Ivan Vitoldovitch Rhetor at Ulsan

Rhetor

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It was almost dawn of August 14th, 1904, when three Russian cruisers of the Vladivostok squadron spotted smoke on the northern horizon. Pretty soon it was evident that the smoke came from four powerful Japanese armored cruiers. And much too soon the Japanese opened fire, and huge pillars of water appeared much too close to the last ship in the Russian line, the obsolete armored cruiser "Riurik".

Admiral Rhetor instantly gave the order to increase speed to maximum, and after a few minutes the Russians were making 18 knots, thus keeping the Japanese at a steady range of 5000 meters. The problem was that the Russians were steaming almost directly South, ie away from their save haven at Vladivostok.

The Japanese were firing handsomely, and they soon scored first hits; one of the first shells knocked out one of the 203mm guns of the Riurik, on which all the four Japanese cruisers concentrated their fire. Russian shells were mostly falling harmlessly into the ocean.

Admiral Rhetor decided to try using the rising sun to blind the Japanese gunners, and ordered a sharp left turn, especially as he saw some more Japanese vessels, probably protected cruisers, to the South and South West. For a few minutes his vessels were steaming East, trying to concentrate their fire on the leading enemy ship, the "Iwate", scoring a few hits. However, she did not lose speed, and she fired all her guns. Probably her thick armour protected her well enough. Next, Russians made another sharp left turn in succession, and steamed North, passing the Japanese line at ranges about 2500 meters.

In the ensuing slugging game, the armored cruiser "Rossia" was hit repeatedly by 203mm and 152mm shells, losing three gun mounts permanently, and gaining a 1% permanent flooding on the port. "Gromboi", luckily, escaped unscathed. "Riurik" took the severiest pounding. All but one of her 203 mm guns were gone, and a fire started on her foredeck, which the damage control officer described as 15%. Some flooding also occured, but she did not lose speed, and was bravely making 18 knots.

The Russian admiral, seeing that his vessels are no match for the Japanese armored cruisers in exchange of boardsides, decided to run for it. For the next two and a half hours the Japanese pursued the Russians at a range of 4600 meters. All the Japanese ships concentrated their fire again on the "Riurik", while the Russians targeted again the "Iwate".

During the chase it was getting more and more obvious, that the heavily armored "Iwate" can withstand much more hits than the obsolete "Riurik". Despite numerous hits, the "Iwate" was chasing relentlessly. The crew of the "Riurik" strived to keep the fires down, but the flames mercilessly were eating up more and more. For almost one and a half hours the Russian sailors kept the fires at 22 - 26%. But more and more of them were being killed and wounded by the Japanese shells.

At about 6.35AM a Japanese 203mm shell penetrated the deck of the "Riurik", seriously damaging her engines. She began to lose speed, and was falling back. The Japanese were getting closer, and thus their fire was more and more accurate.

The brave commander of the "Riurik" decided to sacrifice his vessel to give the other two Russian cruiser a chance of escape. He turned right, and went straight on the Japanese. She was hit by such a volume of fire, that after ten minutes all her weapons, save a single torpedo mount, were knocked out, fires were out of control, and the engines went dead. Surprisingly, no major flooding occured, as the trajectory of Japanese shells was very flat.

When the Japanese cruisers were passing by the helpless Russian cruiser, one of them fired a 457mm torpedo. It hit the "Riurik" starboard. She developed a 10 degrees list to the starboard. Even though she lay dead in water and did not fire, all the four Japanese vessels kept pounding her from point blank distance. They did not stop to finish her off, but were chasing the other two vessels, so they were wasting valuable ammo. Only when it became obvious that the "Riurik" is sinking, the Japanese ceased their fire.

"Riurik" sank with her flag still proudly flying, but the other two Russian cruisers managed to get safely to Vladivostok.

The damage on the Japanese ships was insignificant.
 
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