Russian battleship Retvizan
 Retvizan (1902 - 1924)
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 Russia | |
| Name | Retvizan |
| Ordered | 2 May 1898 |
| Builder | William Cramp and Sons, Philadelphia |
| Laid down | 29 July 1899 |
| Launched | 23 October 1900 |
| Commissioned | 23 March 1902 |
| Out of service | list error: <br /> list (help) Sunk by Japanese howitzers in Port Arthur, China, 6 December 1904 Salvaged and repaired by the Japanese |
| Renamed | Hizen, 1908 |
| Captured | 2 January 1905 |
| History | |
 Japan | |
| Name | Hizen |
| Acquired | 1905 |
| Commissioned | 1908 |
| Decommissioned | April 1922 |
| Out of service | Sunk as gunnery target, 20 September 1924 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Pre-dreadnought battleship |
| Displacement | 12,708 long tons (12,912 t) standard |
| Length | 117.85 m (386 ft 8 in) |
| Beam | 22 m (72 ft 2 in) |
| Draught | 7.6 m (24 ft 11 in) |
| Propulsion | list error: <br /> list (help) 2 × Vertical triple expansion engines 24 coal fired Niclausee type boilers 2 shafts 16,000 shp (12,000 kW) |
| Speed | 18 knots (21 mph; 33 km/h) |
| Range | 4,900 nmi (9,100 km) at 10 kn (12 mph; 19 km/h) |
| Complement | 28 officers, 722 men |
| Armament | list error: <br /> list (help) • 4 × 305 mm (12 in) guns (2×2) • 12 × 152 mm (6 in) guns (12×1) • 20 × 75 mm (3 in) guns • 24 × 47 mm (1.9 in) guns • 6 × 37 mm (1.5 in) guns • 6 × 381 mm (15 in) torpedo tubes |
| Armour | list error: <br /> list (help) Krupp armour Belt: 230 mm (9 in) Deck: 51–76 mm (2–3 in) Turrets: 230 mm (9 in) Barbettes: 203 mm (8 in) Conning tower: 254 mm (10 in) |
Retvizan (Ретвизан) was a Russian pre-Dreadnought battleship which fought in the Russo-Japanese War. She was unique in that many of her components and their actual fabrication was done in the United States for the Imperial Russian Navy. Much of her side armor was forged by the Bethlehem Steel Corporation, and she was built by the William Cramp and Sons Ship & Engine Building Company of Philadelphia. The armament was made at the Obukhov works in St Petersburg and shipped to America for installation.
Retvizan was named after the Swedish battleship Rättvisa (meaning Justice) which was captured by the Russians at the Battle of Sveaborg in 1790. She was ordered in 1898, laid down 29 July 1899, launched 23 October 1900, and commissioned on 23 March 1902. The ship had extensive trials in America before delivery to the Baltic where she took part in a Naval Review in Reval staged for the State visit of Kaiser Wilhelm II in August 1902.
She was designed for service in the Pacific and was a combination of Russian and American design. She arrived at Port Arthur (now Lüshunkou) China on 4 May 1903.
She was present at the Battle of Port Arthur where she was torpedoed by Japanese destroyers and grounded, five men were killed. She was repaired and took part in the Battle of the Yellow Sea, where she was hit by 18 shells and suffered 6 dead and 43 wounded. She was subsequently trapped in Port Arthur and sunk at her moorings by numerous howitzer shells on 6 December 1904, during the Siege of Port Arthur.
Retvizan was raised by the Japanese and repaired at Sasebo. Renamed Hizen, she served in the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War I, in which she took part in the hunt for the cruiser squadron of Maximilian von Spee and in the Japanese intervention in the Russian Civil War. She was retired as a result of the Washington Naval Treaty in 1923 and sunk as a target in 1924.
References
- S. McLaughlin The Retvizan, an American Battleship for the Czar, 2000, (in Warship 2000-2001, Conways maritime press)
- - article in Russian Language
- - article in English aimed at model builders
- Bethlehem Steel Company, 1904 Ordnance Material Catalog, (Bethlehem, Pa.: The Company, 1904)