Russian cruiser Varyag (1899)

Varyag circa 1904
History
Russian Empire
Name: Varyag
Builder: William Cramp & Sons, Philadelphia
Yard number: 301
Laid down: October 1898
Launched: 31 October 1899
Commissioned: 2 January 1901
Fate: Scuttled 9 February 1904
Empire of Japan
Name: Soya
Acquired: by Japan as prize of war
Commissioned: 9 July 1907
Fate: Returned to Russia, 5 April 1916
Russian Empire
Name: Varyag
Acquired: 5 April 1916
Out of service: seized by Great Britain February 1918
Fate: Ran aground 1920, scrapped 1925
General characteristics
Type: Protected cruiser
Displacement: 6,500 long tons (6,604 t)
Length: 129.6 m (425 ft 2 in) w/l
Beam: 15.8 m (51 ft 10 in)
Draught: 6.3 m (20 ft 8 in)
Propulsion:
Speed: 23 knots (26 mph; 43 km/h)
Complement: 570
Armament:

Varyag (also spelled Variag; see Varangian for the meaning of the name) (Russian: кре́йсер «Варя́г») was a Russian protected cruiser. Varyag became famous for her crew's stoicism at the Battle of Chemulpo Bay.

History

The Imperial Admiralty contracted William Cramp & Sons of Philadelphia to build the ship, and her keel was laid in October 1898. Launched on 31 October 1899, under Captain Vladimir Behr, she was commissioned into the Imperial Russian Navy on 2 January 1901.

During her construction, an assistant physician, Leo Alexandroff, left the ship's advance party on 20 April 1899, and applied for U.S. citizenship. He was arrested for desertion. His case reached the United States Supreme Court, which ruled in Tucker v. Alexandroff that the ship, though not accepted for service in the Imperial Russian Navy, was a warship under the terms of the 1832 treaty between Russia and the United States.[1]

Varyag damaged after the Battle of Chemulpo Bay, just before being scuttled.
Varyag after being salvaged by the Japanese.
Varyag in Japanese service as Soya.

During the Battle of Chemulpo Bay at the start of the Russo-Japanese War, Varyag (under the command of Captain of the First Rank Vsevolod Rudnev) accepted a badly unequal battle with the Japanese squadron of Admiral Uriu (one armoured cruiser, five protected cruisers and eight destroyers) in a heroic attempt to break out from Chemulpo (Incheon) harbour 9 February 1904. Chemulpo was in neutral Korean waters. Admiral Uriu gave the Russian ships in harbor a written ultimatum to sail by 12:00 noon or be attacked in the harbor itself. Captain Rudnev sortied, accompanied by the gunboat Koreets; having lost 31 men dead, 191 injured (out of 570) and outgunned, both ships returned to harbor by 1:00 p.m., the crew decided not to surrender, but to sink the ship. The crew was saved by transferring them to the British cruiser Talbot, the French cruiser Pascal, and the Italian cruiser Elba; the captain of the US gunboat Vicksburg declined doing so as a violation of U.S. neutrality.[2][3]

In 1907, Vsevolod Rudnev (by that time dismissed from Russian naval service in the rank of rear admiral) was decorated with the Japanese Order of the Rising Sun for his heroism in that battle; although he accepted the order, he never wore it in public.

Varyag was later salvaged by the Japanese and repaired. She served with the Imperial Japanese Navy as the protected cruiser Soya.

During World War I, Russia and Japan were allies and several ships were transferred by the Japanese to the Russians. She was repurchased by the Imperial Russian Navy at Vladivostok on 5 April 1916 and renamed back to Varyag. In June, she departed for Murmansk via the Indian Ocean, arriving in November 1916. She was sent to Liverpool in Great Britain for an overhaul by Cammell Laird in February 1917, and was due to re-enter service with the Arctic squadron of the Russian Navy. However, following the Russian October Revolution on 7 November 1917 crewmen who had remained onboard hoisted the red flag and refused to set sail. On 8 December 1917 she was seized by a detachment of British soldiers. Assigned to the Royal Navy in February 1918, she ran aground while under tow off of Ireland, but was refloated and used as a hulk until 1919. She was then sold to a German firm in 1920 for scrap, but on 5 February 1920 ran aground on rocks near the Scottish village of Lendalfoot (55°11′03″N 04°56′30″W / 55.18417°N 4.94167°W / 55.18417; -4.94167Coordinates: 55°11′03″N 04°56′30″W / 55.18417°N 4.94167°W / 55.18417; -4.94167) in the Firth of Clyde, while being towed to Germany. She was scrapped in place from 1923-1925.[4][5]

Legacy

Soviet postage stamp of 1972 honoring the cruiser Varyag

The stoicism of Varyag's crew at Chemulpo has inspired the Austrian poet Rudolf Greinz to write a poem dedicated to Varyag. The Russian translation of this poem was put on music by A.S. Turischev. The result was the 1904 song that remains popular today:

(German original)
Auf Deck, Kameraden, all' auf Deck!
Heraus zur letzten Parade!
Der stolze Warjag ergibt sich nicht,
Wir brauchen keine Gnade!
Rudolf Greinz

(Russian poetic translation)
Наверх вы, товарищи, все по местам!
Последний парад наступает.
Врагу не сдается наш гордый “Варяг”,
Пощады никто не желает.


(translation)
Get up you comrades, take your places,
The final parade is at hand.
Proud "Varyag" will not surrender to the enemy,
No one wants their mercy.

The Varyag memorial at Lendalfoot looks over the Firth of Clyde.

On Sunday 30 July 2006 (Russian Navy Day), a memorial plaque to the cruiser was unveiled at Lendalfoot in a ceremony attended by senior Russian politicians and navy personnel, veterans and local dignitaries.[6][7]

On 8 September 2007 a monument in the form of a large bronze cross was unveiled as an addition to the Lendalfoot memorial, in a ceremony attended by former Nato Secretary General George Robertson, British and Russian navy officers and diplomats.[8] The “Cruiser Varyag” Charity Foundation had organised a competition in Russia for the design of the monument,[9] and RT International described it as "the first monument to Russian military glory in the UK".[10]

In 2010, as a gesture marking the 20th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Korea and Russia, the flag of Varyag was restored. The Japanese Navy recovered the flag when the ship was salvaged; and the Incheon Metropolitan Museum acquired them after Japan's defeat at the end of World War II. The return of the flag takes the form of a two-year renewable loan because of the Korean law protecting cultural assets.[11]

Notes

  1. ↑ Tucker v. Alexandroff, 183 U.S. 424.
  2. ↑ Port Arthur: Prologue materials of publishing house "Alexander PRINT"
  3. ↑ Report from Robert S. McCormack to Secretary of State John Hay, May 11, 1904, in Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1904, Government Printing House, Washington
  4. ↑ Kowner, Historical Dictionary of the Russo-Japanese War, p. 407-408.
  5. ↑ "Variag: Lendalfoot, Firth Of Clyde". Canmore (in Afrikaans). Retrieved 20 August 2017.
  6. ↑ Resting place of Russian cruiser Varyag South Ayrshire Council News
  7. ↑ "Ayrshire memorial to Russian boat". BBC NEWS. 30 July 2006. Retrieved 20 August 2017.
  8. ↑ "Clyde memorial for Russian ship". BBC NEWS. 8 September 2007. Retrieved 20 August 2017.
  9. ↑ "Russia's legendary cruiser remembered in Scotland". RT International. 11 August 2007. Retrieved 20 August 2017.
  10. ↑ "Scotland perpetuates memory of Russian warship". RT International. 9 September 2007. Retrieved 20 August 2017.
  11. ↑ "Korea to Return Flag of Sunken Russian Warship," Chosun Ilbo (ROK). November 11, 2010; retrieved 11 Nov 2010.

References

  • Kowner, Rotem (2006). "Historical Dictionary of the Russo-Japanese War". Scarecrow. 620pp. ISBN 0-8108-4927-5
  • MPHK Catalogue of collectible silver coins 2012-13 p.38
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