Russian battleship Retvizan

"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" 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)
* [http://ship.bsu.by/main.asp?id=102461 - article in Russian Language]
* [http://www.steelnavy.com/Combrig350Retvizan.htm - article in English aimed at model builders]
* Bethlehem Steel Company, "1904 Ordnance Material Catalog", (Bethlehem, Pa.: The Company, 1904)