Zessarevich
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|---|---|
 Zessarevich |
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| Overview | |
| Type | Ship of the line |
| Shipyard |
Société Nouvelle de Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée , |
| Keel laying | May 1, 1899 |
| Launch | February 10, 1901 |
| delivery | March 21, 1903 |
| period of service |
1903-1918 |
| Decommissioning | 1924 demolition in Germany |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
12,915 t , max. 13,122 t |
| length |
118.5 m |
| width |
23.2 m |
| Draft |
8.5 m |
| crew |
803 men |
| drive |
20 Belleville steam boilers |
| speed |
18.5 kn |
| Range |
2,590 nm at 10 kn |
| Armament |
|
| Bunker quantity |
1,350 tons of coal |
|
Armor Belt armor Main deck Main towers Secondary towers Command post |
System Krupp |
The Zessarewitsch ( Russian Цесаревич ) was a ship of the line of the Imperial Russian Navy , built by the Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée shipyard in La Seyne-sur-Mer in France . Named the ship was after the short form of the title of the Russian heir to the throne, "His Imperial Highness the Tsarevich-heir". She was stationed in December 1903 and served Pacific Admiral Withöft during the Russo-Japanese War in the Battle of the Yellow Sea as a flagship . The admiral fell on the bridge of his flagship, which ran to Tsingtau after the battle and was interned there for the remainder of the war.
The liner returned to Europe in 1906 and served in the Baltic Fleet . The Zessarewitsch was renamed Graschdanin ( Russian Гражданин , "citizen") on April 13, 1917 , survived the First World War and was broken up in 1924.
Zessarevich class
The Zessarewitsch was a single ship, but represented the prototype for the Borodino class , which was subsequently built in Russia according to modified plans .
The Imperial Russian Navy decided after the Sino-Japanese 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 were supposed to be built abroad because the Russian Baltic Sea shipyards were busy and insufficiently efficient. In 1898 the Retwisan was ordered from the William Cramp and Sons shipyard in Philadelphia . There was a contract for the construction of a ship of the line with the Société Nouvelle of Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée on 6 July 1898, the previously in its branch company in Graville at Le Havre the cruiser Svetlana at the request of Grand Duke Alexei had built and last year the Order for an armored cruiser for the Russian Pacific Fleet, which came into service as a bayan in 1903 . The French shipyard also won orders for three Forel- class destroyers . The ships of the line to be built were to be based on the Russian basic plans for the Petropavlovsk class and Knjas Potjomkin Tavritschesky , who was ordered for the Black Sea fleet at the time .
The Zessarewitsch suffered from the fact that her center of gravity was too high, the hull walls in the so-called tumble home design above the waterline showed inwards that the longitudinal bulkhead running in the middle of the hull caused the danger of capsizing and the low belt armor pushed under water when fully loaded, as warlike has been. However, it had no casemate guns that were unusable in rough seas, but rather the middle artillery in separate towers, which was generally only accepted after the World War. The Zessarewitsch received what was then the most modern armor Krupp cemented (so-called KC tanks). In addition, it was already protected by a 38 mm thick torpedo bulkhead in the underwater area - but this was judged to be ineffective because the distance between the ship's side and bulkhead (the so-called expansion space) was small. Although the Retwisan was considered to be of more solid construction and was less top-heavy than the Zessarewitsch , the Zessarewitsch was the model for the five Russian replicas of the Borodino class . The flaws in the hull structure had these too, and the three Borodino- class ships sunk at Tsushima capsized before they sank.
On September 25, 1903, the Zessarewitsch left the Mediterranean with the armored cruiser Bajan from the same shipyard for their final departure to East Asia via Port Said , Suez , Djibouti , Colombo , Sabang , Singapore to Port Arthur . On November 19, 1903, two days after leaving Singapore, the liner made radio contact for the first time with the flagship of the East Asia Squadron, the Petropavlovsk . On November 30, 1903, Zessarevich and Bayan were accepted into the East Asia Squadron.
Russo-Japanese War
On the night of February 8th to 9th, 1904, the Imperial Japanese Navy opened the Russo-Japanese War with a torpedo attack on the Russian Pacific Squadron. The attacking ten destroyers fired 16 torpedoes and scored three hits. In addition to the Retwisan and the Pallada , the Zessarewitsch was also hit. The control drive was also damaged by the hit just behind the magazine. All three ships hit partially or completely sunk. The Zessarewitsch was repaired by June and was then ready for use again.
On the morning of August 10, 1904, the Russian 1st Pacific Squadron under Admiral Wilhelm Withöft left the port of Port Arthur to break the Japanese blockade during the siege by the Japanese and run to Vladivostok . The squadron consisted of the ships of the line Zessarewitsch , Retwisan , Pobeda , Peresvet , Sevastopol and Poltava , the four protected cruisers Askold , Pallada , Diana and Nowik, and 14 torpedo boats. The Japanese fleet under the command of Admiral Togo comprised the battleships Mikasa , Asahi , Fuji and Shikishima , the armored cruisers Nisshin and Kasuga , eight protected cruisers, as well as 18 destroyers and 30 torpedo boats.
The main force of the Japanese fleet initially blocked the Russian route along the Shandong peninsula . At around 1 p.m., both sides opened fire; after about an hour, Admiral Withoft finally managed to break out. Admiral Togo, who had in the meantime realized that the Russians wanted to escape to Vladivostok, took up the chase and caught up with the slower Russian squadron after a few hours. Driving on a parallel course, both sides began another firefight at 4:20 p.m. at a distance of about 8 to 9 kilometers, in which considerable damage was done on both sides.
At 6:00 p.m., when the battle was far from over and the Russian fleet could still count on an escape as darkness fell, Admiral Withoft was killed by a shrapnel on the bridge of the Zessarevich . About twelve minutes later another shell struck the bridge, which killed both the commander and almost all of the bridge personnel. As a result of the damaged steering gear, the Zessarewitsch began to drive in circles, heavily heeling. The following ships tried, ignorant of the events on the flagship, to follow, so that the Russian order of battle disintegrated when the Zessarevich finally ran back into its own combat formation. Fortunately for the Russians, Admiral Togo broke off the battle at this point because of the darkness and the onset of a lack of ammunition and ran east. During the night he let his destroyers and torpedo boats carry out attacks on the Russian ships, which, however, could be repulsed on the Russian side without major losses.
Most of the Russian squadron (five ships of the line, one cruiser and nine destroyers) returned to Port Arthur. The other units were scattered in the dark and went to other ports. The badly damaged Zessarevich arrived with the three destroyers Besposchtschadni , Besschumni , Besstraschni of the kit class to Tsingtau , where the ships were interned by the German authorities. The Nowik also briefly called at Tsingtau, but left the German base again to reach Vladivostok according to the original plan. The Japanese cruiser Tsushima surprised them when they took over coal in the Aniwa Bay of Sakhalin . Although they were defeated by artillery, they tried to break out of Korsakow on August 20, 1904 . After five hits, she broke off the fight and sank herself, since after the appearance of the cruiser Chitose no chance of escape was seen.
The Askold ran to Shanghai , where the destroyer Grozovoi later arrived, while the Diana ran to Saigon , where she was interned.
After the peace agreement, the Zessarewitsch immediately started the march home. The front mast, badly damaged in the battle, was completely removed and then replaced by a pole mast in Kronstadt . Until 1910 she and her half-sister Slawa were the backbone of the Baltic fleet. After the great earthquake in Messina on December 28, 1908, the ships of the line Slawa and Zessarewitsch and the armored cruiser Admiral Makarow were the first units of the Russian fleet to support the rescue work there.
First World War
After the end of the Russo-Japanese War, the Zessarewitsch was relocated to the Baltic Sea. There she took part during the First World War in August 1915 in the advance into the Riga Bay and in September 1917 in the battles in the Gulf of Riga when the Russian Baltic Fleet tried to prevent the German occupation of the islands of Ösel and Dagö .
After the October Revolution in 1917, the ship was renamed Grahdanin . It was under this name that it took part in the Battle of Moon Sound . In 1918 it was disarmed to the Hulk and finally broken up in Germany in 1924.
Web links
- RM. Melnikov: "The Tsarevich" Part 1. Battleship 1899–1906
- RM. Melnikov: "The Tsarevich" Part 2. Battleship 1906–1925
- Article in the Enziklopedija Korablej (Russian)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Russian : Jewo Imperatorskoje Wyssotschestwo Zesarewitsch-Naslednik .
- ↑ Nowik Skirmish August 22, NYT ( Memento of the original from February 19, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
