Chemulpo (or In'chon)

And here's where it all began - the Russo - Japanese War of 1904/5. This photo was taken from HMS Talbot, a British warship on a visit to Korea.

The lead ship is the Russian cruiser Varyag followed by the Gunboat Koryetz. The Koryetz had set off first, as she could barely make 9 knots on a still day. The Varyag followed and soon caught her up despite being only capable of 15 knots due to the poor state of her boilers.

The Koryetz soon found her old fashioned 8" deck gun hadn't the range to get close to the Japanese and so took shelter behind an island. It used 'prism brown' gunpowder, which emitted clouds of smoke obscuring her gunlayers.

The Varyag stood heroically on, but her gunfire was described as 'wildly inaccurate.' Uriu recorded no hits on his squadron, although the Russians claimed otherwise. Varyag's main guns were mostly mounted in open positions on her maindeck and even Japanese near misses had a terrible effect on the gun crews. Early on, observation positions on the upper bridge were wiped out and Varyag's gunlayers were mostly firing blind through the smoke.

Her Captain wounded, Varyag turned around and headed back, after some 90 of her crew had been killed. In hindsight, the battle achieved nothing for the Japanese troops had already landed. For the Russians, at least they could claim they didn't go meekly into the night.

The Varyag was raised by the Japanese to become 'Soya' in IJN service. Later on, on the eve of the first World War, the IJN sold her back to the Russians.

Upon the outbreak of the revolution she was in Britain waiting for a refit and taken over by the Royal Navy. Consequently, she was wrecked on her way to the breaker's yard about 1922.

Varyag's bravery is still commemorated by the modern Russian Navy. Although the story has been somewhat embroidered over the years, nevertheless it stands as a brave attempt by the Russian Navy against impossible odds.

As an aside, there's a story to the effect that the Russian Ambassador to Seoul prevented the Varyag and Koryetz from retreating to the relative safety of Port Arthur until it was too late. From then on, civilian officials were prevented from making tactical military decisions by order of the Tsar.

Don