Russian battleship Retvizan

Retvizan (Ретвизан) was a Russian pre-dreadnought battleship built before the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05 for the Imperial Russian Navy in the United States. She was built by the William Cramp and Sons Ship & Engine Building Company of Philadelphia, although the armament was made at the Obukhov works in Saint Petersburg and shipped to America for installation. Retvizan was named after the Swedish ship of the line Rättvisan (meaning The Justice) which was captured by the Russians at the Battle of Viborg Bay in 1790.

Retvizan was torpedoed during the Japanese surprise attack on Port Arthur during the night of 8–9 February 1904 and grounded in the harbor entrance when she attempted to take refuge inside as her draft had significantly deepened from all of the water she had taken aboard after the torpedo hit. She was eventually refloated and repaired by mid-June. She joined the rest of the 1st Pacific Squadron when they attempted to reach Vladivostok though the Japanese blockade on 10 August. The Japanese battle fleet engaged them in the Battle of the Yellow Sea and forced most of the Russian ships to return to Port Arthur after killing the squadron commander and damaging his flagship. She was sunk by Japanese howitzers in December after the Japanese had gained control of the heights around the harbor.

The Japanese raised her after the surrender of Port Arthur in January 1905 and repaired her. She was commissioned in the Imperial Japanese Navy as Hizen (肥前) in 1908. In Sasebo when the Japanese declared war on Germany in 1914 she was sent to reinforce the weak British squadron in British Columbia, but was diverted to Hawaii when reports of the arrival of a German gunboat there were received. She was sent to search for other German ships after the Americans interned the German ship in November, but did not encounter any. After World War I she supported the Japanese intervention in the Russian Civil War, but was disarmed in 1922 in accordance with the Washington Naval Treaty. She was sunk as a gunnery target in 1924.

Background
Charles Henry Cramp, the owner and son of the founder of William Cramp and Sons, had a relationship with the Imperial Russian Navy dating back to the late 1870s when his firm built the auxiliary cruisers Afrika, Azia, Evropa and Zabiiaka. Cramp also repaired several Russian warships visiting America in 1893 and he cultivated his contacts in the Russian Navy throughout the 1890s. Before the end of the decade the Russians had become wary of the Japanese after their victory during the First Sino-Japanese War as it was apparent that their ambitions were on a collision course. Russian forces in the Far East needed strengthening to cope with the emergence of Japan as a naval power. At that time the Russian Navy was undergoing rapid expansion and domestic Russian shipyards were not able to meet the demand.

Design
Preliminary design work on a battleship intended to equal the latest Japanese ships was begun over the winter of 1897–98 by the Naval Technical Committee although the displacement was limited to 12000 LT for economic reasons. The basic design was that of the with its speed increased to 18 knots using only two shafts and its steaming range increased to 5000 nmi at 10 kn. The Naval Ministry intended to conduct an international design competition with the ships being built abroad as the Baltic shipyards were at full capacity already.

Cramp's contacts kept him informed of the Russians' intentions and he sailed to Saint Petersburg to offer his services and design expertise in March 1898. Initially Cramp offered American designs to the Russians included an updated version of the USS Iowa (BB-4) as it was a relatively close match for the Russian specification, but the Russians preferred their own designs. Both sides compromised and the final design was based on the Russian battleship RUSSIAN BATTLESHIP Potemkin. The new ship had four fewer 6 in guns, but twice the coal capacity for improved range and a longer, slightly narrower, hull for more speed. The contract was signed on 23 April 1898 for a price of $4,360,000. The protected cruiser RUSSIAN CRUISER Varyag was ordered at the same time for $2,138,000.

General characteristics
Retvizan was 382 ft long at the waterline and 386 ft long overall. She had a beam of 72 ft and a draft of 25 ft. She displaced 12780 LT at load. Her hull was subdivided by fourteen transverse and one centerline longitudinal watertight bulkhead (only in the engine room). It had a complete double bottom that extended up the side to the lower edge of the armor deck. She had a metacentric height of 3 ft.

Propulsion
Retvizan had two 3-cylinder vertical triple-expansion steam engines with a total designed output of 16000 ihp. Twenty-four Niclausse-type boilers provided steam to the engines at a working pressure of 18 atm. The Russian Navy preferred to use Belleville water-tube boilers, but Cramp pressed for 24 Niclausse-type boilers, not least because he was the American agent for them, and was supported by the General Admiral Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich. On sea trials, the engines produced 17111 ihp and a top speed of 17.99 knots, just under the contract speed of 18 knots. Not surprisingly, Cramp claimed that she reached 18.01 knots to avoid contractual penalties. Following Retvizan's arrival in Russia, the propeller pitch was adjusted and she exceeded 18 knots. She carried a normal load of 1016 LT of coal that provided a range of 4900 nmi at a speed of 10 kn and a maximum load of 2000 LT that gave 8000 nmi at the same speed.

Armament
The armament was supplied by the Russians and shipped to America for installation. The main armament consisted of two pairs of 12-inch 40-caliber guns mounted in French-style center-pivot twin turrets fore and aft. These guns had a maximum elevation of 15° and could depress to -5°. 77 rounds per gun were carried. They fired a 731.3 lb shell at a muzzle velocity of 2598 ft/s to a range of 12010 yd at an elevation of 10°.

Eight of the twelve 6-inch Canet Pattern 1892 45-caliber guns were mounted in casemates on the main deck while four were mounted on the upper deck. The guns could elevate to a maximum of 20° and depress to -5°. They fired shells that weighed 91.27 lb with a muzzle velocity of 2600 ft/s. They had a maximum range of 12600 yd when fired at maximum elevation. They could fire three to five rounds per minute and were provided with 200 rounds per gun.

The anti-torpedo boat armament consisted of twenty 75 mm Canet Pattern 1892 50-caliber guns. Fourteen of these were in embrasures on the main deck and six were mounted on the upper deck, between the six-inch casemates. Each gun was provided with 325 rounds. The gun fired 10.8 lb shells to a range of about 8600 yd at its maximum elevation of 21° with a muzzle velocity of 2700 ft/s. The rate of fire was between twelve and fifteen rounds per minute.

A total of twenty-four 47 mm Hotchkiss guns were carried; four in each fighting top and eight at each end of the superstructure. They fired a 3.3 lb shell at a muzzle velocity of 1476 ft/s at a rate of 20 rounds per minute to a range of 2020 yd. Six 37 mm Hotchkiss guns were mounted in the bridge wings. They fired a 1.1 lb shell at a muzzle velocity of 1450 ft/s at a rate of 20 rounds per minute to a range of 3038 yd.

Retvizan carried six 15 in torpedo tubes. Four were above water, one each in the bow and stern and the aft pair of broadside tubes. The forward broadside tubes were underwater. 17 torpedoes were carried. She was designed to carry two second-class torpedo boats equipped with single torpedo tubes in the bow and a small quick-firing gun. 45 mines could also be carried.

Armor
The total weight of the Krupp armor was 3300 LT or 25.8% of the displacement. The armor was mostly made in the United States, although a contract was let for deck armor from Russia on 6 January 1899. The main waterline belt had a maximum thickness of 9 in and tapered to 5 in thick at its lower edge. It was 256 ft long and 7 ft high, of which about 3 ft of this was above the design waterline. The upper belt was 6 inches thick and was as long as the main belt. It was 7 ft high. Armor plates 2 in thick protected the ends of the ship to a height equal to that of the main and upper belts combined. Bulkheads 7 in thick provided transverse protection for the ship's vitals. The lower casemate armor was 5 in thick and armor screens 1.5 in thick separated each gun. Similarly the upper casemate armor consisted of five inches of armor plate with semicircular 1.5-inch armor bulkheads enclosing the guns.

The face and sides of the turrets were 9 in thick with 2-inch roofs. Their barbettes were 8 in thick above the upper deck, but reduced to 4 in below it. The conning tower and its communication tube had 10 in walls. The armor deck inside the central citadel was level with the top of the main belt and sloped down to meet the lower edge of the main belt. It was two inches thick on the flat and 2.5 in on the slope. Fore and aft of the citadel the deck thickened to 3 in to the ends of the ship and reinforced the ram bow.

Influence
The s built for the US Navy were designed by Charles Cramp and based on the Retvizan. They had a lower quarterdeck, two more 6-inch guns and a slightly thicker belt.

Construction
Retvizan was ordered on 2 May 1898 for delivery in thirty months. The detailed sketch design was forwarded at the end of 1898 to Saint Petersburg for approval and work commenced on the ship around that time, although she was not officially laid down until 29 July 1899. Construction was delayed by a strike at the shipyard that began in August 1899 and continued until the strike collapsed in early 1900. Other delays were caused by differences between American and Russian shipbuilding techniques and the insistence of the Naval Ministry on approving any design changes even though a Russian commission had been sent to Philadelphia to supervise her construction.

Her armament arrived in Philadelphia missing electrical cables and with incomplete documentation which required Cramp's electricians to piece things together themselves, for which Cramp charged an extra $50,000. She was launched 23 October 1900 and ran her acceptance trials in October 1901. While successful they revealed a fair amount of incomplete work that Cramp had to finish before he received his last payment. More work needed to be done on her armament, but it had to wait until she arrived in Russia. Retvizan was accepted on 23 March 1902, under the command of Captain Eduard Schensnovich who commanded her throughout her Russian service.

Service
Retvizan sailed for the Baltic Sea on 13 May 1902 and stopped to re-coal in Cherbourg, France en route. After leaving Cherbourg a boiler tube burst on 14 June, scalding six stokers, three of them fatally. After her arrival she was fitted with radio equipment and took part in a Naval Review in Reval staged for the State visit of Kaiser Wilhelm II in August. Later that month she tested an experimental system for coaling at sea; it was deemed successful, but her equipment was removed before she sailed for the Pacific. Retvizan departed on 13 November 1902 for the Far East in company with the battleship RUSSIAN BATTLESHIP Pobeda and the cruisers RUSSIAN CRUISER Diana, RUSSIAN CRUISER Pallada and RUSSIAN CRUISER Bogatyr. She arrived at Port Arthur (now Lüshunkou), China on 4 May 1903 accompanied by only Pallada.

Battle of Port Arthur
Retvizan was torpedoed during the Japanese surprise attack on the Russian fleet in Port Arthur on the night of 8/9 February 1904. She was hit on the port side forward which blew a 220 sqft hole in her side. Five men in the torpedo flat were killed and the electrical power was knocked out. The ship took on enough water to give her a list of 11°, although this was reduced to 5° by counter-flooding. A sail was used to cover the hole and steam was raised so she could head for the harbor. However, the total 2200 LT of water she had taken aboard had increased her draft enough to cause her to ground in the harbor entrance. She was not refloated until 8 March, but she played an important role in defeating a Japanese attempt to seal the entrance with block ships on 23–24 February. Repairs began immediately after she was towed into the harbor and were completed on 3 June although no docks were available and a cofferdam had to be built. She sailed with the rest of the Russian squadron on 23 June in an abortive attempt to reach Vladivostok. Vice Admiral Vitgeft returned to Port Arthur when he encountered the Japanese fleet shortly before sunset as he did not wish to engage the numerically superior Japanese in a night battle.

Retvizan was hit on 9 August by seven 4.7 in shells fired by a battery with a narrow view of the harbor. Captain Schensnovich was slightly wounded, a barge adjacent to the ship was sunk and she was holed below the waterline. She took on a 1° list from 400 LT of water, which was corrected by counter-flooding. The holes were patched, although the water was not pumped out, and she sailed the next day in another attempt to reach Vladivostok. This sortie resulted in the Battle of the Yellow Sea, where she was hit by 18 shells and suffered 6 dead and 43 wounded.

Battle of the Yellow Sea
At approximately 1840 hours on 10 August during the final phase of the Battle of the Yellow Sea, the Russian flagship RUSSIAN BATTLESHIP Tsesarevich was hit by 12-inch shells which killed Admiral Vitgeft and his immediate staff. The Russian battleship turned out of control, disrupting the Russian formation with its uncontrolled movements. As Admiral Togo's pre-dreadnoughts continued to pound the Tsesarevich with their 12-inch fire, Captain Eduard Schensnovich (Щенснович, Szczęsnowicz), commander of the Retzivan, boldly charged Togo's battleline. The Japanese battleline immediately shifted their fire onto the charging Retzivan, firing so many shells that they were unable to adjust their fire due to the tremendous number of shell splashes engulfing the Russian battleship. As the Russian squadron was now disorganized, and Togo's battleships were running low on main gun ammunition, coupled with some disabled 12-guns, he turned the battle over to his cruisers and destroyers, and began his turn away. Retzivan had effectively ended the duel between the opposing battleship fleets, and had saved the Russian flagship from destruction. During the battle, Retvizan had received 18 hits from both 8 and 12-inch guns, and suffered 6 sailors killed and another 42 men wounded, including Captain Schensnovich.

Retvizan, along with most of the rest of the squadron, returned to Port Arthur after Admiral Vitgeft had been killed by Japanese shells. During the battle she lacked two six-inch, two 47-mm and six 37-mm guns which had been landed to reinforce the landward defenses of the port. She was subsequently besieged in Port Arthur and sunk at her moorings by thirteen 28 cm howitzer shells on 6 December 1904. Captain Schensnovich signed the capitulation of Port Arthur for the Imperial Russian Navy on 2 January 1905.

Japanese service
Retvizan was later raised by the Japanese on 22 September 1905 and repaired at Sasebo between January 1906 and November 1908. Her fighting tops were removed, her light weapons were replaced by Japanese weapons and her Niclausse boilers were replaced by Miyabara boilers. Renamed Hizen, she served in the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War I. She was dispatched to Esquimalt, British Columbia in October 1914 to reinforce the weak British squadron there, although she was diverted to Honolulu, Hawaii before the end of the month to watch the German gunboat GERMAN GUNBOAT Geier after it arrived on 15 October. She watched the port in company with the armored cruiser JAPANESE CRUISER Asama until Geier was interned on 8 November by the Americans. Afterwards she and Asama headed south in search of the German squadron, but never located them. Hizen supported the Japanese intervention in the Russian Civil War. On 1 September 1921 she was reclassified as a 1st class coast defense ship and disarmed in April 1922 in accordance with the Washington Naval Treaty. She was stricken on 20 September 1923 and sunk as a target ship in the Bungo Channel on 12 July 1924.