 | The battle damage to Tsesarevich following the Battle of the Yellow Sea (Aug. 10, 1904) illustrates the vulnerability of French-designed battleships of the pre-dreadnought era. Not only are the funnels peppered with shot and ripped apart by shellfire, impairing draft to the boilers, there are multiple shell-holes in the unarmored upper works of the hull and a direct hit on the bridge (which killed the fleet commander, Adm. Witgoft, and threw the entire Russian fleet into disarray, leading to the default loss of the battle). Not visible here, the worst damage of all was a hit aft which disabled the ship's steering engines, locking her into a wide circle. The ship's predictable movement and inability to maneuver to take evasive action, rendered her an easy target and accurate Japanese fire rained down on her for the remainder of the fight. The ship was lucky to break away and seek asylum at the German-held colony of Qingdao in Shandong Province. Following the Treaty of Portsmouth, the ship was restored to the Tsar's navy and refitted with better topside armoring and more extensive watertight subdivision below decks, as indicated by "lessons learned" in actual combat during the Russo-Japanese War. She was one of the few Russian warships to escape capture or sinking at the hands of the Japanese, who outfought and out-strategized the hapless Russians at nearly every turn, especially after killing off the Russians' most promising naval leader, Adm. Makaroff, at Port Arthur earlier in 1904. |
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