Petropavlovsk (ship, 1894)
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|---|---|
 Ship of the line Petropavlovsk |
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| Overview | |
| Type | Ship of the line |
| Shipyard | |
| Keel laying | May 1892 |
| Launch | November 9, 1894 |
| Namesake | Petropavlovsk city Battle in the Crimean War |
| period of service |
1899-1904 |
| Whereabouts | on April 13, 1904 exploded after being hit by a mine off Port Arthur |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
Construction: 10,960 ts |
| length |
KWL : 112.47 m |
| width |
21.34 m |
| Draft |
7.77 m |
| crew |
632 men |
| drive |
2 standing triple expansion steam engines with 11,250 PSi |
| speed |
16.5 kn |
| Armament |
|
| stock |
1,500 ts of coal |
| Armor |
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The Petropavlovsk (Russian: Петропавловск) was a unit line ship of the Imperial Russian Navy , the lead ship of her class . Sister ships were the Sevastopol and the Poltava . All three were lost in the Russo-Japanese War 1904–1905: the first two were sunk, the Poltava was captured by Japan .
technology
The Petropavlovsk was named after the city of Petropavlovsk on Kamchatka , which in August 1854 during the Crimean War was successfully defended by the Russians. It was in May 1892 the Galerny shipyard, later New Admiralty Shipyard in St. Petersburg paid to Kiel , was in November 1894 by the stack . In October 1897 the Petropavlovsk moved from Saint Petersburg to Kronstadt in order to be equipped. In 1898 the cannons were installed. She then spent the winter in Libau , as there were at least some test opportunities there in winter, while the arsenal in Kronstadt was enclosed by the ice. In 1899 she returned to Kronstadt, where she was put into service.
It was 112.5 m long, 21.3 m wide, 8.6 m deep and displaced 11,354 tons (standard). The ship was armed with four 305 mm guns in two twin turrets, twelve 152 mm guns in four twin turrets and four single mounts , ten 47 mm guns and 28 37 mm cannons, as well as six torpedo tubes (the four side below the waterline, bow and stern tube over water had a larger diameter). The crew consisted of 662 men, the maximum speed was 17 knots .
Mission history
On October 5, 1899, Petropavlovsk began moving to the Far East to the Pacific Squadron . The future admiral and commander of counter-revolutionary troops, Alexander Wassiljewitsch Kolchak , was the first officer on watch to carry out hydrological experiments in the North Pacific . In the Mediterranean , Kolchak met Eduard Toll , who suggested that he take part in his expedition with the schooner Sarja into arctic waters and whom he joined. The Petropavlovsk reached Port Arthur on April 28, 1900 and became the flagship of Vice Admiral Skrydlow and the Pacific Squadron. From 1900 to 1901 the ship took part in the suppression of the Boxer Rebellion in China. It transported troops and artillery from Port Arthur to Taku . In October 1902 Rear Admiral Stark took command of the Pacific Squadron on Petropavlovsk . In 1903 she took part in all of the squadron's trips and visited Chemulpo and Vladivostok , among others .
Russo-Japanese War
On the night of February 9, 1904, the Petropavlovsk, like most of the ships of the Pacific Squadron, was anchored in the outer harbor of Port Arthur. There the squadron was attacked by a flotilla of Japanese torpedo boat destroyers . The Russians were not prepared for this attack. However, they had deployed their torpedo nets , which kept the damage to a minimum, although the attack caused considerable confusion. The Petropavlovsk was not damaged. Two ships of the line, the Zessarewitsch and the Retwisan , and the cruiser Pallada were hit .
The following day, the Japanese fleet attacked the anchored squadron with six ships of the line and nine cruisers under the command of Admiral Togo and there was a 40-minute exchange of fire. After that, the Japanese broke off the shelling and the Russians did not follow. The Petropavlovsk fired twenty 305 mm and sixty-eight 152 mm rounds, and was hit by three rounds (two 305 mm and one 152 mm) itself. One seaman was killed and four were wounded. The damage to the ship was insignificant.
The inactivity of the Russian fleet in the following months and other events led to the resignation of Admiral Oskar Viktorovich Stark and the appointment of Vice-Admiral Makarov in February 1904 as commander of the squadron that chose the Petropavlovsk as the flagship . Makarov reached Port Arthur on February 24, 1904 and immediately began carrying out initial maneuvers to prepare his ships for the impending confrontation with the modern Japanese navy . During the following month, the ship made five short forays to practice interaction.
The fall of Petropavlovsk
Togo had failed with its plan to block the Russian squadron in Port Arthur by sinking block ships in the port entrance. Togo's new plan was to block the entrance through a minefield. The mine- layer Koru-Maru began laying mines near the entrance on the night of March 31. He was secured by four destroyer groups. The Russians noticed the ships, but thought they were their own destroyers .
Unlike his predecessor Stark, Makarov pursued attacking Japanese warships and kept his ships in readiness for action at the Port Arthur exit. When Japanese cruisers bombarded Port Arthur in March, the cruisers shot back so violently that the Japanese withdrew. When the Japanese tried to bring block ships into the driveway in the same month, the Russian cruisers left immediately and the escort ships of the block ships fled.
On the morning of April 13, 1904 (March 31, 1904 according to the old Russian calendar ), the Russian destroyer Strasny returned from a safety voyage when it was attacked by Japanese destroyers. Makarov immediately dispatched the armored cruiser Bajan to intervene in the developing destroyer battle, while he followed with three ships of the line ( Petropavlovsk , Pobeda , Peresvet ), three other cruisers ( Askold , Diana , Novik ) and a group of destroyers to field Japanese warships.
The Japanese ships retreated to sea about 15 miles to meet their heavy units. Makarov now lacked the support of the coastal batteries, so he turned and hoped the Japanese would follow him before the coastal batteries. Already near the port entrance, his flagship Petropavlovsk ran into a mine, which first detonated the torpedoes in the bow of the ship and then all the boilers and ammunition chambers. The ship sank within two minutes; with him Admiral Makarow, the commander and well-known polar explorer Mikhail Wassiljew , the famous battle painter Vasily Vereschtschagin and the majority of the 662 crew. Lifeboats from the other ships tried to rescue castaways who were swimming in the water. About 80 men were rescued, including Captain Yakovlev and Grand Duke Kyrill Vladimirovich Romanov , a cousin of Tsar Nicholas II , who was head of the Romanovs in exile from 1924 to 1938. Admiral Makarov was not found. He died with ten members of his staff. A total of 18 officers and 620 men died.
The sinking of Petropavlovsk had a very negative impact on the morale and operational readiness of the Pacific Squadron, which became the First Pacific Squadron on April 17th. The fleet lost not only a good ship of the line, but also one of the most talented leaders and tacticians, Vice Admiral Makarov, who was respected and loved by the officers and men. It could not be adequately replaced until the end of the war.
Cenotaphs
On June 24, 1913, a memorial for Stepan Makarov was erected in Kronstadt. On it the sinking of Petropavlovsk is depicted on a relief.
On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of their downfall, a brass plaque in honor of the fallen was placed in the St. Nicholas Naval Cathedral in St. Petersburg.
literature
- Robert A. Burt: Japanese Battleships 1897-1945. Arms and Armor Press, ISBN 0-85368-758-7 .
- Tony Gibbons: The Complete Encyclopedia of Battleships and Battlecruisers. 1983.
- Captain R. Grant: Before Port Arthur in a Destroyer; The Personal Diary of a Japanese Naval Officer. John Murray, London 1907.
- Constantine Pleshakov : The Tsar's Last Armada, The Epic Voyage to the Battle Of Tsushima. 2002, ISBN 0-465-05792-6 .
- John Roberts, HC Timewell, Roger Chesneau (Ed.), Eugene M. Kolesnik (Ed.): Warships of the World 1860 to 1905 - Volume 2: USA, Japan and Russia. Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Koblenz 1983, ISBN 3-7637-5403-2 .
Web links
- Graphic representation of the downfall
- Report on the sinking of the Petropavlovsk (russ.)
- Poltava class (Russian)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Warships of the World 1860 to 1905 - Volume 2: USA, Japan and Russia. P. 172; names the Putilow shipyard as the construction site, but it was not built in St. Petersburg until after 1906.
- ↑ a b c S. Suliga: Battleships of Poltava type . In: Technika Molodezhi . , P. 32.
- ^ Grant, pp. 12, 15, 17.42
- ↑ Grant, p. 40
- ^ S. Balakin: Sea battles of Russo-Japanese war . Sea collection, 2004.
- ↑ V. Gribovskij: The catastrophe of March, 31 of 1904 (the wreck of battleship Petropavlovsk) . In: Gangut . 4, p. 49.
- ↑ Grant, p. 48ff.
- ↑ a b Grant, p. 126
- ^ Grant, p. 115
- ^ Grant, p. 93
- ^ Grant, p. 116
- ^ Grant, p. 125
- ↑ Grant, p. 127f.
- ↑ a b Berezhnoj, Ammon: Heroic ships of the Russian and Soviet fleet . Military publishing house, Moscow 1990, p. 240.
- ↑ Военная литература (Militera project) . In: Russia and Japan. The history of war conflicts . Retrieved January 8, 2011.