Koreez

Builder:	Bergsund Mekaniksa, Stockholm
Keel laying:	December 1885
Launch:	August 7, 1886
Commissioning:	1890
Period of service:	1887-1904
Displacement:	1334 t
Length:	66.3 m
Width:	10.7 m
Draft:	3.5 m
Drive:	Sails, a lying composite steam engine 1 screw
Speed:	13.5 kn
Range:	2850 nm at 8 kn
Crew:	12 officers 162 men and officers
Armament:	Guns: 2 × 203 mm L / 35 cannon M1885 1 × 152 mm L / 35 cannon M1877 4 × 107 mm 2 × 47 mm 4 × 37 mm 1 × 63.5 mm Torpedo tubes 1 × 381 mm

Korejez ( Russian Кореец ) was the name of a sea-going gunboat of the Imperial Russian Navy. Commissioned in 1887, it was blown up by the crew in 1904 after the battle in front of Tschemulpo. The Korejez was the type ship of a class of eight boats. The name of the boat corresponds to the Russian name for a resident of Korea.

The Korejez was laid down at Bergsund Mekaniksa in Stockholm in December 1885 . The launch took place on August 7, 1886. The boat was put into service in 1887 after it had been equipped.

Korejez after the bombardment of the Taku forts

From 1895 to 1900 the Korejez served in the Far East, where it was relocated from the Baltic Sea. She provided station service in Japanese, Korean and Chinese ports. In 1900 she took part in the suppression of the Boxer Uprising in China with a multinational squadron . On May 16, the boat left Port Arthur with other ships under the leadership of Admiral Weselago and entered the fighting on May 18. On June 4, the Korejez fired at the Taku forts with other boats (the British Algerine , the German Iltis , the Russian Bobr , the French Lion , and the Russian Giljak ) . The Korejez received six hits, nine men of the crew were killed and 20 wounded. The boat was awarded the silver St. George's Horn for bravery in battle. A Chinese Haj Jing-class destroyer captured at Taku was named in Lieutenant Burakov after the artillery officer EN Burakov who died in combat .

When the Russo-Japanese War broke out, the boat was together with the 1st class cruiser Varyag in the Korean port of Incheon . On February 8, 1904, the boat ran out with an urgent message to Port Arthur, although a Japanese squadron led by Rear Admiral Uryū Sotokichi blocked the port. As the Korejez squadron blocked the route, the commander of the boat ordered the return to the Korean port. At that moment Japanese mine-layers fired three torpedoes at the Korejez . Two torpedoes passed close to the boat, the third sank in the immediate vicinity of the boat. Although the commander of the boat had ordered the fire to cease after reaching the roadstead of the neutral Korean port, the operator of one of the 37 mm cannons fired two more shells at the enemy.

Explosion of the Korejets

On February 9, 1904, the Varyag and the Korejez tried to break the Japanese blockade. The fight started at 11:45 a.m. and lasted about an hour. Since the battle was fought at great distances, none of the 52 shells fired by the Korejez reached their target. Most of the Japanese fire was too far away and did not damage the boat. Only the splinters of Japanese shrapnel broke through the wall of a department. There were no casualties on board the Korejez .

So that the boat did not fall undamaged into enemy hands, it was blown up by the crew at 15:55 after the end of the battle. The crew boarded the French cruiser Pascale and returned to Russia via Saigon . In Saint Petersburg, all of the boat's officers were awarded the Order of St. George, 4th Class, and the crew with the medal of honor of this order. In honor of the courage of the crew, the medal for the fight of the “Varyag” and the “Korejez” in front of Chemulpo (За бой “Варяга” и “Корейца” при Чемульпо) was donated to all members of the crew.

In 1905 the boat was lifted and demolished by the Japanese.

Web links

Commons : Korejez- class gunboats  - collection of images, videos, and audio files

• Photos (Russian)
• Photos, drawings and technical data

literature

• Р.М. Мельников: Полуброненосный фрегат "Память Азова" 1885–1925 гг.

Footnotes

1. ↑ Р. М. Мельников: Полуброненосный фрегат "Память Азова" 1885–1925 гг.
2. ↑ Sloop of the Phoenix class (built 1895, 1050 ts)
3. ↑ image of the Lion  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
4. ↑ Image of Giljak  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
5. ↑ В. Ю. Грибовский: Российский флот Тихого океана, 1898–1905: История создания и гибели , Москва: Военная книн. 5-га, 200463-01.-52863 ISBN