alternatehistory.com


In the early morning May 20, 1905 residents of the city of Danang were awakened by thunder saluting the French national flag naval guns, and woke up shocked by the unprecedented spectacle: the port to fill a lot of huge black warships lined up in rows across the bay. 2nd Pacific squadron of Vice Admiral Rozhestvensky reached the destination of his long trek.
To this day, historians argue about what caused decision Nikolay II sent a telegram Z. P. Rozhdestvensky, annul orders to go to Vladivostok. Hard discussed the then tabloids version of prophetic dream of Grigori Rasputin, predicted death 2nd Pacific squadron, long rejected as untenable.
"Stop in Donange" has led to a stalemate in the Russian-Japanese War, which forced both sides to start peace talks.
Already in July, the American Portsmouth peace treaty was signed, under which Russia lost the right to lease the Kwantung Peninsula and recognized Korea located in the Japanese sphere of influence. Head of the Russian delegation S. Witte tried to secure the return out the Japanese of the flooded in Port Arthur Russian ships, Japanese in principle, agreed, but only in exchange for the transfer of Japan's southern Sakhalin. According to results from a world evil tongues was given Witte, has received the title of Count, nicknamed "Kvantuyeskiy."

Return of the 2nd Squadron in Russia was bleak. Sailors in the eyes called traitors stole Russian certain victory. The liberal press sling mud cowardly Admiral Rozhestvensky, afraid, despite the huge superiority of his squadron over the Japanese fleet, to join with him in battle. Added powder into the fire and Captain 1st rank Klado authoritatively argued in his numerous articles that the Japanese had no chance, as their four battleships were opposed to eight Russian, four of which were newer and more perfect Japanese ships. Returning from Japanese captivity, soldiers and officers Port Arthur garrison and sailors of the 1st squadron could just spit in the face "rozhestventsam": we were dying for the sake of winning, but you..?
No wonder that even during the return trip to the Russian and, immediately after his return, in crews of several ships occurred unrest and rebellion in the "Imperator Aleksandre III" shook minds so that his name became a household word, and later of the event was filmed the famous movie "Battleship "Aleksandre."

The loss of six battleships and five modern cruisers weakened Russian fleet so that in 1906, despite the return of ships from the Far East, he was inferior to the German in the Baltic Sea, the prospects of the further strengthening of the potential enemy, because the adoption of the new German shipbuilding programs looked just appallingly. Therefore, despite the skepticism of the State Duma, in 1907 laid the first Russian dreadnoughts "Petropavlovsk" and "Sevastopol", and one and a half years later, much better "Poltava" and "Retvizan."

In 1910, construction was begun, had time to become operational before the start of World War I armored cruisers "Varyag" and "Aleksandr Nevsky", originally conceived on the model built in England "Rurik", but eventually became high-speed version of battleships type "Poltava".

By August 1914, the Baltic Fleet had 13 battleships, 5 armored cruisers and 11 cruisers, organized into teams:

1st Brigade battleships

1. BB Poltava 1908-1910-1912 Baltic Plant
2. BB Retvizan 1908-1910-1913 Galley island
3. BB Petropavlovsk 1907-1909-1912 Baltic Plant
4. BB Sevastopol 1907-1909-1912 Galley island

2nd Brigade battleships

1. BB Andrey Pervozvannyy 1904-1906-1909 Galley island
2. BB Imperator Pavel I 1904-1906-1908 Baltic Plant
3. BB Orel 1899-1902-1904 Galley island
4. BB Tsesarevich 1899-1901-1903 France

3rd Brigade battleships

1. BB Slava 1902-1904-1905 Baltic Plant
2. BB Knyaz Suvorov 1901-1902-1904 Baltic Plant
3. BB Borodino 1899-1901-1904 New admiralty
4. BB Gangut (ex - Imperator Aleksandre III) 1899-1901-1903 Baltic Plant

Separate brigade of ships Gulf of Riga

1. BB Sisoy Velikiy 1891-1894-1896 New admiralty
2. SCD General-Admiral Apraksin 1894-1896-1899 New admiralty
3. SCD Admiral Ushakov 1892-1893-1997 Baltic Plant
4. SCD Admiral Senyavin 1892-1894-1897 New admiralty

1st Brigade cruisers

1. AC Varyag 1910-1912-1914 Baltic Plant
2. AC Aleksandr Nevskiy 1910-1912-1914 Galley island
3. AC Rurik 1906-1907-1909 England

2nd Brigade cruisers

1. CR Admiral Makarov 1905-1906-1908 France
2. CR Bayan 1905-1906-1909 New admiralty
3. CR Pallada 1905-1907-1909 New admiralty
4. CR Oleg 1901-1903-1904 New admiralty
5. CR Bogatyr 1899-1901-1902 Germany

3rd Brigade cruisers

1. AC Gromoboy 1897-1899-1900 Baltic Plant
2. AC Rossiya 1893-1896-1897 Baltic Plant
3. CR Diana 1896-1899-1901 Galley island
4. CR Avrora 1895-1900-1903 New admiralty
5. CR Svetlana 1895-1896-1898 France

4th Brigade cruisers

1. CR Razboynik 1905-1906-1908 Baltic Plant
2. CR Zhemchug 1901-1903-1904 Nevsky Plant
3. CR Izumrud 1901-1903-1904 Nevsky Plant
4. CR Novik 1899-1900-1901 Germany

Another four battleships and two armored cruisers were in the building.

As part of the Siberian Flotilla numbers, translated in 1907 into a class armored cruisers "Oslyabya" and protected cruiser "Askold".
\
Battleship "Andrey Pervozvannyy".
Top