Russian battleship Peresvet

Russian late 19th century pre dreadnought battleship

Peresvet (Пересвет) was the lead ship of the three pre dreadnought battleships built for the Imperial Russian Navy at the end of the nineteenth century. The ship was transferred to the Pacific Squadron upon completion and based at Port Arthur from 1903. During the Russo Japanese War of 1904–1905, she participated in the Battle of Port Arthur and was seriously damaged during the Battle of the Yellow Sea and again in the siege of Port Arthur. The ship was scuttled before the Russians surrendered, then salvaged by the Japanese and placed into service with the name Sagami (相模). Partially rearmed, Sagami was reclassified by the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) as a coastal defense ship in 1912. In 1916, the Japanese sold her to the Russians, their allies since the beginning of World War I. En route to the White Sea in early 1917, she sank off Port Said, Egypt, after striking mines laid by a German submarine.

The design of the Peresvet class was inspired by the British second class battleships of the The British ships were intended to defeat commerce raiding armored cruisers like the Russian ships Russian cruiser Rossia and Russian cruiser Rurik, and the Peresvet class was designed to support their armored cruisers. This role placed a premium on high speed and long range at the expense of heavy armament and armor. Peresvet was 434 feet (132 m) long overall, and had a beam of 71 feet (22 m) and a draft of 26 feet (8 m). Designed to displace , she was almost overweight and displaced Her crew consisted of 27 officers and 744 enlisted men. The ship was powered by three vertical triple expansion steam engines using steam generated by 30 Belleville boilers. The engines were rated at and designed to reach a top speed of Peresvet, however, reached a top speed of from during her sea trials in November 1899. She carried a maximum of of coal, which allowed her to steam for at a speed of
The ship's main battery consisted of four guns mounted in two twin gun turrets, one forward and one aft of the superstructure. The secondary armament consisted of eleven Canet quick firing (QF) guns, mounted in casemates on the sides of the hull and in the bow, underneath the forecastle. Several smaller guns were carried for defense against torpedo boats. These included twenty QF guns, twenty Hotchkiss guns and eight guns. She was also armed with five torpedo tubes, three above water and two submerged. The ship carried 45 mines to be used to protect her anchorage. Peresvets waterline armor belt consisted of Harvey armor and was thick. The Krupp cemented armor of her gun turrets had a maximum thickness of nine inches and her deck ranged from in thickness.

Peresvet was named after Alexander Peresvet, a Russian Orthodox monk who fought and died at the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380, against a Mongolian army. Her keel was laid down on 21 November 1895 by the Baltic Works in Saint Petersburg and she launched on 19 May 1898. She was not completed, however, until July 1901, at the cost of 10,540,000 rubles. Peresvet entered service in August, and was sent to Port Arthur in October 1901.

After the Japanese victory in the First Sino Japanese War of 1894–95, tensions had arisen between Russia and Japan over their ambitions to control both Manchuria and Korea. A further issue was the Russian failure to withdraw its troops from Manchuria in October 1903 as promised. Japan had begun negotiations to ease the situation in 1901, but the Russian government was slow and uncertain in its replies because it had not yet decided exactly how to resolve the problems. Japan interpreted these as deliberate prevarications designed to buy time to complete the Russian armament programs. The final straws were news of Russian timber concessions in northern Korea and the Russian refusal to acknowledge Japanese interests in Manchuria while continuing to place conditions on Japanese activities in Korea. These led the Japanese government to decide in December 1903 that war was now inevitable. The Pacific Squadron began mooring in the outer harbor at night as tensions with Japan increased, in order to react more quickly to any Japanese attempt to land troops in Korea. On the night of 8/9 February 1904, the IJN launched a surprise attack on the Russian fleet at Port Arthur. Peresvet was not hit by the initial torpedo boat incursion and sortied the following morning when the Combined Fleet, commanded by Vice Admiral Tōgō Heihachirō, attacked. Tōgō had expected the surprise night attack by his ships to be much more successful than it was, anticipating that the Russians would be badly disorganized and weakened, but they had recovered from their surprise and were ready for his assault. The Japanese vessels had been spotted by the protected cruiser Russian cruiser Boyarin, which was patrolling offshore, and alerted the Russian defenses. Tōgō chose to attack the Russian coastal defenses with his main armament and engage the ships with his secondary guns. Splitting his fire proved to be a poor decision as the Japanese and six inch guns inflicted inconsequential damage on the Russian ships, which concentrated all their fire on their opponents with some effect. Peresvet was hit three times with little effect during the battle. Two days later, Peresvet hit the armored cruiser Japanese cruiser Nisshin once as the latter ship was bombarding Port Arthur. Peresvet bombarded Japanese positions besieging Port Arthur on 28 July. Some of the ship's guns were removed during the summer to reinforce the defenses of the port. Peresvet lost a total of three 6 inch, two 75 millimeter, two 47 millimeter and four 37 millimeter guns. She was hit on 9 August by two shells fired by a battery with a narrow view of the harbor, but they caused only slight damage.

The Japanese bombardment, coupled with a direct order from Tsar Nicholas II, forced Vitgeft to make an attempt to reach Vladivostok. The squadron sortied in an attempt to escape to Vladivostok in the morning of 10 August. At 12:25, it was spotted by Japanese cruisers and intercepted by the Combined Fleet in what became the Battle of the Yellow Sea. Peresvet was fourth in line during the battle, and was not seriously damaged during the early long range stage of the action. Around 18:00 her topmasts were destroyed and two 12 inch shells from the battleship Japanese battleship Asahi penetrated the conning tower of the Russian flagship Russian battleship Tsesarevich, killing Vitgeft and the helmsman, severely wounding the captain, and causing the ship to come to a dead stop after executing a sharp turn. Thinking that this was a maneuver planned by Vitgeft, the Russian battleline started to execute the same turn, causing all of the ships directly behind Tsesarevich, including Peresvet, to maneuver wildly to avoid hitting the stationary flagship. Ukhtomsky signaled the other Russian ships to follow him back to Port Arthur, but the signal was hard to discern because the flags had to be hung from the bridge railings without the topmasts and were only gradually recognized. after the eponymous ancient province. She was classified as a first class battleship on 25 August and arrived at Yokosuka Naval Arsenal on 16 September. Her repairs began on 30 September and continued until 20 July 1908, although she participated in the review of captured ships on 23 October 1905. guns. Two above water 18 inch torpedo tubes replaced her original torpedo armament and her crew now numbered 791 officers and enlisted men. She was one of the reception ships when the American Great White Fleet visited Japan in late 1908 and was often used as an "enemy" ship during the annual fleet maneuvers. Sagami was reclassified as a first class coastal defense ship on 28 August 1912.

In 1916 the Russian government decided to reinforce its naval strength outside the Baltic and Black Seas. As Japan and Russia were allies during World War I, the Japanese government sold Sagami and some other ex Russian warships back to Russia in March. She arrived in Vladivostok on 3 April, where she re assumed her former name of Peresvet, and was classified as an armored cruiser two days later. The ship ran aground on 23 May while conducting trials and was refloated by the IJN on 9 July. Peresvet arrived at Maizuru Naval Arsenal for repairs on 30 July and sailed for European Russia on 18 October. or 116 men.