Russian battleship Tsesarevich
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 Tsesarevitch moored |
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| Career |  |
|---|---|
| Builder: | Compagnie des Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée à la Seine |
| Laid down: | 1 May 1899 |
| Launched: | 1900 |
| Commissioned: | 1901 |
| Decommissioned: | 1918 as hulk |
| Fate: | Scrapped 1924-1925 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 12,915 tons |
| Length: | 118.5 m (388 ft) |
| Beam: | 23.2 m (76 ft) |
| Draught: | 8.5 m (28 ft) |
| Propulsion: | Two Shaft, four cylinder Reciprocating Vertical Triple Expansion (VTE) Steam Engines; 20 Bellville type coal fired boilers 15,300-16,000 shp |
| Fuel: | Coal, 1,350 tons |
| Speed: | 18.5 knots |
| Range: | 5,500 nautical miles (10,190 km) at 10 knots (19 km/h) |
| Complement: | 744-803 |
| Armament: (305 mm) | 4 × 12-inch (305 mm) guns (2x2), 12 × 6-inch (152 mm) guns (1x12), 16 x 75 mm guns, 4 x 1.85 inch (47 mm) 3pdr guns, 6 × 18-inch (457 mm) torpedo tubes, |
| Armour: | Krupp armour Belt 8-5.9 inch (200-150 mm), Deck 2.25 inch Main turrets 10 inch (250 mm), Secondary turrets 5.9 inch (150 mm), Conning tower 10 inch |
The Russian battleship Tsesarevitch (Цесаревич) was built in France by Compagnie des Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée à la Seine for the Imperial Russian Navy. She was named after the Tsesarevich, the eldest son of the Tsar and heir to the Russian throne. She was based in the Pacific and fought in the Russo-Japanese War, flagship of Admiral Wilgelm Vitgeft in the Battle of the Yellow Sea. The Tsesarevitch design was the basis of the Borodino-class battleships which were built in Russia.
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[edit] Service life
The Tsesarevitch was assigned to the Far East in December 1903, she was one of three ships to be struck by Japanese torpedoes during the attack on Port Arthur on 8 February, 1904.
[edit] Battle of the Yellow Sea
On the morning of 10 August 1904, the First Pacific Squadron left Port Arthur to engage the Japanese fleet blockading the port. The Russian squadron consisted of the battleships Tsesarevich, Retvizan, Pobeda, Peresvet, Sevastopol and Poltava, along with four protected cruisers and 14 torpedo boats. The Japanese fleet, commanded by Admiral Togo, was made up of the battleships Mikasa, Asahi, Fuji and Shikishima, the armoured cruisers Nishin and Kasuga, as well as eight protected cruisers, 18 destroyers and 30 torpedo boats.
By midday, the main body of Japanese battleships attempted to block the Russians' path off the Shandong Peninsula. By 13:00 the first shots were fired, and during the one-hour fight the Russians succeeded in breaking out of the harbour. Admiral Togo began a long pursuit of the Russian fleet and gradually came up from the south-west, slowly overtaking the Russian battle line. At 16:20, the action resumed, with both sides trading artillery fire from ranges of 9,000 to 10,000 yards (10,000 m) and both sides receiving damage. At 18:00, with the battle's outcome still in question, Admiral Vitgeft was killed by a shell splinter on the bridge of the Tsesarevich. Just 12 minutes later, further hits on the Tsesarevich killed the captain and almost all bridge personnel as well as crippling the wheel. With the flagship's wheel wedged in place, the Tsesarevich went into such a sharp turn that it heeled over 12 degrees. Other ships in the line had not realized what was happening and followed suit, only for the fleet to turn in on itself, eventually losing battle line and scattering. With darkness approaching and low on ammunition, Togo broke off the engagement and retired eastward. He ordered a night attack against the Russian fleet by his destroyers and torpedoboats, but most of these attacks were repelled with light casualties.
While most of the Russian fleet (five battleships, a cruiser and nine destroyers) returned to the safety of Port Arthur, the damaged Tsesarevich and three escorting destroyers sailed to Tsingtao, where they were interned.
[edit] Fate
At the end of the Russo-Japanese war the ship was transferred to the Baltic and saw action in World War I, taking part in the Battle of Moon Sound in 1917. After the Russian Revolution she was renamed Grazhdanin (or Citizen). She was hulked in 1918 and scrapped in 1924 in Germany.
[edit] References
- Tomitch, V. M., Warships of the Imperial Russian Navy (1968) Volumne 1, Battleships
- From Conway's All the world's Fighting Ships 1860 - 1905,1979
