Stepan Osipovich Makarov arrived in Port Arthur on the morning of February 24, 1904 and raised his flag on the armored cruiser Askold, which coincided with another joyful event - on the same day, the squadron battleship Retvizan was finally removed from the aground.
Probably the first thing S. O. Makarov, taking command of the squadron - organizing almost daily exits of destroyers on night patrols. It was not an easy decision, given that of the 24 destroyers available at that time, only 6 were fully operational, and two more, although they could go to sea, had problems with mechanisms. But…
The problem was that the Japanese, so to speak, were utterly insolent. Two of the strongest Russian battleships and, albeit an imperfect, but still the first-ranked armored cruiser, were disabled: in this state, the Pacific squadron could not give the United Fleet a general battle with the hope of success. The Russian fleet could not conquer dominance at sea and with this, reluctantly, it was still possible to put up with it for a while, but the fact that the Japanese managed to manage the outer roadstead of Port Arthur at night was impossible to put up with. We know very well what this led to - as a result of a night mine laying by the Japanese, "Petropavlovsk" and S. O. Makarov, and during the command of V. K. Vitgeft on the very first exit of the squadron to the sea, during anchoring in the outer roadstead the battleship "Sevastopol" was blown up by a mine. The bad news was that the ships of the squadron left the outer roadstead, unable to defend it, now the exit of the battleships was only possible into the "big water" and took a lot of time. But under V. K. Witgefta, Port Arthur's outer raid was generally, so to speak, the central mine position of the Japanese. The Russian ships were locked in their own harbor, and, despite all the efforts of the trawling caravan, any exit from the inner roadstead was fraught with heavy losses.
"Novik" in war paint
In other words, the struggle for the sea should not have been postponed until the Retvizan, Tsarevich and Pallas returned to service. It had to start right now, with the restoration of control over the water area at Port Arthur: in no case should the Japanese light forces be allowed to operate regularly at the main base of the fleet. The solution of such a task was also advantageous because, in the event of military clashes and damage to Russian ships, the port and repair facilities were in close proximity, but the damaged Japanese ships would have to go hundreds of miles to their bases, which for small destroyers could be fraught.
Stepan Osipovich Makarov understood all this well. Surely he also realized that such hostilities could give our destroyers invaluable combat experience, which, while fighting in the immediate vicinity of their own base, was safer and easier than in any other way. Therefore, on February 25, the day after arrival, he sent two destroyers, "Resolute" and "Guarding", to the night patrol. S. O. Makarov assumed that the Japanese destroyers were operating from some kind of "jump airfield", and therefore sent the destroyers on reconnaissance in order to identify a Japanese destroyer base in the area 90 miles from Port Arthur. At the same time, "Resolute" and "Guarding" were ordered to attack the cruisers or transports of the Japanese, if any, but to avoid fighting enemy destroyers unless absolutely necessary.
Further events are well known - "Resolute" and "Guarding" saw a large enemy ship near Dalinskaya Bay and tried to attack it, but, being unmasked by torches of fire escaping from the pipes, they were discovered by Japanese destroyers, and, as a result, could not go on the attack. Both Russian ships returned to Port Arthur at dawn, but were intercepted by the 3rd squadron of fighters - they had no choice but to take a battle, in which the "Resolute" managed to break through under the protection of the coastal batteries of Port Arthur, and the "Guardian "Died heroically.
We will not now dwell on the circumstances of the last battle of the courageous crew of this ship: when S. O. Makarov found out the circumstances of the case, he immediately went to sea to the rescue of the "Guarding", holding the flag on the "Novik", followed by the "Bayan". Alas, the battle took place at a distance of about 10 miles from Port Arthur and the Russian cruisers did not have time - by the time they arrived at the scene, there was nothing they could do to help the heroic destroyer.
Of course, the Russian cruisers fired at the Japanese destroyers. But fire from a long distance was not effective, and the Japanese, taking advantage of their speed advantage, quickly retreated, and it was impossible to pursue them - the main forces of H. Togo appeared on the horizon, going to bombard Port Arthur. So the cruisers had no choice but to return.
Lieutenant N. Cherkasov, who was on the Golden Mountain and watched the battle of the "Guarding", believed that the Japanese cruisers almost cut off the "Novik", leaving between him and Port Arthur, and the latter managed to escape only due to its excellent speed, but the Japanese do not confirm. In their official historiography, the Japanese indicate that they sent the 4th combat detachment of Sotokichi Uriu, consisting of Naniwa, Takachiho, Niitaki and Tsushima, to the place of the destroyer battle, and this was done even before the Russian cruisers appeared … But the 4th combat detachment did not have time, and approached the place of the battle only when the battle had already ended, and the destroyer "Sazanami" tried to tow the "Guardian". Finding that Russian cruisers were approaching the Japanese destroyers, S. Uriu rushed to their aid, but saw that the Sazanami had abandoned the sinking Russian destroyer and was leaving at full speed. Now the Japanese destroyers were not in danger, and the 4th combat detachment did not engage in battle and turned away, stopping the rapprochement.
Thus, this time "Novik" did not achieve success, but, regardless of the actual results achieved, the exit of Stepan Osipovich on a small cruiser was of great moral importance for the entire squadron. Let us recall the description of this episode by Vl. Semenova:
“As soon as the signal station of the Golden Mountain reported that there was a battle between our and Japanese destroyers at sea,“Askold”and“Novik”left the harbor to cover them. Novik is ahead.
- Did the admiral go on this "adventure" himself? - a question that vividly interested everyone and is quite natural.
The officers who had gathered on the bridge were intensively wiping the glasses of binoculars, straining their eyes … There was no commander's flag on "Askold" …
-- Well, okay! You can't risk it like that … On a light cruiser … You never know … - said some …
- On Novik! The flag is on "Novik"! - suddenly, as if choking with excitement, the signalman shouted.
Everything around at once shook. The crew, abandoning breakfast, rushed to the sides. The officers snatched the binoculars from each other's hands … There was no doubt! On the mast of "Novik", this toy cruiser, boldly rushing to the rescue of a lone destroyer, the flag of the fleet commander fluttered!..
A vague dialect ran through the ranks of the team … The officers exchanged glances with a somewhat joyful or bewildered look …
- I could not resist!.. I didn’t wait for "Askold" - I switched to "Novik!.." Damn it!.. This is too much!..
But this was not "too much", but exactly what was required. It was the funeral of the old slogan "don't take risks" and its replacement with something completely new …”.
It must be said that other Russian destroyers also went out to sea that night - at about 01.00, lights were seen in the sea, and S. O. Makarov authorized a detachment of four destroyers to sail to the sea for the attack. The latter indeed discovered 4 Japanese destroyers and attacked them, but this battle, like the battle of the "Guardian", is beyond the scope of our article series.
As for the Novik, after an unsuccessful morning rescue operation, he and Bayan returned to the outer roadstead and went to the harbor, but immediately became the first targets for the Japanese battleships, who began flip fire across Liaoteshan and tried to target the passage on the inner roadstead, along which the cruisers went, and then firing on the water area of the inner roadstead. In the course of this shelling, Novik received no damage, only a few fragments fell to the deck, however, without hitting anyone.
The next day, February 27, S. O. Makarov brought the squadron out to sea for training in joint maneuvering, and of course, Novik went out with the rest of the ships, but nothing interesting happened that day, and, having made various evolutions on different moves, the squadron returned to Port Arthur in the evening.
Then there was a break in the hostilities, which lasted until the night of March 9, when Japanese destroyers again appeared on the outer roadstead, but were driven away by the fire of patrol ships. In the afternoon, a Japanese squadron appeared in order to once again fire on the ships in the harbor of Port Arthur with throw-over fire. However, this time S. O. Makarov brought his main forces to the outer raid, "inviting" the commander of the United Fleet to get close to them for a decisive battle. With only five battleships, S. O. Makarov had no hope of crushing the Japanese at sea, but still considered it possible to take the battle under the cover of coastal batteries.
This exit was a completely unprecedented event for the Arthur squadron, because its heavy ships left the inner harbor in "low tide". "Big water" that day began at 13.30, but already at 12.10 all five battleships were on the outer roadstead, in full readiness for battle. Of course, the cruisers left the harbor even earlier - the exact time of the Novik's exit to the outer roadstead is unknown, but it arrived there second, after the Bayan (07.05) and before the Askold (07.40). Nevertheless, the battle still did not take place - the Japanese did not want to be exposed to the fire of coastal batteries, and even S. O. Makarov "provoke" the latter with an attack on the armored cruisers of the 2nd detachment ended in nothing - H. Togo joined forces, which Stepan Osipovich could no longer attack, and retreated. As a result, the whole thing boiled down to flip-fire - the Japanese again launched a fire strike on the harbor, but received a response from the Russian artillerymen, who had made all the necessary preparations in advance for reciprocal flip-fire. “Novik” on March 9 did not show itself in any way and, most likely, did not open fire.
Three days later, the cruiser left the inner raid again, meeting the destroyers returning from patrol, and the next day, March 13, S. O. Makarov again brought the squadron to sea for evolutions, but this time Novik had a special task. At 05.50 the cruiser entered the outer raid third after Bayan and Askold, but when the squadron, having formed, moved out to sea, Novik and three destroyers of the 1st detachment, Attentive, Thunderous and Combat were sent to the Miao-Tao Islands for their inspection. At 07.10 this small detachment separated from the squadron and went to carry out the order.
Within a few minutes, smoke was detected, and the Novik reported to the fleet commander: it turned out to be British transports. However, S. O. Makarov ordered to continue carrying out the order, and the discovered transports had to inspect "Askold". On the way to the Miao-Tao Islands, several Chinese junks were seen on the Novik, but the Attentive sent to them did not find anything suspicious. But at 09.05 a small steamer under the Japanese flag was discovered, sailing from the side of Fr. To-ji-dao and having a junk in tow. He was heading for the Attentive, apparently mistaking it for a Japanese destroyer. Immediately, the entire squadron rushed to intercept the Japanese vessel, while the Attentive, who had already finished inspecting the junks, was the closest to him. The Japanese steamer, discovering its mistake, tried to run, lowering the flag, but, of course, he failed - "Attentive", approaching him, fired two shots. Then the steamer stopped, backed up, and began to take pictures of the people from the junky being towed by it: but, noticing the approach of the Novik and two other destroyers, did not finish its occupation and tried to run again. "Attentive" lowered the boat to arrest the junky, and he went in pursuit and quickly caught up with the Japanese ship - after several shots it finally stopped, no longer trying to escape.
During the inspection, it turned out that the prize that the Russian ships had received was the Japanese steamer Han-yen-maru. Subsequently, it turned out that he was sent by the Japanese in order to hire Chinese junks for the needs of the Japanese fleet, but since they refused to be hired, he took them by force. On board the vessel were found 10 Japanese, 11 Chinese, a lot of papers and a rusty Whitehead mine, apparently fished out of the water. Part of the Japanese crew probably consisted of spies, since some of the Japanese were identified by our sailors as porters and merchants who had worked in Port Arthur before the war. Lieutenant A. P. Shter:
“A handsome Chinese man was standing on the bridge, apparently the captain of this steamer, and haughtily looked at all our actions; at my suggestion to get into the boat, he silently stepped off the bridge and sat down with dignity in the stern seat. Imagine our amazement when the boatswain of "Novik", suspecting spies in these Chinese, began to feel their heads and triumphantly pulled off the imaginary captain's Chinese cap with a wig and a braid - a Japanese man appeared before us, perfectly made up."
The captured junk was drowned at once, but the steamer, having previously filled the firebox, decided to bring it to Port Arthur in tow, which was brought from the Novik. However, when at 10.00 the cruiser set in motion, it developed too high a speed, which caused the steamer to scour, and the windlass was pulled out by a tug, the mast was broken and the stem was damaged. The Novik decided that the game was not worth the candle, and sank it with several shots, after which at 10.35 they went to join the squadron, which was done without further incident.
This time, unfortunately, the squadron completed the evolution ahead of schedule, due to the collision of "Peresvet" and "Sevastopol" - as a result of S. O. Makarov ordered to return to Port Arthur, not forgetting, however, to order that on the way back the ships check the deviation.
On the night of March 14, the Japanese made another attempt to block the exit from the inner roadstead of Port Arthur, which was unsuccessful, but the Novik did not take part in repelling the night attack. He did not receive an order either at 05.02, when, after the attack, destroyers were spotted south of Port Arthur and coastal batteries opened fire on them. However, at about 06.00 the heavy ships of the Japanese appeared, and Stepan Osipovich immediately ordered the squadron to go to the outer roadstead. The first, as expected, the order was carried out by the cruisers - "Bayan", "Askold" and "Novik". At 06.30, batteries of the Tiger Peninsula opened fire on the enemy, and the cruisers joined them, but the distance to the Japanese was too great, so they soon ceased fire.
According to the Japanese, the Russian cruisers fired at destroyers rescuing survivors after an unsuccessful barrage attempt, while, according to them, "Askold" was sailing to the east, and "Bayan" and "Novik" - to the west. Official Japanese historiography does not directly speak about the maximum distances, but notes that the Russians opened fire sporadically, while half of their shells fell short-lived.
At 09.15 S. O. Makarov led the remaining ships to the outer roadstead and prepared for battle. After the damage to "Peresvet" and "Sevastopol", he had only three battleships left: the flagship "Petropavlovsk", "Poltava" and "Peresvet", nevertheless, their exit to the sea showed Kh. Togo that the attempt to block the passage with firefighters failed. Oddly enough, this time the Japanese did not dare to accept the battle and retreated - at 10.00 the main forces of H. Togo disappeared over the horizon. The Japanese themselves explain their unwillingness to fight by the fact that the Russian squadron did not leave far from the coast. On the one hand, this decision looks cautious on the verge of cowardice, since the Japanese had 6 battleships and 6 armored cruisers against only 3 armored and 1 armored cruisers of the Russians. But, obviously, H. Togo did not want to substitute himself under the guns of coastal artillery - the fact is that the Japanese, apparently, had a somewhat wrong impression of its effectiveness. According to some reports, they assumed that most of the hits on their ships in the battle on January 27, 1904 were the result of the firing of Russian coastal batteries. This was incorrect, since the study of hits on Japanese ships in comparison with the calibers of the guns that fired at them suggests that our coastal batteries were not able to hit the enemy at all. Even if this is not true, and there were still several hits, in any case, the fortress guns of Port Arthur did not play a significant role in that battle. But H. Togo, obviously, thought differently, and did not want to imagine the possibility for the Russians to practice shooting at his battleships, especially since relatively recently the Russians demonstrated very accurate throw-over shooting at long distances.
In general, H. Togo preferred to retreat, and our cruisers again had no reason to distinguish themselves.
This was the last case in which Novik took part under the command of N. O. von Essen. The very next day, March 15, Nikolai Ottovich invited S. O. Makarov and said that he was going to appoint him as the commander of the battleship "Sevastopol". Two days later, on March 17, 1904, with shouts of "hurray!" teams, N. O. von Essen left Novik with very ambivalent feelings. He wrote to his wife: “… although this is… a promotion, but I'm not very happy about him. I got used to the Novik, and the cruising service is more to my liking, and even there everyone knew me …”.
The command of the cruiser was taken by Maximilian Fedorovich von Schultz, about whom N. O. von Essen wrote: "He is a gallant, energetic and courageous officer, and it does not hurt him to hand over my brilliant cruiser, knowing that I am giving it up in good hands."
Of course, von Schultz was an experienced and proactive officer, but he did not succeed in everything at once. So, on March 29, an embarrassment almost occurred - on that day S. O. Makarov once again brought the Pacific squadron to the exercises, and at this time a small Norwegian steamer was discovered, which, no one knows how, was brought into these waters. On a signal from the command fleet, the Novik set off for a search. The steamer immediately obeyed the orders, but when Lieutenant A. P. Stöhr boarded, von Schultz decided to conduct an inspection not at sea, but to bring the ship to Port Arthur, which he entrusted to the lieutenant on the ship. In general, "Novik" took the boat and left, and A. P. Shter needed to somehow bring the "Norwegian" to Port Arthur. Everything would be fine, but there was no corresponding pilot on the ship, and even if it was found, it in any case could not be marked with mine cans supplied by Russian ships … Further A. P. Stehr described it this way:
“In order not to arouse doubts in the captain, I gave forward speed and set off, trying to adhere to the stream left behind by the Novik, which can be seen for a long time after its passage; I just forgot that there is a strong current in this place and that the stream is pushing closer and closer to the shore; in one place they passed so close to the stones that even the captain came out of his dejected state and asked if it was good. I had to assure him that it was so necessary that otherwise we would fall on our own mines. To my misfortune, the captain's wife was present, apparently a very nervous woman; when she heard about the mines, she cried in three streams and let me beg you not to drive them over the mines in Arthur, but to release them; grabbed hold of me and poured; It's annoying and funny, and it's a pity, especially since the steamer, in my opinion, was clear of all suspicions.
How I managed to safely reach Arthur, I myself do not understand ….
And then came the tragic day of March 31st. As you know, S. O. Makarov ordered a major destroyer raid to the Elliot Islands, where, according to available data, large Japanese combat and landing forces could be located. The destroyers did not find anyone, but on the way back the Terrible, which had broken away from the main detachment, entered the wake of the Japanese destroyers in the dark and, when the sides identified each other, was forced to engage in a hopeless battle.
The armored cruiser "Bayan", to which S. O. Makarov instructed to be ready at dawn for a campaign and battle just for such an occasion. Still, "Bayan" did not have time, by the time it arrived at the scene, the destroyer had already died
However, by this time, reinforcements also approached the Japanese - the 3rd combat detachment, the "dogs" "Yoshino", "Takasago", "Chitose" and "Kasagi", supported by the armored cruisers "Asama" and "Tokiwa". Despite the obvious inequality of forces and shells falling all around, the Bayan stopped, lowered the six and the whaleboat, and proceeded to rescue the surviving members of the Terrible's crew. Each of the boats rescued two people, and another managed to be lifted directly onto the cruiser, and in total, thereby, five people were saved, and at that time "Bayan" was fighting. Then the cruiser, despite the fact that two or three more people were watching from it, floating, holding onto the wreckage, was forced to raise the boats and returned to Port Arthur: the people were carried too far, and to save them, being under fire from six cruisers, was is no longer possible.
Upon learning that "Bayan" entered the battle, S. O. Makarov at 05.40 ordered the cruiser "Diana" on duty to go to his aid, and "Askold" and "Novik" urgently breed pairs. Soon after that, he was informed of the appearance of six Japanese cruisers - assuming that the main forces of the Japanese were probably following them, Stepan Osipovich at 06.00 ordered the squadron battleships to raise steam and, when ready to go to the outer raid.
At 06.40 Novik entered the outer roadstead, with Diana and three destroyers on board. On the cruiser we saw "Bayan", located about three miles from the "Novik", and immediately went to it: and 3-4 miles from the "Bayan" could be seen the already mentioned six Japanese cruisers. Having approached the Bayan, the Novik, apparently, went to its wake, obviously, by this time the distance to the Japanese cruisers was already too great, so the Novik gunners did not fire. Following the "Bayan", "Novik" returned to the outer raid and entered the wake of the cruiser detachment.
At 07.00, the Petropavlovsk sailed to the outer roadstead, followed by Poltava, a quarter of an hour later, but the rest of the battleships were delayed, since the strong wind did not allow the port boats to deploy them quickly with their noses towards the entrance, and the Peresvet at 07.45, taking off from anchor, also managed to stick to the shoal, from which he took off only half an hour later. At the same time, Stepan Osipovich, having learned from the Bayan commander that he had failed to save several people from the Guardian's crew, led his detachment into the sea. At the same time, the formation, apparently, was like this - the first, showing the way, was the "Bayan", followed by the flagship "Petropavlovsk", which went to the wake of "Poltava" and a detachment of cruisers. The destroyers were abeam "Poltava".
Approximately at 08.00, approaching the place of death of the "Terrible" on the "Bayan", which broke far ahead, found 6 Japanese cruisers, its commander, Robert Nikolaevich Viren, raised the signal "I see the enemy". At 08.15 the Japanese opened fire on the Bayan from a distance of 50-60 cables. S. O. Makarov ordered his only armored cruiser to take his place in the ranks of the cruisers, which was done. Then, as the Japanese noted in their official historiography: "The enemy, who had an advantage in strength, took an offensive course of action and headed towards the detachment." At this time, the formation of Russian ships was as follows: "Petropavlovsk", "Poltava" (mistakenly identified by the Japanese as "Sevastopol"), "Askold", "Bayan", "Diana", and "Novik".
Why S. O. Makarov did not use the Novik for its intended purpose, for reconnaissance of the enemy, but put it at the very tail of the column, from where the cruiser did not fire a single shot? We cannot know for sure, but, probably, the reasons of the Russian commander were as follows. Leading the squadron from Port Arthur, he already knew that somewhere nearby were six Japanese cruisers, and the horizon in the direction where the enemy was expected was covered with fog. In this situation, any scout risked being detected by superior forces at a distance, albeit large enough, but still allowing for the possibility of hits with heavy shells. Obviously, "Bayan", also conceived by its creators as a scout for the squadron, in such a situation was much better suited for this role, and besides, it had to show the place of death of "Terrible". Joining the Bayan with the Novik, obviously, did nothing in terms of reconnaissance, almost did not increase the artillery power of the Bayan, but created the risk of severe damage to the Novik.
The rest is well known. Soon, 9 Japanese ships appeared on the horizon, which were identified by the Russian squadron as 6 battleships, 2 armored cruisers (these were the Nissin and Kasuga, which first appeared near Port Arthur) and the “Chin-Yen” type ship. Of course, a small Russian detachment could not fight with such forces, and Stepan Osipovich ordered to retreat, and on the way back the cruisers and destroyers went forward, and the battleships seemed to cover their retreat. Then, returning to the outer raid, S. O. Makarov decided, as it had been repeatedly before, to give battle to the Japanese under the cover of coastal batteries, but, getting into position, "Petropavlovsk" exploded.
After the death of the flagship battleship, the ships stalled their progress and began to rescue the survivors. Then, the junior flagship, Prince Ukhtomsky, who took command of the squadron, took it back to the inner roadstead, however, when trying to enter service, Pobeda was blown up. Not realizing that the reason for all this was the mines exposed at night from the Japanese destroyers, the ships of the squadron decided that they were attacked by submarines and opened fire on the water, aiming at any target that could resemble a submarine's periscope. Thus, "Novik" used up 3 * 120-mm, 12 * 47mm and 4 * 37-mm projectiles. Alas, in the case of March 31, 1904, our armored cruiser did not fire a single shot at real enemy ships - the squadron returned to the inner roadstead, and at 13:20 anchored the Novik in the same place.
