Russian Battleship Oslyabya

Russian Battleship Oslyabya

Oslyabya (Russian: Ослябя) was the second of the three Peresvet-class pre-dreadnought battleships built for the Imperial Russian Navy at the end of the nineteenth century, although construction delays meant that she was the last to be completed. The ship was part of the Second Pacific Squadron sent to the Far East during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05, serving as the flagship of Rear Admiral Baron Dmitry von Fölkersam. Oslyabya was sunk on 27 May 1905 at the Battle of Tsushima, and has the inauspicious distinction of being history's first all-steel battleship to be sunk by naval gunfire alone. Sources differ on the exact number of losses, but over half her crew was lost with the ship.