Tsushima 1905: The Baltic Fleet's 18,000-Mile Voyage to Annihilation

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In 1904, with Russia's Pacific Fleet blockaded at Port Arthur, Tsar Nicholas II sent the Baltic Fleet, renamed the Second Pacific Squadron, on a seven-month, 18,000-mile voyage to the Far East. Its newest battleships drew too much water for the Suez Canal, so they sailed around Africa and the Cape of Good Hope, fed by 60 German colliers and 30 to 40 ship-to-ship coaling sessions in heat above 120 degrees below decks. In the North Sea the jittery fleet mistook British trawlers at Dogger Bank for Japanese torpedo boats, opened fire for 20 minutes, killed fishermen, and nearly brought Britain into the war. By the time Admiral Rozhestvensky reached Asian waters, fouled hulls held his fleet to nine knots.

On May 27, 1905, the brightly lit hospital ship Orel gave the fleet away in the fog of the Tsushima Strait, and the scout Shinano Maru radioed its position to Admiral Togo Heihachiro. Togo raised the Z flag aboard the Mikasa, made a dangerous turn under fire, and crossed the Russian T. Japanese high explosive shells loaded with Shimose powder burned the Russian ships from the top down, and night torpedo attacks finished the survivors. The next morning Rear Admiral Nebogatov surrendered, and Togo kept firing until the ships stopped and changed flags. Russia lost all 11 battleships; Japan lost three torpedo boats and 117 men.

• The fleet needed 500,000 tons of coal for the voyage, and coal dust coated food, decks, and lungs.
• The battleship Oslyabya became the first modern armored warship sunk entirely by gunfire.
• The Borodino exploded after a hit to a magazine, and only one man from her crew survived.
• Japan's victory let its ally Britain bring Royal Navy ships home to the North Sea, feeding Germany's dreadnought arms race before World War I.
• A young officer aboard the cruiser Nisshin lost two fingers in the battle; one more would have ended the naval career of Yamamoto Isoroku.