Russian battleship Petropavlovsk (1894)

Russian battleship Petropavlovsk (1894)

Petropavlovsk was the lead ship of her class of three pre-dreadnought battleships built for the Imperial Russian Navy during the last decade of the 19th century. The ship was sent to the Far East almost immediately after entering service in 1899, where she participated in the suppression of the Boxer Rebellion the next year. At the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, she took part in the Battle of Port Arthur. On 13 April 1904, the ship sank after striking one or more mines near Port Arthur, in northeast China. Casualties numbered 27 officers and 652 enlisted men, including Vice Admiral Stepan Makarov, the commander of the squadron.

About Russian battleship Petropavlovsk (1894) in brief

Summary Russian battleship Petropavlovsk (1894)Petropavlovsk was the lead ship of her class of three pre-dreadnought battleships built for the Imperial Russian Navy during the last decade of the 19th century. The ship was sent to the Far East almost immediately after entering service in 1899, where she participated in the suppression of the Boxer Rebellion the next year. At the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, she took part in the Battle of Port Arthur. On 13 April 1904, the ship sank after striking one or more mines near Port Arthur, in northeast China. Casualties numbered 27 officers and 652 enlisted men, including Vice Admiral Stepan Makarov, the commander of the squadron, and the war artist Vasily Vereshchagin. She was laid down on 19 May 1892, together with her two sister ships, at the Galernii Island Shipyard and launched on 9 November 1898. Her trials lasted from 1898 to 1899, after which she was ordered to proceed to the East.

In mid-1900, she became the flagship of Vice Admiral Nikolai Skrydlovsk and the First Pacific Squadron. In February 1902, Vice Admiral Oskar Starkar assumed command of the Squadron. That same year, a radio was installed aboard the ship. After the Japanese victory in the First Sino-Japanese war of 1894–1895, both Russia and Japan had begun negotiations to control Manchuria and Korea, resulting in tensions between the two nations. The ships were 376 feet long overall, with a beam of 70 feet and a draft of 28 feet 3 inches. Designed to displace 10,960 long tons, Petropav Lovsk was almost 400 long tons overweight, displacing 11,354 long tons when completed. The four 12-inch guns of the main battery were mounted in two twin-gun turrets, one forward and one aft of the superstructure. Their secondary armament consisted of twelve Canet six-inch quick-firing guns.