1905 01 02 Port Arthur, The end of the Sevastopol - Paul WrightSevastopol was the last of the three
1905 01 02 Port Arthur, The end of the Sevastopol - Paul WrightSevastopol was the last of the three Poltava-class battleships built by Russia in the 1890s. Started in 1892 and launched in 1895, it entered service in 1900. Assigned to the Pacific Squadron in 1900, it was at Port Arthur when the Russo-Japanese War began and was trapped there after the battle of the Yellow Sea.The Japanese capture of Hill 201 on December 1,1904 brought Port Arthur’s Inner Harbor within range of the Japanese Army’s German-made 11-inch howitzers. With their high angle trajectory, the 478-pound shells could penetrate the deck armor of any Russian warship. Starting December 5, the Japanese began systematically shelling the Russian fleet sheltered in the Inner Harbor. By December 9, all but one cruiser or battleship in Port Arthur had been sunk by the howitzers.The exception was Sevastopol. Its captain, Nikolai Essen, took the battleship to the Eastern Harbor, out of range of the army guns. He intended to take the battleship out of Port Arthur and either rendezvous with Rozhestvensky’s Second Pacific Squadron, then at Madagascar, or head to Vladivostok. -- source link
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