Battleship Tsesarevich
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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.
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 torpedoboats. 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 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. The flagship fell out of the battle line, and the other Russian ships became disoriented. 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.
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] General Characteristics
- Displacement: 12915 tons
- Length: 388 ft
- Beam: 76 ft
- Draught: 28 ft
- Machinery: 2 shaft, 4 cylinder triple expansion steam engines, 20 Bellville type coal fired boilers, 16,000 hp
- Speed: 18.5 knots
- Armament:
- 4 - 12 inch guns (2x2),
- 12 - 6 inch guns (6x2),
- 10 75mm guns,
- 4 x 18 inch torpedo tubes
- Armour: Krupp armour -
- Belt 200-150 mm,
- main turrets 250 mm,
- secondary turrets 150 mm
- Crew: 803
- See also Borodino class battleship, the successors to this ship built in Russia
