Russian battleship Tsesarevich

''Tsesarevich'' (russian: Цесаревич) was a pre-dreadnought battleship of the Imperial Russian Navy, built in France at the end of the 19th century. The ship's design formed the basis of the Russian-built s. She was based at Port Arthur, northeast China, after entering service and fought in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905. ''Tsesarevich'' was torpedoed during the surprise attack on Port Arthur and was repaired to become the flagship of Rear Admiral Wilgelm Vitgeft in the Battle of the Yellow Sea and was interned in Tsingtau after the battle.

After the war, the ship was transferred to the Baltic Fleet and helped to suppress the Sveaborg Rebellion in mid-1906. While on a Mediterranean cruise, her crew helped survivors of the 1908 Messina earthquake in Sicily. ''Tsesarevich'' was not very active during the early part of World War I and her bored sailors joined the general mutiny of the Baltic Fleet in early 1917. Now named ''Grazhdanin'', the ship participated in the Battle of Moon Sound in 1917, during which she was lightly damaged. The ship was seized by the Bolsheviks during the Russian Revolution in late 1917 and decommissioned the following year. ''Grazhdanin'' was scrapped in 1924–1925.

Design and description

Tsar Nicholas II had desired a warm-water port on the Pacific since his accession to the throne in 1894. He achieved this ambition in March 1898 when Russia signed a 25-year lease for Port Arthur and the Liaotung Peninsula with China. Japan had previously forced China to sign over the port and its surrounding territory as part of the treaty that concluded the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895, but the Triple Intervention of France, Russia, and Germany forced them to return the port in exchange for a sizeable increase in the indemnity paid by the Chinese. Japan invested much of the indemnity money in expanding its fleet, while Russia began a major building programme ("For the Needs of the Far East") to defend its newly acquired port.

Russian shipyards were already at full capacity so the Naval Ministry decided to order ships from abroad. Specifications were issued on 14 June 1898 and a few days later the chief designer of the French shipyard Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée proposed a design based on that of the . The Naval Technical Committee approved the design with a few changes to which the French readily agreed. The General Admiral, Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich, selected the French design over a competing proposal from the Baltic Works. A contract was signed on 20 July 1898 at a cost of 30.28 million francs (11.355 million rubles) for delivery in 42 months.

''Tsesarevich''s most obvious design feature was her tumblehome hull. This had several advantages because it allowed greater freeboard since the narrow upper decks reduced the structural weight of the vessel's hull, it increased the field of fire of guns mounted on the sides, and it reduced the ship's roll in heavy seas. Its great disadvantage was that it reduced buoyancy and stability which contributed to excessive heel during turns. During the Battle of the Yellow Sea in August 1904, Imperial Japanese Navy observers thought the ''Tsesarevich'' was going to capsize when she suddenly turned out of the battleline.

''Tsesarevich'' was long overall, had a beam of and a draught of . The ship displaced . Her crew consisted of 28–29 officers and 750 enlisted men.

The ship was powered by two vertical triple-expansion steam engines using steam generated by 20 Belleville boilers at a working pressure of . The boilers were fitted with economizers that preheated their feed water. The engines were rated at and designed to reach a top speed of . ''Tsesarevich'' handily exceeded her design speed and reached from during her official machinery trials in July–August 1903. She normally carried of coal, but could carry a maximum of . This allowed the ship to steam for at a speed of . ''Tsesarevich'' was fitted with six steam-driven electric generators with a total capacity of .

Armament and fire control

''Tsesarevich''s main armament consisted of two pairs of 40-calibre 12-inch guns mounted in electrically powered twin-gun turrets, one forward and one aft of the superstructure. The guns and their mountings were Russian-built, but the turrets themselves were made in France. The guns could be loaded at all angles of elevation and the turrets could traverse 270°. Trials revealed that the ammunition hoists tended to jam when the ship was rolling; the shipyard shipped new hoists to Port Arthur because the Russians wanted the ship in the Far East as soon as possible and they were installed in January 1904. The ship carried 70 rounds per gun. The guns fired one shell every 90–132 seconds. They fired a shell at a muzzle velocity of to a range of at an elevation of 15°.

The secondary armament of a dozen 45-caliber Canet Model 1892 (QF) guns was mounted in six electrically powered twin-gun turrets on the upper deck. The corner turrets had a 150° arc of fire and the center turrets could cover 180°. Each gun was provided with 200 rounds. Their rate of fire was 2–4 rounds per minute.Forczyk, p. 30 They fired shells that weighed with a muzzle velocity of . They had a maximum range of approximately .

A number of smaller guns were carried for defense against torpedo boats. These included twenty 50-calibre Canet QF guns; 14 in hull embrasures and the remaining six mounted on the superstructure. The ship carried 300 shells for each gun. They fired a shell at a muzzle velocity of to a maximum range of at an elevation of 13°. ''Tsesarevich'' also mounted twenty Hotchkiss guns in the superstructure. They fired a shell at a muzzle velocity of at a rate of around 15 rounds per minute. Eight smaller Maxim QF guns were also fitted, but their locations are unknown.McLaughlin, p. 132 They fired a shell at a muzzle velocity of .

The ship carried four torpedo tubes; two of these were mounted above water in the bow and stern, and the two broadside underwater tubes were located near the forward 12-inch magazine. ''Tsesarevich'' carried a total of 14 torpedoes. The ship also carried 45 mines to be laid to protect her anchorage in remote areas.

The ship was fitted with two British Barr and Stroud coincidence rangefinders that used two images that had to be superimposed to derive the range. The gunnery officer then calculated the proper elevation and deflection required to hit the target and transmitted his commands via a Geisler electro-mechanical fire-control transmission system to each turret.

Protection

''Tsesarevich'' used the latest Krupp armor in a version of the French cellular armor scheme. This consisted of a full-length waterline armoured belt with armored decks above and below. Behind the belt were well-subdivided compartments mostly used to store coal. This was intended to keep the ship afloat regardless of the damage inflicted above the upper armoured deck. The waterline armor belt was high, with below the waterline at normal load. It had a maximum thickness of for a length of amidships which gradually reduced to a thickness of at the bow and at the stern. The belt tapered to a thickness of 170 millimetres at its bottom edge amidships and presumably tapered proportionally along its length. Above the waterline belt was an upper strake of armour that was high and had a maximum thickness of . It was slightly shorter than the waterline belt and similarly reduced in thickness towards the ends of the ship. Forward it consisted of armour plates and aft.

The armor of the main gun turrets and their supporting tubes was 250 millimetres thick with roofs thick. Below the upper armour deck the armour of the support tubes decreased to . The turrets of the secondary armament had sides with roofs. The sides of the conning tower were thick and it had a 63-millimetre roof. It had a communications tube that extended down to the upper armoured deck that was protected by 100-millimetre armour. The funnel uptakes were protected by of armour for the height of one deck above the upper armoured deck.McLaughlin, p. 134

Above the upper armour belt there was a deck that ran the full length of the ship that consisted of a armour plate laid on deck plating. At the top of the waterline belt was two layers of armour. It also extended the full length of the ship, but not the full width; it curved downward behind the belt and was connected to the lower edge of the belt by a 20-millimetre plate. It continued downward to the ship's inner bottom plates and formed a sort of torpedo bulkhead. This bulkhead was from the side of the ship and extended for a length of . It was backed with coal bunkers.

Construction and service

Construction began on ''Tsesarevich'', named after the title of the heir to the Russian throne, on 18 May 1899 at the Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée shipyard in La Seyne-sur-Mer, France. The ship was laid down on 8 July 1899 and launched on 23 February 1901. Construction was supervised by Captain Ivan Grigorovich, who became the ship's first captain. ''Tsesarevich'' entered service in August 1903 and was assigned to the Far East. She arrived in Port Arthur on 2 December 1903. Upon completion, the ''Tsesarevich'' was the Russian Navy's best battleship at the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War.

After the Japanese victory in the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895, both Russia and Japan had ambitions to control Manchuria and Korea, resulting in tensions between the two nations. Japan had begun negotiations to reduce the tensions 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 this as deliberate prevarication designed to buy time to complete the Russian armament programs. The situation was worsened by Russia's failure to withdraw its troops from Manchuria in October 1903 as promised. The final straws were the 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 actions caused the Japanese government to decide in December 1903 that war was inevitable. As tensions with Japan increased, the Pacific Squadron began mooring in the outer harbor at night in order to react more quickly to any Japanese attempt to land troops in Korea.

Russo-Japanese War

She was one of three ships to be struck by Japanese torpedoes in the surprise attack on the night of 8/9 February 1904. ''Tsesarevich'' was hit abaft the portside torpedo bulkhead and the ship took on an 18° list that was partially corrected by counterflooding compartments on the starboard side. She got underway, but ran aground at the narrow harbor entrance. She was refloated and moved into the harbour for repairs that lasted until 7 June. Some of the ship's guns were removed during the summer to reinforce the defenses of the port. ''Tsesarevich'' lost a total of four 75-millimetre, two 47-millimetre and two 37-millimetre guns. The ship was hit twice on 7 August by Japanese shells fired at long range; a fragment from one of them lightly wounded rear admiral Wilgelm Vitgeft.

Battle of the Yellow Sea

On the morning of 10 August, the First Pacific Squadron sortied from Port Arthur in an attempt to break through the Japanese fleet blockading the port and reach Vladivostok. The Russian squadron consisted of six battleships, ''Tsesarevich'', , , , and '' Poltava'', along with four protected cruisers and eight destroyers. The Japanese fleet, commanded by Vice Admiral Tōgō Heihachirō, was comprised four battleships, , , , , two armoured cruisers and , as well as seven protected cruisers.

''Tsesarevich'' and ''Pobeda'' both suffered mechanical problems within an hour of departure that forced the fleet to slow down to a speed of . Tōgō failed in his attempt to cross the Russian's T after spotting them around 12:25 and a general engagement began around 13:25 with the Japanese ships concentrating their fire on ''Tsesarevich'' and ''Retvizan'', but the effective Russian fire forced Togo to disengage around 15:20. He closed with the Russians about two hours later and opened fire at 17:35. Neither side was able to mortally damage any ships while the Russians were still in the lead with about a half-hour of daylight left when two 12-inch shells fired by ''Asahi'' struck near ''Tsesarevich''s conning tower at 18:40. Shell fragments bounced off the conning tower's overhanging roof into the conning tower, killing Vitgeft, two staff officers and the helmsman. The ship turned to port with the steering wheel jammed and was followed by several other battleships. ''Tsesarevich'' became the focus of attention from every Japanese ship so the captain of ''Retvizan'' decided to charge the Japanese battleline to buy time for ''Tsesarevich'' to fix her steering problem. He succeeded in doing so and the squadron's second-in-command, Rear Admiral Prince Pavel Ukhtomsky gradually asserted command over the scattered Russian ships and ordered them back to Port Arthur in the darkness. ''Tsesarevich'' attempted to head north to Vladivostok in the dark, but her damaged funnels greatly increased her coal consumption and reduced her speed to only so that she was forced to head for the German treaty port of Tsingtau instead with three destroyers for escort. Upon arrival the following day, ''Tsesarevich'' and her companions were interned and disarmed. The ship had been hit by thirteen 12-inch and two shells that killed 12 and wounded 47 members of her crew.

Post Russo-Japanese War and WWI

At the end of the Russo-Japanese war, the ship was transferred to the Baltic in early 1906 and helped to suppress the Sveaborg Rebellion on 1 August. Around 1906, her fighting top was removed and her superstructure was cut down. The 75-millimetre guns in the superstructure were apparently removed as well. ''Tsesarevich'' made regular winter cruises to the Mediterranean before World War I and aided survivors of the Messina earthquake in December 1908. In 1909–1910 the ship's machinery was overhauled and her amidships casemated 75-millimetre guns were removed and plated over four years later. ''Tsesarevich'' was not very active during the early part of World War I and she reportedly received two 37-millimetre anti-aircraft guns during the war.

Her crew joined the general mutiny of the Baltic Fleet on 16 March 1917, after the idle sailors received word of the February Revolution in Saint Petersburg. She was renamed ''Grazhdanin'' (russian: link=no, Гражданин (meaning ''Citizen'')) on 13 April 1917 after the February Revolution. The ship took part in the Battle of Moon Sound in October 1917 off the coast of Estonia. During the climatic part of the battle, ''Grazhdanin'' engaged the German minesweepers on 17 October with little effect while the predreadnought engaged the German dreadnoughts and . The latter fired at ''Grazhdanin'' and hit her twice, killing one and wounding four crewmen, although neither hit caused significant damage. The German dreadnoughts outranged ''Grazhdanin'', and she was forced to abandon Moon Sound in the face of German pressure.

By December the ship was in Kronstadt, where she came under the control of the Bolsheviks, and she was hulked there in May 1918. ''Grazhdanin'' was scrapped beginning in 1924, although she was not officially stricken from the Navy List until 21 November 1925.McLaughlin, pp. 135, 301

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Article in Russian language

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tsesarevich
Battleships of the Imperial Russian Navy
Ships built in France
1901 ships
Battleships of Russia
Russo-Japanese War battleships of Russia
World War I battleships of Russia
Maritime incidents in 1904
Shipwrecks of China
Battleships of the Soviet Navy