#second pacific squadron

The Third Pacific Squadron finally caught up at Cam Ranh Bay, just in time to sail undetected through the Tsushima strait and on to Vladivostok without engaging the Japanese navy.

At least, that was the plan.

In the early morning of the 27th of May, the hospital ship Oryol noticed some other ships while scouting ahead, assumed they were Russian ships, and signalled to them that the Russian squadrons were right behind it. The ships were, of course, Japanese, and alerted Admiral Togo of the Russian presence.

Togo positioned his fleet so that they could fire their broadsides, while the Russians could only use their forward turrets. At about 2pm, firing commenced, with the Russians landing several hits on the Japanese flagship Mikasa, and the Japanese swiftly responding by damaging most of the Russian battleships. In the evening, Rozhestvensky was knocked out by a fragment of a shell, and Nebogatov took command. Attacks continued throughout the night and the Russian fleet suffered heavy losses, particularly with the sinking of six of its battleships.

At 10:30am on the 28th, the Russians were taking heavy fire from the Japanese, and were out of range for their own guns to be effective, so Nebogatov ordered the six remaining ships under his command to raise the “XGE”, the international signal of surrender. However, the Japanese continued to fire, as their codebooks did not contain the signal. Nebogatov ordered for white tablecloths to be raised instead, but Admiral Togo had his ships continue firing, as a Chinese warship had once escaped him while flying a white flag, and he believed the Russians would do the same. This belief was reinforced by the cruiser Izumrud lowering the signal and trying to bolt. In desperation, Nebogatov ordered their ships to turn off their engines and fly the Japanese flag, and Togo finally accepted the surrender at 10:50am.

The Second and Third Pacific Squadron suffered almost 5000 casualties, and of the 38 Russian ships involved in the battle, only three, an auxiliary ship and two destroyers, made it to Vladivostok.

Seven of the rest were captured by the Japanese, such as the battleships Oryol and Imperator Nikolai I, the flagship of the Third Pacific Squadron, as well as the hospital ship Oryol. Six ships, including the Aurora, were captured and interned by neutral countries. For reasons that are unclear to me, one auxiliary ship, the Anadyr, escaped to Madagascar. The Izumrud, which ran aground after trying to bail during the surrender, the Dmitri Donskoy, and a coastal defence ship were all sunk by their crews to avoid capture.

Six of the eight battleships sunk, including the Knyaz Suvarov, the Borodino, and the Oslyabya, the latter of which earned the unfortunate distinction of being the first modern armoured battleship in history to be sunk by gunfire alone. In addition to the battleships, ten other ships sunk, which included the Buistry, the Ural, and the Kamchatka.

The Japanese lost three torpedo ships and 117 men.

The Battle of Tsushima effectively ended the Russo-Japanese War, with Japan as the victor, and was the first modern defeat of a European power by an Asian nation. The loss greatly damaged the prestige of Imperial Russia, as well as the strength of the Russian navy, which had been almost entirely lost.

Mishaps continued to occur and conditions worsened as they were forced to go around Africa when the British denied them access to the Suez Canal.

Due to tensions with the British, they couldn’t recoal at any nearby ports, forcing them to take on the dangerous and exhausting task of manually recoaling at sea. Trying to minimise the number of times they would need to do this, they overstocked on coal, with the excess being stored on deck. The coal made the ships even more top-heavy, making them nervous to raise flag signals for fear of sinking or toppling. At one point the Kamchatka signalled to say they had loaded bad coal on board and wanted permission to throw 150 tons overboard. Rozhestvensky signalled back to instead throw overboard those responsible. Kamchatka replied: “do you see torpedo boats?” causing a fresh wave of panic among the squadron. Action stations were called and officers were woken up before the Kamchatka followed up with “sorry” and explained that they had meant to say that they were alright now. Coal dust and humidity caused respiratory problems, adding to the deaths caused by diseases such as malaria and dysentery. As a tribute to the dead crew members, the Kamchatka fired a salute, but accidentally used a live shell, which hit the Aurora. On the Ural two crew members were killed by a swinging crane.

Word came that Port Arthur had fallen, and while awaiting further orders at Madagascar, Rozhestvensky and his Chief of Staff fell ill. The crew was left with little command staff, and began spending time on shore gambling, visiting brothels, and collecting live animals to bring on board. This led to even more disease, as well as animals freely roaming the decks of the ships, reportedly including a crocodile, a goat with an appetite for paper, and a poisonous snake. The cooling system on the refrigerated supply ship, the Esperance, broke down, and 700 tons of stored meat began to rot and had to be thrown overboard, with the unfortunate side effect of attracting sharks, which killed crewmembers trying to clean the keels of the ships.

A supply ship arrived, thought to be carrying ammunition to replenish their stores, which had been depleted in their battle against the British fishermen. Unfortunately, the ship was carrying nothing but 12 000 winter coats and pairs of fur-lined boots, not exactly appropriate for the climate of Madagascar. Another ship arrived, carrying mail, and the crew was delighted to receive word from home, until it was discovered that the letters were those that they themselves had sent a month before.

In a desperate attempt to maintain some semblance of being a functioning military fleet, Rozhestvensky ordered drills. During gunnery drills with a stationary target, only the Knyaz Suvarov managed to land a hit on anything, although it was on the boat towing the target. The snake reportedly wrapped itself around the guns of one of the ships and then bit the commanding officer. The destroyers failed to maintain a straight line formation, as the officers had not been issued up-to-date code books. Seven torpedoes were fired at a target: one jammed, three wildly missed, two missed but were going too slowly to cause damage even if they did hit anything, and one went around in circles, causing the squadron to scatter. The Kamchatka signalled that it was sinking, then realised it was a false alarm caused by a cracked steam pipe.

Admiral Rozhestvensky received word that they were to go to Vladivostok, and that on the way they would be met and reinforced by Admiral Nebogatov commanding the Third Pacific Squadron, which had been put together by none other than his old enemy Captain Klado. The squadron was made up of the most obsolete pieces of junk he could find, ships that Rozhestvensky had previously explicitly refused, and which he dubbed the sink-by-themselves squadron. As he didn’t really want to meet up with them, Rozhestvenzky decided that he would refuse to tell anyone his route from Madagascar, and as such Nebogatov was issued the orders “you are to join up with Rozhestvensky, whose course is unknown to us.”

While sailing between Sweden and Denmark, rumours began in the squadron that Japanese torpedo boats and submarines had been seen off the Danish coast, causing nervousness among the crew. Admiral Rozhestvensky gave orders that no ship should be allowed amongst the squadron. When a boat approached, panic ensued, and the squadron began firing. Upon ceasing fire, it was revealed that, due to the poor state of their gunnery, they had failed to land a single hit on the boat, which was fortunate, as it contained two fishermen bringing news of Rozhestvensky’s promotion to Vice Admiral.

After this mishap, the squadron continued on, sailing into the North Sea. Near Dogger Bank off the British coast, the repair ship Kamchatka saw a passing Swedish ship and signalled that it was under attack from all sides by about eight Japanese torpedo boats, and upon realising it was a false alarm, failed to tell the rest of the squadron, only saying that the Japanese ships had gone. Later, they encountered a group of ships, and once again opened fire in a panic. In the ensuing chaos, several Russian ships reported hits by torpedoes, and the cruisers Aurora and Dmitri Donskoy were hit by fire from seven Russian ships, killing two crew members. Rumours began on the battleship Borodino that they had been boarded by the Japanese, prompting several crew members to attempt to abandon ship, and several more to run around the deck brandishing cutlasses.

After about 20 minutes, someone signalled to cease fire, and it was discovered that they had been firing on a group of unarmed and presumably very distressed British fishing trawlers, one of which was slowly sinking. Four other British vessels were damaged, and three Englishmen were reported dead. Shoddy gunnery once again resulted in less damage than might have otherwise occurred, with the battleship Oryol reporting 500 shells fired and no hits.

The squadron decided that the best course of action in this situation was to sail on without searching for survivors, and pretend nothing had happened, failing to even radio the British to report the incident. This, of course, brought the wrath of the British Navy on them, and 28 battleships from the British Home Fleet forced them to dock in Spain, where they were to leave behind all officers responsible for the attack. Rozhestvensky decided to use the opportunity to get rid of his personal enemy, Captain Klado. A war between Britain and Russia was only prevented with a lot of money and presumably even more grovelling.

On their way out of Spain, the squadron lost contact with the Kamchatka, which rejoined them several days later near Morocco claiming to have engaged and fired 300 shells at three Japanese ships, which turned out to be a Swedish merchant ship, French schooner, and German trawler. While leaving the Moroccan port city of Tangier, one ship severed a telegraph cable with its anchor, knocking out the city’s communication with Europe for four days.

In February 1904, the Japanese navy, led by Admiral Togo, attacked and blockaded the Russian Far East Fleet at their naval base at Port Arthur, beginning the Russo-Japanese War. A section of the Baltic Fleet was ordered to go to Port Arthur to reinforce the Far East Fleet.

This squadron, known as the Second Pacific Squadron, was made up of seven battleships, with the flagship being the Knyaz Suvarov. It also had seven cruisers, nine destroyers, and a number of support ships, including the refrigerated supply ship Esperance, and a repair ship called the Kamchatka. The commander of the squadron was Admiral Rozhestvensky, a grumpy, hot-headed man known for enraged outbursts and poor communication with his command staff.

Many of the crew and ships were new and untested in combat, and some of the ships had design flaws such as top-heaviness, with secondary guns and belt armour rendered useless due to being underwater. This weight issue immediately presented a problem, when the battleship Oryol sank and had to be refloated before the squadron had even left the harbour.

On the 2nd of October, the Second Pacific Squadron set off from Libau. Immediately the Knyaz Suvarov ran aground and one of the cruisers lost its anchor. While the rest of the fleet waited for the Suvarov to be refloated and the cruiser to find the anchor, the destroyer Buistry rammed the battleship Oslyabya, and had to go back for repairs. This set the tone for the rest of the 18 000 mile journey, which would take eight months, and conclude in a decisive battle that would end the Russo-Japanese War.