 Evstafi , as the newest ship in the Black Sea Fleet , was the flagship of Vice Admiral Andrei Eberhardt , commanding the fleet , for the first year or so of World War I. Two weeks after the Russian declaration of war on the Ottoman Empire on 2 November 1914 , the Black Sea Fleet , comprising the pre @-@ dreadnoughts Evstafi , Ioann Zlatoust , Pantelimon , Rostislav , Tri Sviatitelia , and three cruisers were escorted by three destroyers and 11 torpedo boats set out on 15 November to bombard Trebizond . They did this successfully on the morning of 17 November and they turned west to hunt for Turkish shipping along the Anatolian coast before setting course for Sevastopol later that afternoon . They were intercepted by the German battlecruiser Goeben and the light cruiser SMS Breslau the following day in what came to be known as the Battle of Cape Sarych . Despite the noon hour the conditions were foggy and the capital ships initially did not spot each other . The Black Sea Fleet had experimented on concentrating fire from several ships under the control of a " master ship " before the war and Evstafi held her fire until Ioann Zlatoust , the master ship , could see Goeben . When the gunnery commands were finally received they showed a range over 4 @,@ 000 yards ( 3 @,@ 700 m ) in excess of Evstafi 's own estimate of 7 @,@ 700 yards ( 7 @,@ 000 m ) , so Evstafi opened fire using her own data before Goeben turned to unmask its broadside . She scored a hit with her first salvo as a 12 @-@ inch shell partially penetrated the armor casemate protecting one of Goeben 's 15 @-@ centimetre ( 5 @.@ 9 in ) secondary guns . It detonated some of the ready @-@ use ammunition , starting a fire that burnt out the casemate and killed its crew . 
