At the end of April 1904, at a special meeting chaired by Emperor Nicholas II, it was decided to include the battleship Navarin, which was being repaired and partially modernized in Kronstadt, into the 2nd Pacific Squadron. In view of the forced reduction in the time allotted for the implementation of the planned measures, part of the previously envisaged work had to be canceled, and already from June 1904 the ship, along with the battleship Sisoy Veliky that had also undergone repairs and the armored cruiser Admiral Nakhimov, stood on the Bolshoi Kronstadt roadstead.
By order of ZP Rozhestvensky dated June 23, 1904 (hereinafter, all dates are given according to the old style), "Navarin" together with "Oslyabya", "Sisoy the Great" and "Admiral Nakhimov" was enlisted in the 2nd armored detachment, headed by Rear Admiral DG Felkerzam, who raised his flag on the battleship Oslyabya.
With the transfer of the squadron to Revel (Tallinn) on August 30, 1904, a period of combat training began: for a month, rank I and II ships practiced squadron evolutions, conducted barrel and caliber training firing, destroyers practiced torpedo launches. Working out a schedule for the loading of coal for the upcoming transition, the ships in Reval were loaded with coal three times in an emergency order, nevertheless, the loading speed, due to the insufficient attention of the ship authorities to the organization of work, was relatively low. So, on "Navarin" for an hour it was possible to take from 11, 4 to 23, 9 tons of coal; at the same time on the Japanese battleship "Fuji", for example, on April 24, 1905, the corresponding figure was one hundred and three tons in 27 minutes.
On September 28, 1904, the squadron left the port of Emperor Alexander III, arriving the next day in Libava (Liepaja). Having replenished coal reserves, the main forces of the 2nd Pacific squadron left Libau on October 2, 1904. At Cape Skagen (Skagen Odde) the squadron was divided into six detachments (No. 1-6), four of which, including the 5th (battleships "Oslyabya", "Sisoy Velikiy", "Navarin", armored cruiser "Admiral Nakhimov", transports "Meteor" and "Malaya") were to be followed to Tangier (Morocco).
On the night of October 8-9, 1904, in the Dogger Bank area, the so-called "Hull Incident" (with a high degree of probability, provoked by the British government) occurred, during which Russian ships fired at the British fishing flotilla and their cruiser " Aurora". This led to a further deterioration in relations between London and St. Petersburg, as well as the forced delay of the 1st armored detachment in the Spanish port of Vigo until the conflict was resolved.
The 2nd Pacific Squadron arrived in Tangier in parts, the first to arrive on October 16 was Detachment 5 (the flag of Rear Admiral Felkersam), and the last, five days later, Detachment 1 (the flag of Vice Admiral Rozhdestvensky). On the same day, the squadron commander, in view of the unreliability of the Navarin refrigerators and the Sisoy the Great boilers, gave orders to these two battleships along with three cruisers (Svetlana, Zhemchug, Almaz), which were later joined by 9 destroyers and 9 transports, follow the Suez Canal to Madagascar (rendezvous for the entire squadron). The battleship Sisoy the Great was chosen as the flagship of the Separate Squadron of the 2nd Pacific Squadron, to which Rear Admiral Felkerzam transferred his flag from the Oslyabi. On the passage from Crete to Port Said (Egypt), both battleships for the first time, after leaving Russia, conducted firing practice at shields, showing satisfactory results. Safely passing November 12-13, 1904Suez Canal, Felkerzam's detachment, observing on the way the security measures developed taking into account the "Hull incident", calling for water and coal in Port Said (Egypt) and Djibouti (French Somalia), on December 15, 1904 approached the entrance to the bay Nossi-be (Madagascar). Without resorting to the services of pilots, the ships of the detachment independently proceeded to the bay, which turned out to be so spacious that the entire 2nd Pacific Squadron was later able to accommodate in it in full force.
Battleships in Nossi Be, far right - "Navarin"
During the stay of the Second Pacific Squadron in one of the bays of Nossi-Bé Island, the Navarin, which, together with Oslyabya, was one of the two most well-aimed battleships, took part in training caliber firing four times (14, 18, 21 and 25 January 1905), during which the battleship fired 40 12 "and 120 6" shells.
For comparison, the battleships of the 1st Combat Detachment of the United Fleet (Mikasa, Shikishima, Fuji and Asahi) in the only spring caliber firing of 1905, conducted on April 12, 1905, fired a total of 32 12 "shells, sixteen of which hit the target. At the same time, the battleship" Prince Suvorov ", which fired on January 19, 1905 in much less favorable conditions (a shield as a target instead of a small island for the Japanese, and also much larger than for the Japanese, distance), fired six shells from the bow turret of the main caliber and achieved five hits.
After an almost three-month stay, the squadron on March 3, 1905, Rozhdestvensky's squadron left Madagascar, and then completed in 28 days an unprecedented crossing of the Indian Ocean. On April 26, 1905, the 2nd and 3rd squadrons met off the coast of Vietnam in Van Phong Bay, and the main forces of the 2nd Pacific Squadron began to number 8 squadron battleships, three coastal defense battleships, six I rank cruisers and three II cruisers. rank.
The last loading of coal on the "Navarin" took place on May 10, 1905, near Shanghai, during which the fuel supply on board was increased to more than 1,200 tons. All the bunkers were filled with coal, the living and battery decks, as well as the cabin and the tank of the ship, were filled up. On the same day, the 2nd armored detachment was left without a commander, after a long illness, Rear Admiral D. G. Captain 1st Rank V. I. Baer 1st.
By the morning of May 14, 1905, the amount of fuel reserves on the Navarino had decreased, according to the official report, to 751 tons (the normal reserve is from 700 to 730 tons), and the battleship entered the battle, having coal only in the coal pits and the stoker's compartment (the battleship, which had efficient desalination plants, did not have excess reserves of fresh water), which in terms of operational overload favorably differed from the already mentioned Japanese battleship "Fuji", for example. The latter, according to the British observer Captain T. Jackson, Royal Navy, on the eve of the Battle of Tsushima had from 1,163 to 1,300 tons of coal (the normal stock is 700 tons).
The day before, in preparation for the battle, all the "extra" wood on the "Navarin" was thrown overboard, with the exception of the boards in the rostra, intended for loading coal. The boats were one-third filled with water and were wrapped in anti-mine nets, the conning tower was wrapped in beads, and improvised traverses made of bags of coal and sand were arranged in the decks. At 16:30 the squadron received a signal "Prepare for battle", and at 18:00 - "Have pairs for full speed by dawn tomorrow."
Pursuant to the misinterpreted combat order of the squadron commander “Course nord-ost 23 °. Hit the head "(intended only for the 1st armored detachment)," Navarin "from the bow turret of the main caliber opened fire on the Japanese flagship, the rest of the guns were silent until the death of the battleship" Oslyabya ".
In the course of the day's battle at Navarin, chimneys and boats were damaged, and one 47 mm gun was put out of action. Two medium-caliber shells caused small fires in the wardroom and on the tank, which were later successfully extinguished. The side 6 armor of the casemate of medium-caliber guns was hit several times by shells of an unknown caliber.
In the waterline area, the battleship received seven hits (including one large-caliber projectile, presumably 12 , in the stern and bow), of which four fell on the aft compartment, which resulted in flooding in the stern, and three on the bow, where the water that penetrated into the torpedo compartment made the nose somewhat heavier, but the ship continued to hold the squadron speed of 8-10 knots.
The ship's medium artillery, firing mainly high-explosive shells, used up less than half of the ammunition in the Battle of Tsushima.
At 20:10 (hereinafter, Japanese time), the remnants of the 2nd Pacific Squadron were attacked for the first time (21 fighters and 37 destroyers were approaching from all three sides to Nebogatov's detachment, who was trying to hide from the Japanese by false turns). Looking ahead, we note that this night for the Japanese was more effective than the night after the battle at Cape Shantung, when 18 of their fighters and 31 destroyers, who fired 74 torpedoes (32 and 42, respectively) into the ships of the Port Arthur squadron, achieved only one hit (the torpedo did not explode on impact) into the battleship "Poltava".
The detachment led by Nebogatov, originally consisting of nine ships (seven battleships and two cruisers), disintegrated at nightfall. Unable to maintain a speed of about 12 knots, the Admiral Ushakov, Navarin, Sisoy Veliky and the cruiser Admiral Nakhimov gradually fell behind.
At about 21:00, the Navarin was attacked by the 4th fighter squadron of the 2nd Fleet (the braid pennant of Captain 2nd Rank Kantarō Suzuki) consisting of the Asagiri (朝霧) and Murasame (村 雨) (type "Harusame", assembled in Japan), as well as "Asashio" (朝 潮) and "Shirakumo" (白雲) (type "Shirakumo", built by the English company Thornycroft), and one of the one or two torpedoes they fired (probably type "Otsu", warhead - 52 kg of shimosa) at 21:05 exploded in the area of the right aft 6 "cellar.
Fighter "Asashio"
In the battery deck, electric lighting disappeared, and in the left bow stoker compartment, due to a bursting steam pipe, steam in the three bow boilers was cut off. After the repair of the pipe in the bow boilers, the steam was diluted, but the boilers were no longer put into operation. The living deck, even in the daytime battle, noticeably settled by the stern of "Navarin", separated by watertight bulkheads only to a height of 0, 91 m. From the waterline (with normal displacement), quickly became flooded with water, rushing into the ship through the hole formed after the explosion.
As a result of the subsequent extensive flooding, the stern additionally sagged so much that the water, covering the quarterdeck, approached the stern tower.
The water alarm was broken, the cellar was battened down and the plaster began to be applied; but, since the ends touched the kingston pipes, all efforts were in vain. After several people were washed overboard by the water from the poop, attempts to put on the plaster were stopped and the battleship gave way; among the team there was a rumor that the "Navarin" was heading to the nearest (obviously, Korean) coast in a four-knot course. To pump out water from the flooded aft compartment, bow and stern pumps were used, and buckets were also used.
While repelling subsequent torpedo attacks, the battleship, without opening the searchlight, fired with segment shells. As a result of several successful hits, one of the Japanese destroyers of the 2nd class of the type "No. 22" (No. 34 or No. 35) was so damaged that it subsequently sank.
Destroyer type "No. 22"
The Navarin was last attacked at about 02:00 27 miles northeast of Cape Karasaki when the battleship was re-located by the 4th fighter squadron. Having rushed forward at an increased speed of 15 knots, three fighters that remained unnoticed (Murasame, due to a strong leak from a six-inch shell received in a day's battle, headed for Takeshiki), at a distance of about 2,000 meters after overtaking Navarin, another Russian ship noticed. After a successful torpedo attack of the latter, the returning Japanese were met with fire from 47 mm and 37 mm guns of the Navarina, and despite which they managed to throw six bundles of mines across the course of the battleship (type "Gō kirai 1", entered service in October 1904.), each of which consisted of four, articulated with a cable, mines, with the help of floats held at a depth of six meters.
In the photo, crew members with a fragment of the skin pierced by a Russian shell.
Longitudinal section of a mine
Two of these mines almost simultaneously hit the Navarin, the first in the area of the stoker's compartment in the middle of the starboard side, and the second in the middle of the left side. The entire machine crew was killed, soon the command "Save" was sounded, the battleship began to roll to the starboard side and after 7-10 minutes disappeared under water.
In response to the question of British observers why the destroyers did not begin to rescue several hundred Russian sailors who were in the water, the Japanese told about their fears of being blown up by their own mines.
Of the entire crew of "Navarin" on May 14-15, 1905, 26 officers, one priest, 11 conductors and 643 lower ranks were killed and drowned, only three Navarin residents managed to survive. After a 24-hour stay in the water, they were picked up by an English commercial steamer (in the photo from left to right) Porfiry Tarasovich Derkach - a fireman of the 2nd article, a St. George cavalier and Stepan Dmitrievich Kuzmin - a gunner, a St. George cavalier.
The third survivor, signalman Ivan Andrianovich Sedov, was unconsciously picked up by the Japanese fighter "Fubuki" (吹 雪) fourteen hours after the sinking of the ship.
List of used literature
1. Russo-Japanese War 1904-1905. Book six. Hike of the 2nd Pacific Squadron to the Far East.
2. The Russo-Japanese War 1904-1905. Fleet actions. The documents. Reports and descriptions of the participants in the battle.
3. Description of military operations at sea in 37-28, Meiji (1904-1905)
4. Top secret history of the Russo-Japanese war at sea in 37-38 years. Meiji.
5. Other sources.
