Kommuna is a salvage vessel, not really a warship, but is the world’s oldest active duty naval vessel.
H.M.S. Victory is the oldest commissioned warship (1765) but has been in dry dock as a museum ship since 1922.
U.S.S. Constitution is the oldest commissioned warship still in service (1797) but is no longer a warship but a sail-training ship.
Kommuna (formerly HIRMS Volkov under Imperial Russia and USSRS Kommuna under the Soviet Union) is the oldest commissioned warship still in active duty (1913)
Out of curiosity, I looked at some more ships from the list of oldest ships.
The Charles W. Morgan is the second oldest ship still afloat, after the U.S.S. Constitution. She was a whaler and is berthed in Mystic Connecticut.
The Tarihi Kadirga is the oldest surviving galley, an oar-powered ship type. Very neat.
The Pesse canoe is about 10,000 years old and is the oldest surviving watercraft, apparently. Boggles the mind!
Shame
…not really
One of the unsung victims of this idiotic war will have been military museums.
Their loss is the recreational diving community’s gain.
One of the unsung heroes is Russias contribution to the Black Sea artificial reef program.
A submarine rescue ship? Nice, time for Ukraine to sink some submarines next.
At the point, pretty much all of the Black Sea Fleet is “submarines”.
It sounds like they had it there because of the Moskva sinking.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_rescue_ship_Kommuna
In April 2022, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the ship was deployed after the sinking of the guided missile cruiser Moskva. The Moskva sank 80 miles (130 km) off the coast from Odesa in 45 to 50 metres (148 to 164 ft) of water. The size of the Moskva, which sank in one piece, makes bringing it to the surface impractical. Kommuna reportedly assisted in recovering weapons, bodies, and other sensitive material that foreign powers might be interested in.
It sounds like they had it there because of the Moskva sinking.
Certainly not. Immediately after the war started, Turkey closed its passage for Russian naval ships. The black sea fleet is on its own since then and can neither retreat nor be reinforced.
Had it in Sevastopol rather than Novorossiysk or somewhere safer in the Black Sea region.
I thought the world’s oldest active duty warship was the USS Constitution in Boston. It has a full active duty US Navy crew…
According to Wikipedia she’s the oldest afloat but the Kommuna is the oldest in active service. Seems like semantics but I guess the Kommuna was actually being used as compared to being a museum ship.
Makes sense.
