1 2 Tarle 1944, pp. 44–45.
  2. Badem, Candan (2010). "3: Battles and diplomacy during the war". The Ottoman Crimean War: (1853 - 1856). The Ottoman Empire and its heritage : politics, society and economy. Vol. 44. Leiden: Brill. p. 99-100. ISBN   9789004182059 . Retrieved 2019-04-03. On 4 October 1853, the Porte's declaration of war was published in the official newspaper Takvim-i Vekayi. [..] Ottoman artillery opened fire on Russian ships on the Danube on 21 October.
  3. Ponting, Clive (2004). "The Reason". The Crimean War: The Truth Behind the Myth. Random House (published 2011). p. 1. ISBN   9781407093116 . Retrieved 2019-04-03. The dispute that started the diplomatic slide to the Crimean War began more than six years before the British and French declarations of war on Russia at the end of March 1854.

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