As you know, the cruiser Zhemchug turned out to be the only Russian armored cruiser of the 2nd rank that took part in the Russian-Japanese war and survived until its end. In the proposed material, the author will consider his future fate.
At the end of the Tsushima battle, "Pearl" together with "Aurora" and "Oleg" arrived in Manila. This happened on May 21, 1905. It was assumed that the Russian cruisers would be able to receive coal there and the minimum necessary repairs after the battle. However, on May 24, an ultimatum was sent from Washington: either leave the port within 24 hours, or disarm. There was nothing to leave (there was no coal), and with the consent of St. Petersburg, the ships disarmed, surrendering the gun locks to the Americans and pledging not to participate in hostilities.
At the end of the war, the cruisers were able to carry out any repairs and get supplies for the ocean crossing; by October 5, 1905, everything was ready. Interestingly, on September 28, "Pearl" went out for testing machines, reaching a speed 2 knots lower than the contract, that is, 22 knots. Taking into account the fact that the ship showed 23.04 knots during the acceptance tests, the indicator is very outstanding.
An interesting discrepancy in the sources regarding the date of departure of Russian cruisers from Manila: A. A. Alliluyev and M. A. Bogdanov write that it happened on October 14, V. V. Khromov - that on the 15th. I must say that there is generally a lot of confusion with the dates in the sources: for example, according to A. A. Alliluyev and M. A. Bogdanov, American Admiral Reuters told O. A. Enquist that his cruisers are free on September 24, and according to V. V. Khromov, this happened on October 9. But, in any case, in Manila the paths of the Russian cruisers parted forever. "Oleg" and "Aurora" returned to the Baltic, while "Zhemchug" was to carry out further service in the Far East. Together with the cruiser "Askold", he was to form the backbone of the Siberian flotilla.
Troubles
"Pearl" arrived in Vladivostok in October 1905 and ended up in a real "hornet's nest": revolutionary fermentations were very strong in the city. This is not surprising. The Russo-Japanese War was lost, which in no way could add to the popularity of Nicholas II among the people. At the same time, the conditions in which many military units of Vladivostok were forced to exist could not be called anything other than Spartan: life in a tent and very meager food rations, delayed demobilization. It is clear that in such conditions any campaign had the most fertile ground. As for the Zhemchug sailors, it must be remembered that a serious drop in discipline was noted (and was extremely unexpected for the officers) back in Manila. And therefore it is not surprising that already in November of the same year, the Zhemchug team was listed as unreliable. It broke out on January 10, 1906, when two armed sailors arrived on the cruiser and demanded that the crew be released ashore. The Zhemchug commander could not do anything, and the sailors, armed with rifles, left. On that day, a large crowd, after a meeting of many thousands, went to the center of Vladivostok in order to demand the release of the participants in the previous uprising (1905), but was met with fire from the Cossack units, while 30 people died and 50 were injured.
But then the entire garrison joined the revolt, so that from January 11, Vladivostok was in the hands of the rebels, despite the fact that the commandant of the fortress was wounded. However, in the future, everything ended surprisingly peacefully. The new commandant managed to negotiate with the executive committee of the rebels, so that the soldiers and sailors submitted to the military command. In any case, the arrival of the detachment of Lieutenant General P. I. Mishchenko, equipped to suppress the rebellion, was not hindered, and Vladivostok was occupied by him completely without resistance.
What was the role of the Zhemchug sailors in all this? It is known that they, among other sailors from other ships and vessels, responded with fire to the Cossacks on January 10. True, A. A. Alliluyev and M. A. Bogdanov claim that in the evening of the same day the crew quietly and peacefully returned to the cruiser, but there are certain doubts about this: it can be assumed that this happened after the end of the uprising. However, the author of the article does not have exact data on this matter.
It is interesting that the artillery officer of the "Pearl" M. M. Domershchikov. Acting as a ship's inspector, he took 22 054.16 rubles from the cash desk. and transferred them to the Committee for Aid to the Insurgents, for which he was subsequently put on trial.
In any case, the authorities, of course, were not at all going to let this case go "on the brakes" - practically the entire Zhemchug team was written off to the shore, and 10 people were convicted by the court. The new team assigned to the cruiser turned out to be quite reliable, at least in the next uprising, which happened in 1907, it did not show itself in any way. Moreover, in November 1907, the Zhemchug pacified the mutinous crew of the Shilka messenger ship, which was at the time of the mutiny off the coast of Kamchatka. Unfortunately, there is little information about this episode of the ship's service, most likely because the authorities did not begin to do "out of a fly an elephant" this time and tried to silence this matter. Nevertheless, in the newspaper Novoye Vremya, No. 11360 of November 27, 1907, a note was published that Zhemchug intercepted the Shilka, which, however, simply did not surrender and a uniform sea battle took place, during which both ships received some damage. Nevertheless, the “Shilka” team was brought to submission, and that was the end of it.
Interwar service
Unfortunately, there is very little data on Pearl's service between the wars. The most famous sources describe it literally in a few paragraphs.
In 1906, the cruiser was undergoing some kind of repair, or at least docking: it is known that soon after leaving the dock, the cruiser was rammed by the port ship "Zealous", which led to damage to the stem and two sheathing sheets, the correction of which cost the treasury in 1 400 rubles. But it is quite obvious that this repair was cosmetic: already in 1908 the new commander of the "Pearl" S. S. Vyazemsky reported in his report that "further sailing of the cruiser without proper repair must be considered undoubtedly dangerous in the sense of maintaining at least a relative serviceability of the mechanisms." It can be assumed that the write-off of old servicemen and "revolutions instead of repairs" did not do the ship at all good: in June 1908, only 7 boilers out of 16 operated on the "Pearl" and it could only walk under one (medium) machine. Moreover, in theory, the cruiser could develop 14 knots with them, but in practice, more than 10-11 knots. I could not go. That is, in combat terms, the ship turned into some kind of incomprehensible, but very voracious gunboat - the daily consumption of coal reached 110 tons. Of course, some repairs were carried out by the crew, but it is obvious that this was completely insufficient.
However, the service was running. In 1907-1909. "Zhemchug" strictly performed the prescribed shooting exercises, walked along the bays of Primorye, or was stationed in Shanghai. In 1907, the "Pearl" was sent to the aid of the French cruiser "Chanzy" in distress, but this expedition, alas, was not crowned with success. By the time the Pearl arrived, the Shanzi had already completely crashed on the rocks off the coast of China. The cruiser also had a chance to visit Japan - in 1908 he brought a new ambassador there.
Probably the most sad event should be considered the "meeting" with the same type of "Pearl" "Emerald". The cruisers parted in the Battle of Tsushima, on the night of May 14-15, 1904, and on October 1, 1908, they "met". "Pearl" together with "Askold" entered the bay of St. Vladimir, when there was a dismantling of the surface of the cruiser blown up by his commander.
Finally, in December 1909, the Zhemchug was delivered to Vladivostok for overhaul, which took almost a year, until October 1910. The list of defects compiled in September 1909 was 282 points for the power plant, 273 for the hull, 114 for for the mine section, 60 for artillery. I must say that much needed for the repair of the cruiser was ordered in advance, and all the work was carried out by the Vladivostok Mechanical Plant.
Despite the duration of the work, perhaps we can say that the cruiser received only refurbishment, and even then not in full. In any case, the speed of the ship, apparently, did not recover: its commander K. P. Ivanov-thirteenth reported that it was "19-20 knots and more." The composition of the armament did not change, except that the throwing mines of the steam boats were brought ashore, and Baranovsky's landing cannons were replaced by machine guns, but this happened even before the ship was repaired. Another "innovation" - the removal of two bow 47-mm guns with the alteration of the vacated cellars for 120-mm rounds, was carried out later, in 1911.
Perhaps the only "improvement" made during the renovation in 1910 was the abandonment of two masts - the "Pearl" became a single-masted one, which was the ancestor of its series, the cruiser "Novik".
In 1911, the Zhemchug entered the campaign as the flagship of the Siberian Flotilla, but there was nothing more interesting with it in the period from 1911 to 1912. did not happen. Maneuvers, exercises, flag demonstration, stationary service. But on June 9, 1913, the ship was sent to the shores of China, where the revolution broke out. "Pearl" arrived in Shanghai, where it became part of an international squadron, and was commanded by a Japanese admiral. Then the Russian cruiser went on a foreign voyage, returned to Vladivostok only by May 16, 1914 - and immediately got up for the current dock repair, during which the bulkhead of the machines was carried out, the boilers were cleaned, the underwater part was cleaned and painted.
On the one hand, by virtue of the above, it can be assumed that the "Pearl" entered the First World War completely combat-ready technically. However, further events raise doubts about this. In addition, the "Pearl", apparently, could no longer be considered a high-speed cruiser and, probably, developed a speed of no more than 20 knots, although, again, the author does not have exact data on this.
On June 3, 1914, the cruiser was commanded by its last commander - captain of the 2nd rank, Baron Cherkasov Ivan Alexandrovich, who served as a senior officer on the Zhemchug in 1909-1911.
War
The cruiser met the beginning of the war in Vladivostok together with "Askold" and other ships of the Siberian flotilla. But soon England, the Lady of the Seas, "laid a paw" on our cruisers: they really wanted "Askold" and "Pearl" to join the allied squadron under the command of British Vice-Admiral T. M. Gerram. I must say that the naval minister of Russia I. K. Grigorovich categorically did not want such unity, but the commander of the Siberian flotilla M. F. von Schultz, having somehow received the personal permission of Nicholas II, nevertheless sent "Askold" and "Pearl" at the disposal of the British.
On the one hand, the transfer of our cruisers under British command looked like a perfectly reasonable and adequate action. In the Far East, the Germans kept the so-called East Asian squadron, which at the beginning of the First World War included the armored cruisers Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, and the light cruisers Emden, Leipzig and Nuremberg. In addition, this unit also included 4 seaworthy and 3 river gunboats, a minelayer and 2 destroyers.
Thus, the squadron of the German Navy in Asia colossally outnumbered the forces of our Siberian flotilla, but was completely lost against the background of the power of the allied Japanese fleet and British ships. Under these conditions, some kind of German attack on Vladivostok or other points of the Russian coast looked like a form of madness. The only form of hostilities that was available to the commander of the German forces M. von Spee was to go to the ocean and unleash a cruising war there, as, in fact, he did.
The war found von Spee in the Caroline Islands. He hastily assembled his armored and light cruisers off the Mariana Islands, where he consulted with his commanders. Then the German admiral went to Chile, since the Chilean government was very friendly to the German government and von Spee hoped to receive support there with fuel and supplies, and perhaps repairs. At the same time, light ships remained in Qingdao, the German colony in China: von Spee absolutely rightly believed that Qingdao would soon be blocked and captured, but he could not prevent this. At the same time, the blockade of Qingdao deprived him of the only point on which his squadron could be based, so there was no point in remaining off the coast of China for the main forces of von Spee's squadron. But with the support of Chile, it was possible to successfully "pirate" in the South Atlantic, at least for a while.
And only the commander of the light cruiser "Emden", Karl von Müller, had a slightly different opinion and believed that he could achieve greater success if he remained and began to raid the Indian Ocean. Von Spee allowed him to do this, and the Emden separated from the main forces of the squadron.
In view of the above, our cruisers had absolutely nothing to do in Vladivostok. They should have entered communications with the aim of capturing the "Emden" and other (auxiliary) German cruisers, if any were found. And this could be done most effectively while in the allied squadron. So, from the point of view of formal logic, the reluctance of I. K. Grigorovich to give "Askold" and "Pearl" under British command looks at least strange.
But this is on the one hand. On the other hand … Perhaps the Russian naval minister was not so wrong in not wanting to hand over the cruiser to the British.
Under British command
Russian cruisers arrived at the Hong Kong raid on August 16, but by this time our fleet had already suffered the first loss. The fact is that the German cruiser Emden on the night of August 3–4, 1914 (that is, before it was sent on an independent cruise) near the island of Tsushima seized the Ryazan steamer of the Russian Volunteer Fleet. The prize batch from the Emden brought the Ryazan to Qingdao, where it was armed with eight 105-mm cannons from the old and completely incapacitated German cruiser Cormoran. Without thinking twice, the Germans named the Ryazan "Cormoran" and enlisted it in the Kaiserlichmarin as an auxiliary cruiser. However, the new "Cormoran" did not achieve any military success, but all the same, it was unpleasant to lose the "Ryazan".
Could it have happened that Ryazan could have been saved if the idea of sending Askold and Pearl to Hong Kong had not arisen? Frankly speaking, this is extremely doubtful. Nevertheless, there is a fact: while the Russian cruisers were going to protect the ocean communications as part of the British squadron, we received an offensive click on the nose of Fr. Tsushima, that is, not too far from our shores. However, in fairness, we note that in the future, "Emden" pirated already in the Indian Ocean.
Well, "Askold" and "Novik" joined in the usual combat work. Already on August 19, they set out on a cruise in search of the Emden and the coal miners supplying it, but on August 22 they split up. The enemy was not found, and both cruisers returned to Hong Kong - when exactly this happened, the author does not know, A. A. Alliluyev and M. A. Bogdanov only report that on August 30 "Askold" and "Pearl" met in Hong Kong. Alas, for the last time.
On September 14, Zhemchug led the Amiral Orli from Hong Kong to Haiphong, which was to pick up French infantry and reservists from China. Then the Russian cruiser escorted the transport to Saigon and then to Singapore. On September 30, after a five-day break, I. A. Cherkasov received a new order: to escort 4 transports to Penang, where the British cruiser Yarmouth will have to wait for them, and then go on an independent cruise to the Nicobar and Andaman Islands. The Zhemchug did exactly what was ordered, and then on October 13 returned to Penang, where she was destroyed by the cruiser Emden at dawn on October 15.
And here, of course, the eternal question arises in full growth: "Who is to blame?"
