Russian battleship Peresvet
 Peresvet at anchor, 1901
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 Russian Empire | |
| Name | Peresvet |
| Namesake | Alexander Peresvet |
| Builder | Baltic Yard, Saint Petersburg |
| Cost | 10,540,000 rubles |
| Laid down | 21 November 1895[Note 1] |
| Launched | 19 May 1898 |
| In service | August 1901 |
| Captured | January 1905 by the Japanese after the siege of Port Arthur |
| Fate | Scuttled , 7 December 1904 |
 Japan | |
| Name | Sagami |
| Namesake | Sagami Province |
| Acquired | Refloated, 29 June 1905 |
| In service | 20 July 1908 |
| Reclassified | As 1st-class coast defense ship |
| Fate | Sold to Russia, March 1916 |
| Russian Empire | |
| Acquired | Bought, March 1916 |
| Renamed | Peresvet |
| Reclassified | As armored cruiser, 5 April 1916 |
| Fate | Sunk by mine off Port Said, Egypt, 4 January 1917 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Peresvet-class pre-dreadnought battleship |
| Displacement | 13,810 long tons (14,032 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 men |
| Armament | As built:
As Sagami:
|
| Armor |
|
Peresvet (Russian: Пересвет) was the
Partially rearmed, Sagami was reclassified by the
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-raiding armored cruisers like the Russian ships Rossia and Rurik, and the Peresvet class was designed to support their armored cruisers. This role placed a premium on high speed and long range at the expense of heavy armament and armor.[1]
Peresvet was 434 feet 5 inches (132.4 m)
The ship's
Construction and career
Peresvet was named after
Battle of Port Arthur
After the Japanese victory in the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894–95, tensions had arisen between Russia and Japan over their ambitions to control both Manchuria and Korea. A further issue was the Russian failure to withdraw its troops from Manchuria in October 1903 as promised. Japan had begun negotiations to ease the situation 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 these 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 led the Japanese government to decide in December 1903 that war was now inevitable. The Pacific Squadron began mooring in the outer harbor at night as tensions with Japan increased, in order to react more quickly to any Japanese attempt to land troops in Korea.[9]
On the night of 8/9 February 1904, the IJN launched a
On 22 March, Peresvet joined several other battleships firing indirectly at Japanese ships bombarding Port Arthur's harbor. While training outside Port Arthur on 26 March, she accidentally collided with the battleship Sevastopol and sustained minor damage. Peresvet participated in the action of 13 April, when Tōgō successfully lured out a portion of the Pacific Squadron, including Vice Admiral Stepan Makarov's flagship, the battleship Petropavlovsk. When Makarov spotted the five Japanese battleships, he turned back for Port Arthur and Petropavlovsk struck a minefield laid by the Japanese the previous night. The ship sank in less than two minutes following the explosion of one of her magazines, and Makarov was one of the 677 killed. Emboldened by his success, Tōgō resumed long-range bombardment missions.[11] Two days later, Peresvet hit the armored cruiser Nisshin once as the latter ship was bombarding Port Arthur.[7]
Peresvet sailed with the rest of the Pacific Squadron on 23 June in an abortive attempt to reach Vladivostok. The new squadron commander, Rear Admiral Wilgelm Vitgeft, ordered the squadron to return to Port Arthur when it encountered the Japanese fleet shortly before sunset, as he did not wish to engage his numerically superior opponents in a night battle.[12] Peresvet bombarded Japanese positions besieging Port Arthur on 28 July.[13] Some of the ship's guns were removed during the summer to reinforce the defenses of the port. Peresvet lost a total of three 6-inch, two 75-millimeter, two 47-millimeter and four 37-millimeter guns.[14] She was hit on 9 August by two 4.7-inch (120 mm) shells fired by a battery with a narrow view of the harbor, but they caused only slight damage.[15]
Battle of the Yellow Sea
The Japanese bombardment, coupled with a direct order from
As the Japanese ships continued to pound the Tsesarevich, the battleship Retvizan, followed shortly afterward by Peresvet, boldly charged Tōgō's battleline in an attempt to divert the Japanese shellfire. The Japanese battleline immediately shifted fire to the oncoming ships, badly damaging both and forcing them to turn away.[17] Ukhtomsky signaled the other Russian ships to follow him back to Port Arthur, but the signal was hard to discern because the flags had to be hung from the bridge railings without the topmasts and were only gradually recognized.[15] Peresvet received a total of 39 hits of all sizes[17] that killed 13 men and wounded 69. Her forward 10-inch turret was knocked out and several hits near the waterline caused flooding; compartments of the double bottom had to be counterflooded to restore some of her stability. Repairs were not completed until late September.[15]
Siege of Port Arthur
Returning to Port Arthur on 11 August, the Russian squadron found the city still under siege by the
Japanese career
Peresvet was refloated by Japanese engineers on 29 June 1905 and steamed under her own power to Sasebo Naval Arsenal, where she arrived on 25 August. She was renamed Sagami,[18] after the eponymous ancient province.[19] She was classified as a first-class battleship on 25 August and arrived at Yokosuka Naval Arsenal on 16 September. Her repairs began on 30 September and continued until 20 July 1908, although she participated in the review of captured ships on 23 October 1905.[18]
To improve her stability, Sagami's forward
Return to Russia
In 1916 the Russian government decided to reinforce its naval strength outside the
Notes
- ^ All dates used in this article are New Style.
- ^ "Cwt" is the abbreviation for hundredweight, 12 cwt referring to the weight of the gun.
Footnotes
- ^ McLaughlin 2003, p. 108
- ^ McLaughlin 2003, pp. 107–108, 114
- ^ McLaughlin 2003, pp. 107–108, 112–114
- ^ McLaughlin 2003, pp. 107, 115
- ^ Campbell, p. 182
- ^ McLaughlin 2003, p. 112
- ^ a b c d McLaughlin 2008, p. 45
- ^ a b c McLaughlin 2003, p. 115
- ^ Westwood, pp. 15–21
- ^ Forczyk, pp. 41–43
- ^ Forczyk, pp. 45–46
- ^ Warner & Warner, pp. 305–306
- ^ McLaughlin 2008, pp. 45–46
- ^ McLaughlin 2003, pp. 115, 163
- ^ a b c d McLaughlin 2008, p. 46
- ^ Forczyk, p. 48
- ^ a b c McLaughlin 2003, p. 163
- ^ a b c Lengerer, p. 44
- ^ Silverstone, p. 336
- ^ Lengerer, pp. 43–44
- ^ McLaughlin 2008, pp. 47, 55
- ^ Preston, p. 207
References
- 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.
- Forczyk, Robert (2009). Russian Battleship vs Japanese Battleship, Yellow Sea 1904–05. Botley, UK: Osprey. ISBN 978-1-84603-330-8.
- Lengerer, Hans (September 2008). Ahlberg, Lars (ed.). "Sagami (ex-Peresvet) and Suwō (ex-Pobeda)". Contributions to the History of Imperial Japanese Warships (Paper V): 41–44.(subscription required) (contact the editor at [email protected] for subscription information)
- McLaughlin, Stephen (September 2008). Ahlberg, Lars (ed.). "Peresvet and Pobéda". Contributions to the History of Imperial Japanese Warships (Paper V): 45–49.(subscription required)
- McLaughlin, Stephen (2003). Russian & Soviet Battleships. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-481-4.
- ISBN 0-88365-300-1.
- Silverstone, Paul H. (1984). Directory of the World's Capital Ships. New York: Hippocrene Books. ISBN 0-88254-979-0.
- 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.
- Westwood, J. N. (1986). Russia Against Japan, 1904–1905: A New Look at the Russo-Japanese War. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. ISBN 0-88706-191-5.
Further reading
- Jentschura, Hansgeorg; Jung, Dieter & Mickel, Peter (1977). Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1869–1945. Annapolis, Maryland: United States Naval Institute. ISBN 0-87021-893-X.
