The Varyag was built in the Cramps shipyard in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, which also produced the battleship Retvizan for the Tsar. She is seen above at Kronstadt shortly after delivery in 1902. Click here to enlarge photo. Varyag was part of the huge naval buildup leading to the Russo-Japanese War. At the very beginning of that conflict, the new cruiser was bested in battle and scuttled by her crew to avoid capture. The ship was subsequently salvaged by the Japanese and sailed in their fleet as HIJMS Soya for many years.
With her length and arrow-like form, Varyag was intended as a commerce raider, swooping down on her prey with overpowering speed. She was originally intended to be boilered with Belleville water-tube boilers, but the builders lobbied hard for using the Niclausse water-tube type instead. The Tsar's admirals had cause to pull out their hair over that decision, for the ship never lived up to expectations in terms of speed: designed for 25+ knots, with 20,000-HP engines, she seldom exceeded 23. The ship's engines and boilers were not improved by more than a year's immersion in sea water off Chemulpo, Korea. In the vessel's refit following salvage, an extensive rebuild was necessary. The Japanese started by replacing the Niclausse boilers with Miyabara.
The vessel's name describes the Varangians -- legendary traders, mercenaries, and pirates who controlled the water routes through the eastern fringes of Europe from Finland down to the Black Sea by a series of forts in the 9th and 10th centuries. Of Viking and Slavic stock, they controlled much of the trade with Constantinople in the waning years of the Byzantine Empire, and provided much of the military muscle that sustained the Kievan state ("Rus"). These burly warriors and watermen were among the original founders of the Russian state. In medieval times and, indeed, all the way down to the 1917 Revolution, Russian nobles calculated their rank by the proximity of their descent from Rurik the Viking -- a legendary Varangian whose descendents founded the Kievan state. A number of powerful warships were named for Rurik in the later Russian Navy.
Ship's Specifications
Specifications for the Varyag:
Dimensions: 416 x 52' x 21' Displacement: 6,500 tons. Armament: (12) 6"/45 cal, (12) 12-pdr, (6) 3-pdr; (4) 18" torpedo tubes. Armor: Harvey type throughout: CT: 6", deck: 3"; engine hatches: 4". Propulsion: coal-fired Niclausse boilers, replaced by Miyabara in 1907; (2) 4-cyl. vertical triple expansion engines, developing 20,000 hp, shafted to twin screw. Maximum speed: 24.6 kts. Fuel capacity: 770 tons of coal normal; 1,250 tons maximum. Operating radius: 960 nm @ 23 kts; 4,500 nm @ 10 kts. Crew: 571.
Metric Specifications:
Dimensions: 126.8m x 15.85m x 6.4m Displacement: 6,500 tons. Armament: (12) 152 mm/45 cal, (12) 12-pdr, (6) 3-pdr; (4) 45 cm torpedo tubes (2 dry, 2 submerged). Armor: Harvey type throughout: CT: 152 mm; deck: 76 mm; engine hatches: 101 mm. Propulsion: coal-fired Niclausse boilers, replaced by Miyabara in 1907; (2) 4-cyl. vertical triple expansion engines, developing 20,000 hp, shafted to twin screw. Maximum speed: 45.56 km/hr. Fuel capacity: 770 tons of coal normal; 1,250 tons maximum. Operating radius: 1,778 nm @ 42.6 km/hr; 25,002 km @ 18.52 km/hr. Crew: 571.
Ship's History
As hostilities commenced in the first days of February 1904, the Varyag and the gunboat Koriets were surprised in the Korean port of Chemulpo (Inchon) by an overwhelmingly superior Japanese squadron. It was the day before Japan launched its surprise torpedo attack on Port Arthur when the Koriets stumbled upon a troop convoy with 4 batallions of soldiers was on its way to fight the Russians, with a planned landing at Inchon.
Late on the afternoon of Feb. 8, 1904, a squadron of six Japanese cruisers and eight destroyers, escorting the transports, passed off Inchon to ensure unopposed landings for Japanese troops that night. Setting out for Port Arthur, Koriets ran into the Japanese fleet and saluted the Japanese flag. To their horror, the Russians found their salute returned with deadly force: the sea seethed with torpedoes aimed at them, although none hit. Quickly switching from blanks to live ammo, Koriets got off the first Russian shots of the Russo-Japanese War before scurrying back to Chemulpo to raise the alarm.
Brazenly defying Korea's neutrality, the Japanese commander, R. Adm. Uryu, proceeded to land his 3,000 troops that night; some occupied Chemulpo while the balance of the force prepared to march on Seoul. Being privy to the war plans, he surely knew that Korea was to be reduced to a puppet state and later taken over by Japan, and so had little reason to respect the Hermit Kingdom's neutrality. Even so, the Japanese ships all withdrew beyond the harbor before dawn. Having discharged his primary mission, Uryu next morning issued an ultimatum to the Russians, sending the document by boat from the cruiser Naniwa: Leave port by noon or we will attack you in harbor. The captains of the neutral warships in harbor delivered a protest to Uryu, but the Russians had already determined to make such an end as would be celebrated in song. Following the orders of Captain Vsevolod Rudnev, the four funnels of Varyag belched black smoke as she raised steam and sortied to meet her doom, followed by her junior partner, at 11:30 a.m. Large battle flags streamed from their mastheads and the Varyag's band played the national anthem, "God Save the Tsar!", as the two warships steamed out to fight.
Despite the brave show, Russian gunnery proved sadly deficient in the battle that followed. Neither ship put so much as a scratch on any Japanese cruiser. Varyag took hits on her bow and after hull at the waterline, on the foremast and on the bridge; her fearless captain was among the wounded, struck by shrapnel from a shell bursting on the foremast. Varyag was still a tenable contender until her steering was damaged; she could still maneuver, with difficulty, using engines and a crew muscling the big wheels in the steering flat, but responsiveness was sluggish and she responded poorly in currents; Inchon is noted for tricky tides and currents. After an hour's bloody affray, all the cruiser's 6-inch guns had been put out of action. Varyag limped back into harbor about 12:45, listing and flaming, laden with 33 dead and 191 wounded. The Koriets, largely masked by the Varyag's bulk, came back relatively unscathed. Faced with insuperable odds, Rudnev ordered both ships scuttled once the wounded had been taken off. Around 6:30 p.m. the big cruiser capsized onto her starboard side in the shallow anchorage. Meanwhile, the Koriets had been blown to atoms by her crew. At 4:00 sharp, two terrific explosions tore her hull and a dense, grey mushroom cloud shot skyward. As the smoke cleared over the turbulent water where the warship had floated, only jagged bits of wreckage and the top 4 feet of her funnel could be seen. Her hull had broken into three pieces, the foremost of which landed upside down in the harbor mud.
The survivors of both vessels escaped capture. The wounded were treated ashore in Inchon, while many of the survivors were taken aboard neutral warships that were in port, all of which had been watching the day's events with eager interest. The foreign warships included HMS Talbot, the Italian cruiser Elba, the USS Vicksburg and Pompey (collier), and the French cruiser Pascal.
The Russian mariners enjoyed international fame for their heroic (and well-publicized) fight. After the war, the heavily damaged Varyag was salvaged and laboriously repaired in Japan. Honoring their foe, the Japanese conferred the Order of the Rising Sun on Capt. Rudnev and placed monuments to the battle at Seoul and Inchon; Korea was nominally independent but really under increasing Japanese control until 1910, when it was formally annexed by Japan.
Renamed Soya, the ex-Varyag was taken into the Mikado's fleet, commissioning in 1908. But the ship was among several ex-Russian prizes sold back into the Tsar in 1916. The following year she was undergoing overhaul in Britain when successive waves of revolution and civil war broke over Russia. Sold to Germany for scrap, she foundered while under tow to the wreckers in 1920; her remains rest in the Firth of Clyde to this day. The site overlooking her sinking at Lendlefoot, Scotland was used for a joint Russo-Scottish ceremony dedicating a memorial marker on July 30, 2006 -- Russian Navy Day. Because of their gallant action at Chemulpo, the ship and her crew are revered to this day in Russia. A song written by Rudolf Grenz, glorifying the ship's exploits, has become the unofficial anthem of the Russian Navy. The fighting spirit of the Varyag thus is linked closely to the esprit-de-corps of the entire service.
A Varyag Picture Gallery
Varyag at Philadelphia shortly after completing.
Varyag fitting out at Cramps' yard.
The Varyag's forecastle head.
Wheelhouse of the Varyag.
Varyag's housetop with funnels, ventilator cowls, and flying bridge for swift access.
Varyag viewed from astern.
Arrival at Port Arthur: Varyag and one of the Petropavlovsks. Enlarge
Soon after arriving, Varyag occupies the graving dock at Port Arthur, 1903.
Enlarge
The Battle of Chemulpo
The Varyag's squadron-mate in the Far East was the 1,300-ton gunboat Koriets. This peculiar-looking ram, completed in 1887, carried two 8"/35 in sponsons, a 6"/35 on the quarterdeck, two 4.2" guns, and six small quick-firing guns. The feisty Koriets had a speed of 13.3 kts, fired the first gunshots of the Russo-Japanese War. Her picturesque barquentine rig shown here had been cut down to a three-mast military rig some years before the battle.
Varyag's guns spit defiance at the numerically superior Japanese cruiser fleet.
The Varyag and Koriets burn and founder in Chemulpo Harbor as their crews row off: Japanese propaganda postcard.
The Koriets blows sky-high at Chemulpo: photo taken by the American consul from the gunboat USS Vicksburg in port.
Varyag scuttled by her crew at Chemulpo.
Final Years
Varyag refurbished and mustered into the Mikado's fleet as HIJMS Soya.
Another view of HIJMS Soya, ex-Varyag.
Soviet-era 3-kopeck postage stamp of the Varyag, ironically issued in the middle of the Cold War.
The reverence which Russians feel for the ship may be appreciated on beholding this monument to the Varyag. Dedicated on Navy Day, 2006, it stands on the Scottish bluffs overlooking the spot where the cruiser sank in a raging storm in 1920.
