Battleship Retvizan (1901)
Retvizan at anchor in Vladivostok roads in 1903. This photo is a good profile of power, enhanced by printed-in clouds in a near-halo around the ship. The matting of the 2 photos is disorienting because the clouds and battleship are lit by different suns, giving an exalted yet slightly disorienting feel to the composite.
Retvizan was named for the most heroic swashbuckler in the old sticks-and-string Tsarist Navy, whose most famous capture, the 64-gun Swedish battleship Rattvisa, became the Russian fleet's first Retvizan in 1790. It was an appropriate name for a vessel which took a brief turn on center stage, but which sidestepped dire threats to her existence and had a second life of close to 20 years in the Japanese Navy. In the 1890s the Russian government, under the influence of Alfred T. Mahan and the prevailing emphasis on imperialism, embarked on a spending spree to build up its navy with modern battleships and cruisers, to support its thrust into mineral-rich Manchuria. The battleship Tsesarevich was built in France at la Seyne and Askold, Bayan, and a number of other cruisers came from Germany. The contract for Retvizan went to William Cramp & Sons Ship Building Co. of Philadelphia, PA. (Cramps simultaneously was building the big protected cruiser Varyag for the Tsar). The specifications made Retvizan a half-sister of the Ukrainian-built Potemkin, incorporating a number of American design ideas.The American-made ship had a flush deck, where the Potemkin had a fo'c'sle head and a stepped-down quarterdeck for the after turret. Retvizan's Krupp Cemented type armor was forged by Bethlehem Steel and delivered by rail to the nearby shipyard. At 12,900 tons she was a bit smaller than the main line British fleet units, but comparable to French and U.S. Navy battleships of the time. She was sufficiently large and beamy to provide a stable gun platform for her full-scale 12" artillery and ample secondary armament of six 6-inchers and seven 3-inchers per side. Her 12" artillery was mounted in electrically trained elliptical turrets with electric shell hoists and all-round loading capability. Most design commentators consider the "Potemkin Pair" to be the best battleships Russia had at the time; so typically the wise men in the Petersburg Admiralty bet their all on the French design of Tsesarevich, whose high, unprotected sides and ungainly hull made her a terrible sea-boat. By contast, Retvizan's straight-up sides and beamy proportions gave her excellent stabililty and a smooth ride.
One of the unique design features of Retvizan was her "shooting galleries" under the bridge wings (right): stanchion frames surrounding pedestal-mounted 3" guns with bright square splinter shields, fore and aft. They stand out in photos; but the unobstructed sweep of the nearly-identical bridge wings gave Potemkin a cleaner profile. Like all Russian battleships of the time, Retvizan had large round fighting tops at the head of her lower masts; each of these gunhouses mounted four five-barrel 37 mm Hotchkiss machine guns. Retvizan also introduced upper belt armor to the Russian fleet, with 2" (51mm) protection for the upper hull and 5" - 6" for the 6" battery. Wartime experience showed that a mere 2" - 3" of armor would deflect most midsize armor-piercing projectiles at ranges of 10,000 yards and up. Lacking even this elementary protection, the big Borodino class battleships were soon riddled with shell holes and burning like torches at Tsushima. Retvizan was originally specified with Belleville boilers, but the yard talked the Russians into installing Niclausse instead -- a decision the Russians would soon regret. Many of the details of the Retvizan were copied or adapted in Cramps' next project for the U.S. Navy, the second USS Maine, although with less success than in the Russian ship.
Plans and Specifications
Specifications for the Retvizan:
Dimensions: 386'8" x 72'2" x 25' Displacement: 12,915 tons. Armament: (4) 12"/40 cal. (2x2), (12) 6"/45, (20) 3" 12-pdr and (20) 1" 3-pdr guns; (8) Hotchkiss 37 mm MG; (4) 18" torpedo tubes. Armor: Krupp Cemented throughout. Bow-to-stern 9"/4" waterline belt; 10" turrets and conn; 9" bulkheads and turret bases; 5" battery redoubt; 6" casemates; 2" upper belt; deck, 3"/1". Fuel capacity: 1,016 tons of coal std; 2,000 tons maximum. Propulsion: 24 Niclausse boilers; (2) 3-cyl inverted vertical triple expansion engines developing 16,000 hp, shafted to twin screw. Speed: 18.8 knots. Endurance: 8,000nm @ 10 kts. Crew: 750. Initial cost: US $4,360,000 or £1M at 1900 valuation.
Metric specs:
Dimensions: 115m x 21.9m x 7.6m Displacement: 12,915 tons. Armament: (4) 305 mm/40 (2x2), (12) 105 mm/45, (20) 75mm 12-pdr and (20) 3-pdr guns; (8) Hotchkiss 37 mm MG; (4) 45 cm torpedo tubes. Armor: Krupp Cemented throughout. Bow-to-stern waterline belt, 229/102 mm; 254 mm turrets and conn; 229 mm bulkheads and turret bases; 127 mm battery redoubt; 150 mm casemates; 52 mm upper belt; 76 mm deck. Fuel capacity: 1,016 tons of coal std; 2,000 tons maximum. Propulsion: 24 Niclausse boilers; (2) 3-cyl inverted vertical triple expansion engines developing 11,931 kW, shafted to twin screw. Speed: 35 km/hr. Endurance: 14,816 km @ 18.5 km/hr. Crew: 750. Initial cost: US $4,360,000 or £1M at 1900 valuation.
Ship's History
Retvizan's own qualities as a sea-boat were proved on her trip to Kronshtadt after commissioning in Dec. 1901. On her arrival she was part of Tsar Nicholas' naval review welcoming Kaiser Wilhelm and his brand-new pre-dreadnought fleet. The festivities were thickly larded with imperial one-upmanship and ponderous good fellowship between the shy but savage emperors -- close relatives who for 12 years would placate each other with the "Willy-Nicky letters" even as they drove Europe towards the bloodiest war to date. But in 1902 it was another war that impended. Wilhelm II was urging his soft-headed cousin toward war with Japan, assuring him of an easy win.
At left, the ship's American-made bow scrollwork included a Romanov double eagle in an ornate oval medallion, surrounded by gilded "scrambled eggs." The imperial pomp of her commissioning completed, Retvizan was despatched to join Russia's burgeoning fleet at Port Arthur, which included most of the ships named above: the cream of the Russian navy. She had been part of the First Pacific Squadron for just under two years when the anticipated war broke out. Japan's C-in-C, Adm. Togo, ordered a sneak torpedo boat attack on the Russian ships at Port Arthur on the night of Feburary 24, 1904, damaging or temporarily sinking a large number of their targets. Retvizan, Tsesarevich, and Poltava were hors de combat until their session came up at the one available dockyard. From the first in this war, the Japanese grasped the initiative by sea. Also from the first, citizens of Port Arthur grew to accept bizarrely canted warships dotted around the harbor as a normal part of the scenery. Retvizan was among the vessels shelled at the waterline in a Japanese follow-up attack the next day and settled right into the harbor bottom mud. During her lengthy wait for the drydock, shipwrights brought out by Adm. Stepan Makaroff erected timber cofferdams around the holed sections of hull and patched them temporarily. Lamentably, Makaroff was long cold by the time Retvizan emerged ready to fight again on May 23.
She was in time to witness some palace intrigue between Viceroy Yevgeny A. Alexeiev and the commanding admiral, Wilhelm Vitgeft. Alexeiev "pulled rank" on the admiral, using his leverage with his nephew, the Tsar, to override any dissent. Although Witgeft saw the down side of engaging the Japanese, Alexeiev demanded a naval sortie to link up the Port Arthur flotilla and the Vladivostok cruiser squadron. On the morning of August 10, 1904, Witgeft's ships raised steam and weighed anchor to defy the Japanese blockade. The Russian Pacific Squadron that day comprised the battleships Tsesarevich (flag), Retvizan, Pobieda, Peresviet, Sevastopol and Poltava, along with four protected cruisers and 14 torpedo-boats. The Japanese fleet, commanded by Admiral Togo, was composed of the battleships Mikasa, Asahi, Fuji, and Shikishima, the armored cruisers Nisshin and Kasuga, plus 8 protected cruisers, 18 destroyers and 30 torpedo-boats.
By midday, the main body of Japanese battleships attempted to block the Russians' exit route from the Port Arthur approaches. Around 1 p.m. the first shots were fired. During an hour-long exchange, the Russians succeeded in breaking out of the harbor. Admiral Togo began a long-range chase of the Russian fleet, gradually overtaking it from the southwest. At 4:20 the action resumed. With heavy smoke clouds drifting over the scene, the two fleets traded artillery fire from ranges of 9,000 to 10,000 yards and both sides took damage. At 6:00, the battle's outcome was decided when Admiral Vittgeft was killed by a shell splinter on the bridge of the Tsesarevich. Just 12 minutes later, further hits on the Tsesarevich's command center killed the captain and all the bridge personnel, in the process locking the ship's steering engine into a hard-left turn. The flagship sagged from the battle line and began to steam in enormous circles. Unaware of the catastrophe to their commander, the remaining Russian ships followed. Although the Peresviet attempted to assert control, the other Russian ships did not immediately follow her signals, and their formation fell into confusion. Retvizan was targeted by several Japanese battleships at once and was hit by so many projectiles at one point that she was literally blown off her course. Fortunately for the Russians, Togo was running low on ammunition, and with darkness approaching the Japanese broke off the fight and retired eastward. Night torpedo-boat attacks on the fleeing Russians were fruitless, suggesting that alert secondary-gun crews were able to beat off the TBs' attentions.
Most of the remaining Russian fleet (5 battleships, a cruiser and 5 destroyers) regained the safety of Port Arthur before dawn and began the process of cleaning up their ships and burying their 400-odd dead. Meantime, the damaged Tsesarevich and her 3 escorting destroyers ran for Qingdao in the German colony of Shandong, on the opposite shore of Bohai Gulf, arriving in a sinking condition with her bridge blown away and four big holes in her armor belt at the waterline. The Russian ships were disarmed and interned for the duration of hostilities, a bit over one year. The fleet cruisers Askold and Diana managed a dash for safety and were interned at Shanghai and Saigon, respectively, for the duration; the fast cruiser Novik was the only one to follow the Tsar's orders and make for Vladivostok; but she was cornered by Japanese cruisers when well on her way to that destination. After beating off the cruiser Tsushima but still faced with the implacable and uninjured Chitose, her crew ran their ship up on the beach and set her afire to avoid capture. Back in port, Retvizan nursed her injuries. She had taken 18 large-calibre hits and suffered 6 crewmen killed. Alexeiev's honor upheld, the Russian ships trapped in Port Arthur languished there, rusting, their battle damage unrepaired: a premonition of defeat. In November, as the siege tightened, the Japanese army took the high ground around the city and erected mammoth mortars and humongous howitzers there. The Russian vessels in the East Basin naval base were all shelled and sunk in the shallows, to be salvaged after the fall of the city and mustered into the Imperial Japanese Navy. On Nov. 23, 1904, Retvizan took 35 hits from the Japanese siege guns and settled on the muddy bottom of the anchorage.
Retvizan undergoing salvage at Port Arthur, spring 1905.
On the eve of surrender the ships and fortifications were extensively sabotaged by the Russians, but the overall effect was uneven. The Japanese had Retvizan afloat by April 1905 and back in commission by 1908. Renamed Hizen, she spent most of the next 13 years at sea, including wartime service in the Japanese Navy. She was part of the Japanese-British armada that bombarded and captured the German port at Qingdao. Later Hizen saw more action against the Bolsheviks during Japan's intervention in the Russian Civil War -- she saw Vladivostok at last, but not quite the way Viceroy Alexeiev had imagined it (the former viceroy was by then commanding White forces in the Ukraine, and steadily losing. But at least he had a new dreadnought named in his honor!) That conflict settled, Hizen was decommissioned in 1921; after a few years in reserve she was converted into a target ship. In this capacity she was finally sunk in 1924 - by Japanese gunfire, for the third time.
A Repository of Retvizan Remembrances
Retvizan at Philadelphia shortly before she departed for Europe. Her pennant flies from the main truck. For an enlarged view that's as satisfying as a thick cheese steak and a cold Pryor's Double Dark, click here.
Retvizan and one of the Peresviets decked for review at Port Arthur.
Retvizan under steam. Note 2-tone paint job on ventilator cowls.
The bosuns pipe hands to grog on Retvizan's quarterdeck: diluted vodka in the Russian navy.
Retvizan dressed over all.
Retvizan dressed over all -- quarter view.
A romanticized view of the Retvizan during her three years' duty in the Far East.
A fine watercolor of the Retvizan leaving port.
Retvizan sunk in the east basin at Port Arthur, 1905: A melancholy contrast with the images of her full glory. The seamy underside of military adventurism lies exposed in all its ugliness. One mercy: Retvizan's casualty list in battle was only 6 dead and 43 wounded, a far cry from the 90 - 100% mortality in most of the Tsar's ships sunk at Tsushima. Another view (heavily retouched)
Retvizan in Japanese service as HIJMS Hizen. Raised and commissioned in the Japanese Navy, she remained active in Far Eastern waters for 14 more years, and two more at rust -- er, at rest, until her demise in 1924. Disarmed, she was sunk in the Bungo Strait as a target for the Japanese navy's big guns. Not a bad service record for this tough, likable brawler from South Philly.
