We left Russia and its underwater aspirations in a difficult moment for the country, alas, is only the first in suffering the twentieth century. Broke out in 1904, the Russo-Japanese war found Russia in a far-from-ready position. Moreover, these words can be attributed to the submarine fleet. Not just existed, there was even no development plans, no more or less suitable for “reproduction” prototype. However, the Naval Ministry had to sign an agreement with the former firm of Holland “electric boat”, for the construction at Nevsky shipyard in St. Petersburg a series of five more units in the fall of 1903. However, the chosen system (the hull was built in Russia, the equipment arrived from the US), quite reasonable for such a new business in peacetime, during the war, became a real brake. In the end, even the head “Pike” delivered to Vladivostok a few months after the fighting ended. Late to the boat from another American lake, also assembled in Russia under the scheme of peace. A similar fate befell an earlier project hollandskyi “Beluga”. The only submarine that arrived in the far East to the Tsushima defeat, became overbought at the lake’s “Protector”, aka “Sturgeon”. But he did not have time to act before the end of the war.
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