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= Russian battleship Petropavlovsk (1894) =
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Introduction
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'Petropavlovsk' () was the lead ship of her class of three
pre-dreadnought battleships built for the Imperial Russian Navy during
the last decade of the 19th century. The ship was sent to the Far East
almost immediately after entering service in 1899, where she
participated in the suppression of the Boxer Rebellion the next year
and served as the flagship of the First Pacific Squadron.
At the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905,
'Petropavlovsk' took part in the Battle of Port Arthur, where she was
lightly damaged by Japanese shells and failed to score any hits in
return. On 13 April 1904, the ship sank after striking one or more
mines near Port Arthur, in northeast China. Casualties numbered 27
officers and 652 enlisted men, including Vice Admiral Stepan Makarov,
the commander of the squadron, and the war artist Vasily Vereshchagin.
The arrival of the competent and aggressive Makarov after the Battle
of Port Arthur had boosted Russian morale, which plummeted after his
death.
Design and description
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The design of the 'Petropavlovsk'-class ships was derived from the
battleship , but was greatly enlarged to accommodate an armament of
four 12 in and eight 8 in guns. While under construction, their
armament was revised to consist of more powerful, higher-velocity,
12-inch guns; the 8-inch guns were replaced by a dozen 6 in guns. The
ships were 376 ft long overall, with a beam of 70 ft and a draft of 28
ft. Designed to displace 10960 LT, 'Petropavlovsk' was almost 400 LT
overweight, displacing 11354 LT when completed. The ship was powered
by two vertical triple-expansion steam engines, built by the British
firm Hawthorn Leslie, each driving one shaft, using steam generated by
14 cylindrical boilers. The engines were rated at 10600 ihp and
designed to reach a top speed of 16 kn, but 'Petropavlovsk' reached a
speed of 16.38 kn from 11255 ihp during her sea trials. She carried
enough coal to give her a range of 3750 lk=in at a speed of 10 kn. Her
crew numbered 725 men when serving as a flagship.
The four 12-inch guns of the main battery were mounted in two twin-gun
turrets, one forward and one aft of the superstructure. They were
designed to fire one round every 90 seconds, but the actual rate of
fire was half as fast. Their secondary armament consisted of twelve
Canet six-inch quick-firing (QF) guns. Eight of these were mounted in
four twin-gun wing turrets and the remaining guns were positioned in
unprotected embrasures on the sides of the hull amidships. Smaller
guns were carried for defense against torpedo boats, including a dozen
QF 47 mm Hotchkiss guns and twenty-eight Maxim QF 37 mm guns. They
were also armed with six torpedo tubes, four 15 in tubes above water
and two 18 in submerged tubes, all mounted on the broadside. The ships
carried 50 mines to be used to protect their anchorage.
Russian manufacturers of the nickel-steel armor used by
'Petropavlovsk' were unable to fulfill the existing demand, so the
ship's armor was ordered from Bethlehem Steel in America. Her
waterline armor belt was 12 - thick. The main gun turrets had a
maximum thickness of 10 in and her deck armor ranged from 2 - in
thickness.
Construction and career
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'Petropavlovsk' was named for the successful Russian defense during
the 1854 Siege of Petropavlovsk. Delayed by shortages of skilled
workmen, design changes, and late delivery of the main armament, the
ship was constructed over a period of six years. She was laid down on
19 May 1892, together with her two sister ships, at the Galernii
Island Shipyard and launched on 9 November 1894. Her trials lasted
from 1898 to 1899, after which she was ordered to proceed to the Far
East. 'Petropavlovsk' departed Kronstadt on 17 October and arrived at
Port Arthur on 10 May 1900, becoming the flagship of Vice Admiral
Nikolai Skrydlov and the First Pacific Squadron. In mid-1900, the ship
helped suppress the Boxer Rebellion in China. In February 1902, Vice
Admiral Oskar Stark assumed command of the squadron from Skrydlov and
raised his flag on 'Petropavlovsk'. That same year, a radio was
installed aboard the ship.
Battle of Port Arthur
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After the Japanese victory in the First Sino-Japanese War of
1894-1895, both Russia and Japan had ambitions to control Manchuria
and Korea, resulting in tensions between the two nations. Japan had
begun negotiations to reduce the tensions in 1901, but the Russian
government was slow and uncertain in its replies because it had not
yet decided exactly how to resolve the problems. Japan interpreted
this as deliberate prevarication designed to buy time to complete the
Russian armament programs. The situation was worsened by Russia's
failure to withdraw its troops from Manchuria in October 1903 as
promised. The final straws were the news of Russian timber concessions
in northern Korea and the Russian refusal to acknowledge Japanese
interests in Manchuria while continuing to place conditions on
Japanese activities in Korea. These actions caused the Japanese
government to decide in December 1903 that war was inevitable. As
tensions with Japan increased, the Pacific Squadron began mooring in
the outer harbor at night in order to react more quickly to any
Japanese attempt to land troops in Korea.
On the night of 8/9 February 1904, the Imperial Japanese Navy launched
a surprise attack on the Russian fleet at Port Arthur. 'Petropavlovsk'
was not hit and sortied the following morning when the Japanese
Combined Fleet, commanded by Vice Admiral Tōgō Heihachirō, attacked.
Tōgō had expected the night attack by his ships to be much more
successful than it was, and anticipated that the Russians would be
badly disorganized and weakened, but they had recovered from their
surprise and were ready for his attack. The Japanese ships were
spotted by the protected cruiser , which was patrolling offshore and
alerted the Russian defenses. Tōgō chose to attack the Russian coastal
defenses with his main armament and engage the ships with his
secondary guns. Splitting his fire proved to be a poor decision as the
Japanese 8- and 6-inch guns inflicted little damage on the Russian
ships, which concentrated all their fire on the Japanese ships with
some effect. 'Petropavlovsk' was lightly damaged in the engagement by
one 6-inch and two 12-inch shells, killing two and wounding five. In
return she fired twenty 12-inch and sixty-eight 6-inch shells at the
Japanese battleships, but none hit. Displeased by the poor performance
of the First Pacific Squadron, the Naval Ministry replaced Stark with
the dynamic and aggressive Vice Admiral Stepan Makarov, regarded as
the navy's most competent admiral, on 7 March. As a result of the
damage incurred in the attack by the more heavily armored and the
subsequent lengthy repair time, Makarov was compelled to retain
'Petropavlovsk' as his flagship, against his better judgement.
Sinking
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Having failed to blockade or bottle up the Russian squadron at Port
Arthur by sinking blockships in the harbor's channel, Tōgō formulated
a new plan. Ships were to mine the entrance to the harbor and then
lure the Russians into the minefield in the hopes of sinking a number
of Russian warships. Covered by four detachments of torpedo boat
destroyers, the minelayer 'Koru-Maru' began to lay a minefield near
the entrance to Port Arthur on the night of 31 March. The Japanese
were observed by Makarov, who believed that they were Russian
destroyers which he had ordered to patrol that area.
Early on the morning of 13 April, the Russian destroyer 'Strashnii'
fell in with four Japanese destroyers in the darkness while on patrol.
Once her captain realized his mistake, the Russian ship attempted to
escape but failed after a Japanese shell struck one of her torpedoes
and caused it to detonate. By this time the armored cruiser had
sortied to provide support, but it was only able to rescue five
survivors before a Japanese squadron of protected cruisers attacked.
Escorted by three protected cruisers, Makarov led 'Petropavlovsk' and
her sister out to support 'Bayan', while ordering the rest of the
First Pacific Squadron to follow as soon as they could. In the
meantime, the Japanese had reported the Russian sortie to Tōgō, who
arrived with all six Japanese battleships. Heavily outnumbered,
Makarov ordered his ships to retreat and to join the rest of the
squadron that was just exiting the harbor. After the squadron had
united and turned back towards the enemy, about 2 nmi from the shore,
'Petropavlovsk' struck one or more mines at 09:42 and sank almost
instantly, taking with her 27 officers and 652 enlisted men, including
Makarov and the war artist Vasily Vereshchagin. Seven officers and 73
men were rescued.
Makarov's arrival had boosted the morale of the squadron, and his
death dispirited the sailors and their officers. His replacement, Rear
Admiral Wilgelm Vitgeft, was a career staff officer unsuited to lead a
navy at war. He did not consider himself a great leader, and his
passivity and lack of charisma did nothing to restore the squadron's
morale. A monument was constructed in Saint Petersburg in 1913 to
honor Makarov after Japanese divers identified his remains inside the
wreck of 'Petropavlovsk' and gave him a burial at sea.
Further reading
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* Nicolai Ivanovich Kravchenko. The Last Days and the Death of V. V.
Vereshchagin: Memoirs of N.I. Kravchenko. - SPb. : Typography of.
E. Manasevich, [B.G.] (1904).
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Original Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_battleship_Petropavlovsk_(1894)
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