Russian destroyer Orfey

Orfey was laid down at the Metal Works in Petrograd on 23 October 1914 and launched on 15 June 1915.^[3] The ship was towed to Helsinki for fitting out in November. A 40-millimeter (1.6 in) anti-aircraft (AA) gun was ordered to be fitted on a platform between the rear torpedo mount and the stern guns on 8 March 1916.^[5] Her sea trials began on 9 December 1915 and she was commissioned on 4 May 1916.^[3] Orfey made seven sorties into the Baltic Sea that year in unsuccessful attempts to interdict the German supply of high-quality Swedish iron ore either by combat or the laying of minefields. These operations were carried out before the Gulf of Finland was iced over late in the year.^[6] One of these was on the night of 29/30 June when Orfey and her sister ships Pobeditel and Grom were searching for a German convoy off the Swedish coast near Bråviken in thick fog. They encountered a group of eight German destroyers and retreated back towards the armored cruiser Gromoboi and the light cruiser Diana. The Germans pursued the destroyers until they spotted the cruisers and attacked with torpedoes. All of them missed and both sides disengaged without suffering any casualties.^[7][8]

The ship ran aground on 22 August and flooded several compartments in her hull. Orfey had to be lightened before she could be pulled off the rocks; she was towed to Helsinki for repairs that lasted about a month and a half.^[9] The ship was part of a force of five destroyers that laid 200 mines off the coast of Steinort, Germany (modern Gleźnowo, Poland), on the night of 18/19 October. The merchantman SS General Kutuzov that the Germans had salvaged in Ventspils, Latvia, was sunk by one of those mines a few days later. The minesweeper T 64 sank while clearing the minefield.^[10] The destroyer was refitted in the winter of 1916–1917 and had her forecastle strengthened. Orfey did not participated in any combat operations in 1917, although she did receive a 76-millimeter (3 in) Lender AA gun that year that was positioned aft of the stern guns. The ship struck a mine in November 1917 that severely damaged her turbines and propeller shafts and had to be towed back to Helsinki.^[11]

Her crew joined the Bolsheviks during the October Revolution. She was icebound in Helsinki harbor when the Germans decided to intervene in the Finnish Civil War in April 1918. Their troops soon threatened Helsinki and the Baltic Fleet was ordered to evacuate the port. Orfey was part of the last echelon to depart before the Germans gained control of the city and had to be towed to Kronstadt from 10 to 16 April 1918 in the "Ice Cruise". She was placed in reserve upon her arrival. The ship was briefly recommissioned on 21 April 1921 before she was disarmed and converted into a training ship on 31 May 1922. Part of her bow was removed in late 1929 to be used to repair her sister ship Volodarski whose bow had been damaged in a collision earlier that year. Orfey was stricken on 28 January 1931 and ordered to be scrapped.^[9][12]

• Apalkov, Yu. V. (1996). Боевые корабли русского флота: 8.1914-10.1917г [Combat Ships of the Russian Fleet: 8.1914-10.1917] (in Russian). ИНТЕК. ISBN 5-7559-0018-3.
• Breyer, Siegfried (1992). Soviet Warship Development: Volume 1: 1917–1937. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-604-3.
• Budzbon, Przemysław (1985). "Russia". In Gray, Randal (ed.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. pp. 291–325. ISBN 0-85177-245-5.
• Greger, René (1972). The Russian Fleet, 1914-1917. Ian Allan. ISBN 0-7110-0255-X.
• Halpern, Paul G. (1994). A Naval History of World War I. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-266-4.
• Verstyuk, Anatoly & Gordeyev, Stanislav (2006). Корабли Минных дивизий. От "Новика" до "Гогланда" [Torpedo Division Ships: From Novik to Gogland] (in Russian). Moscow: Voennaya Kniga. ISBN 5-902863-10-4.