''Retvizan'' (russian: Ретвизан) was a
pre-dreadnought battleship built before the
Russo-Japanese War
The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...
of 1904–1905 for the
Imperial Russian Navy
The Imperial Russian Navy () operated as the navy of the Russian Tsardom and later the Russian Empire from 1696 to 1917. Formally established in 1696, it lasted until dissolved in the wake of the February Revolution of 1917. It developed from a ...
. She was built by the American
William Cramp & Sons because Russian shipyards were already at full capacity. Named after a Swedish
ship of the line
A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed during the Age of Sail from the 17th century to the mid-19th century. The ship of the line was designed for the naval tactic known as the line of battle, which depended on the two colu ...
that was captured during the
battle of Vyborg Bay in 1790 ( sv, Rättvisan, meaning both ''fairness'' and ''justice''), ''Retvizan'' was briefly assigned to the
Baltic Fleet
, image = Great emblem of the Baltic fleet.svg
, image_size = 150
, caption = Baltic Fleet Great ensign
, dates = 18 May 1703 – present
, country =
, allegiance = (1703–1721) (1721–1917) (1917–1922) (1922–1991)(1991–present)
...
, but was transferred to the
Far East
The ''Far East'' was a European term to refer to the geographical regions that includes East and Southeast Asia as well as the Russian Far East to a lesser extent. South Asia is sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons.
The ter ...
in 1902.
The ship was torpedoed during the Japanese surprise attack on
Port Arthur during the night of 8/9 February 1904 and
grounded in the harbour entrance when she attempted to take refuge inside, as her
draft had significantly deepened from the amount of water she had taken aboard after the torpedo hit. She was refloated and repaired in time to join the rest of the
1st Pacific Squadron when they attempted to reach
Vladivostok
Vladivostok ( rus, Владивосто́к, a=Владивосток.ogg, p=vɫədʲɪvɐˈstok) is the largest city and the administrative center of Primorsky Krai, Russia. The city is located around the Zolotoy Rog, Golden Horn Bay on the Sea ...
through the Japanese blockade on 10 August. The Japanese battle fleet engaged them again in the
Battle of the Yellow Sea, forcing most of the Russian ships to return to Port Arthur after their
squadron
Squadron may refer to:
* Squadron (army), a military unit of cavalry, tanks, or equivalent subdivided into troops or tank companies
* Squadron (aviation), a military unit that consists of three or four flights with a total of 12 to 24 aircraft, de ...
commander was killed and his
flagship
A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the fi ...
damaged. ''Retvizan'' was sunk by Japanese
howitzer
A howitzer () is a long- ranged weapon, falling between a cannon (also known as an artillery gun in the United States), which fires shells at flat trajectories, and a mortar, which fires at high angles of ascent and descent. Howitzers, like ot ...
s in December after the Japanese gained control of the heights around the harbour.
The Japanese
raised and repaired ''Retvizan'' after Port Arthur surrendered in January 1905. She was commissioned into the
Imperial Japanese Navy
The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrender ...
as in 1908. Based in
Sasebo
is a core city located in Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan. It is also the second largest city in Nagasaki Prefecture, after its capital, Nagasaki. On 1 June 2019, the city had an estimated population of 247,739 and a population density of 581 persons p ...
when Japan declared war on Germany in 1914, the ship was sent to reinforce the weak British squadron off
British Columbia
British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...
, but diverted to
Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...
after reports of a German
gunboat there. ''Hizen'' was unsuccessfully sent to search for other German ships after the Americans interned the gunboat in November. After
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
she supported the Japanese
intervention in the
Russian Civil War
, date = October Revolution, 7 November 1917 – Yakut revolt, 16 June 1923{{Efn, The main phase ended on 25 October 1922. Revolt against the Bolsheviks continued Basmachi movement, in Central Asia and Tungus Republic, the Far East th ...
and was disarmed in 1922 in accordance with the terms of the
Washington Naval Treaty. The ship was sunk as a gunnery target in 1924.
Background
Tsar Nicholas II had desired a
warm-water port on the Pacific since his accession to the throne in 1894. He achieved this ambition in March 1898 when Russia signed a 25-year lease for Port Arthur and the
Liaotung Peninsula with China. Japan had previously forced China to sign over the port and its surrounding territory as part of
the treaty that concluded the
First Sino-Japanese War
The First Sino-Japanese War (25 July 1894 – 17 April 1895) was a conflict between China and Japan primarily over influence in Korea. After more than six months of unbroken successes by Japanese land and naval forces and the loss of the po ...
of 1894–95, but the
Triple Intervention
The Tripartite Intervention or was a diplomatic intervention by Russia, Germany, and France on 23 April 1895 over the harsh terms of the Treaty of Shimonoseki imposed by Japan on the Qing dynasty of China that ended the First Sino-Japanese War. ...
of France, Russia, and Germany forced them to return the port in exchange for a sizeable increase in the indemnity paid by the Chinese. Japan invested much of the indemnity money in expanding its fleet, while Russia began a major building programme ("For the Needs of the Far East") to defend its newly acquired port.
Russian shipyards were already at maximum capacity so the Naval Ministry decided to order ships from abroad.
Charles Henry Cramp, the owner and son of the founder of
William Cramp & Sons in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
, had a relationship with the Imperial Russian Navy dating back to the late 1870s when his firm built the auxiliary cruisers , , and . Cramp also repaired several Russian warships visiting America in 1893, and he cultivated the contacts he made in the Russian Navy throughout the 1890s. As such, he was ideally positioned to offer to build a battleship for the Russians in his shipyard when they began to look abroad.
Design and description
![Retvizan Brassey's1915 corrected](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/Retvizan_Brassey%27s1915_corrected.png)
Preliminary design work on a battleship intended to equal the latest Japanese ships began in late 1897 and early 1898 by the Naval Technical Committee; the displacement was limited to for economic reasons. The basic design was that of the with its speed increased to using only two shafts and its steaming range increased to at . The Naval Ministry intended to conduct an international design competition with the ships being built abroad as the Baltic shipyards were at full capacity.
Cramp's contacts kept him informed of the Russians' intentions and he sailed to
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
to offer his services and design expertise in March 1898. Initially Cramp offered American designs to the Russians, including an updated version of as it was a relatively close match for the Russian specification, but the Russians preferred their own designs. Both sides compromised and the final design was based on the . The new ship had four fewer guns, but twice the coal capacity for improved range and a longer, slightly narrower hull for more speed. The contract was signed on 23 April 1898 for a price of $4,360,000. The
protected cruiser was ordered at the same time for $2,138,000.
General characteristics
''Retvizan'' was
long at the waterline
A vessel's length at the waterline (abbreviated to L.W.L)Note: originally Load Waterline Length is the length of a ship or boat at the level where it sits in the water (the ''waterline''). The LWL will be shorter than the length of the boat over ...
and long
overall. She had a
beam
Beam may refer to:
Streams of particles or energy
*Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy
**Laser beam
*Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles
**Charged particle beam, a spatially localized grou ...
of and a
draught of . The ship
displaced at normal load. Her hull was subdivided by fourteen transverse
watertight
Waterproofing is the process of making an object or structure waterproof or water-resistant so that it remains relatively unaffected by water or resisting the ingress of water under specified conditions. Such items may be used in wet environme ...
bulkheads; in addition a longitudinal
centreline bulkhead divided the engine room. ''Retvizan'' had a complete
double bottom
A double hull is a ship Hull (watercraft), hull design and construction method where the bottom and sides of the ship have two complete layers of watertight hull surface: one outer layer forming the normal hull of the ship, and a second inner hull ...
that extended up the side to the lower edge of the armoured
deck. She had a
metacentric height of . Her crew consisted of 23 officers and 722 enlisted men.
Propulsion
''Retvizan'' had a pair of three-cylinder vertical
triple-expansion steam engines with a total designed output of . The Russian Navy preferred to use
Belleville boiler
There have been a vast number of designs of steam boiler, particularly towards the end of the 19th century when the technology was evolving rapidly. A great many of these took the names of their originators or primary manufacturers, rather than a m ...
s, but Cramp pressed for
Niclausse boiler
A Field-tube boiler (also known as a bayonet tube)
is a form of water-tube boiler where the water tubes are single-ended. The tubes are closed at one end, and they contain a concentric inner tube. Flow is thus separated into the colder inner flow ...
s, not least because he was the American agent for them and was supported by the
General Admiral Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich. Twenty-four Niclausse-type boilers provided steam to the engines at a working pressure of . On
sea trial
A sea trial is the testing phase of a watercraft (including boats, ships, and submarines). It is also referred to as a " shakedown cruise" by many naval personnel. It is usually the last phase of construction and takes place on open water, and ...
s, the engines produced and a top speed of , just under the contract speed of 18 knots. Not surprisingly, Cramp claimed that she reached 18.01 knots to avoid contractual penalties. Following ''Retvizan''s arrival in Russia, the propeller pitch was adjusted and she exceeded 18 knots. She carried a normal load of of coal that gave her a range of at , and a maximum load of that increased her range to at the same speed.
Armament and fire control
''Retvizan''s armament was built by the
Obukhov Works in Saint Petersburg and shipped to America for installation. The main armament consisted of two pairs of
12-inch
The twelve-inch single (often written as 12-inch or 12″) is a type of vinyl ( polyvinyl chloride or PVC) gramophone record that has wider groove spacing and shorter playing time with a 'single' or a few related sound tracks on each surfac ...
40-
calibre
In guns, particularly firearms, caliber (or calibre; sometimes abbreviated as "cal") is the specified nominal internal diameter of the gun barrel bore – regardless of how or where the bore is measured and whether the finished bore match ...
guns mounted in French-style electrically operated centre-pivot twin
turrets fore and aft. These guns had a maximum elevation of +15° and could depress to −5°. The ship carried 77 rounds per gun and the guns could fire one
round every 80 to 90 seconds. They fired a shell at a
muzzle velocity
Muzzle velocity is the speed of a projectile (bullet, pellet, slug, ball/shots or shell) with respect to the muzzle at the moment it leaves the end of a gun's barrel (i.e. the muzzle). Firearm muzzle velocities range from approximately to i ...
of to a range of .
[McLaughlin 2000, p. 57]
Eight of the twelve
45-calibre 6-inch Canet Pattern 1892
quick-firing (QF) guns were mounted in
casemate
A casemate is a fortified gun emplacement or armored structure from which artillery, guns are fired, in a fortification, warship, or armoured fighting vehicle.Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary
When referring to Ancient history, antiquity, th ...
s on the main deck while four were mounted on the upper deck.
[ They fired shells that weighed with a muzzle velocity of . They had a maximum range of around and could fire three to five rounds per minute. The guns were provided with 200 rounds each.][
The ship carried many smaller guns to defend itself against attack by torpedo boats. The largest of these were twenty QF Canet Pattern 1892 guns. Fourteen of these were in embrasures on the main deck and six were mounted on the upper deck, between the six-inch casemates. Each gun was provided with 325 rounds. They fired an shell at a muzzle velocity of to a maximum range of . The rate of fire was between twelve and fifteen rounds per minute. A total of twenty-four ]Hotchkiss gun
The Hotchkiss gun can refer to different products of the Hotchkiss arms company starting in the late 19th century. It usually refers to the 1.65-inch (42 mm) light mountain gun; there were also a navy (47 mm) and a 3-inch (76&nbs ...
s were carried; four in each fighting top
The top on a traditional square rigged ship, is the platform at the upper end of each (lower) mast. This is not the masthead "crow's nest" of the popular imagination – above the mainmast (for example) is the main-topmast, main-topgallant-mast a ...
and eight at each end of the superstructure.[ They fired a shell at a muzzle velocity of . Six Hotchkiss guns were mounted in the ]bridge
A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...
wings. They fired a shell at a muzzle velocity of .
''Retvizan'' carried six torpedo tube
A torpedo tube is a cylindrical device for launching torpedoes.
There are two main types of torpedo tube: underwater tubes fitted to submarines and some surface ships, and deck-mounted units (also referred to as torpedo launchers) installed aboa ...
s. Four were above water, one each in the bow and stern and the aft pair of broadside
Broadside or broadsides may refer to:
Naval
* Broadside (naval), terminology for the side of a ship, the battery of cannon on one side of a warship, or their near simultaneous fire on naval warfare
Printing and literature
* Broadside (comic ...
tubes; the forward broadside tubes were underwater. A total of 17 torpedoes were carried. The ship was designed to carry two second-class torpedo boats each equipped with a single torpedo tube and a small quick-firing gun. The ship could also carry 45 mines.[McLaughlin 2000, p. 58]
The ship was fitted with Liuzhol stadiametric rangefinders that used the angle between two vertical points on an enemy ship, usually the waterline and the crow's nest
A crow's nest is a structure in the upper part of the main mast of a ship or a structure that is used as a lookout point.
On ships, this position ensured the widest field of view for lookouts to spot approaching hazards, other ships, or land by ...
, to estimate the range. The gunnery officer consulted his references to get the range and calculated the proper elevation and deflection
Deflection or deflexion may refer to:
Board games
* Deflection (chess), a tactic that forces an opposing chess piece to leave a square
* Khet (game), formerly ''Deflexion'', an Egyptian-themed chess-like game using lasers
Mechanics
* Deflection ...
required to hit the target. He transmitted his commands via a Geisler electro-mechanical fire-control transmission system to each gun or turret.[
]
Armour
The total weight of the Krupp armour
Krupp armour was a type of steel naval armour used in the construction of capital ships starting shortly before the end of the nineteenth century. It was developed by Germany's Krupp Arms Works in 1893 and quickly replaced Harvey armour as the pr ...
was or 25.8% of the displacement. The armour was mostly made in the United States, although a contract was let for deck armour from Russia on 6 January 1899. The main waterline
The waterline is the line where the hull of a ship meets the surface of the water. Specifically, it is also the name of a special marking, also known as an international load line, Plimsoll line and water line (positioned amidships), that indi ...
belt
Belt may refer to:
Apparel
* Belt (clothing), a leather or fabric band worn around the waist
* Championship belt, a type of trophy used primarily in combat sports
* Colored belts, such as a black belt or red belt, worn by martial arts practition ...
had a maximum thickness of and tapered to thick at its lower edge. It was long and high, of which about was above the waterline. The 6-inch upper belt was as long as the main belt and was high. Armour plates thick protected the ends of the ship to a height equal to that of the main and upper belts combined. Bulkheads thick provided transverse protection for the ship's vitals. The lower casemate armour was thick and armour screens thick separated each gun. The upper casemate armour consisted of five inches of armour plate with semicircular 1.5-inch thick gun shield
A U.S. Marine manning an M240 machine gun equipped with a gun shield
A gun shield is a flat (or sometimes curved) piece of armor designed to be mounted on a crew-served weapon such as a machine gun, automatic grenade launcher, or artillery piece ...
s enclosing the guns.[
The front and sides of the turrets were thick with 2-inch roofs. Their ]barbette
Barbettes are several types of gun emplacement in terrestrial fortifications or on naval ships.
In recent naval usage, a barbette is a protective circular armour support for a heavy gun turret. This evolved from earlier forms of gun protection ...
s were thick above the upper deck, but diminished to below it. The conning tower
A conning tower is a raised platform on a ship or submarine, often armored, from which an officer in charge can conn the vessel, controlling movements of the ship by giving orders to those responsible for the ship's engine, rudder, lines, and gro ...
and its communication tube had walls. The armour deck inside the central citadel was level with the top of the main belt and sloped down to meet the lower edge of the main belt. It was two inches thick on the flat and on the slope. Fore and aft of the citadel the deck thickened to to the ends of the ship and reinforced the ram bow.[
]
Construction and service
Named after the Swedish ship of the line
A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed during the Age of Sail from the 17th century to the mid-19th century. The ship of the line was designed for the naval tactic known as the line of battle, which depended on the two colu ...
''Rättvisan'' (Justice) which was captured by the Russians at the Battle of Viborg Bay in 1790,[ ''Retvizan'' was ordered on 2 May 1898 for delivery in thirty months. The detailed sketch design was forwarded at the end of 1898 to Saint Petersburg for approval and work commenced on the ship around that time, although she was not officially laid down until 29 July 1899 as yard number 300. Construction was delayed by a strike at the shipyard that began in August 1899 and continued until the strike collapsed in early 1900. Other delays were caused by differences between American and Russian shipbuilding techniques and the insistence of the Naval Ministry on approving any design changes even though a Russian commission had been sent to Philadelphia to supervise her construction.
Her armament arrived in Philadelphia missing electrical cables and with incomplete documentation, which required Cramp's electricians to piece things together themselves, for which Cramp charged an extra $50,000. She was launched on 23 October 1900 and ran her acceptance trials in October 1901. The trials were successful but revealed incomplete work that Cramp had to finish before he received his last payment. More work needed to be done on the armament, but it had to wait until she arrived in Russia. ''Retvizan'' was accepted on 23 March 1902, under the command of ]Captain
Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...
Eduard Schensnovich
Eduard Nikolayevich Schensnovich (russian: Эдуа́рд Никола́евич Щенсно́вич) ''Eduárd Nikoláevič Ščensnóvič'', occasionally transliterated as pl, Edward Nikołajewicz Szczęsnowicz) (January 6, 1852 – Januar ...
who commanded her throughout her Russian service.
''Retvizan'' sailed for the Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain.
The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...
on 13 May 1902 and stopped to re-coal in Cherbourg
Cherbourg (; , , ), nrf, Chèrbourg, ) is a former commune and subprefecture located at the northern end of the Cotentin peninsula in the northwestern French department of Manche. It was merged into the commune of Cherbourg-Octeville on 28 Feb ...
, France, en route. After leaving Cherbourg a boiler tube burst on 14 June, scalding six stokers, three of them fatally. After her arrival she was fitted with radio equipment and took part in a naval review in Reval staged for the state visit of Kaiser Wilhelm II
Wilhelm II (Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert; 27 January 18594 June 1941) was the last German Emperor (german: Kaiser) and List of monarchs of Prussia, King of Prussia, reigning from 15 June 1888 until Abdication of Wilhelm II, his abdication on 9 ...
of Germany in August. Later that month she tested an experimental system for coaling at sea; it was deemed successful, but her equipment was removed before she sailed for the Pacific. ''Retvizan'' departed on 13 November 1902 in company with the battleship and the cruiser
A cruiser is a type of warship. Modern cruisers are generally the largest ships in a fleet after aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships, and can usually perform several roles.
The term "cruiser", which has been in use for several hu ...
s , and ; she arrived at Port Arthur on 4 May 1903.[McLaughlin 2000, p. 61]
Battle of Port Arthur
The Pacific Squadron began mooring in the outer harbour at night as tensions with Japan increased, in order to react more quickly to any Japanese attempt to land troops in Korea.[ Both Russia and Japan had ambitions to control both ]Manchuria
Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer Manc ...
and Korea which naturally caused problems between them. A further issue was the Russian failure to withdraw its troops from Manchuria in October 1903. 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 prevarications designed to buy time to complete the Russian armament programs. The final straws were 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 caused the Japanese government to decide in December 1903 that war was now inevitable.
''Retvizan'' was on searchlight duty on the night of 8/9 February 1904 and attracted many torpedoes during the Japanese surprise attack that night. She was hit on the port side forward by a torpedo which blew a hole in her side. Five men in the torpedo compartment were killed and all electrical power was knocked out. The ship took on enough water to give her a list of 11°; this was reduced to 5° by counter-flooding. A sail was used to cover the hole and steam was raised so she could head for the inner harbour. The of water she had taken aboard had increased her draft enough to cause her to ground in the harbour entrance. She was not refloated until 8 March, but played an important role in the meantime in defeating a Japanese attempt to seal the entrance with block ship
A blockship is a ship deliberately sunk to prevent a river, channel, or canal from being used. It may either be sunk by a navy defending the waterway to prevent the ingress of attacking enemy forces, as in the case of at Portland Harbour in 1914 ...
s on 23–24 February. Repairs began immediately after she was towed into the harbour and were completed on 3 June although no docks were available and a cofferdam
A cofferdam is an enclosure built within a body of water to allow the enclosed area to be pumped out. This pumping creates a dry working environment so that the work can be carried out safely. Cofferdams are commonly used for construction or re ...
had to be built. She sailed with the rest of the Russian squadron on 23 June in an abortive attempt to reach Vladivostok
Vladivostok ( rus, Владивосто́к, a=Владивосток.ogg, p=vɫədʲɪvɐˈstok) is the largest city and the administrative center of Primorsky Krai, Russia. The city is located around the Zolotoy Rog, Golden Horn Bay on the Sea ...
. Vice Admiral Vitgeft returned to Port Arthur when he encountered the Japanese fleet, led by Admiral Tōgō Heihachirō
Marshal-Admiral Marquis , served as a '' gensui'' or admiral of the fleet in the Imperial Japanese Navy and became one of Japan's greatest naval heroes. He claimed descent from Samurai Shijo Kingo, and he was an integral part of preserving ...
, shortly before sunset as he did not wish to engage the numerically superior Japanese in a night battle.
During the summer, ''Retvizan'' landed two 6-inch, two 47 mm and six 37 mm guns to reinforce the landward defences of the port. She was hit on 9 August by seven shells fired by a battery with a narrow view of the harbour. Schensnovich was slightly wounded, a barge adjacent to the ship was sunk and she was holed below the waterline. The ship took on a 1° list from of water, which was corrected by counter-flooding. The holes were patched, although the water was not pumped out, and she sailed the next day with the fleet in another attempt to reach Vladivostok. This sortie resulted in the Battle of the Yellow Sea.[McLaughlin 2000, p. 63]
Battle of the Yellow Sea
The battle began as a long-range gunnery duel, during which the Russian ships hit the Japanese ships numerous times and forced Tōgō to temporarily disengage. Over two hours after the start of the battle, the Japanese fleet closed the range and started shooting again at 17:35. Forty minutes later a shell struck ''Retvizan''s forward turret near the gun ports, killing one turret crewman and wounding six others from the blast pressure. The impact knocked one 12-inch shell off its loading tray, crushing two other sailors and also setting fire to the canvas covering the gun ports. Fearing that the fire might spread, the surviving crewmen flooded the turret, knocking out its electrical system. The crew was able to get the turret partially functional within an hour.
At approximately 18:40 hours on 10 August, during the final phase of the battle, the Russian flagship
A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the fi ...
was hit by 12-inch shells which killed Admiral Vitgeft and his immediate staff. The Russian battleship was turning out of control, disrupting the Russian formation. As the Japanese pre-dreadnoughts continued to pound the ''Tsesarevich'' with their 12-inch fire, ''Retvizan''s captain boldly charged Tōgō's battleline in an attempt to divert the Japanese shellfire onto his ship. The Japanese battle line immediately shifted their fire onto the oncoming ''Retvizan'', firing so many shells that they were unable to adjust their fire due to the number of shell splashes engulfing the Russian battleship. As the Russian squadron was now disorganized, Tōgō's battleships were running low on ammunition and some ships' main guns were disabled, he turned the battle over to his cruisers and destroyer
In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, manoeuvrable, long-endurance warship intended to escort
larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against powerful short range attackers. They were originally developed in ...
s. ''Retvizan'' had effectively ended the duel between the opposing fleets, and had saved ''Tsesarevich'' from destruction.[ During the battle, ''Retvizan'' received 18 hits from large-calibre shells, and suffered 6 sailors killed and another 42 men wounded, including Schensnovich.
She was subsequently besieged in Port Arthur and sunk in shallow water by thirteen ]howitzer
A howitzer () is a long- ranged weapon, falling between a cannon (also known as an artillery gun in the United States), which fires shells at flat trajectories, and a mortar, which fires at high angles of ascent and descent. Howitzers, like ot ...
shells on 6 December 1904 after the Imperial Japanese Army
The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...
gained control of the heights surrounding the harbour. Schensnovich was the senior surviving naval officer and signed the capitulation of Port Arthur for the Imperial Russian Navy on 2 January 1905.[McLaughlin 2000, p. 64]
Japanese service
''Retvizan'' was raised by the Japanese on 22 September 1905 and renamed ''Hizen'',[ after Hizen Province, two days later. The ship departed Port Arthur on 19 November and arrived at ]Sasebo
is a core city located in Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan. It is also the second largest city in Nagasaki Prefecture, after its capital, Nagasaki. On 1 June 2019, the city had an estimated population of 247,739 and a population density of 581 persons p ...
on 27 November where her repairs lasted until November 1908. Her fighting tops were removed, her light weapons were replaced by Japanese ones, and her boilers were replaced by Miyabara boilers. The barrels and breeches of her main guns were replaced by Japanese-built examples and all four above-water torpedo tubes were removed. In Japanese service her crew numbered 796 officers and crewmen.[Lengerer, pp. 57–59]
''Hizen'' was assigned to the 1st Fleet on 1 December 1909[Lengerer, p. 59] and was refitted in 1913.[ She was dispatched to ]Esquimalt
The Township of Esquimalt is a municipality at the southern tip of Vancouver Island, in British Columbia, Canada. It is bordered to the east by the provincial capital, Victoria, British Columbia, Victoria, to the south by the Strait of Juan de ...
, British Columbia, in October 1914 to reinforce the weak British squadron there, then diverted to Honolulu
Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...
, Hawaii, before the end of the month to watch the German gunboat after that ship arrived on 15 October. ''Hizen'' watched the port in company with the armoured cruiser
The armored cruiser was a type of warship of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was designed like other types of cruisers to operate as a long-range, independent warship, capable of defeating any ship apart from a battleship and fast eno ...
until ''Geier'' was interned on 8 November by the Americans. Afterwards she and ''Asama'' headed south in search of the German East Asia Squadron
The German East Asia Squadron (german: Kreuzergeschwader / Ostasiengeschwader) was an Imperial German Navy cruiser squadron which operated mainly in the Pacific Ocean between the mid-1890s until 1914, when it was destroyed at the Battle of the Fa ...
, but never located it;[ the ship was recalled home in February 1915.][ On 13 December 1915, ''Hizen'' was assigned to the 5th Division of the 3rd Fleet until relieved on 10 May 1917.][ The ship served in the Indian Ocean at some point during the war where she probably escorted troop convoys.][McLaughlin 2008, p. 63]
''Hizen'' supported the Japanese intervention in the Russian Civil War in 1918 and was often stationed in Vladivostok as a guardship.[ On 1 September 1921 she was reclassified as a 1st class ]coast defence ship
Coastal defence ships (sometimes called coastal battleships or coast defence ships) were warships built for the purpose of coastal defence, mostly during the period from 1860 to 1920. They were small, often cruiser-sized warships that sacrif ...
and disarmed at Sasebo in April 1922 in accordance with the Washington Naval Treaty. She was stricken from the official naval roll on 20 September 1923 and sunk as a target ship
A target ship is a vessel — typically an obsolete or captured warship — used as a seaborne target for naval gunnery practice or for weapons testing. Targets may be used with the intention of testing effectiveness of specific types of ammuniti ...
in the Bungo Channel
The is a strait separating the Japanese islands of Kyushu and Shikoku. It connects the Pacific Ocean and the Seto Inland Sea on the western end of Shikoku. The narrowest part of this channel is the Hōyo Strait.
In the English-speaking world, t ...
[ on 25 July 1924.][
]
Notes
Footnotes
References
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* (contact the editor at lars.ahlberg@halmstad.mail.postnet.se for subscription information)
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External links
Article
''Cramp's Shipyard'', a promotional book by the shipyard
{{DEFAULTSORT:Retvizan
Battleships of the Imperial Russian Navy
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Ships built by William Cramp & Sons
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Maritime incidents in 1924
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