Steam Frigate Alexander Nevsky

Imperial Russian Steam-Frigate Alexander Nevsky in drydock, Toulon, France, Summer of 1868.

(Public Domain Photo, via Wikipedia)

On September 25, 1868, on its way home from a visit to Piraeus, where it had participated in the celebration of Greek King George’s wedding to Grand Duchess Olga of Russia, and while carrying Grand Duke Alexei, son of Tsar Alexander II, Alexander Nevsky became shipwrecked off the coast of Thyborøn, a fishing village in Jutland.

The vessel was travelling by sail at that time and both the admiral (who had been responsible for Grand Duke Alexei’s naval education) and the ship’s captain miscalculated the ship’s position due to incorrect drift information recorded in the pilot book. Buffeted by rain, the Alexander Nevsky struck a sandbar, and its masts and some of the ship’s cannons had to be pitched into the sea to prevent the vessel from immediately capsizing.

Responding to the ship’s distress signal (a gun was fired), the local fishermen poured out into the now becalmed sea and rescued all of the ship’s crew, aside from five crewmen who had drowned while attempting to reach shore in one of the ship’s liferafts.

The warship eventually sank, the wreck settling in roughly 60 feet (20 m) of water, only 300 feet (100 m) from the present coast of Thyborøn. The captain and admiral aboard were convicted of dereliction of duty at a court-martial, but the tsar intervened and pardoned them due to their long service to the fleet. Grand Duke Alexei often claimed that he almost drowned when the ship went down, and enjoyed telling the story through the rest of his life.

(Via Wikipedia)