Baltic Jewel

Izumrud (Emerald) the other of Russia's fast, German-built, 3rd rank protected cruisers. They were a development of the Novik, and were really light cruisers. This is certainly the best photo of seen of either, and its Germanic lines are seen to advantage.

Arguably, the Russian Admiralty displayed a willingness to innovate in a lot of things. Not, unfortunately, in it's appalling corruption and nepotism. The Admiralty mirrored all that was rotten in the Russian autocracy, however, not quite to that of the army.

Russia was always seen as a land power first. Although the Russian navy was founded by Peter the Great, and so gave little away in antiquity and tradition, it had nothing on, say, the British, Spanish or Portugese. Japan's Imperial Navy was only in existence 70 years, yet it defeated the Chinese, Russians, took Tsingtao off the Germans, bloodied the US Pacific Fleet in its own harbour, wiped out a combined British, Dutch, American and Australian squadron off Java and generally caused mayhem for a year and a half until taken down by ridiculously long odds.

Russian ships of the line slaughtered a Turkish fleet of Frigates and Sloops at Navarino? Big deal - the Turks were anchored in a bay, for Allah's sake, it was a turkey shoot! (ahem)

In the Crimean war, Russia found its coastlines fatally vulnerable. A British/French fleet led by Admiral Napier ranged at will along the coast of Russian Finland, sinking anything with a Russian flag. British Marines took the island fortress of Bomarsund right under the Russian Baltic fleet's noses, while Russian warships cowered in harbour.

In the Black Sea, British and French warships came and went at will, landing soldiers and bombarding Russian forts, while the Black Sea fleet sat anchored at Sevastopol.What was the problem?

Many!

First, although Russia had a lot of forests, they grew the wrong sort of timber for which to build ships. The US had the same problem, lack of seasoned oak, and built their's from spruce instead.

Secondly, Russians didn't take to the sea in vast numbers and there was a lack of trained seamen. This problem got worse the higher up the ladder one went. It's no accident that senior Russian Naval officers frequently had surnames transliterated from German, Swedish, Finnish, Courland, etc. The Admiralty frequently filled out the ranks of senior naval staff by poaching them from elsewhere.

Russian ships were frequently made in Finland, who DID know how to build them.

Lastly, steam! The British and French arrived in the Crimea in a fleet powered by auxiliary steam engines. Russia's sailing fleet had no chance against even the modest horsepower of those early marine engines. The Brits and French merely chugged into positions, regardless of wind, where the Russian ships of the line couldn't bear.

The French also showed up with something that changed the whole nature of the ballpark, an armoured 'floating battery.'

Even firing hot shot, the Russian coastal batteries could make no impression against the sloped armour of the French.

Steam and armour shook the Naval fraternity to its very foundations. In 1862/5, river fleets of armoured ships were battering away at each other in the American Civil War. HMS Warrior, the first warship built completely of iron, slid down the slipway in answer to the French armour-on-teak Gloire - and Franco British relations improved markedly. French inventor Paixhans invented the explosive shell gun for marine use and relations went sour again.

The Americans preferred their Dahlgrens, firing a heavy ball designed to splinter iron, but improved ranges, rifling, steel Harveyised armourplate, rendered the massive Dahlgren to history.

The Russians did their best to remedy the hand they were dealt. The Russian Navy lacked an ice free port and could only train its crews 4 months of the year. It lacked the industrial infrastructure of Britain and France and had to rely a lot on purchasing overseas the engines and technology it needed to build a modern fleet.

Like the Confederate States Navy, however, it tried its hand at out-innovating the competition.
The Russian Admiralty decided it needed shallow draft turret ships to defend habour mouths and rivers. They came up with the Popovkas - truly a bold idea!

The Popovkas were completely round like manhole covers. This gave the two turrets 360 degrees of fire. Unfortunately, they were well nigh unmanageable in anything except upriver with a strong current. Otherwise, they spun around like tops - great concept, bad idea!

Until the 1880s, Russia had a coastal fleet of large monitor type vessels. Towards the end of the 19th century, however, the French took a deep interest in Russia's military potential.

It was self interest, of course, and France needed an anvil at Germany's back for its long term goal of righting the wrongs of the Franco-Prussian War - to whit, the recovery of Alsace-Lorraine.

France poured loans and technology into Russia's industrial infrastructure and railway network - so it could mobilise her armies more quickly, of course! Russian warships began to slide down the slipways in ever increasing numbers, often reflecting French ideas on how they should be built. Russian battleships were heavily built up, like their French cousins. They were fussy and complicated and took twice as long to build as British ones - just like French warships.

Russians liked to build a lot of unnecessary stuff into their ships - to make the lives of the effete Russian aristocratic officers more comfortable. Officers quarters were plush, Edwardian salons where the champagne flowed freely. A lot of wooden appointments is a bad idea in a ship of war in the days of explosive shells!

The Japanese saw that too and developed shells containing mercury fulminate and a handful of manganese. They called them 'shimose' shells and they equipped them with instantaneous fuses so they turned into a fireball the moment they hit anything. Suvorov, Alexander III, Borodino and Orel caught fire pretty much the moment Japanese shells began to rain on them at Tsushima. The Russian gunners abandoned their guns, as anyone would, rather than be roasted.

Unfortunately, Russian shells had been carted all the way around the world, through the tropics, and were starting to deteriorate. Despite poor expectations, Russian accuracy was pretty good at the beginning of the battle, but many of the shells were duds. Observers on Suvorov saw a shell hit the Japanese battleship Shikishima square on the turret, to see it break up - bummer!

One that did explode smacked into Togo's Mikasa right behind the foremast and very nearly blew the Japanese Admiral off his bridge. The Japanese ships were not invulnerable and Vitgeft's squadron knocked them around a bit at the battle of the Yellow Sea.

But Togo knew what he was doing and had crossed his Ts, which is what he did at Tsushima - sailing right around the van of the Russians, concentrating on Rhozdventsky's best ships, a good 7 knots faster. In all, a 15 minute bombardment was all that was needed to decide the matter. The rest of the day was concerned with mopping up.

It wasn't that the Russians were that bad or their ships that poor. Ok, both ships and crews were inferior to the Japanese, but a few better tactical decisions might well have swung things the other way. Alas, Rhozventsky was concussed and his flagship a ruin and Nebogatov, his second in command, was too far back to realise he was now in charge.

Vladimir Ber, Oslyabya's captain and de facto Vice Admiral of the second division, went down with his ship early on and no-one on Sissoi Viliki or Navarin thought to give some orders. There was muddle in command, probably a result of Rhozdventsky's autocratic style, and order was restored, of sorts, only at dusk when Nebogatov finally realised he was in charge. All too late because the Russian first division was already toast.

Following Tsushima, Russia built more ships, of course. There was the 'intermediate dreadnoughts' Andrez Pervozanni, Pavel I and Ioann Zlaloust. Oblukhov, the Russian gun makers, gave them a 60 cal 12" gun - the most powerful afloat at the time. Then there were their dreadnoughts, the Ganguts, long, gangley turbine ships with four, triple 12" turrets ranged along their centrelines. This gave them a potential broadside of twelve 12" guns - in the days when such things mattered. Their only problem was they took so long to build. Like French dreadnoughts, they found the competition had moved on by the time her builders signed them off. The Imperatritsas, their next class of dreadnoughts, chose the same turret arrangement - and a 600 foot long hull.

Russia built no more battleships because the revolution happened and by the time they had the cash to get back in the game, the battleship era was fading and there seemed little point.

The Russo-Japanese war saw a European power humiliated by an emerging Asiatic power. Conventional, racist, Eurocentric opinion was that it shouldn't happen. Only the British were pleased - after all, anything to tame the Russian bear and they rather admired the 'plucky little Japs.' Besides Russia, the least pleased were the Americans, for they now had to reckon on an Empire perilously close to 'their' Philippines - an Empire that was soon to introduce the fast battleship (albeit with 14" guns) fractionally before the British, 'Queen Elzabeths.' Furthermore, an empire that came out of the 1st World War with extensive possessions well out into the Pacific - and rather too close to Hawaii for comfort.

Don