Postcard from Port Arthur

Not, of course, Janis Joplin's home town but Port Arthur, Manchuria. This was taken by the Japanese and shows the Poltava, of the Petropavlovsk Class, bottomed in the shallow anchorage. As before, the Russians scuttled her to use as static artillery during the long siege.

Poltava, Retvizan, Peresviet and Pobieda was used in this way. Just before the surrender, Sevastopol, another 'Petropavlovsk', sailed out for a final foray - scuttling after she'd shot off her remaining ammunition. Petropavlovsk had hit a mine and exploded earlier in the siege, taking wth her Admiral Makarov, and Tsessarevitch interned herself at Tsingtao following Yellow Sea.

The Russians lost seven battleships during the siege of Port Arthur. Unknown to them, the Japanese had lost Yashima and Hatutse to Russian mines. 7 to 2, but the Japanese only started with six.

Rhozdventsky sailed out of Libau with Kniaz Suvarov, Imperator Alexander III, Borodino, Orel, Oslyabya, Sissoi Viliki, and Navarin. At Nossi Be, Madagaskar, she was joined by Imperator Nikolai I, Admiral Apraxin, Admiral Ushakov, and General Admiral Senyavin. On paper this seemed overwhelming, but the reality was far different

Only five of the Russian battleships were in any way modern. The first division, the Borodinos, were top heavy and suffering teething troubles. Generally, the crews were poorly trained and, in some of the ships, downright rebellious. Orel had been sabotaged by revolutionaries in harbour and her engines continually gave trouble.

Oslyabya of the second division, was undergunned for a battleship of the day. Sissoi Veliki and Navarin were old and slow.

Rear Admiral Nebogatov of the third division was in an even worse position. His ships were the 'auto sinkers,' left behind originally as having no fighting value. Nikolai I was a coast defence ship, never designed to travel out to sea, built in the 1880s. The other three were turret ships, of a similar type to American Civil War monitors of the 1860s. They were only ever designed to protect harbour mouths from the sort of deprivations suffered by the Russians during the Crimean War.

Rhozdventsky only ever considered his first division as having any worth. Ironically, it was Nebogatov's old crocks that performed best of all overall, of the Russian fleet. It was the auto sinkers that knocked out Togo's two Italian built armoured cruisers, Nisshin and Kasuga. Seniavin was credited with blowing Nisshin's rear main turret over the side in the early stage of the Battle of Tsushima.

Don