Palau – 2010 – 500 Dollars – Marat Battleship Series (PROOF)

Description

Metal: Gold .9999
Weight: 2.5 OZ
Diameter: 42×42 mm
Quality: Proof
Mintage: 77 pcs.

The Marat was a legendary former Soviet Union battleship. In 1911 she was launched in St. Petersburg under the name Petropawlowsk?. Eight years later she was hit three times and put out of action in the harbour of Kronstadt by a British
torpedo motorboat. However, this attack was not the end of the ?Petropawlowsk?. She was raised, repaired and set back into service in 1921. She was renamed ?Marat?, after the famous French revolutionary leader Jean-Paul Marat 1743-1793)
and set sail again in the same year.

In 1941 this Gangut class battleship was destroyed again. The German pilot Hans-Ulrich Rudel, who fled to South America as an active arms dealer and escape agent at the end of the war, sank the Marat – once again in the harbour of Kronstadt. During this attack with his Junker Ju 87 he achieved a direct hit whereupon the ship beached with it?s over 20?000 tons. More than 300 sailors were killed.

Nine years later the Marat was raised again, repaired, renamed Volkhov and served as a non-propelled training ship. The final end of this navy legend was in 1953. She was scrapped.