Russian Battleship Peresvet

Russian Battleship Peresvet

Peresvet, (Russian: Пересвет), was the lead ship of the three Peresvet-class pre-dreadnought battleships built for the Imperial Russian Navy at the end of the nineteenth century. The ship was transferred to the Pacific Squadron upon completion and based at Port Arthur from 1903. During the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, she participated in the Battles of Port Arthur and the Yellow Sea, and was seriously damaged during the latter engagement. Peresvet was scuttled during the Siege of Port Arthur, and was then salvaged afterwards by the Japanese and placed into service under the name Sagami (相模?).

Rearmed and re-boilered by the Japanese, Sagami was reclassified by the Imperial Japanese Navy as a coastal defense ship in 1908. She was sold in 1916 to the Russians after the start of World War I and sank off Port Said, Egypt, after striking mines laid by a German submarine at the beginning of 1917.