Who won the Battle of Tsushima?
On 27 and 28 May 1905 the Japanese fleet of Admiral Togo Heihachiro met the Russian Baltic Fleet in the Tsushima Strait and annihilated it. The Russians had sailed some 18,000 miles from the Baltic over seven months to reach the fight; in two days of superior gunnery and maneuver, most of their ships were sunk or captured. It was the most decisive naval battle since the age of sail, and it announced Japan as a modern great power.3
No fleet had ever come so far to be destroyed so completely. For seven months the Russian Baltic Fleet had crawled around the world to relieve a lost war in the east, and it arrived exhausted and outdated. Waiting for it in the narrow straits between Korea and Japan was a faster, better-drilled fleet and one of the great admirals of the age.4
A war in the east
By 1904 Russia and Japan were at war over Korea and Manchuria, and Japan's army and navy had the upper hand. To turn the tide, the Tsar sent his Baltic Fleet halfway around the world to break the Japanese command of the sea. Under Admiral Zinovy Rozhestvensky the fleet steamed some 18,000 miles over seven months, its crews worn down and its ships fouled and short of good coal, to reach the war zone in May 1905.5 › Battle of Chemulpo Bay, 1904
The Togo turn
Admiral Togo Heihachiro waited with the Japanese fleet in the straits, warned by wireless the moment the Russians were sighted. As the two lines closed, Togo swung his ships across the head of the Russian column in a daring turn, a maneuver that let his whole line fire on the leading enemy ships while few of their guns could reply. His gunnery was faster and more accurate, and his shells started devastating fires.6
Annihilation
Within hours the Russian flagship was crippled and Rozhestvensky badly wounded. Ship after ship was battered and sunk in the afternoon and the running fights through the night, as Japanese torpedo boats hunted the survivors in the dark. By the next day the Russian fleet had ceased to exist: most of its ships were sunk or captured, thousands of sailors dead, and most of the surviving commanders in Japanese hands.7
Which Russian commanders died at Tsushima?
At least seven Russian ship captains were killed or mortally wounded leading their ships at Tsushima on 27 and 28 May 1905, among them the captains of the battleships Knyaz Suvorov, Imperator Aleksandr III, Borodino and Oslyabya. The fleets were commanded by Admiral Togo Heihachiro for Japan and Vice Admiral Zinovy Rozhestvensky, in Knyaz Suvorov, for Russia; Rozhestvensky was badly wounded and captured but survived.8
Captain Vasily Ignatius, commander of the flagship Knyaz Suvorov, was killed leading his ship at Tsushima on 27 May 1905, struck by a shell as he led men up to fight a fire on board. The clearest case of a commander who died of his wounds after leading his ship is Captain Nikolai Yung of the battleship Oryol: badly hurt on 27 May, he died on 29 May, after Oryol had been surrendered, and was buried at sea with Japanese permission.9
- Knyaz Suvorov (fleet flagship): Captain Vasily Ignatius, killed on 27 May.10
- Imperator Aleksandr III: Captain Nikolai Bukhvostov, lost with his ship on 27 May; the sailor and writer Aleksey Novikov-Priboy records no survivors, while the British official history says four men were saved from her keel and an American account of 1906 says three.11
- Borodino: Captain Pyotr Serebrennikov, went down with his ship on 27 May; a single sailor survived, named by Novikov-Priboy as Semyon Yushchin.12
- Oslyabya: Captain Vladimir Ber, who according to Novikov-Priboy ordered the crew to abandon ship, went down with her on 27 May.13
- Oryol: Captain Nikolai Yung, mortally wounded on 27 May, died on 29 May and was buried at sea.14
- Admiral Ushakov: Captain Vladimir Miklukha, refused a Japanese call to surrender on 28 May and died when his ship was sunk.15
- Aurora (cruiser): Captain Yevgeny Yegoryev, killed on 27 May, although his ship survived the battle.16
Three admirals complete the picture. Rear Admiral Dmitry von Fölkersam, who commanded the fleet's second division from Oslyabya, died of illness aboard her shortly before the battle, and his death was kept from the fleet. Rozhestvensky, wounded in the head aboard Knyaz Suvorov, was taken off by the destroyer Buiny and was captured the next day aboard the destroyer Bedovy. On the morning of 28 May Rear Admiral Nikolai Nebogatov, flying his flag in Imperator Nikolai I, surrendered the battleships still with him. To see how the battle compares with Trafalgar, Midway and the rest, read our guide to the greatest naval battles in history, or test yourself with the industrial age battles quiz.17
The world takes notice
Tsushima was one of the most one-sided victories in naval history and forced Russia to make peace. The war ended with the Treaty of Portsmouth later that year, and the shock of the defeat deepened the revolution already spreading through Russia. For Japan, the victory over a European great power was a turning point that echoed far beyond the sea, and it made Togo a national hero. Writers have often called it Japan's Trafalgar, after Nelson's victory of 1805.18
