Russian battleship Oslyabya
French Tunisia , 1903
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 Russian Empire | |
| Name | Oslyabya |
| Namesake | Rodion Oslyabya |
| Builder | New Admiralty Shipyard, Saint Petersburg |
| Cost | 11,340,000 rubles |
| Laid down | 21 November 1895[Note 1] |
| Launched | 8 November 1898 |
| In service | 1903 |
| Fate | Sunk at the Battle of Tsushima, 27 May 1905 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Peresvet-class pre-dreadnought battleship |
| Displacement | 14,408 long tons (14,639 t) |
| Length | 434 ft 5 in (132.4 m) |
| Beam | 71 ft 6 in (21.8 m) |
| Draft | 26 ft 3 in (8.0 m) |
| Installed power |
|
| Propulsion | 3 shafts, 3 triple-expansion steam engines |
| Speed | 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph) |
| Range | 6,200 nmi (11,500 km; 7,100 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
| Complement | 27 officers, 744 enlisted men |
| Armament |
|
| Armor | |
Oslyabya (
Dmitry von Fölkersam. Oslyabya was sunk on 27 May 1905 at the Battle of Tsushima
, and was the first all-steel battleship to be sunk by naval gunfire alone. Sources differ on the exact number of casualties, but over half her crew went down with the ship.
Design and description
The design of the Peresvet class was inspired by the British second-class battleships of the Centurion class. The British ships were intended to defeat commerce-raiders like the Russian armored cruisers Rossia and Rurik; the Peresvet-class ships were designed to support the Russian cruisers. This role placed a premium on high speed and long range at the expense of heavy armament and armor.[1]
Oslyabya had a length of 434 feet 5 inches (132.4 m)
forced draft, and designed to reach a top speed of 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph). Oslyabya, however, reached a top speed of 18.33 knots (33.95 km/h; 21.09 mph) from 15,051 indicated horsepower (11,224 kW) during her sea trials in September 1902. She carried a maximum of 2,060 long tons (2,090 t) of coal which allowed her to steam for 6,200 nautical miles (11,500 km; 7,100 mi) at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).[2]
The ship's
75-millimeter (3.0 in) QF guns, twenty 47-millimeter (1.9 in) Hotchkiss guns and eight 37-millimeter (1.5 in) guns. She was also armed with five 15-inch (381 mm) torpedo tubes, three above water and two submerged. The ship carried 45 mines to be used to protect her anchorage.[3]
Oslyabya's
Krupp cemented armor of her gun turrets had a maximum thickness of nine inches and her deck ranged from two to three inches (51 to 76 mm) thick.[4]
Construction and career
Oslyabya, named for
gun sights, a new ventilation system, and Telefunken radio equipment.[8]
Russo-Japanese War
The Russian strategy since 1897 had been for ships from the Baltic Fleet to be ordered to the Far East if war with Japan broke out, while the First Pacific Squadron in Port Arthur would avoid a general fleet battle until reinforcements arrived. On 15 October 1904, Oslyabya set sail for Port Arthur from
Camranh Bay, French Indochina, on 16 March and reached it almost a month later to await the obsolete ships of the Third Pacific Squadron, commanded by Rear Admiral Nikolai Nebogatov. These reached Camranh Bay on 9 May and the combined force sailed for Vladivostok on 14 May.[12]
En route, Rozhestvensky reorganized his ships into three tactical
Captain 1st Rank Vladimir Ber became the commander of the Second Division, while Nebogatov had no idea that he was now the squadron's de facto second-in-command.[13]
While figures are not available for Oslyabya, one Russian account after the battle said that the Borodinos were approximately 1,700 long tons (1,700 t) overweight as they were overloaded with coal and other supplies that were stored high in the ships, reducing their stability. Oslyabya's main armor belt was fully submerged with a full load, much less any additional coal and supplies, and thus the four-inch-thick upper armor was the only available protection for the ship's waterline.[14]
Battle of Tsushima
The Russians were spotted early on the morning of 27 May by Japanese ships as they entered the
listing to port. Flooding of her starboard forward magazine was ordered in an attempt to counteract the list, but it just added more weight forward and destroyed the ship's stability. Oslyabya's list increased to 12 degrees at 14:20, flooding many of the lower turrets. Her funnels touched the water around 15:10 and Ber ordered "abandon ship".[7][16][17] The ship sank a few minutes later with her starboard propeller still turning, first all-steel battleship to be sunk by naval gunfire alone,[18] taking Ber and 470 of her crew with her.[19][Note 2]
Notes
- ^ All dates used in this article are New Style.
- ^ Neither Forczyk nor McLaughlin provide figures for the number of survivors, while Campbell says that 385 survivors were rescued by Russian destroyers and 514 men went down with the ship. Krestyaninov gives 376 men rescued, but 5 of those were later killed aboard the destroyer Bravii and another 22 aboard the armored cruiser Dmitrii Donskoi.[18][7][17][20]
Footnotes
- ^ McLaughlin, p. 108
- ^ McLaughlin, pp. 107–108, 114
- ^ McLaughlin, pp. 107–108, 112–113
- ^ McLaughlin, pp. 107–108, 113–114
- ^ Silverstone, p. 380
- ^ McLaughlin, pp. 107, 110, 112, 114–115
- ^ a b c Krestyaninov, Movies and death "Oslabya"
- ^ McLaughlin, p. 166
- ^ Forczyk, p. 9
- ^ Schrad, p. 163
- ^ Pleshakov, p. 92
- ^ McLaughlin, p. 167
- ^ Forczyk, pp. 25, 56
- ^ McLaughlin, pp. 114, 167
- ^ Forczyk, pp. 56, 61
- ^ Forczyk, pp. 61–62
- ^ a b Campbell, pp. 128–131
- ^ a b Forczyk, p. 62
- ^ McLaughlin, p. 168
- ^ Taras, p. 28
References
- Campbell, N. J. M. (1978). ISBN 0-87021-976-6.
- Forczyk, Robert (2009). Russian Battleship vs Japanese Battleship, Yellow Sea 1904–05. Oxford, UK: Osprey. ISBN 978-1-84603-330-8.
- Krestyaninov, Vasiliy (1998). "Броненосцы типа "Пересвет" (Battleships of the "Peresvet" class)". Морская коллекция (in Russian) (1). Khimki, Russia: Kollektsiia. OCLC 436873057.
- McLaughlin, Stephen (2003). Russian & Soviet Battleships. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-481-4.
- Pleshakov, Constatine (2002). The Tsar's Last Armada: The Epic Voyage to the Battle of Tsushima. New York: Basic Books. ISBN 0-465-05791-8.
- Schrad, Mark Lawrence (2014). Vodka Politics: Alcohol, Autocracy, and the Secret History of the Russian State. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-975559-2.
- Silverstone, Paul H. (1984). Directory of the World's Capital Ships. New York: Hippocrene Books. ISBN 0-88254-979-0.
- Taras, Alexander (2000). Корабли Российского императорского флота 1892–1917 гг [Ships of the Imperial Russian Navy 1892–1917]. Library of Military History (in Russian). Minsk, Russia: Kharvest. ISBN 978-985-433-888-0.
Further reading
- Campbell, N. J. M. (1979). "Russia". In Chesneau, Roger & Kolesnik, Eugene M. (eds.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. New York: Mayflower Books. pp. 170–217. ISBN 0-8317-0302-4.
- Warner, Denis & Warner, Peggy (2002). The Tide at Sunrise: A History of the Russo-Japanese War, 1904–1905 (2nd ed.). London: Frank Cass. ISBN 0-7146-5256-3.
External links
Media related to Oslyabya at Wikimedia Commons- Russian-language photogallery of Oslyabya
Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in 1903 | |
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| Other incidents |
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