Russian Battleship Retvizan

Russian Battleship Retvizan

Retvizan (Russian: Ретвизан) was a Russian pre-dreadnought battleship built before the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05 for the Imperial Russian Navy in the United States. She was built by the William Cramp and Sons Ship & Engine Building Company of Philadelphia, although the armament was made at the Obukhov works in Saint Petersburg and shipped to America for installation. Retvizan was named after the Swedish ship of the line Rättvisan (meaning The Justice) which was captured by the Russians at the Battle of Viborg Bay in 1790.

Retvizan was torpedoed during the Japanese surprise attack on Port Arthur during the night of 8–9 February 1904 and grounded in the harbor entrance when she attempted to take refuge inside as her draft had significantly deepened from all of the water she had taken aboard after the torpedo hit. She was eventually refloated and repaired by mid-June. She joined the rest of the 1st Pacific Squadron when they attempted to reach Vladivostok though the Japanese blockade on 10 August. The Japanese battle fleet engaged them in the Battle of the Yellow Sea and forced most of the Russian ships to return to Port Arthur after killing the squadron commander and damaging his flagship. She was sunk by Japanese howitzers in December after the Japanese had gained control of the heights around the harbor.

The Japanese raised her after the surrender of Port Arthur in January 1905 and repaired her. She was commissioned in the Imperial Japanese Navy as Hizen (肥前?) in 1908. In Sasebo when the Japanese declared war on Germany in 1914 she was sent to reinforce the weak British squadron in British Columbia, but was diverted to Hawaii when reports of the arrival of a German gunboat there were received. She was sent to search for other German ships after the Americans interned the German ship in November, but did not encounter any. After World War I she supported the Japanese intervention in the Russian Civil War, but was disarmed in 1922 in accordance with the Washington Naval Treaty. She was sunk as a gunnery target in 1924.