Moskva was the Flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet. In Naval parlance, this means that the commander of that entire squadron (AKA, the Flag Officer) was quartered aboard, along with his staff. The Flag outranks the ship’s captain since he is in charge of squadron operations; the ship’s captain only supervises his own ship and crew. For example, when my ship was in the Western Pacific, our skipper (actual rank, Commander) was under the supervision of the Flag, or Commodore) ‘Commodore’ is a ceremonial title, meaning ‘fleet boss’, his actual rank was Captain. The Commodore was in charge of the entire squadron of 4 destroyers, plus our own ship, the Flagship. When my ship participated in NATO exercises in the North Atlantic, we also had a Flag officer aboard, a full Admiral, who was in command of the American squadron, under the supervision of the Fleet Commander, a UK Admiral aboard one of their aircraft carriers.

When a flagship is destroyed or disabled in battle, the Flag Officer is said to “transfer his flag” temporarily to whatever other ship is nearby and convenient, so he can continue commanding the overall operation. His staff, goes with him, if possible. This new platform now becomes his “flagship” and flies his flag. In the days of sail, this was an actual cloth banner, to let other ships nearby know “I am in charge here, follow my signals”.

So here’s my question. If the Moskva was disabled, whether by accident or enemy action, the Flag would have been transferred to some other vessel as quickly as possible. Do we know this happened? Was the Flag Officer killed or injured during the incident? How many of his staff survived, how long before the chain of command was re-established? Was the entire command structure of the Black Sea Fleet compromised, or had Moskva merely been the flagship of one squadron or flotilla? Or was she even a Flagship at all? Perhaps the Flag was not aboard, on some other ship, or even on shore. Such things happen. Clearly, the Moskva was the biggest and most powerful ship in the area, so it is not unreasonable to assume the commander of all naval operations in the Black Sea was aboard. If he were out of action, would his senior surviving staff officer take over from him, the Moskva’s skipper, or some superior officer elsewhere? I don’t know how the Russian Navy is organized to handle such emergencies.

I am curious to learn how this all works out.