Osljabja
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| Ship data | ||
| Keel laying : | November 21, 1895 | |
| Launching ( ship christening ): | November 9, 1898 | |
| Commissioning: | June 15, 1903 | |
| Builder: | Admiralty Shipyard , St. Petersburg | |
| Crew: | 778 | |
| Technical specifications | ||
| Displacement : | 13,500 ts | |
| Length: | over everything: 132.40 m | |
| Width: | 21.80 m | |
| Draft : | 8 m | |
| Machinery: |
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| Drive: | 3 waves | |
| Top speed: | 18.33 kn | |
| Fuel supply: | 2,100 tons of coal | |
| Armament | ||
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| Armor: |
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| Whereabouts | ||
| Sunk in the sea battle at Tsushima in 1905 . | ||
The Osljabja ( Russian Ослябя ) was a battleship of the Imperial Russian Navy . It was named after the monk Rodion Osljabja , a participant in the battle on the Kulikowo Pole . The ship was built as the second ship of the Pereswet class from 1895, but did not enter service until 1903. With the Second Russian Pacific Squadron , the Osljabja reached East Asia in 1905 and was sunk in the sea battle at Tsushima .
Building history
The Osljabja was started as the second ship of the Peresvet class in 1895 at the same time as the type ship Peresvet . The shipyard was the New Admiralty Shipyard in Saint Petersburg. It was launched on October 17, 1898. The commissioning did not take place until June 15, 1903 after the third ship Pobeda, which started much later . There were significant problems and delays in completing and equipping the Osljabja . She hardly differed from the sister ships completed at the Baltic Shipyard , but had no developed Mars position on the second mast. She was the slowest ship in the class and had significantly exceeded the design weight.
First missions
When they were commissioned, the two sister ships of the Osljabja were already with the Russian Pacific Squadron. She was to follow this in July 1903 and left Kronstadt together with the armored cruiser Bajan, built in France, on August 7, 1903. However, the two ships separated already after crossing the Baltic Sea.
On August 22nd, the Osljabja hit the ground in the Strait of Gibraltar . In Algiers it was found that it had sustained considerable underwater damage and La Spezia was called for repairs . There were repairs to the boilers and the boiler water preparation. Repairs were carried out from October 12th through December. It was then decided to send the Osljabja together with some ships to the Far East. She met with this association under Rear Admiral Andrei Wirenius in Bizerta (today: Tunisia) in December , including the cruiser Aurora , which had also called at La Spezia, and the old armored cruiser Dmitri Donskoi and seven torpedo boats of the Buiny class as well as the small ones Torpedo boats No. 212, no. 213, no. 221 and No. 222 belonged. She took No. 212 and No. 213 in tow and marched with the unit via Piraeus through the eastern Mediterranean, the Suez Canal and the Red Sea to Djibouti , which was reached on January 31, 1904.
The British obstructed the unit in the Suez Canal so that it could not follow the armored cruisers Nisshin and Kasuga acquired by the Japanese in Italy . These had been on their way to Japan from Genoa since January 9, 1904 , with mixed Italian, British and Japanese teams. From Port Said they were accompanied by the British armored cruiser HMS King Alfred .
In Djibouti, the Osljabja team and Rear Admiral Wirenius learned of the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War . The high command decided not to continue the march to East Asia and not to start a cruiser war , for which Osljabja was actually designed. An intensive review of shipping traffic was feared that a conflict with Great Britain would be avoided.
So the order was issued to march back to the Baltic Sea. On March 11, Wirenius called at Souda Bay on Crete with the Osljabja and seven torpedo boats . In April the Osljabja arrived in the Baltic Sea in Libau and then went to Kronstadt to repair and improve ventilation.
The Osljabja , the two cruisers and the seven torpedo boats became part of the Second Pacific Squadron , which marched from the Baltic Sea to East Asia in the fall of 1904.
War effort
The Osljabja was assigned to the 2nd Russian Pacific Squadron , which left Libau for Asia on October 15. As the flagship of the 2nd Division with Sissoi Veliki , Navarin and Admiral Nachimow under the command of Admiral Dmitri Gustawowitsch von Fölkersahm , she was to move with the majority of the Baltic fleet to the Far East. The 2nd Pacific Squadron was there when the siege of Port Arthur trapped first Pacific Squadron shock. Since 1904, the ship's commanding officer was the first-rate captain Vladimir Iossifowitsch Ber . On October 2, the squadron separated in Tangiers , Fölkersahm switched to Sissoi Veliki and ran through the Mediterranean with part of the fleet ( Navarin , Swetlana , Shemchug , Almas and several auxiliary ships) while his flagship circled Africa with the main part of the fleet and called Dakar , Gabon , Baia dos Tigres (Angola), Lüderitz Bay and Nosy Be (Madagascar). The squadron stayed there for eleven weeks, was reunited and Fölkersahm returned to the Osljabja .
Admiral Fölkersahm fell ill in early April 1905 before he even reached the theater of war. On May 24th he died on board his flagship Osljabja . On May 9, the Russian fleet had left its last meeting place, Cam Ranh Bay in French Indochina , where on April 14, 1905 forty Russian ships under Admiral Zinovi Petrovich Roschestvensky had arrived to supply and take over coal . Squadron under Nikolai Ivanovich Nebogatov arrived.
On May 27, 1905, the Russian squadron reached the waters around the island of Tsushima . At around 1:20 p.m., the main Japanese forces approached. Since the speeds of the Russian detachments were not coordinated during the deployment, the Osljabja had to stop completely. At that time, the Russian ships opened fire on the Japanese naval forces. The Japanese answered the fire immediately and initially concentrated the bombardment on Admiral Roschestvensky's flagship Knjas Suvorov and the Osljabja . The Osljabja was unable to move again after the unsuccessful maneuver and immediately received several serious hits in the bow area. The ship finally capsized around 3:15 p.m. It was therefore unable to intervene in the battle to any significant extent. Russian torpedo boats saved around 250 castaways, but had to retreat under the strong Japanese attack. More than 500 men of the crew lost their lives in the sinking.
A detailed description of the sinking found in Alexei Novikov Silych-Pribois book Tsushima , the battle as a noncommissioned officer aboard the battleship Orel experienced.
literature
- Alexei Silytsch Novikow-Priboi: Tsushima. Berlin 1986, ISBN 3-327-00251-7 .