Varyag (ship, 1899)
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The Varyag ( Russian Варяг , English transcription Varyag ) was at William Cramp & Sons in Philadelphia built protected cruiser of the Imperial Russian Navy . The name translates as Varangian . She was stationed in the Pacific during the Russo-Japanese War and took part in the battle off Tschemulpo , in the course of which she was sunk by her crew.
After the war it was lifted by the Japanese, repaired and put into service as Sōya . In 1916 it was sold to Russia, confiscated by the British in 1917, sold for demolition in 1920 and demolished from 1923.
history
Building history
The Imperial Russian Navy decided after the Japanese-Chinese war of 1894/1895 to expand its Pacific squadron . The construction program of 1898 envisaged the construction of ships of the line, cruisers and destroyers for this station. Some of these ships should also be built abroad, since the Russian Baltic Sea shipyards were busy and not sufficiently efficient. On May 2, 1898, a contract was signed with the William Cramp and Sons shipyard in Philadelphia, which had previously built and repaired ships for the Russian Navy. You should Battleship Russian battleship Retvizan build for 4.36 million US dollars, for further 2,138,000 US dollars a protected cruiser, the Varyag , deliver that to the ordered in Germany cruisers Askold and Bogatyr was in competition. However, the American draft was not aligned with the many European offers. The construction contract came because Cramp offered a low construction price and guaranteed quick production. Of the twelve guns of the Varyag's main artillery , eight stood open on deck without protective shields, two of them in the front and rear side by side and four in the rear area on the sides. Only the four front side guns were somewhat protected in casemates. This setup had fatal consequences for the crew in their only battle. Cramp also did not complete the ships ordered from him in the promised time. Still, the Russian side paid almost full price.
The Varyag was a 1st class cruiser whose keel was laid on August 1, 1898 shortly after that of the liner. The launch was carried out on October 10, 1899. On January 2, 1901, the Varyag was put into service later than planned.
Peace operations
On March 10, 1901, the Varyag left the shipyard for Russia. Due to excessive coal consumption, she called the Azores on April 3 to replenish the coal supply. Obstructed by a storm, the journey could only continue on April 8th. Repairs were carried out in Cherbourg , where the Varyag arrived on the 14th. On April 30th she reached the first Russian port with Reval . On May 2, she reached Kronstadt , where the ship was inspected by Emperor Nicholas II on May 19, 1901 .
On August 5, 1901, she was sent to Port Arthur to support the Russian Pacific Squadron . On the 9th she called in Copenhagen to have some repairs carried out, which were necessary after the short distance. She was instructed to wait for the imperial yacht Standart and to accompany the Tsar on visits to Danzig , Kiel and Cherbourg. In Danzig the ship was visited by the Russian Emperor and the German Emperor Wilhelm II . The problems with the electrical system continued, so that the cruiser to the standard and the other accompanying cruiser Swetlana could only catch up shortly before entering Kiel. In Dunkirk and Cherbourg the electrical systems were repaired satisfactorily. However, to be on the safe side, spare parts were ordered from the shipyard for delivery to Port Said .
On September 16, the Varyag continued the voyage alone to Cadiz , where she stayed for five days, and to Gibraltar and Algiers , where she arrived on September 27. As a warship of one of the guarantee powers, she then ran to Crete , where she carried out sharp artillery and torpedo exercises from October 19. She then went on to Salamis and Piraeus , where on the 23rd she met the Russian Mediterranean Squadron, which consisted of the old ship of the line Tsar Nicholas I , the gunboats Terez and Bobr, and three torpedo boats. In Greece, the Varyag received orders to make a three-week journey through the Persian Gulf .
On November 6th, she continued her journey, during which problems with the steam boilers were increasing. Through the Suez Canal the cruiser reached Aden , where some overhauls were carried out and as much coal and water supplies as possible were taken on board. The demonstration tour began on November 21st, the first destination of which was Muscat on the 27th . From there it went to Bushehr , where the cruiser anchored relatively far off the coast for safety reasons due to the unclear water depth. Via Kuwait on December 8th and Lingeh on 15th Bandar Abbas , 21st Karachi and finally Colombo on 31st December 1901 , where the commander made a fortnightly stop for an overhaul. On January 15, 1902, the march to the Pacific squadron began with a three-day stay in Singapore , a week-long break in Hong Kong to Nagasaki , where the cruiser met the squadron with the Petropavlovsk , Poltava and Gromoboi on February 13 . On the 22nd, the Varyag left the Japanese port together with the Gromoboi and then ran alone to Port Arthur , while the Gromoboi called at Vladivostok . On February 25, 1902, the Varyag reached her new home port and began to participate in station service. The ship was also thoroughly overhauled and an exchange of its boiler was considered. This did not happen because of the outbreak of war.
After some urgently needed repairs, the ship was moved to the Korean port of Incheon (then Tschemulpo) on December 27, 1903 .
Russo-Japanese War
The Varyag finally became known through the sea battle that took place there at the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War . In the run-up to the looming war, the Russian naval command had failed to reintegrate the Varyag and the accompanying gunboat Korejez into the Port Arthur fleet. The ship's captain, Vsevolod Rudnew , had wanted to return to Port Arthur. However, this was expressly prohibited. The ship was moored in the Korean port of Incheon, then Tschemulpo, with a large number of warships from other nations.
On February 9, 1904, a Japanese squadron, consisting of the armored cruiser Asama and five small cruisers and eight torpedo boats under the flag of Rear Admiral Uryū Sotokichi appeared in front of the port entrance. The Japanese asked the Russian ships to surrender , but Captain Rudnev refused. The Japanese squadron meanwhile began to land troops. Since the Varyag and the Korejez were in the midst of neutral ships, they could not simply be attacked by the Japanese. In order to ensure the neutrality of the port, the Russian ships wanted to attempt an escape from the port and lifted their anchor around 11:20 a.m. However, they were caught by the Japanese around 11:45 a.m. In the half-hour skirmish suffered Varyag heavy damage. Of the main armament, ten of their 152 mm guns and all small guns were put out of action. Furthermore, the ship received four severe hits at and below the waterline. All upper superstructures were destroyed and at least four fires had broken out, but the crew were able to put them out. Of the 580-strong crew, 31 officers and sailors had died and 91 were seriously and over 100 were slightly wounded.
Then the Varyag and the undamaged Korejez , which, however, could do nothing against the Japanese, retreated into the port. There the Russians sank their ships themselves. The crews, including the wounded, were taken over by the warships Talbot , the French Pascal and the Italian Elba and brought to Hong Kong. The cruisers were allowed to leave Chemulpo after one or two weeks and several of the wounded died on them. In this way, the survivors returned to Russia, where they were celebrated as heroes.
In 1907, the former commander of the Varyag , Captain Rudnew, was awarded the Japanese Order of the Rising Sun for his bravery , which he accepted but never wore in public.
In Japanese service
The ship was lifted by the Japanese on August 8, 1905, modernized and under the name Sōya ( 宗 谷 ) put back into service on July 9, 1907. In the following years the ship served as a training ship for Japanese cadets . In 1909 she made as a training ship together with the Aso (ex Bajan ) with the 36th class of the Japanese Naval Academy from March 14th to August 7th on a long-distance voyage via Hawaii to the USA and Canada. The cruisers visited San Francisco , Seattle and Vancouver , among others . In 1910, the 37th class of the Japanese Naval Academy followed a similar training trip from February 1 to July 3 to Manila , Ambon , Townsville , Brisbane , Sydney , Hobart , Melbourne , Fremantle , Batavia , Singapore, Hong Kong, Makung and Keelung together again with the Aso . Another training trip with the 39th grade in the same room as far as New Zealand led the Aso and Sōya from November 25, 1911 to March 28, 1912. From December 5, 1912 to April 21, 1913, the 40th class went back to Australia via Singapore. The trip was carried out together with the armored cruiser Azuma .
From April 20 to August 23, 1915, she carried out a training trip with the Aso for the last time for the 42nd grade and visited Rabaul , Sydney and again Fremantle on the Australian west coast , which has now been occupied by the Australians.
Since Japan and Russia were allies in World War I , Japan sold three formerly Russian ships (the former Varyag , Peresvet and Poltava ) to Russia for 15.5 million rubles. On March 21, 1916, the ships were delivered in Vladivostok . However, the ships were to be used in the Barents Sea to secure the supply lines from the western allies to Russia via Arkhangelsk and then Murmansk .
Back in Russian service
On June 19, the Varyag marched with the Tschesma (the former Poltava ), but without the Peresvet , which had been damaged by agrounding , from Vladivostok via Hong Kong (where the ships were painted tropical white), Singapore, Colombo, Port Victoria / Seychelles and Aden ( August 27, when the ships were repainted in khaki) to Port Said. There the two ships separated on September 6th. While the Tschesma went into the Aegean Sea, which set Varyag continues the journey towards Arctic with Russian commander Rear Admiral Bestuzhev-Rumin. Via Malta she ran to Toulon, where the Askold was being overhauled. At the beginning of October the voyage via Gibraltar and Queenstown in Ireland was continued in partly very bad weather to Glasgow , where the ship was examined and some modifications were made; For example, additional heaters were installed for the planned use in the Arctic. On November 8th, the last stage along the Faroe Islands and the northern fjords of Norway to Alexandrowsk , today Polyarny, began. After visits in 1899 and 1906, a large Russian combat ship was stationed on the Barents Sea for the first time.
In the spring of 1917 it was transferred to Cammell Laird in Birkenhead for modernization after the Tschesma arrived on site. At the time of the October Revolution , the remaining sailors hoisted the red flag . Shortly thereafter, the ship was stormed by the British Army, the flag was lowered and the ship was taken over by the Royal Navy . The Varyag was then towed to Ireland and served as the Hulk there until 1919 . In 1920 it was sold to Germany for scrapping. When she was about to be towed to the shipyard, she ran on rocks in the Firth of Clyde near Lendalfoot and the towing had to be abandoned. From 1923, the ship was demolished on site and in 1925 the rest of the ship sank, which was not lifted.
Others
In Russia, the song is cruiser Varyag (Russian: Крейсер Варяг , English: Krejser Varyag ) relatively well known that the exploits of the crew of the Varyag portrays. It is a translation of a poem by the Austrian writer Rudolf Greinz . He had written the poem in 1904 under the influence of the events in Chemulpo and published it in the magazine Jugend .
The damaged Varyag after the Battle of Chemulpo (1904).
Sinking of the Varyag
At the cemetery in Vladivostok there is a monument to the fallen sailors of the Varyag . In February 2004, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the battle, a memorial plaque for the Russian sailors and a memorial was unveiled in Incheon (the former Tschemulpo). In 2010, the restored flag of the returned Varyag from Korea back to Russia. In Lendalfoot ( Ayrshire ), a memorial stone was also erected for the ship destined for demolition that was stranded there in the storm.
The name Varyag was also the built in 1985, completed China aircraft carrier Liaoning the Admiral Kuznetsov class used.
Movies
- Battle of Chemulpo Bay . Camera: Edwin S. Porter , USA 1904.
- Kreiser Varyag ( Крейсер Варяг , cruiser Warjag. Director: Viktor Eisymont , USSR 1946, with Boris Liwanow , Aleksandr Sraschewski , Nikolai Tschaplygin ).
literature
- Roger Chesneau, Eugène Kolesnik: Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860-1905. Conway Maritime Press (1979), ISBN 0-85177-133-5 .
- Hansgeorg Jentsura, Dieter Jung, Peter Mickel: Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1869–1945. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis 1977, ISBN 0-87021-893-X .
- Stephen McLaughin: The Retvizan, an American Battleship for the Czar. in Warship 2000/2001, p. 48ff, Conway Maritime Press, London 2000, ISBN 0-85177-791-0 .
Web links
- Very detailed website about the Varyag ( Memento of October 25, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (Russian)
- Description of the naval battle at Tschemulpo
- "The Varyag American-Built Protected Cruiser (1899/1902)"
- Russian photo series
- Photo of the monument in the Vladivostok cemetery
- Model of the Varyag
- "Visit of the Japanese Navy in Seattle 1909"
Footnotes
- ↑ McLaughin, p. 51
- ↑ McLaughin, p. 53.
- ↑ The Svietlana Heroic French-Built Cruiser Yacht (1896)
- ^ Russians Awarded Order of the Rising Sun in Japan. (No longer available online.) Russkiy Mir Foundation, November 3, 2010, archived from the original on March 29, 2012 ; accessed on March 26, 2012 (English).
- ^ NY Times of March 15 and May 2, 1909
- ↑ Japanese Navy Day on June 4, 1909 in Seattle ( 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.
- ^ Evening Post May 12, 1909
- ^ Post January 6 and Evening Standard January 16, 1912
- ↑ Sydney Morning Herald January 23, 1912
- ^ Gray River Argus January 15, 1913
- ^ Evening Standard June 29, 1915
- ↑ Article on the origin of the song
- ^ Varyag Memorial ( Memento from December 2, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
