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 Battler

Dimitri Donskoi, below as a trailer sailer with modified ship rig, about 1898. Square rigged, she could hoist lateens on all three masts if needed. Above, her running rigging had been stripped, about 1900, and here she wears Rhozdventsky's livery.
The Donskoi's final battle was remarkable for such an old ship. She'd been built in 1888 and was by no means in the peak of fitness for the battle of Tsushima. Nevertheless, she made an heroic final stand - holding off Japanese torpedo boats - until late on the 29th, when her crew blew her up to avoid capture.

The name Dimitri Donskoi is still held in high esteem and the modern Russian navy named one of the surviving 'Akula' class, ballistic missile submarines in her honour. (ie, 'Typhoon class' by NATO nomenclature)

Don

Coastal Flatiron

General Admiral Ushakov, a coast defence ship forming part of Admiral Nebogatov's third Battleship Squadron at Tsushima. They were variously dubbed, 'auto sinkers' or 'flatirons,' because of their low freeboard, beamy raft bodies.

Nebogatov had three of them, and not a lot was expected of them. Commander Klado, who sold the idea of their inclusion to the Russian Admiralty, opined they would be useful for 'diffusing Japanese fire' - tough break for the poor crews who had to provide target practice for Togo.

In any case, their old fashioned 305mm guns hadn't the elevation to compete in range with Togo's battleships. They did their best, particularly early on, and Nebogatov was a determined customer with crews who, in the main, had never gone to sea before.

Ushakov, reputably, landed a hit on one of Kamimura's armoured cruisers, the Nisshin, and set it on fire.

They were small ships, even for their day, fractionally under 5000 tons, with shallow drafts for defending harbours and river mouths. Built in 1895, a triple expansion engine pushed them along at 15 knots - if they were lucky.

Ushakov became detached from the squadron during the night of the 27th May and refused to surrender when called on by Togo. She took three damaging hits, two below the waterline and one above, and, blazing from end to end, opened her seacocks and sank herself.

Her sisters, Seniavin and Apraxin, surrendered and were taken into service by the Japanese.


Note: All images in this blog were published before 1st January 1954 and so considered in the public domain according to Russian Copyright Law.

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