Royal First

The battleship that set the standard, HMS Devastation. This ship was built in 1871 and demonstrated the features that would become common to the pre-dreadnought battleship.

She was originally equipped with 13.5inch muzzle loading cannon - two per turret, one aft and one forward. She was built entirely for steam and had nothing but a signal mast. Even so, she had a range of over 5000 miles - pretty good for the day.

Devastation gave over 30 years service - subsequently equipped with 10 inch breech loaders.

The Devastation was widely admired and even more widely copied by the world's navies.

Don

Victorian Innovation

HMS Inflexible and the vessel that inspired its design, Italy's Duilo of 1880/1. The guns about reached the limit for breech loaders on a warship in the Victorian era. They were just too damned difficult to operate.

The barrels had to be first depressed into a glacis below which an army of gun crew rammed the shell and charge up the barrel. The turret then was turned, aimed and fired, if lucky, inside 15 minutes.

The turrets themselves were mounted en enchelon amidships so, in theory they could both fire across the deck broadside. In practice, the muzzle blast caused more damage to the superstructure than any theoretical hit from the enemy.

The amidships section was an armoured box within which were the machinery spaces and the magazines. The ends were soft, ie unarmoured, but, it was reckoned, the armoured section would be sufficient to keep the ship afloat if the ends were punctured.

Another problem with the type of gun was the use of black powder. This caused a huge amount of smoke which had to clear before the gunlayers could relocate the target.

Lastly, the detonation factor of black powder meant these guns had to be very strong in the breech to cope with the sudden expansion of gases. This pushed the weight of these monster guns to over 120 tons for the 13.5 inch.

Don

Reluctant Turncoat

SMS Pillau - fast light cruiser originally designed and built for Russia by Schicau of Elbing. It was to have Oblukhov 130mm main guns but the Germans mounted Krupp 150s. Upon the outbreak of war in 1914 the German Navy took over her and her sister SMS Elbing.


German cruisers led much more busy lives than the capital ships and Pillau was no exception. She was at Jutland, Heligoland Bight, Riga Gulf and numerous skirmishes with the enemy throughout the war. In 1919 she was handed over to the Italians as part of reparations and renamed Bari. As such, she was sunk by the British in 1943.

The Victorious King

Germany's Konig and why old pre-dreadnoughts like the Slava stood little chance. That' s ten twelve inch guns she's packing against 4 on the Slava. Steam turbines pushed her along at over 21 knots, as opposed to the Slava's 16kts at the time of the Moon Sound battle.

Don

Glory

Slava (Glory) scuttled in Moon Sound, off Muhu Island, Gulf of Riga. She was last of the Borodino class, finished in 1906 and thus too late for the Russo-Japanese War.

In late September 1917 her and the Tchesma, the renamed Tessarevich, fought against an attempt by units of Germany's High Seas Fleet to break into the Gulf of Finland. The ensuing Battle of Moon Sound was an unequal contest between German Dreadnought battleships and the remnant of the Tsarist Baltic Battlefleet.

Slava was disabled by heavy hits from the German SMS Konig and, down by the stern, couldn't negotiate the shallow passage and so scuttled herself.

It was the last battle fought under the Andreevsky Flag.

Don

Pious Peresviet

A stunning shot of Peresviet some time before 1905. The detail in this photo is exceptional for the time.

Peresviet and her sister, Oslyabya, were named after medieval warrior monks. The other of the class, Pobieda, is Russian for 'Victory.'

The sailor standing on the bow below the jack gives some idea of perspective. By the standard of five years later, they were small battleships - around 11,000 tons fully loaded.

Although the flag looks to be the British Union Jack, it's actually the Russian Naval jack. The crosses are blue and white on a red field - the opposite to the British. The ensign was the 'Andreievsky Flag,' blue St Andrew's cross on a white field. This flag was adopted back into the modern Russian Navy in 1994.

Don

The Boss

Commander of the Russian Second Pacific Squadron, Zinovi Petrovich Rhozdestvensky. Likely this photo was taken after Tsushima as his beard has been trimmed. Contemporary photos show him with a long white beard, as befitting a Tsarist senior military officer.

Rhozdestvensky's early career was blighted. Allegedly, he invented a battle with a Turkish gunboat, which he claimed to have sunk. Later research proved no such battle took place.

He was gunnery specialist and commander of the Baltic Fleet in 1904.

There's no doubt he was a hard driver with a blistering temper. He had no problem firing a live round across the bows of any of his command who displeased him. He was prone to episodes of despair, however, and who could blame him? He'd shut himself away for days on end - particularly at Nossi Be where the fleet paused on its journey around the world.

He was given almost an impossible set of orders - to sail the Baltic Fleet around the world and beat the Japanese. It was a bold move by the Russians, but also displayed breathtaking arrogance.

The Tsar constantly referred to the Japanese as 'little yellow monkeys' who needed to be 'tamed.' The Russo-Japanese War was going to be a 'short victorious war' to divert Russia from its problems. Proconsul in the Far East, Alexiev, was a champagne diplomat and vacillator but Russia's most experienced military commander, Kuropatkin, described the war as 'folly.' He should have been listened to.

Russian Intelligence wildly underestimated both the size and efficiency of the Japanese armed forces. They took no heed of the circumstances of the Japanese defeat of the Chinese in 1894. The Japanese attacked without a formal declaration of war - an obvious lesson. Port Arthur was virtually undefended while Russia poured millions into the civilian port of Dalny - a strategic mistake.

After Port Arthur's loss, Rhozdestvensky should have been recalled or his fleet made to wait at Cam Ranh Bay. But the Admiral was being pushed on by an Admiralty living in a fantasy. The Tsar needed a victory, no matter how unlikely that was going to be.

The decision to encumber the Admiral with Nebogatov's third squadron showed the Russian autocracy was dominated by military thinking, not naval. Increasing numbers by swelling your fleet with old and obsolete hulls might make some military sense but was a crazy idea at sea. Inferior troops could be left to hold a strong position while your elite units used in maneuvre. No such option exists in a naval battle. Your slowest ships set the speed of the fleet - and Rhozdestvensky was held to 9 knots by his auto sinkers and transports. That handed Togo the freedom to maneuvre.

Rhozdestvensky was criticised for steering his first division across the bows of the second to get at Togo's point of turn. In hindsight, it was the best chance he had of damaging the Japanese. With Suvorov disabled and the Admiral unconscious, it was all over after 15 minutes and it was his subordinates who tried to recover the situation.

After the debacle, Rhozdventsky, now in poor health with a scrap of iron in his head, fiercely defended Nebogatov and those of his captains who surrendered. Risking the firing squad himself, he took all the responsibility upon himself and ultimately influenced the Tsar to get them released. He died soon after in 1909.

Don

Danish Nobleman

Boyarin (Noblemen) 3rd rank protected cruiser built in Denmark in 1902. She was at Port Arthur and sank after striking a mine early on in the siege.

Don

A Bad Hand

Orel. The fourth ship of the Borodino class seemed to have been dogged by ill-luck from the outset. Revolutionaries sabotaged her engines by tipping iron filings into the bearing cases before she set out with Rhozdventsky. Orel broke down at least four times on her journey around the world.

Named after a fortress town in Southern Russia. Orel's crew consisted of more agents provocateur than the rest of the fleet put together.

Following the Battle of Tsushima, she was found by the Japanese abandoned with white flags at her mastheads on the morning of the 28th. Her crew were in the boats, drifting nearby. Orel was towed back to Japan for extensive repairs including the removal of one of her decks to improve stability.

Mystery still surrounds her tame surrender. Her captain was tried by courts marshal and, in his defense, claimed he had no confidence in the crew. He and Admiral Nebogatov were sent to prison, but their sentences were commuted after three years or so.

Although she was unable to raise steam when the Japanese came upon her, the suspicion is that her own crew sabotaged her to prevent the captain from continuing the fight.

Don

The Baltic Bard

Bayan (Bard or Poet) Armoured cruiser. By this, the fourth class of armoured cruiser built for the Imperial Russian Navy, they were starting to get it together. Four were built, Bayan, Admiral Makarov, Bayan II, and Pallada II.

Bayan was with the first Pacific Squadron in 1904 and was sunk, raised, and incorporated into the Japanese Navy. The name was shifted to the third vessel of the class and, I suspect, the photo above is the second Bayan. Pallada II must not be confused with the earlier Pallada of the Aurora class, again, bottomed at Port Arthur.

The Bayans were designed from the outset as fleet scouts rather than commerce raiders, as the three previous classes were. The first two were built in France and, although two thirds the displacement, were just as powerful as Gromoboi and faster.

Bayan became the IJN's Aso and served on under the Japanese flag until 1930.

All three survivors served in the Baltic in WW1. Pallada II was torpedoed in 1914 by U-26. Bayan II and Makarov fought at the Battle of Moon Sound, participated in the famous Ice Cruise of the Baltic Fleet and were scrapped in Germany in 1922.

Pallada was named after the Greek Goddess, Pallas Athena - Makarov after Admiral Stepan Makarov who went down in the Petropavlovsk.

Don

Baltic Oddity

The Navarin, 3rd battleship of the 2nd Division, 2nd Russian Pacific Squadron of Admiral Zinoviev Rhozdventsky - lost to Japanese floating mines, Tsushima Strait, the night of 27th May, 1905.

Navarin was built in the early 1880s, Galernyy Yard, St Petersburg, Imperial Russia. Her designers modeled her on HMS Trafalgar, built late the previous decade.

Navarin and Sissoi Veliki sailed with the fleet on the mistaken belief the Japanese under Admiral Togo Heichiro had 6 modern battleships. Navarin was sent to make up the numbers - nothing more.

Ironically, Togo had been whittled down to four following the loss of two of his battleships to Russian mines outside Port Arthur. It was Togo who worried the Russians outgunned him and therefore made the dubious decision to flesh out the battlefleet with his armoured cruisers.

Don

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

Another of Essen's cruisers

Bogatyr, Russian protected cruiser of the second rank. This was one of Admiral Essen's Vladivostok cruisers that didn't show at the battle of Ulsan because her captain had ran her onto rocks outside harbour.

Built in 1902 by Vulkans of Stettin, Germany, they were actually early light cruisers and pretty good for its day. Her sister Oleg was torpedoed by a British CMB in 1919. Two others served in the Black Sea and were incorporated into the Soviet Navy, with suitable revolutionary names, Pamiat Merkuria and Komintern.

Bogatyr was repaired and served on until broken up in the '20s.

Don

Old Crock

Oh, dear! The Vladimir Monomakh was already obsolescent when she was built in the early 1890s. It proved the Russians weren't in the game and needed foreign technology if she wanted a modern navy. She was built originally with a full ship rig (sails) to save coal - standard world practice until the late 1870s.

Monomakh shouldn't really have been included in Rhozdventsky's inventory, but for some reason, joined Enkvist's armoured cruiser squadron.

Enkvist left her to guard the supply ships when he fled the battle of Tsushima. Monomakh's captain instead decided to follow the rest of the fleet as they tried to make Vladivostok. Miraculously, she caught up during the final stages of the battle. Likely the Japanese considered her not worth sinking and so let her go.

After dusk on the 27th May 1905, the Japanese battle squadron drew off and let loose the destroyers to clean up the surviving Russian fleet. At that time, Orel was a smoking ruin, unable to steam, Suvorov had capsized, as had Alexander III, and Borodino blown up.

Admiral Nebogatov was trying to gather the remnants about him to continue the run to Vladivostok, but the surviving Russians were in a poor state.

Battleship Sissoi Veliki and cruiser Admiral Nakhimov were torpedoed and sunk with heavy loss of life. The next to go was poor old Monomakh, sunk by a single Japanese torpedo.

The Russian destroyers all got battered about, trying to protect the battleships. In the end, only Biedovy, Grozny and Bravy survived the night, Biedovy giving out late the next afternoon.

The next morning Navarin sailed into drifting mines laid by Japanese destroyers and sank. Orel, adrift, ran up white flags and the crew took to the boats. Nebogatov was left with Nikolai I, Seniavin, Ushakov and Apraxin.

All, but the Ushakov ran up white flags when they found their old fashioned guns hadn't the range to beat off Togo. Ushakov took a vote among the crew and refused to surrender - she went down colours flying after a two hour hammering.

The last to go was the old Dimitri Donskoi, an armoured cruiser of similar age to the Monomakh. Her captain beached her on Takeshima Island to prevent her being torpedoed and fought her there for three days. Eventually, with all ammunition gone, her crew walked ashore after setting charges.

Don

An Overview

This is Port Arthur Manchuria taken sometime at the end of the 19th century. It was the focus of the Russo-Japanese War, now rather an obscure conflict in history. The war came about as a result of colonial rivalry between Tsarist Russia and an emerging Japanese Empire.

By the close of the 19th century European powers and the US had carved up 'concessions' for themselves from the corpse of the decaying Chinese Empire. The prize was trade, or exploitation, and political influence and domination.

Korea had long been a Chinese province and a place of turmoil. Japan had also longed to include it in ts dream of empire. Korea was rich in natural resources, particularly timber, Japan was not - do the math.

Russia was also developing the resources of the Far East and longed to possess Korean forests south of the Yalu River. They were constructing the Eastern end of the Trans Siberian Railway and completing an arm into China, known as the Manchurian Railway.

In 1894 Japan fought a brief war with China and smashed the woeful Chinese fleet. The Japanese squadron was commanded by Admiral Togo Heichiro, perhaps one of the greatest admirals of the era.

Japan took possession of Port Arthur, at the head of the Laotung Peninsular that juts out into the Yellow Sea, A conference of European powers lead by Germany and Russia forced Japan to hand it back to China. Russia then did a quick deal with the Chinese and gained a lease to the port. Japan smelled a rat.

Tensions simmered until 1904, when Japanese torpedo boats launched a surprise attack against the Russian Pacific Squadron at Port Arthur. Under cover of this diversion, Japanese troops landed at Chemulpo, the port of Seoul, and quickly occupied most of Korea.

Port Arthur withstood a seige of 180 days during which the Russian Pacific Squadron was gradually destroyed. On land, the Japanese Army crossed the Yalu river and invaded Manchuria, shunting the Russian army out of the way in a series of battles.

Meanwhile, Russia decided to send most of the Baltic Fleet down to Port Arthur's relief. This involved a journey of 16,000 kilometres along which there were no Russian bases for which to coal the fleet. The Geman Kaiser stepped in and offered the services of the Hamburg Amerika Line in the form of 64 colliers. Thus the Russians were provisioned, sometimes at sea directly from the colliers - the first time this had ever been achieved.

It was a motley fleet the Russians sent - virtually all of the available ships of the Russian Navy that could fight. It was a wonder they made it to the Far East at all. Unfortunately, by the time they arrived, Port Arthur had fallen and there was nothing to relieve.

The result was the Battle of Tsushima, fought in the straits between Japan and Korea, and the Russian fleet under Admiral Rhozdventsky was crushed by the Japanese fleet, led by Admiral Togo. A small cruiser and two destroyers were the only vessels to make it to the Russian Fleet base at Vladivostok.

Three cruisers escaped to Manila to be interned by the Americans, but the rest of the fleet were either captured or sunk. Not since Trafalgar had a fleet been so comprehensively beaten.

On land the Japanese drove the Russian army from its positions at Mukden, completing its utter victory on land and sea.

Some dignity was restored to the Tsar by the peace. The Treaty of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, became a victory of sorts for the Russian Empire. Sergei Witte led the Russian delegation and he was a cunning old fox. He also had the sympathy of the American sponsors, who didn't want the Japanese to gain too much.

Japan gained Port Arthur and Laotung Peninsular and 'special status' in Korea. Manchuria was handed back to China with the right of Japanese companies to set up shop. Japan gained half of Sakhalin, a sparsely populated wasteland that nobody really wanted. Japan had demanded billions in reparations, but she received not a kopek from the Russian treasury.

Japan was furious she hadn't gained Korea nor received any gold. She was deeply in hock to British financiers and the economy spiraled into a deep recession for the next five years. Eventually, when no-one was looking, in 1910 she invaded Korea for good and remained there until expelled by the Soviet Army in July 1945.

In Russia, rebellions broke out in 1905 and units of the Black Sea Fleet, all she had left, mutinied. Father Gapon's hunger march was crushed brutally by semi-regular Cossack Cavalry and St Peter's Steps in Odessa ran red with the blood of workers protesting against their conditions.

The Russian Autocracy was running out of steam.

Don

Petropavlovsk

Admiral Makarov's flagship, Russia's most capable commander in 1904, blew up after striking a mine.

Don

History and the Future

I call this shot, 'The History and the Future,' because it depicts the Russian battleship Retvizan and, in the foreground, the USN's first submarine, USS Holland (SS1)

The Retvizan was built by Cramps of New York to a US design adapted to Russian requirements. The name is a transliteration of the Swedish 'Ratvisa', a two decker captured by the Russians in the 17th century.

The Retvizan spent her life in the Far East. She struck a mine early on during the siege of Port Arthur, repaired, and took the line during the Battle of the Yellow Sea. Retvizan shared the fate of the rest of the Port Arthur squadron, being repaired by the Japanese to serve in the Imperial Japanese Navy.

Retvizan was highly regarded in her day, considered one of the best of the Russian battleships, and one the Japanese chose not to hand back to the Russians when they became reluctant allies in 1914.

This photo was likely taken during the ceremony handing over the Retvizan to her new owners, the Imperial Russian Navy in 1903.

Don

And at Vladivostok

At Vladivostock we had the gallant cruiser squadron of Admiral Essen. Mention must be made of these brave ships to complete our Russian view of the Naval part of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904/5.

Forefront is the Gromoboi (Thunderer) one of the better of the Russian armoured cruisers. To the right is the Rossiya and they both appear to be wearing wartime colour schemes. Missing is the Rurik, named after one of the semi legendary Varangian founders of ancient Muscovy.

These three armoured cruisers caused a fair bit of panic in Japan, owing to their interception of Japanese supply ships bound for Korea. However, Vitgeft left them in the lurch following Yellow Sea.

They'd been ordered to meet the Russian squadron from Port Arthur as it made its attempt to reach Vladivostok - culminating in the Russian defeat at Yellow Sea.

Rear Admiral Kamimura caught them off Ulsan, Korea, and there ensued a running fight.

Rurik was the oldest and slowest and was soon in trouble. Eventually, Essen made the hard decision to leave Rurik to its fate, thereby preserving the rest of the squadron.

Rossiya was the worst knocked about of the two survivors and repairs were never finished until after the end of the war.

Don

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

Overexposed

Overexposed a little, but still plainly a Russian battleship of the Borodino class. In fact, it's Rhozdventsky's flagship Kniaz Suvarov. Possibly taken at Libau, modern Leipaja, from whence the Russian Second Pacific Squadron departed on October 1904. It's in the RSPS's colours of black hull, canary yellow funnels with black caps.

Japanese Admiral Togo concentrated fire on the Suvarov at the outset of the Battle of Tsushima. Seven heavy hits from the first salvo took out its steering gear, foremast and observation platform, and disabled most of the command crew with a hit on the base of the armoured conning tower. Rhozdventsky was heavily concussed and he and second officer Bogdanov and aide Verner Kursel took refuge in a starboard 6" turret just below the bridge. From there he was rescued by the Destroyer Biedovy while Bogdanov and Kursel remained to fight the ship to the last.

Heavily on fire, with no power and all the funnels down, Kursel fought off Japanese destroyers with a single 75mm QF gun until Suvarov rolled over from repeated torpedo hits about 7pm on the 27th May 1905. Reportedly, at least one Japanese destroyer was sunk during the final engagement.

Don