Literally the Worst (Fleet)

History is full of stories of incompetence, negligence, and plain bad luck. Many of these are tragic, some a humorous, and a handful manage to be both. The story of the Russian Baltic Fleet during the Russo-Japanese War is my personal favorite in the last category.

Borodino, Lead ship of her class and one of the newest Russian Battleships at the beginning of the war. 

This war is really, really interesting and far more important than many people are aware of. If there is interest, I would LOVE to do a post on it by itself, it's that important. For now though, I'll just provide you with the bare minimum of information to set up this story. The next couple of paragraphs aren't terribly interesting, so if you like, you can skip down a little bit. Otherwise, read on for a little bit of background.

In February 1904 the Imperial Japanese Navy launched an attack on the Russian Pacific Fleet which sat at anchor in Port Arthur (today's Lushunkou, People's Republic of China). The reasons Japan attacked are somewhat complex, but can largely be boiled down to the Imperial rivalry between Japan and Russia. The attack was a smashing success: three Russian capital ships were crippled and the Russians were temporarily paralyzed. The attack was such a boon to the Japanese war effort that it helped inspire the planning for Pearl Harbor nearly 40 years later.

Makarov featured on a Soviet Stamp

Russia deployed their greatest living admiral, Stepan Makarov, to fix the situation. Makarov was internationally renowned as an explorer and fleet commander, and Russian morale began to improve.  Unfortunately for the Russians, however, he was killed after his ship struck a Japanese mine. With their famous commander dead and Japanese troops now beginning a land siege of Port Arthur, what remained of the Russian fleet was ordered to try to break the blockade and escape to the Russian port of Vladivostok. Ultimately the attempt failed and the fleet would eventually be sunk, still at anchor and impotent against the power of the Imperial Japanese Navy.

While the siege around Port Arthur tightened, Czar Nicholas II began to worry. If the Japanese had free reign in the Pacific, they would be able to finish off the Russian military in Manchuria and win the war before Russian troops could arrive overland across the Trans-Siberian railroad. Apart from it's now trapped and partially destroyed Pacific Squadron, Russia possessed to more fleets; one in the

Admiral Rozhestvensky

Black Sea, and another in the Baltic. The Black Sea squadron was the best of the three in case of aggression from the Ottoman Empire to the south. This fleet was trapped though; the Ottomans refused to allow Russian entry to the Bosphorus which meant they were confined to the Black Sea. The Baltic Fleet was far less attractive of an option; its veteran sailors had been sent to the Black Sea of Pacific fleets and they would have to travel thousands of miles just to enter hostile waters. With no other options though this fleet was designated the "Second Pacific Squadron" and put under the command of Admiral Zinovy Rozhestvensky. Its mission was, on paper, quite simple: they would steam to the Pacific, engage the Japanese fleet, and prohibit the Japanese from supplying or reinforcing their armies in Manchuria. This would buy time for Russian ground forces to arrive and sweep the outnumbered Japanese aside. In reality though, the mission was doomed.



This is where things start to go horribly wrong for the Russians, and start to get interesting. 

The Baltic Fleet was poorly suited for its mission. It would have to steam south (partially through the Suez canal, but for complicated geopolitical reasons mostly all the way around Africa) along a route which would see the fleet spending months in the tropics. The ships of the Baltic Fleet were not equipped for this; they spent most of the year iced into their ports, and were designed to keep their crews warm for a short period of time (in the winter months they would live in land barracks). The crack sailors in the squadron had been sent east at the outset of the war, and the replacements were, in a word, inadequate. Most of them were peasant conscripts, men who had never seen a boat, much-less the ocean, and Rozhestvensky constantly complained about their quality. They frequently forgot orders, and they were totally unused to hot weather (which will be an issue later). He also had issues with his officers; in one case he referred to his second in command as a "shit sack". Geography was another issue; they were going to have to sail 18,000 miles, under coal power. Back then, these coal powered ships would have to stop regularly to refuel due to coals lack of efficiency. Unfortunately for the Russians, they had no coaling stations along the route, and for complicated reasons I won't get into, no other nation would offer their coaling stations to Russian use. This meant that the fleet would have to meet coal ships from the German-Hamburg-America line 30 times, in the open sea, to refuel. Finally, the battleships the admiral had, while new, were not very effective. They had taken a long time to build and had been constantly retrofitted during this time. They ended up being so top-heavy that during combat in high seas, they were unable to fire some of their weapons due to the fact that they would be under water! They were SO top heavy, the fleet would not use signal flags in rough seas for fear that the ships would become unstable!

The route of the Russian Squadrons. Seriously.

Almost immediately after leaving port the fleet had several disasters. The battleship Orel and Rozhestvensky's own flagship Knyaz Suvorov ran aground and had to be towed back to deeper water. Later that day a torpedo boat accidentally rammed the battleship Oslyabya, causing somewhat significant damage to the ship. A few days later a Danish coal ship was acidentally rammed and nearly sank. At this point the fleet wasn't even out of the Baltic.

Orel, only hours before running aground. 

Shortly after, the fleet entered the strait between Denmark and Sweden, and things get just downright ridiculous. The fleet received word that Japanese torpedo boats were in the area disguised as European fishing boats. The Russians honestly believed that Japan had sent small torpedo boats 18,000 miles to fight them. They were so paranoid about enemy vessels this early on that they nearly blew a small rowboat out of the water as it attempted to deliver a telegram to the Admiral's flagship from the Russian consulate. As they exited the straits into the North Sea (taking care to, I'm not making this up, avoid a nonexistant Japanese minefield) the supply ship Kamchatka signaled that she was under attack from eight Japanese torpedo boats! When it became apparent that no such ships existed, Kamchatka's skipper simply signaled that he had seen the Japanese vessels off! 

That night things got really ridiculous. The fleet entered Dogger Bank, a region of open sea between Great Britain and Denmark. There several small boats were spotted in the dark, and... immediately

Artist rendering of the incident

mistake for Japanese torpedo boats, again. The Russian fleet opened fire immediately, bringing the small "enemy" fleet under the fire of several Russian Battleships. The small boats were not Japanese though, the Russians had just opened fire on a British fishing fleet from the city of Hull! One of the British fishing boats was destroyed,several others were damaged, many of the fisherman were wounded, and three were eventually killed. In the chaos of the "fighting" the Russians began mistaking one another for enemies, and soon began firing at each other as well, with the battleships Aurora and the Dimitri Donskoi being hit several times. The Chaplain of the Aurora was ripped apart by the fire and in the end Russia lost two men; they had achieved a 3:2 kill ratio against an unarmed fishing fleet! They had expended a large portion of their ammunition, and apart from to one another, had caused little damage: Orel had fired around 500 shells and had hit nothing except open water. Several of the Russian ships, including Kamchatka, claimed to have been hit by "enemy" torpedoes. During the incident the Russians even believed they were being boarded, with sailors onboard Aurora drawing swords to repel the boarders.

Damaged fishing boat and very shaken fishermen

To his credit Admiral Rozhestvensky realized something was amiss and ordered his panicked crews to stop firing. They were so panicked that the Admiral himself was forced to knock one of his gunnery officers overboard to get him to stop firing! The Russians soon figured out what had happened and promptly fled. Some of the fleet, including Kamchatka, were scattered but the rest fled south. When she finally returned to the fleet, her captain reported that she had engaged THREE MORE Japanese torpedo boats and fired a further 300 shells! Another vessel, while leaving Tangiers, severed an underwater telegraph line, cutting communications between Africa and Europe for four days. The fisherman reported what had happened, and the British flew into outrage. TWENTY EIGHT British battleships and dozens of battleships were sent in pursuit of the Russians. At this time Britain was the most powerful empire in the wold, with a navy fleet more powerful than France and Germany's combined. The Russians pulled into port in Vigo, Spain, and here Rozhestvensky was ordered to return the officers responsible for the incident to Russia for punishment (the government of Russia also paid a large indemnity to the fisherman and their families). The admiral took the opportunity to free himself of several problem officers.

Monument to the fisherman killed in the "battle". 

One of these, after returning to Russia, was put in charge of organizing reinforcements for the Baltic fleet. Having a chip on his shoulder for being sidelined by Rozhestvensky, this captain pulled together the worst vessels he could. Rozhestvensky had been aware of these ships, but refused to depart the Baltic with them due to their age and poor state of repair. He bitterly designated them the "Sink by Themselves" squadron, but these were the vessels sent to reinforce him!

As the fleet traveled south, men began to go mad from the heat and from the filth of the extra coal the ships were storing on board, with several men committing suicide or having to be confined to quarters. At one point Kamchatka once again reported that it had spotted torpedo boats, increasing the stress the sailors were under. On many ships sailors began taking pets on stops in African countries, including a Crocodile! These were unsuited for shiplife, and simply stank up the decks of the already overcrowded vessels. At Cape Town Rozhestvensky learned that Port Arthur had fallen, and that the "Sink by Itself" fleet was on its way. Hoping to avoid these unwanted reinforcements, he quickly steamed away, but after being ordered to Madagascar to await orders, they miraculously caught up. I say miraculously, because the fleet's commander had been given only one order: find the Second Pacific Squadron, whose location and heading was unknown!

The weeks waiting at Madagascar were terrible on the fleet. Men suffered from malaria and other diseases, including the Admiral; his chief of staff was partially paralyzed from a brain hemorrhage. Funerals became a daily occurrence, and the men's discipline became even more lax.  During one funeral, the Kamchatka accidentally fired a live shell during a salute, striking the Aurora once again. Gunnery practice was difficult because after Dogger Bank the fleet was low on shells (one of the supply ships meant to rearm them turned out to be carrying cold weather survival gear instead of shells). Officers were drunk, and one had accidentally purchased several thousand opium-laced cigarettes and passed them around the fleet. During one of the rare gunnery practices only one hit was scored, on the cruiser pulling the target ship. On one vessel the main gun became unusable when a large snake coiled itself around the gun and the sailors were unable to dislodge it. The sailors were an an awful mood: they knew the first Pacific Squadron had been destroyed, and that even with their "reinforcements" from the Sink by Itself fleet they were heavily outnumbered. The fleet was ordered to try to make its way to Vladivostok; perhaps they could be of some use there. 

The rest of the story doesn't end well for the Russians. Their fleet was caught by the Japanese in the straits of Tsushima, between Japan and Korea. I won't get into the details of the Battle of Tsushima, but it was a catastrophe for Russia. They lost 7 battleships and nearly 10,000 casualties. Admiral Rozhestvensky was captured, and after being sent home to Russia was blamed for the entire fiasco. Only one yacht and two destroyers made it to their destination; the rest of the Russian fleet was gone or captured, and the only vessels left to the entire Empire of Russia were those bottled up in the Black Sea. Japan had only lost three torpedo boats and instantly became recognized as a world power. Russia, as you can probably guess, lost the war. The loss of the Russian flee to the well organized Japanese navy soon led to a naval arms race. Russia was so humiliated that the balance of power was soon thrown off balance. These factors ended up being major contributors to the beginning of World War I and the outbreak of the Russian Revolution, but that is a story for another time. 

Czar Nicholas has a nightmare about his men returning home after the war in the Japanese woodblock-printed propaganda piece. 

Great Naval Blunders , by Geoffrey Regan has probably the single best narrative of the entire sojourn of the Baltic Fleet. You can also check out the University of Hull's narrative of events surrounding the Dogger Bank incident here.  

That's it for now, see you next time!