''Sivuch'' (Russian - Сивуч; " sealion") was a ''Sivuch''-class

gunboat A gunboat is a naval watercraft designed for the express purpose of carrying one or more guns to bombard coastal targets, as opposed to those military craft designed for naval warfare, or for ferrying troops or supplies. History Pre-ste ...

of 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 ...

. She entered service in 1884 and was powered by sail and steam. She took an active role in mapping the northern

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...

and nearby seas as well as periodically being stationed in Chinese and

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...

n ports and protecting

seal Seal may refer to any of the following: Common uses * Pinniped, a diverse group of semi-aquatic marine mammals, many of which are commonly called seals, particularly: ** Earless seal, or "true seal" ** Fur seal * Seal (emblem), a device to imp ...

rookeries, principally from American poachers. She also took part in the suppression of the Boxer Rebellion (1899–1901). ''Sivuch'' spent the winter of 1903-1904 iced in with the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

sloop-of-war and a

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

gunboat at

Niuzhuang Yingkou () is a coastal prefecture-level city of central southern Liaoning province, People's Republic of China, on the northeastern shore of Liaodong Bay. It is the third-smallest city in Liaoning with a total area of , and the ninth most populo ...

at the mouth of the Liao River on the

Bohai Sea The Bohai Sea () is a marginal sea approximately in area on the east coast of Mainland China. It is the northwestern and innermost extension of the Yellow Sea, to which it connects to the east via the Bohai Strait. It has a mean depth of ...

coast of

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 M ...

. The three vessels were there when 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 ...

broke out in February 1904. When the ice broke up in the spring of 1904, ''Espiegle'' and the U.S. Navy gunboat left, but ''Sivuch'' remained. Niuzhuang and the Liao River were in Chinese territory, so initially the Russians disarmed ''Sivuch'' in recognition of Chinese neutrality, but as their concern over the possibility of a Japanese landing in the vicinity of Niuzhuang grew, they occupied the Niuzhuang area and rearmed ''Sivuch''.Corbett, p. 273. ''Sivuch''′s presence at Niuzhuang and on the Liao River was a matter of concern to 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 surrend ...

during the early months of the war. As

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 ...

forces advanced on Niuzhuang and the Liao River in the summer of 1904, her presence became a concern for Japanese ground forces as well. Imperial Japanese Army cavalry occupied Niuzhuang on 25 July 1904, and ''Sivuch'' withdrew up the Liao River accompanied by a flotilla of four armed steam launches. On 1 August 1904, an Imperial Japanese Navy force consisting of the gunboats '' Atago'', '' Tsukushi'', and ''

Uji is a city on the southern outskirts of the city of Kyoto, in Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. Founded on March 1, 1951, Uji is between the two ancient capitals of Nara and Kyoto. The city sits on the Uji River, which has its source in Lake Biwa. ...

'' and a division of

torpedo boat A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval ship designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs were steam-powered craft dedicated to ramming enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes. Later evolutions launched variants of ...

s arrived at the mouth of the Liao River with orders to assist the Japanese Second Army in guarding the river and to destroy ''Sivuch'' and her accompanying launches if possible.Corbett, p. 363. With ''Sivuch'' trapped in the upper reaches of the river by superior Japanese forces, her crew

scuttled Scuttling is the deliberate sinking of a ship. Scuttling may be performed to dispose of an abandoned, old, or captured vessel; to prevent the vessel from becoming a navigation hazard; as an act of self-destruction to prevent the ship from being ...

her by blowing her up on 2 August 1904.Conway's 1860-1905, p. 200.

References

Bibliography

*Chesneau, Roger, and Eugene M. Kolesnik, eds., ''Conway′s All the World′s Fighting Ships 1860-1905'', New York: Mayflower Books, 1979, . *Corbett, Julian S., ''Maritime Operations in the Russo-Japanese War, Volume I'', Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1994, . * ''Mitteilungen aus dem Gebiete des Seewesens, Band 12.'' C. Gerold's Sohn in Wien, 1884. (Original from the University of Michigan, digitalized 20 November 2008.) * Guido von Frobel: ''Militär-Wochenblatt. Band 77'', E.S. Mittler & Sohn. Berlin 1892. * Oswald Flamm: ''Schiffbau: Zeitschrift für de Gesamte Industrie auf Schiffbautechnischen und Verwandten Gebieten. Band 6'', Berliner Union Verlagsgesellschaft 1904.

External links

Мореходная канонерская лодка "Сивуч"
(Russian) {{DEFAULTSORT:Sivuch Gunboats of the Imperial Russian Navy Russo-Japanese War naval ships of Russia Victorian-era gunboats 1884 ships Scuttled vessels Shipwrecks of the Russo-Japanese War Shipwrecks of China Shipwrecks in rivers Maritime incidents in 1904