The Romanov family visiting warships

[Nikolaevna]

Hello everyone. This is my first time posting here so apologies if I'm on the wrong section.

Tsar Nicholas II and his family visited several warships before and during the war. I was wondering if anyone might know what ships exactly? I am particularly interested in ships the four grand duchesses visited, or at least just so happened to be in the background when the photo was taken. Here are a few examples I'm already aware of.

Battleship Imperatritsa Mariya

Destroyer Derzky

Destroyer Derzky on the top and bottom image, while the second image appears to be on board a Imperatritsa Mariya-class battleship (judging by the same clothes the grand duchesses are wearing in the first photo).


HMS Lion


Leitenant Shestakov-class destroyer

If no photos exist but they wrote about it in their diaries, I would love to read them. Other examples like Nicholas and his family attending a dock opening ceremony named after Alexei in Kronstadt in 1914, where the armored cruiser Rurik was present, is also good enough. If anyone has a photo of the Romanov family aboard or next to a warship but don't know its name, please share it anyway so I can get it identified.

[JamesAPrattIII]

I have some information:

The dreadnought battleships Imperatrista Maria and Imperatrista Catherine were visited by the IF on 12/25 May 1916.

there are other photos taken of this visit posted elsewhere on this site. here are two I just found:

NHHC US naval Historical and heritage Command at historynavy.mil has
NH100134 Nicholas and Alexei on the Imperatrista maria on 12/25 may 1916 with Naval Minister Ivan K Grigorvich  mann with white beard and khaki uniform right behind Alexei

NH 100162 Nicholas and Alexei visiting the seaplane base at Sevasopol on 13/26 may 1916 note on the left the grigorovich seaplane and a funnel of the Seaplane carrier Imperator Nicholai I

[JamesAPrattIII]

In looking through Jane's Fighting ships of WW I the ship in the background of the 2nd and 5th photos you have posted looks like the repair ship Kronstadt.

[Nikolaevna]

Thanks guys! Pity the quality of the photo of Nicholas and Alexei on the battleship Mariya are not as clear as the one I posted.

[JamesAPrattIII]

You might want to post the HMS Lion picture on other sections of this site like Alexandra's . They might be able to identify who else is in these pictures.

HMS Lion visit was in June 1914. It looks like the woman on the right with the parsoll is Alexandra. The short woman to the left looks like Anastasia.

On the 12/25 May 16 visit to the Imperatrista Maria pictures Anastasia is easy to pick out she is wearing a brimmed hat, a shorter skirt, and has her hair down. When the sisters turned 16 they wore ground length skirts and put their hair up.

[Nikolaevna]

Thanks but I've read about the grand duchesses long enough to be able to recognize them pretty well. I actually keep a picture of them as my desktop wallpaper as well as my phone. Notice that while the Romanovs visit to HMS Lion was in June 1914, Maria's hair is already put up, and she was 15 then. No one knows why, but you can clearly see below she still doesn't have a diamond ring (Olga and Tatiana received theirs on turning 16).


I don't know if this was on board HMS Lion, but a British naval officer is standing behind them.

So far I only know that the grand duchesses set foot on HMS Lion, the Russian destroyer Derzky and the battleships Imperatritsa Mariya and Ekaterina Velikaya. If anyone happens to know more do let me know please.

[Kalafrana]

Is there any info on who the midshipman in the background is?

Clearly it cannot be either of the Battenbergs, as George was a Lieutenant by this time, and Louis still at Osborne.

Ann

[JamesAPrattIII]

In looking at both pictures of the women on HMS Lion you can identify the sisters by their hats O&T and M&A are wearing the same style hats in both pictures On the second picture it looks like they seated AOTM. There is an account of their visit to HMS Lion in the book The Four Sisters/The Romanov Sisters.

[Nikolaevna]

Found a new one.

Nicholas and Alexei aboard the armored cruiser Admiral Makarov in 1908.

Apparently one of two cruisers that accompanied the Romanov family's imperial yacht to Cowes, the other being Rurik.

[JamesAPrattIII]

One of the Midshipmen may be Harold Tennyson. he was later killed in WWI. This is mentioned in the book "The Romanov Sisters/the Four Sisters" . I think this book mentions AOTMA taking pictures of French submarines during the IFs visit to Cherborg in 1911 after they visited England.

[Nikolaevna]

I've came across Olga's drawing of a ship plenty of times before, but on paying better attention to it it actually resembles a warship. Unfortunately I don't know Russian. Can anyone translate what she wrote?