voyage of the damned russian fleet

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Voyage of the Damned: The Last (Only) ride of the Russian Second Pacific Squadron.

Voyage of the Damned: The Last (Only) ride of the Russian Second Pacific Squadron… September 5th, 1905. A date that would forever haunt the Russian Imperial Court.

By offer of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, the Russian Imperial Government under Tsar Nicholas II was forced to make peace with the Empire of Japan after sustaining humiliating defeats against the emerging Asian power. In a conflict that began just over one year ago, the Imperial Russian Army and Navy were soundly defeated by their Japanese counterparts. While Russia’s only “warm water” port of Port Arthur was handed over to the the Empire of Japan, leaving Vladivostok it’s only operational port on its Pacific coast.

The Russo-Japanese war was by far the most humiliating defeat the Russian Empire suffered, with the Battle of Tsushima being the most “celebrated” battle of the entire conflict. This was the battle that destroyed the moral of the Russian Navy and the Imperial Military in general. This defeat, one of many Russia suffered, more or less ended what ever hopes the Imperial court had of securing a victory over the Japanese. As well as showed just how weak the Russian Empire had become in recent years. But the Battle of Tsushima was only the final act in an ill fated voyage that was poorly planned and conceived in an desperate attempt to relieve the Russian fleet trapped in the Pacific.

The Voyage of the Russian “Second Pacific Squadron” would become a massive embarrassment for the Imperial Court of Russia. For during its voyage to the Far East, the squadron would be the source for a number of major international incidents and diplomatic tensions between Russian and the other European powers. Not to mention, a literal voyage from hell for the men who served on board the ships that made up the squadron. As well as becoming a case study on how NOT to conduct a prolonged naval operation for many aspiring Naval Commanders.

Now we all know about just why the Russo-Japanese war broke out, but the story of the Second Pacific Squadron began when it was very clear to see that the Russian Pacific fleet was in trouble. Because of its location, the Russian port of Port Arthur was proving to be more trouble than it was really worth. The warm water harbor was located right on the end of a peninsula and was surrounded by hills and mountains. This meant that it would not be too hard for the Japanese to not only cut off supplies from Port Arthur, but use the surrounding elevations to attack the First Pacific Squadron based there.

It also did not help that the entrance to said harbor was rather shallow, meaning most of the larger ships were trapped until the tide came in. Nor did it help that most of the commanders in the squadron really had no business commanding there vessels in any sort in a fight. By mid April 1904, Japanese forces were now threatening to cut off Port Arthur while a number for Russian vessels, including the Battleships “Retvizan”, “Pobeda” and “Tsesarevich” were either heavily damaged or were currently resting on the sea floor. Worst still, the commander of the Squadron, Vice Admiral Stepan Makarov (By the way, he was by far the most capable naval officer the Russians had at this point) was killed when his Flag ship struck a mine and exploded when he attempted to escape with the fleet.

With the Pacific fleets now trapped and Tsar Nicholas II not wanting to give up and surrender to the Japanese, the answer to relieve the embattled fleets at Port Arthur and Vladivostok was to send more ship to the Pacific. Fortunately, Imperial Russia did just happen to have two other fleets at their disposal in the forms of the Baltic and Black Sea fleets. The plan was to basically assemble a new force and sail them over 18,000 miles to fight the Japanese and rescue the trapped fleets in the Pacific.

Of course this was a plan that was way easier said than done. At this point in their history, The Russian Empire was not exactly the most popular nation in Europe (Especially with the British), nor did they have ANY bases of their own where a fleet of this size could be refueled and resupplied. Plus the rules of war allowed neutral countries to refuse giving Russia any help of any kind. Also, the vast majority of the Russian fleet were made up of vessels that were never designed for open Ocean voyages, let alone in Tropical climates. not to mention that most of the ships that would be sent were rather long in the tooth and were basically outclassed by the British supplied warships the Japanese Imperial navy had acquired in the year prior.

Yet they would be tasked with sailing around the world to rescue the trapped Russian fleets. Now I know what you are thinking, with all these concerns just why did the Russians still go through with this plan? The answer is quite simple….

They were all ignored.

To lead this force, the Tsar chose Rear Admiral Zinovy Rozhestvensky to command the Second Pacific Squadron. A seasoned veteran of the Russo-Ottoman war, Rozhestvensky was possibly the best choice to lead such a force, though was not as political as Admiral Makarov and was notorious for his short temper and would actually attack officers who disappointed him in any way. But compared to other members of the Imperial Russian Navy, he was not corrupt (Which was rare at the time) and was remarkably fair to all those who served under him, if not very demanding. Not surprisingly he was not well liked in the upper echelons of the Imperial Russian Navy, but was still beloved by those he commanded and it was a well known fact that ships under his command were usually well disciplined and were known for being ready for combat in a moments notice.

It also didn’t hurt that Kaiser Wilhelm II (Yeah… that Kaiser) also gave Rozhestvensky high praise during his visit to Russia same years back. So yes, Rozhestvensky was the “best” choice the Tsar could have made. Unfortunately…. Things started to go down hill after that…

Vessels from the Baltic Fleet were being assembled for the long voyage that was to come and on paper it looked promising. 42 vessels including 11 battleships and 9 cruisers would make up the main force while being supported by a number of destroyers, gun boats and support ships. While the Russian government would contract ships from the Hamburg-Amerika Line to deliver and resupply the fleet with coal while at sea. Something which had never been done before on such a large scale up until that point, especially it was rather difficult and sometimes dangerous task when done in port.

The actual vessels that would be taking part in the squadron were also a rather diverse mix in themselves. Many of the vessels, specifically the Battleships, had a Tumblehome design that made the vessels somewhat unstable in rough seas but was not much of an issue since the Baltic was relatively calm compared to the open Ocean. Some of the vessels were also grossly overweight and position of the secondary armament were dangerously close too the water line.

Work quality of work being done on some of the ships was questionable at best, as the battleship Oryol sank in harbor while being refitted for the voyage. Apparently someone removed some sheeting from the hull without realizing that a ship needs it hull intact so it could stay afloat. There were some new vessels taking part in the squadron but they were untested in battle, while others were obsolete. Still others were nothing more than merchant ships and aristocratic yachts that had guns added to them and really had no business being in any kind of combat. Because why not?

Also, Rozhestvensky was informed that the Tsar allocated enough ammunition for the upcoming battle and only enough for the battle. There would not be enough to conduct any kind of exercises to train gun crews. A fact that was made worse seeing that the majority of the crews were nothing more than uneducated conscripts that mostly came from land locked regions from Russia and had never seen the ocean until now.

As one officer put it “One Half of this lot needed to be thaught everything, because they know nothing. and the other half also needed to learn everything, because they had forgotten everything.”

Now you must be wondering why the mighty Baltic fleet was in such a terrible state. well that is because most of the experienced crews were currently fighting for their lives in Port Arthur. Most of the officers that were assigned to Rozhestvensky’s command were not what you would call shining examples of professionalism. as many of them would often sneak off to literally get drunk on shore, a fact that did not sit well with the Rear Admiral.

But by some miracle on the 15th of October, the Second Pacific Squadron went to sea… And disaster would strike immediately when Rozhestvensky’s Flagship ran aground. Meanwhile one of the escorting cruisers lost its anchor and chain. Later in that day one of the Destroyers managed to ram one of the battleships and had to return to port for repairs.

Despite these minor issues, the fleet did eventually made it out of the Baltic and followed the Danish coast. that was when things really got interesting, as panicked sailors began to yell that they were all doomed and that the Japanese Navy was waiting to ambush them once they made it into the North Sea. Well…. They were only half right.

Now to be fair, I guess it was not too crazy to believe that the Japanese were waiting for them. Since it was known that the UK had been building warships for Imperial Japan at the time, but no one thought that it would have been impossible for a entire Japanese Battle Fleet to teleport themselves half way around the world to fight them in the first place. The display of bad seamanship carried on, with the Russians damaging the Danish coal ships that had been contracted to resupply them. After numerous collisions, Rozhestvensky was forced to open fire on one of his own support ship after it refused to follow the admiral signals. In the end, said ship was forced to return home.

More rumors soon began to circulate among the crews about a possible Japanese attack. To remedy this Rozhestvensky gave an order that absolutely no vessel of any sort was allowed to enter the fleet. This would end up biting the Rear Admiral in the butt, as no sooner he had given the order, a fishing vessel began to approach the squadron and the already panicked crews began to open fire on it. As it turned out, the vessel in question was actually carrying a message from the Tsar saying that he been promoted to Vice Admiral and the only thing that saved the Fishing crew was the fact that the aim of the ships’ gunners was horrid. It didn’t help that during this, the Repair Ship Kamchacta had radioed that it was being attacked by Japanese Torpedo boats. when asked how many the vessel replied “About 8 from all directions”

As you can guess, this ship was gonna become everyone’s favorite vessel as the squadron sailed on…..

Eventually, the Second Pacific Squadron made it into the North Sea and things would hopefully improve….. Then the Dogger Bank Incident happened.

On the night of October 21/22, the Squadron came came across a British Trawler fleet sailing out of Kingston upon Hull. Obviously this slow moving, well lit flotilla of fishing vessels with their vicious fishing nets were easily confused for fast moving Torpedo Boats and as expected, the Russian fleet opened fire in a panic. It was absolute chaos, as shells began to rain down on the fishing fleet and Russian vessels began to report they had been hit by torpedoes. some Russian sailors began to draw life vest and prepared to jump into the North sea thinking they were sinking. While on other ships men blindly charged around with what ever weapons they had, screaming that they were being boarded. Causing even more panic.

But at least this time around the Russian battleships were able to score hits on a number of trawlers, sinking one and damaging 4 more. They even managed to score hits on the Russian Cruisers Aurora and Dimitrii Donskoi, killing a sailor and a Priest on board the Aurora. The only one who seemed to realize that they were not “Fighting” the Japanese, was Vice Admiral Rozhestvensky and he was eventually able to get his fleet to stop attacking the British fishing boats. But this fiasco was nothing compared to what came next.

You see, the British Government/Public did not take to kindly to the fact the Russian Navy attacked a British fishing fleet and boy did it cause a row between London and the Russian Crown. not to mention that the British public found it hard to believe that the incident was accidental, with one news outlet saying:

“ It is almost inconceivable that any men calling themselves seamen, however frightened they might be, could spend twenty minutes bombarding a fleet of fishing boats without discovering the nature of their target “

It was not long before Cruiser Squadrons belonging to the Royal Navy began to show up and shadow the Russian fleet. While the entire Channel fleet, which was larger than the entire Russian Navy, was mobilized for action. Worst still, the Mediterranean Fleet was mobilized as well and ordered to Gibraltar. Fortunately for the Russians, they never had to face off with the Royal Navy as cooler heads prevailed in the end. Though Lord Beresford of the Royal Navy proposed that he would make it a fair fight by only engaging the Russian Fleet with only 4 of his Battleships. Noting just how terrible the Squadron’s accuracy was as shown during the Dogger Bank Incident. Holding the rest of his fleet in reserve just in case any of his vessels were actually hit.

An Commission of Inquiry would be launched into the Incident an in the end, Rozhestvensky would be cleared as the commission believed that the Russian Admiral did everything he could to stop his vessels from firing on the fishing vessels. While the Russian government willingly paid compensation of £66,000 to the fishermen that were involved. The immediate aftermath was indeed a diplomatic nightmare for the Russian government and Rozhestvensky was ordered to dock at the Spanish port of Vigo. Where he proceeded to leave behind a number of officers that he believed were responsible for the incident.

He also used this port of call to remove a one Captain Klado, who more or less was not well liked by the Admiral. Mainly because Klado had done nothing but complain about the way Rozhestvensky was commanding the fleet and the two officers almost came to blows a few days before the incident. Klado would eventually return to haunt his former commander, as he was ordered to return to St. Petersburg to organize “reinforcements” for the Second Pacific squadron.

While the Russian fleet almost managed to start a war with the British Empire, the Kamchatka managed to almost start a war with half of Europe. As the Supply Vessel open fire of ships belonging to France, Sweden and Germany, claiming that all three vessels were Japanese warships and had fired 300 shells in defense. Like I said before, Kamchatka was quickly becoming everyone’s favorite ship.

Eventually the Second Pacific squadron left European Waters and docked in the port of Tangiers, Morocco. Where one of the ships managed to cut the telegraph cable that ran under the harbor, effectively cutting off all communication with Europe for a few days. After this, Kamchatka was ordered to take the lead of the supply ship column. Primarily because Rozhestvensky had no reason to trust the vessel’s commander at all and wanted to keep a close eye on the troublesome ship.

As the Second Pacific Squadron approached the west coast of Africa, they linked up with some German merchant vessels that had been contracted to resupply the fleet with coal. To minimize the amount of times this needed to be done, the Russian fleet was ordered to take on double loads of coal. but since the coal bunkers were not large enough to take on the amount needed, sacks of coal were loaded into anywhere space could be found. Including Storerooms, on Deck, passageways, anywhere a sack could go, it went. This resulted in the fleet being covered in a fine layer of highly explosive coal dust, effectively turning the ships into sailing fuel-air bombs.

As the ships made their way down the African Coast, the humidity combined with the Coal Dust resulted in thick black tar coating the lungs of every man apart of the Squadron. not surprisingly, a number of men died due to respiratory problems. There was some good news, as the fleet sailed into a storm that not only cleared the air somewhat but also cleaned the ships themselves. When the storm subsided and the ships were asked about their status afterwards, Kamchatka replied….

“Do you see Torpedo Boats?”

Rozhestvensky, now understandably stressed out and fed up about his situation, found a way to relieve some of his tension by coming up with some rather “colorful” nicknames for some of the vessels in his fleets. Names that I rather not repeat here since i am trying to keep this article family friendly. He also got into the habit of throwing his pair of binoculars over the side of his flag ship, anytime he went into a rage. Yet surprisingly, his staff knew this was going to happen and actually brought a crate carrying no fewer than 50 binoculars for the Admiral. and if that was not enough, he would often walk out on to a bridge wing and literally scream at the any vessel/captain that managed to piss him off. Even if Said vessel was miles away.

As the Squadon approached Cape Town, Rozhestvensky soon got word that Captain Klado was sending reinforcements in the form of the “Third Pacific Squadron” to meet up with the Second. Which was the last thing Rozhestvensky wanted to hear. This Third Squadron was made up of vessels that really had no business sailing around the world to fight the Japanese. seeing that many of those ships, if not all, were the exact definition of Obsolete. Not surprisingly, the Admiral would refuse to give any updates to his location or progress to Klado as long as he could.

Not too long after this, the Russian government received a message from the British informing them that there was another Fishing fleet operating out of Durban. Just in case.

As the squadron approached French Madagascar, they soon learned that Port Arthur had surrendered to the Japanese and many of the vessels of the First Pacific Squadron had been sunk while still in port. There was a real fear that some of the Battleships that were lost would be re-floated by the Japanese and be used to fight off the Second Pacific squadron when in eventually arrived. With Morale at an all time low as the fleet dropped anchor in Madagascar, many of the crew decided to collect pets once they went on shore in the French Territory.

Maybe the presence of some exotic animals could help with there flagging morale…. By now you probably know just how well this venture went. As the mostly clueless Russian sailors managed to bring back animal most sane people would want to avoid. This included a Crocodile, venomous snakes (one of which killed an officer after it coiled itself around one of the main guns and bit him) and for some reason, someone thought it would have been a good idea to get Rozhestvensky a talking parrot as a pet. A parrot that soon began to learn the Admiral’s extensive vocabulary of Russian Curse words. As for the flag ship itself, it was soon overrun with chameleons the crew brought on board.

The Cruiser Aurora probably had it the worst, as the vessel was so over run with predatory creatures that the crew was too afraid to sleep. As they knew many of the animals wandered the ship looking for a snack and the healthy supply of rats on board were not enough. It was not long before the Second Pacific Squadron soon became the world’s largest floating zoo. Which all things considered was a huge upgrade since just week before it was the worlds largest floating fuel air bomb.

It was not long before the strain of all that was going on began to finally take its toll on Rozhestvensky: He fell ill. He was not the only one to suffer: His chief of staff suffered a brain hemorrhage and became partly paralyzed as a result. With no one in command of the fleet, the squadron just remained in Madagascar while the crew went on shore to use some of the local… um….. “Recreational Facilities” for stress release. It was not long before the crew began to bring back a lot more than exotic pets, as many soon began to suffer the effects of every tropical illness and every STD known to man at that time.

It was also during this point, the Squadron’s favorite supply ship decided to remind everyone why it was so beloved. As during a funeral for one of its crew, the Kamchatka use live rounds when firing off a salute for the dead man. one of which struck the Cruiser Aurora. How no one decided right there and then to use the supply ship for target practice at this point, is a mystery that remains unsolved to this day.

Then things really got worse: The poor conditions coupled with the tropical heat soon lead to a wave of mental illness to sweep the squadron. That’s right…. Many of the men went quite mad, which lead to numerous mutinies, religious upheavals and since this was a Russian fleet at the turn of the century, revolutions. One sailor was so over the edge, he would regularly travel between ships half naked and asking the crews if they feared death.

Eventually Rozhestvensky’s health improved and once he was back in command of the fleet, he proceeded to round up some of the worse offenders and send them back to Russia. However, this decision also weakened the fleet’s man power. As for the officers who were supposed to keep the men in line during Rozhestvensky’s illness… Well they had discovered that Madagascar had a huge drug trade. Specifically Opium.

With most of its ammunition used up without ever meeting the Japanese fleet, the fleet needed resupply and spirits were lifted when another supply ship arrived. But instead of ammunition, the ship brought instead thousands of heavy fur coats for the crews to use. Rozhestvensky’s attempts to restore order also did not go well either, as during gun training he was reminded just how horrid the ship gun crews were with their aim. If it could go wrong, it did go wrong. With destroyers failing to stay in formation or even follow orders, torpedoes that either malfunctioned or even went rogue causing panic among the destroyer flotilla and of course, the gun crews still having terrible aim.

The only thing that actually went well, was when the Aurora held a race between the many boats it had on board and to everyone’s surprise, the race was a success.

While this was going on the “Third Pacific Squadron”, under the command of Admiral Nikolai Nebogatov, had left the Black Sea with his collection of antiquated coastal battleships and other vessels. They managed to cause a massive traffic jam when they arrived at the Suez Canal and proceeded to stop and scan the area for possible enemy activity. Ironically, the Suez Canal was the only area where the Japanese could realistically attack the Russian Fleet. But the resulting back log of merchant ships caused made for alot of irate merchant crews and captains.

Eventually the Russian fleet made it through the canal and despite the best efforts of Rozhestvensky to avoid his own reinforcements, Nebogatov was eventually able to link up with the Second Pacific Squadron off the Coast of French Indo-China (Vietnam). This was the straw that finally broke Rozhestvensky and be proceeded to tender his resignation from the Russian Navy…. Which the Tsar refused.

With not much say in the matter and unable to leave his fleet, Rozhestvensky continued forward and towards his date with destiny at the Battle of Tsushima. A battle that would turn out very badly for the Russian Empire, but boost the confidence of the emerging Japanese Empire.

In conclusion, the voyage of the Second Pacific Squadron was nothing short of a fiasco. An ill prepared fleet consisting of mostly obsolete vessels and untrained crews, were forced to sail half way around the world all because the Imperial Court did not want to admit defeat to an enemy that held an advantage during the entire conflict. But while the Battle of Tsushima was a humiliating defeat for Imperial Russia, it as a living hell for the crews that were sent in the first place.

Patrick Morrison

Name is Patrick, I live on the Caribbean island of Trinidad and I have had an interest in military history and news since I was young. I like to focus on the lesser known events in military history, as well as highlight countries and regions you normally don't hear about often. So i hope i am able to inform you correctly and make you a little more aware of the world around you.

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Patrick, Having read the Tide at Sunrise for a Naval War College course on Strategy and War, I must say how much I appreciate the work you did in the article. Excellent summation of an important and often overlooked piece of history. It is this war that completely shatters the contemporary thesis spouted by Mackinder in 1904 as he continued to stoke the Victorian British mindset to fear Russia and the ‘Heartland’. Indeed, if it was ever able to capitalize on a Heartland base that was supposed to be able to project power from uncontested interior lines, the Russian Empire failed. So much for Mackinder’s thesis. Yet even to this day, Mackinder’s theory shapes US international relations and Foreign Policy…

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The Russian 2nd Pacific Squadron - Voyage of the Damned

• Thread starter Hiver
• Start date May 20, 2019

• May 20, 2019

I had thought about posting this in the Funny picture and videos thread, but I think it deserve it's own thread. I highly recommend listening to this video, it's highly... informative. TL;DW: The crews of Russian taskforce wish they had been lucky enough to serve on the USS William D. Porter instead of this clusterfuck. It make me happy to know that no matter how crap I am at anything, at least I'm not this crap.  

Terra Novan

Hope and despair, now in rule 63.

This is a relatively old info here , but it is nice to hear about it in audio form.  

lackofgravitas

All this will soon be lost like ducks in the rain.

poor sods would have been better surrendering after Dogger bank to a vengeful Royal Navy. longest sucide run in history  

Haha, I posted a thread a while back on Tsushima. My favorite line be from the whole story is from the Kamchatka, when asked how many Japanese torpedo boats were attacking them off Norway: "About 8, from all directions!" It's humor is stilled for me when I consider how it ended, and the path Tsushima sent Japan on.  

MarekGutkowski

Years ago I watched a documentary on the same topic. It was made by the French and had a very different tone to it. It also had an interview with a survivor of the battle. A Japanese sailor. This video is made for entertainment, and little else. It is entertaining but little else.  

Authoritarian Muslim Leftist

This need a proper good soundtrack  

byronicasian

MarekGutkowski said: Years ago I watched a documentary on the same topic. It was made by the French and had a very different tone to it. It also had an interview with a survivor of the battle. A Japanese sailor. This video is made for entertainment, and little else. It is entertaining but little else. Click to expand... Click to shrink...

byronicasian said: Would you happen to have a name of the documentary or link? Click to expand... Click to shrink...

StickmanReiter

Aka "pointless arrow".

• May 21, 2019

MarekGutkowski said: This video is made for entertainment, and little else. It is entertaining but little else. Click to expand... Click to shrink...

• This became extremely problematic in 1900, when it became evident that the Japanese had decided to go "all in" on their 1902 program and were in fact poised to complete their 6 first-class battleships on-schedule, despite Witte's expectation. Menawhile, due to unexpected costs and a backlog of Russian shipyard orders, the MTK had to invoke an additional 131 million rubles to get currently-built ships and future-planned ships built in time. Making matters worse, Germany's 1900 Naval Law signaled an imminent construction race to maintain power-parity in the Baltic, causing the MTK to dial back on the number of ships planned for the Pacific.
• MTK politics also meant that sometimes the ideal decision was dumped in favor of the politically-ideal decision, which combined with program demands lead to bad planning. For reasons that remain slightly unclear (sources I've seen pin the blame to Grand Duke Alexei, who oversaw naval development during this era, but it's been disputed), the MTK decided to pick the French-built battleship Tserarevich over the American-built battleship Retivzan for further development. Although the bad quality of French engineering is overexaggerated during this period, the major issue this choice was that Tserarevich was already a bit top-heavy to the point her main armor belt hung low in the water/below the waterline. The MTK wanted to add even more guns on top of this top-heavy design, meaning that the Borodinos had questionable stability.
• Russian shipyards, while not necessarily shoddy, were so expensive and slow that it was discovered by the MTK that it was faster and cheaper to import a ship than to build one in home yards. Nicholas Papastratigakis gives an estimate that in 1903, it cost the Russian Navy a staggering 1,100 rubles per ton to build a warship, as opposed to Germany, which was around 500 rubles per ton. This is also why historically Aurora was commissioned after Mikasa despite being technically older: repeated issues with her speed trials (she failed to meet 20 knots, the expectation of her design contract) meant that she was forced to repeat them again and again until the MTK finally gave her a conditional pass.
• Additionally, the Baltic Fleet lacked a critical component: experience. Prior to the Russo-Japanese War, the last major naval conflict Russia had engaged in was the Russo-Turkish War in the 1870s. Although the Russian Navy had gained some experience during the intervention during the Boxer Rebellion, were not as well trained as their Japanese counterparts, who had at least 3 events (First Sino-Japanese War, Boxer Rebellion, and their ongoing scrap against the Pacific Fleet) to learn from their mistakes and train more experienced sailors.
• Most notable were Nikolai Nebogatov (an admiral assigned to reinforce him with the 3rd Pacific Squadron), an admiral he viewed as an old incompetent man, and Oskar Enqvist (his 3rd in command), a political choice due to his familial ties with the minister of the navy. One of the few men that Rozhestvensky had actual confidence in, Dmitri Fölkersam (his second in command), was dying of cancer, and would not live to see Tsushima. The issue with Enqvist, Nebogatov and Folkersam would become a major issue as 1) Rozhestvensky refused to give Enqvist and command positions, going so far as to consciously disobey Nicholas II's request to give Enqvist a personal command to the Suez, and 2) Rozhestvensky would refuse to tell any officer of Folkersam's death (for "morale" purposes), meaning that the chain of command in the Baltic Fleet was completely unknown.
• However, these numbers failed to take into account some things that Rozhestvensky feared most: time, and logistics. Despite being allied with France, the 3rd French Republic was officially neutral in the conflict, and on several occassions was forced to give Russia the cold shoulder when their legally-grey assistance was exposed (in Madagascar, Cam Ranh Bay, etc.). Rozhestvensky already found himself struggling to get coal supplies via under-the-table French shipments and German steamers; now the prospect of having to provide for additional warships stripped him of further options. The Imperial Russian Navy also neglected to give him sufficient ammunition to conduct gunnery practice, and thus Rozhestvensky was unable to maintain the skill of his sailors during the voyage (ammunition would remain such a problem that Rozhestvensky signalled "conserve ammunition" when the Baltic Fleet encountered and skirmished with the Japanese 3rd Fleet)
• Time, however, was his major concern, and is cited by Pleshakov as the reason why Rozhestvensky created the infamous "position unknown to us" cited in Hull and Drach's video. While he was forced per official orders to twiddle his thumbs and wait for his reinforcements, Togo was given ample time to repair all of his ships, many of whom had taken a severe beating throughout 1904 and (should Rozhestvensky get there in time) would not be in good shape for battle. For this reason he ordered his ships to take on coal and supplies for approximately 45 days at sea and tried to evade his reinforcements; waiting any longer, and the odds would be even more stacked against him.
• Russia was literally on the verge of a revolution (the fact that this point was not talked in detail if at all also really bothered me) . Strikes and general discontent had already started breaking out around the time the Baltic Fleet left for the Far East in 1904, but en route Bloody Sunday occurred and the revolution began in earnest. Pleshakov mentions in several instances that Bloody Sunday, combined with news of defeats in Mukden and Port Arthur, deeply harmed already-low morale, and made a combat-capable fleet difficult.
• The Baltic Fleet's crew was very green with little combat experience.
• The United Kingdom and Japan were in an alliance since 1902, with the U.K.'s status in the war ambiguously neutral.
• Many of the torpedoboats and torpedoboat destroyers responsible for the night attack on Port Arthur (the strike that started the Russo-Japanese War and so startled the admiral of Port Arthur, Oskar Stark that he at first thought they were giving him a salute for his wife's birthday), including the first four torpedoboat destroyer classes in the Japanese Navy's arsenals, were built in the UK.
• With that aside, here is some context given by Pleshakov: Spoiler: From The Tsar's Last Armada The admiral was receiving reports from all five Russian spy rings. The numerous agents, amateur and professional, were almost unanimous: The Japanese were preparing an ambush. Rozhestvensky's fleet would not be allowed to reach the Yellow Sea. According to the reports, many Japanese officers had been dispatched to the Baltic Sea coast. They carried torpedoes, which could be launched from smaller ships or from shore. Some reports insisted that Britain had built six torpedo boats for Japan, which had disappeared since the beginning of the war. Hidden in secret inlets, these torpedo boats were still around and ready to attack Rozhestvensky as soon as he left Russia. Reports confirming this terrifying conspiracy were reaching St. Petersburg daily. The British vice consul in the coastal town of Nyborg, Denmark, had been instructed to inform the British Admiralty of the passage of any military ship through the Great Belt Straits. The Russian Police Department had intercepted two communications from Japanese embassies in London and Paris: "Discuss seriously the possibility of using electric torpedoes," and "It is necessary to do research on all aspects of the attack." An agent of the Russian naval attaché in France had delivered several briquettes of coal with a camouflaged hole in each—presumably for installing explosives. If put into a furnace, such a device could immediately sink any of Rozhestvensky's ironclads. The last menace—charged briquettes of coal—looked very real. Naval Minister Avelan immediately ordered vigilance on ships and in ports. But what about the ambush? Who could prevent it? Rozhestvensky and Avelan decided to cooperate with the Police Department. On September 19, the director of the Police Department forwarded the translation of a Japanese cable to the Naval General Staff. Allegedly, it had been sent from the Japanese embassy in The Hague to Foreign Minister Komura. "We have stationed our people in various places, and they have to report to us all the enemy's moves and, if they can, to impede them. . . . The squadron, which is to go on a rescue mission, will depart this month; this is why we have taken measures to prevent this. . . . Everything that can be done will be tried." The intercepted telegram looked scary. It quoted the time frame for the actual departure of the squadron correctly. Rozhestvensky planned to leave Reval quite soon and then briefly visit another Russian port, Libava. I would also like to note that Kamchatka is reported as reporting an attack but then quickly denying it, so it unfairly gets all the blame for what is a multifactorial event. Independently of the notorious Kamchatka, the Russian squadron under the dying-Fölkersam also received worrying news as it crossed the Suez Canal of an impending ambush in the Red Sea. No such ambush materialized; it was bad Russian intel that caused the hysteria, not a single trigger-happy boat.
• I think I forgot one or two points I wanted to make/discuss, but those were my two cents based upon the few books I've read on the subject. Overall it's not a bad video on the topic (my blood boils more at how Potential History handled it), but I do wish that Drachinifel used his position of authority as a youtube naval historian to add nuance and explore the topic rather than resorting to semi-memetic discussion.

dylanredefined

Eternal machine gun champion.

StickmanReiter said: I am inclined to agree. Drachinifel's guide on the Baltic Fleet is IMHO one of the low-points of his series. Although he clearly read several sources to make that video ( Tsar's Last Armada amongst others), he chose to ignore the nuance and context stressed in those books to basically give a near-perfect word-for-word rehash of the sensationalistic, click-bait summary offered on the Hull Website , title and anecdotes and all. Instead of going into gripping detail about things such as 2,000 opium-laced cigarettes, I would have preferred if he described at length things such as: The 1898 "For Needs in the Far East" Expansion Program, which gave birth to the Baltic Fleet hell . When Russia obtained leasing from China for Port Arthur in March 1898, the Russian Naval Technical Committee (MTK) flew into action and immediately tried getting new ships ordered, with the goal of reaching power-parity with the Imperial Japanese Navy by 1902/1903 (when Japan was expected to complete their 6-6 Program). However, they faced immediate and swift opposition by Russia's Minister of Finance, over economic concerns. The previous naval expansion program had gone 45 million rubles over budget, and Witte was concerned that the MTK's massive expansion plan would jeopardize the projected completion date of the Transsiberian Railroad, which was still incomplete. He was also confident that due to Japan's economic situation (which had broke the bank and dipped into its indemnity received from China to fund its navy), the Japanese would be unable to complete their projected plans for 1902 or 1906 in time. While the MTK was ultimately able to get immediate funding in 1898 for the construction of ships, it was not without compromise: the MTK agreed to devote all the energy they had to expanding the Pacific fleet, with the Baltic and Black Sea Fleets being put on the backburner. The plan's deadline was also pushed back to 1905. This became extremely problematic in 1900, when it became evident that the Japanese had decided to go "all in" on their 1902 program and were in fact poised to complete their 6 first-class battleships on-schedule, despite Witte's expectation. Menawhile, due to unexpected costs and a backlog of Russian shipyard orders, the MTK had to invoke an additional 131 million rubles to get currently-built ships and future-planned ships built in time. Making matters worse, Germany's 1900 Naval Law signaled an imminent construction race to maintain power-parity in the Baltic, causing the MTK to dial back on the number of ships planned for the Pacific. MTK politics also meant that sometimes the ideal decision was dumped in favor of the politically-ideal decision, which combined with program demands lead to bad planning. For reasons that remain slightly unclear (sources I've seen pin the blame to Grand Duke Alexei, who oversaw naval development during this era, but it's been disputed), the MTK decided to pick the French-built battleship Tserarevich over the American-built battleship Retivzan for further development. Although the bad quality of French engineering is overexaggerated during this period, the major issue this choice was that Tserarevich was already a bit top-heavy to the point her main armor belt hung low in the water/below the waterline. The MTK wanted to add even more guns on top of this top-heavy design, meaning that the Borodinos had questionable stability. Russian shipyards, while not necessarily shoddy, were so expensive and slow that it was discovered by the MTK that it was faster and cheaper to import a ship than to build one in home yards. Nicholas Papastratigakis gives an estimate that in 1903, it cost the Russian Navy a staggering 1,100 rubles per ton to build a warship, as opposed to Germany, which was around 500 rubles per ton. This is also why historically Aurora was commissioned after Mikasa despite being technically older: repeated issues with her speed trials (she failed to meet 20 knots, the expectation of her design contract) meant that she was forced to repeat them again and again until the MTK finally gave her a conditional pass. For these reasons, when the Pacific Fleet's began to ebb away (which, contrary to popular expectation did very well: on one occasion nearly wiping out an entire Japanese squadron to mines, on another they inflicted a stinging Japanese defeat that left the Japanese press roaring for Admiral Kamimura's head, and most famously they almost defeated Togo at the Yellow Sea until a hail mary from Asahi changed the fate of the battle), the Russian Navy was forced to scramble together a haphazard assembly of ships, many of which were not suitable for the voyage. Many of the remaining Baltic Fleet ships were older 1880s/early 1890s vintage, which while not necessarily obsolete (the Japanese compiled their similar-aged vessels into the 3rd Fleet, which played a crucial role at Tsushima), were not 1st-class warships. On the other hand, the Borodinos , while on paper very competitive with the IJN's own capital ships, had to be rushed through trials, and were consequently not as combat capable as they could have been. Additionally, the Baltic Fleet lacked a critical component: experience. Prior to the Russo-Japanese War, the last major naval conflict Russia had engaged in was the Russo-Turkish War in the 1870s. Although the Russian Navy had gained some experience during the intervention during the Boxer Rebellion, were not as well trained as their Japanese counterparts, who had at least 3 events (First Sino-Japanese War, Boxer Rebellion, and their ongoing scrap against the Pacific Fleet) to learn from their mistakes and train more experienced sailors. Most importantly, the Russian Navy was out of "preferred options" to lead this fleet. Stepan Makarov, a leading admiral and hero from the Russo-Turkish War, had been killed by mines; Wilhelm Vitgeft, his successor, was killed by a lucky shell fragment to face while he was in the conning tower. All sources I've read indicated that Rozhestvensky, while a man who clairvoyantly predicted the demise of the Baltic Fleet, was a very polarizing man to work with and was not without rivals. He had made enemies with many of his colleagues, including Makarov himself, for publicly blasting the navy's incompetence in the Russo-Turkish War shortly after being bestowed a medal for his heroicism in said conflict. Rozhestvensky remained a relative outcast until his efforts to save a Russian coastal defense ship caught the eye of Nicholas II, who then became sympathetic to Rozhestvensky's struggles and lent him a sympathetic ear. Despite this, Rozhestvensky did not have the complete confidence of Tsar Nicholas II, and was still forced to cooperate with officers he despised. Most notable were Nikolai Nebogatov (an admiral assigned to reinforce him with the 3rd Pacific Squadron), an admiral he viewed as an old incompetent man, and Oskar Enqvist (his 3rd in command), a political choice due to his familial ties with the minister of the navy. One of the few men that Rozhestvensky had actual confidence in, Dmitri Fölkersam (his second in command), was dying of cancer, and would not live to see Tsushima. The issue with Enqvist, Nebogatov and Folkersam would become a major issue as 1) Rozhestvensky refused to give Enqvist and command positions, going so far as to consciously disobey Nicholas II's request to give Enqvist a personal command to the Suez, and 2) Rozhestvensky would refuse to tell any officer of Folkersam's death (for "morale" purposes), meaning that the chain of command in the Baltic Fleet was completely unknown. Issues also sprung up over whether to focus on speed (allowing the Russian navy to dictate the term of their engagement) or firepower (which would allow the outnumbered Baltic Fleet a more even chance should battle occur). Rozhestvensky advocated for speed, recognizing that the slower speeds of the Baltic coastal defence ships and cruisers would make interception almost certain, while Nicholas II and senior Russian Naval officers advocated for firepower. While at first Nicholas II gave in to Rozhestvensky's demands (well, mostly-he still forced him to take the modernized but older cuirsers Dmitrii Donskoi and Admiral Nakhimov with him), setbacks in the Far East resulted in Rozhestvensky being ordered to link up with Nebogatov (more on that below). Again, on paper, it sounded like a good idea-at Tsushima despite being vastly outnumbered in the cruiser and torpedoboat department, the Russians had about 26 12" guns and 16 10" guns, versus 16 12" guns and 1 10" gun on the Japanese side. However, these numbers failed to take into account some things that Rozhestvensky feared most: time, and logistics. Despite being allied with France, the 3rd French Republic was officially neutral in the conflict, and on several occassions was forced to give Russia the cold shoulder when their legally-grey assistance was exposed (in Madagascar, Cam Ranh Bay, etc.). Rozhestvensky already found himself struggling to get coal supplies via under-the-table French shipments and German steamers; now the prospect of having to provide for additional warships stripped him of further options. The Imperial Russian Navy also neglected to give him sufficient ammunition to conduct gunnery practice, and thus Rozhestvensky was unable to maintain the skill of his sailors during the voyage (ammunition would remain such a problem that Rozhestvensky signalled "conserve ammunition" when the Baltic Fleet encountered and skirmished with the Japanese 3rd Fleet) Time, however, was his major concern, and is cited by Pleshakov as the reason why Rozhestvensky created the infamous "position unknown to us" cited in Hull and Drach's video. While he was forced per official orders to twiddle his thumbs and wait for his reinforcements, Togo was given ample time to repair all of his ships, many of whom had taken a severe beating throughout 1904 and (should Rozhestvensky get there in time) would not be in good shape for battle. For this reason he ordered his ships to take on coal and supplies for approximately 45 days at sea and tried to evade his reinforcements; waiting any longer, and the odds would be even more stacked against him. Russia was literally on the verge of a revolution (the fact that this point was not talked in detail if at all also really bothered me) . Strikes and general discontent had already started breaking out around the time the Baltic Fleet left for the Far East in 1904, but en route Bloody Sunday occurred and the revolution began in earnest. Pleshakov mentions in several instances that Bloody Sunday, combined with news of defeats in Mukden and Port Arthur, deeply harmed already-low morale, and made a combat-capable fleet difficult. The Dogger Bank incident was not as cringe-worthy as it sounds. It is important to remember the following, even before getting into the specifics of how the incident occurred: The Baltic Fleet's crew was very green with little combat experience. The United Kingdom and Japan were in an alliance since 1902, with the U.K.'s status in the war ambiguously neutral. Many of the torpedoboats and torpedoboat destroyers responsible for the night attack on Port Arthur (the strike that started the Russo-Japanese War and so startled the admiral of Port Arthur, Oskar Stark that he at first thought they were giving him a salute for his wife's birthday), including the first four torpedoboat destroyer classes in the Japanese Navy's arsenals, were built in the UK. With that aside, here is some context given by Pleshakov: Spoiler: From The Tsar's Last Armada The admiral was receiving reports from all five Russian spy rings. The numerous agents, amateur and professional, were almost unanimous: The Japanese were preparing an ambush. Rozhestvensky's fleet would not be allowed to reach the Yellow Sea. According to the reports, many Japanese officers had been dispatched to the Baltic Sea coast. They carried torpedoes, which could be launched from smaller ships or from shore. Some reports insisted that Britain had built six torpedo boats for Japan, which had disappeared since the beginning of the war. Hidden in secret inlets, these torpedo boats were still around and ready to attack Rozhestvensky as soon as he left Russia. Reports confirming this terrifying conspiracy were reaching St. Petersburg daily. The British vice consul in the coastal town of Nyborg, Denmark, had been instructed to inform the British Admiralty of the passage of any military ship through the Great Belt Straits. The Russian Police Department had intercepted two communications from Japanese embassies in London and Paris: "Discuss seriously the possibility of using electric torpedoes," and "It is necessary to do research on all aspects of the attack." An agent of the Russian naval attaché in France had delivered several briquettes of coal with a camouflaged hole in each—presumably for installing explosives. If put into a furnace, such a device could immediately sink any of Rozhestvensky's ironclads. The last menace—charged briquettes of coal—looked very real. Naval Minister Avelan immediately ordered vigilance on ships and in ports. But what about the ambush? Who could prevent it? Rozhestvensky and Avelan decided to cooperate with the Police Department. On September 19, the director of the Police Department forwarded the translation of a Japanese cable to the Naval General Staff. Allegedly, it had been sent from the Japanese embassy in The Hague to Foreign Minister Komura. "We have stationed our people in various places, and they have to report to us all the enemy's moves and, if they can, to impede them. . . . The squadron, which is to go on a rescue mission, will depart this month; this is why we have taken measures to prevent this. . . . Everything that can be done will be tried." The intercepted telegram looked scary. It quoted the time frame for the actual departure of the squadron correctly. Rozhestvensky planned to leave Reval quite soon and then briefly visit another Russian port, Libava. I would also like to note that Kamchatka is reported as reporting an attack but then quickly denying it, so it unfairly gets all the blame for what is a multifactorial event. Independently of the notorious Kamchatka, the Russian squadron under the dying-Fölkersam also received worrying news as it crossed the Suez Canal of an impending ambush in the Red Sea. No such ambush materialized; it was bad Russian intel that caused the hysteria, not a single trigger-happy boat. I think I forgot one or two points I wanted to make/discuss, but those were my two cents based upon the few books I've read on the subject. Overall it's not a bad video on the topic (my blood boils more at how Potential History handled it), but I do wish that Drachinifel used his position of authority as a youtube naval historian to add nuance and explore the topic rather than resorting to semi-memetic discussion. Click to expand... Click to shrink...

dylanredefined said: A trawler fleet trawling moves slowly and displays light. A torpedoes boat moves fast and fires torpedoes Click to expand... Click to shrink...

At 12:55 a.m. Rozhestvensky saw dark silhouettes. Several small ships were quickly approaching the Suvorov. They carried no lights. The admiral's first thought was of torpedoes. Following his abrupt command, the Suvorov changed course. He ordered all searchlights on and the sea, dark just a moment before, became ablaze with light. All hell broke loose on the Suvorov's bridge. Captain Ignatsius groaned, "We should open fire!" The flag navigator Filippovsky excitedly counted suspicious vessels. The flag captain de Kolong pleaded with the admiral to not hesitate and shoot. Rozhestvensky remained absolutely silent, scanning the sea through his binoculars. Suddenly, to the right of the Suvorov, in the bright beam of a searchlight, the admiral saw a torpedo boat. To the end of his life he was sure that it had been a torpedo boat and never regretted the order he gave. "Open fire!" The night filled with roaring. The Suvorov's heavy frame shook. Rozhestvensky could not see the torpedo boat any longer, but in a moment, the Suvorov's bow searchlight flashed on a steam trawler ahead of the ship. The gunner next to the admiral, drunk on fear, showered it with shells. Rozhestvensky's gigantic hand grabbed the man by the shoulder and threw him away from the barrel like a kitten. In total fury, the admiral thundered, "Have I ordered this? Can't you see a fisherman!" He commanded the starboard searchlight of the Suvorov to be raised forty-five degrees up, which meant, "Do not fire at this target." ... (some damage report/discussion on Aurora) Rozhestvensky knew some of the fishermen's boats must have been hit, but he did not give much thought to them. His utmost concern was the ghostly attackers. He was sure that the torpedo boat to the right of the Suvorov had been hit several times, but the second one, which he at some point had seen to the left, "was lucky to have disappeared." In the silence and cold of night, the detachment kept moving southwest. It did not stop to pick up the fishermen it had sent into the drink. In his report to the tsar, Rozhestvensky wrote, "Since the fishing trawlers' behavior looked suspicious and since I was not sure that all the torpedo boats participating in the assault had been disabled, I left the injured to the cares of their comrades." Click to expand... Click to shrink...

marvelous stan

Like staring at the sky.

Certainly Rule the Waves seems to take that view; ships are almost always reported as being the next class up when first spotted. When visibility is shit and crew training is poor you can easily identify a few scouting cruisers as the enemy line of battle. I wonder if there are any historical references on the general trend.  

marvelous stan said: Certainly Rule the Waves seems to take that view; ships are almost always reported as being the next class up when first spotted. When visibility is shit and crew training is poor you can easily identify a few scouting cruisers as the enemy line of battle. I wonder if there are any historical references on the general trend. Click to expand... Click to shrink...

• May 22, 2019

MarekGutkowski said: Japanese sunk 9 Yorktown class carriers.. Click to expand... Click to shrink...

Ledmonkey said: You sure you don't mean that they claimed they sank the Yorktown 9 times? Click to expand... Click to shrink...

Footman of the apocalypse

Argentinians still maintain that they sank British aircraft carrier during Falklands war and that the British covered up the loss. But they did revise number from two to one. Crew of Ticonderoga class cruiser decided ascending airliner is actually descending F-14 and blew it out of the sky. Captain got medal. Iraqis mistook American frigate for Iranian tanker and hit it with missiles. Crews of Swordfish torpedo bombers sent to attack Bismarck attacked British cruiser, despite big visual differences, like different number of smokestacks. Tons of misindentifications in ground combat.  

Very few cases of attacking civilians far from a battlefield though. Royal navy really should have put them down. It was a horrible misssion, you just feel sorry for everyone involved.  

dylanredefined said: Royal navy really should have put them down. Click to expand... Click to shrink...

dylanredefined said: It was a horrible misssion, you just feel sorry for everyone involved. Click to expand... Click to shrink...

News | The Russian fleet’s voyage into history

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The destruction of the Russian fleet at Tsushima in May 1905 ranks among the great decisive sea battles, along with Trafalgar and Midway and the destruction of the Spanish Armada in 1588. But it is the 18,000-mile sea voyage that brought the Russian fleet to its destruction that occupies the attention of author Constantine Pleshakov, a Russian-born and -trained historian who since 1998 has been a professor of international relations at Mt. Holyoke College.

In Pleshakov’s new book, “The Tsar’s Last Armada: The Epic Voyage to the Battle of Tsushima” (Basic Books, 396 pages, $30), the incidents of the voyage are so astonishing and rendered with such attention to colorful detail that the battle is almost an anticlimax.

The events were set in motion by the Japanese attack on the Russian military base at Port Arthur in northern China — the opening clash of the Russo-Japanese War that ended with the defeat at Tsushima. The armada was to reinforce the fleet at Port Arthur. Its flagship had been sunk after striking a mine, and other ships were lost in a brief engagement with the Japanese fleet.

As the fleet assembled at a Russian naval base in the Baltic, it was visited frequently by Czar Nicholas II. “A very solemn and beautiful picture,” the czar wrote in his diary.

Against such Romanov romanticism, the fleet’s commander, Adm. Zinovy Rozhestvensky, “was almost sure that the Port Arthur squadron would be annihilated before he reached the Far East.” Or as the captain of the battleship Alexander III “shocked a party that had arrived to bid farewell to him and his officers: `You wish us victory. It goes without saying that we wish it too. But there will be no victory! I am afraid we will lose half the squadron on our way to the Far East. If this does not happen, the Japanese will annihilate us. Their ships are better and they are real sailors.”‘

Fears that the Japanese would ambush the fleet in the Suez Canal prompted Rozhestvensky to lead most of the fleet around Africa and the Cape of Good Hope. The fleet left in early March 1905, and the armada of 50 ships entered the Korea Strait two months later.

It was, Pleshakov writes, “one of the biggest fleets that had ever been amassed on the high seas, but that did not mean it surpassed” the Japanese fleet commanded by Togo Heihachiro, “still unanimously praised as an unsurpassed military genius.” “The Russians had more battleships, but Togo’s was much stronger in torpedo boats and cruisers. [And] Togo’s hugest asset was speed. An admiral who commanded faster ships was normally a winner.”

Pleshakov’s account of the battle is almost as brief as the battle itself. Rozhestvensky’s flagship Suvorov lasted 35 minutes after the battle began in the early afternoon. By nightfall, the ships that had not been sunk were in flight, several to be interned at the American naval base in Manila. Only three ships eventually reached Vladivostok, the substituted destination after Port Arthur fell while the fleet was still rounding Africa.

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The ‘Dark Fleet’ powering Putin’s Ukraine war machine is out of hand. It’s time to act

“Shipping – it’s one damned thing after another,” the editor of Lloyds’ List wrote last week.

He was referring to disruptions in the Red Sea and Panama Canal and now the exponential growth of the so-called ‘dark fleet’ of oil smugglers who are propping up the Kremlin’s finances and sustaining Russia’s war machine in Ukraine. It’s yet another example of the shipping industry being compromised far from home in a way that nonetheless affects us all. 

Russian oil, it has been decided, has to be kept moving around the world. As tempting as it would be to turn it off, the resulting market instability would be intolerable. (Ironically, Ukrainian refinery strikes are making the problem worse because without those storage facilities, Russia is obligated to export at a faster rate than it was before.) The solution agreed upon between the G7, the US, the UK and the EU was to set a price cap per barrel , above which Russia cannot trade. So you keep the oil moving but at a rate at which Putin will make less money. So far, so logical.

Two fleets emerged from this decision. The first was a group of ships that moved the oil as part of transactions at prices below the agreed cap, having their homework marked at every stage. The second, which has always been there but grew substantially, was the ‘dark fleet’, moving Russian oil in large quantities to countries such as China, India and Iran in higher priced deals which the G7/US/UK/EU would want to prevent.

The legitimate, respectable shipping industry has to be able to do deals in – and operate to and from – G7 and EU nations, so the respectable shipping industry won’t touch deals above the price cap. The dark fleet ships are often ageing, poorly maintained, unregistered and three-quarters of them are uninsured . They are happy to run the Houthi gauntlet in the southern Red Sea – some have been hit doing so. During the summer ice window they have used the Northern Sea Route along Russia’s arctic coast: ice remains a year-round hazard there and this increases the risk of a major spill. The rogue tankers are also conducting frequent ship-to-ship transfers at sea and routinely going dark on their identification transponders. All of these things increase the chance of accidents.

Aside from preventing Russia’s economy being squeezed as envisaged, then, the dark fleet ships are an environmental disaster waiting to happen. And while it is mainly oil at the moment, gas carriers are not far behind. In the meantime, regular law-abiding shipping companies, the majority, are getting increasingly exasperated at the impact this activity is having on their reputations. 

A major issue is that the price cap is being enforced in a confusing, inconsistent and overly bureaucratic manner. It is also quite easy to forge compliance documentation. The price cap only applies to countries which have extensive dealings with the G7 nexus – if you’re outside that, you are free to do what you want. The net result is more and more ships are going across to the dark fleet where they are free from the price cap, associated bureaucracy and the requirement to be registered or insured. At the last count, about 800 tankers had made this move, i.e. 20 per cent of the global total of about 4000.

This has meant some changes. Normally, most ships are registered in places like Panama, Liberia and the Marshall Islands. To those unfamiliar with the shipping business these might sound dubious, but in fact they are respectable registries: the Liberia one, for example, is run by a US owned and operated company based in Virginia. It has operated smoothly even when Liberia itself was in the throes of civil war, and has a good reputation for safety. The Liberia registry would decline to do business with any vessel that seemed likely to be violating the price cap and thus no such vessel can fly the Liberian flag.

The last six months, however, have seen a surge in African countries such as Guinea Bissau, Gabon and even landlocked Eswatini (Swaziland as was) registering ships. There has been a similar uptick in insurance companies being created, many in India, who will insure these vessels when the traditional Protection and Indemnity (P&I) ‘clubs’ will not. The traditional P&I clubs normally provide insurance for 85 per cent of the world’s shipping: they had a meeting with the UK government earlier this week to make it clear that the price cap solution is becoming unworkable and that these phoenix fleets, parallel fleets or dark fleets are the inevitable outcome.

There has been criticism of those making the rules. Tom Keatinge of RUSI said at a hearing on Tuesday that “there was not a high degree of expertise” within the Treasury’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI). Lloyds of London said, “OFSI may not have sufficient specialist resources for a full appreciation of the implications of seaborne transportation of oil”.

It’s harsh to pick on one department in one country because the problem is clearly much wider than that. When you consider the number of countries involved here, each with their own agendas, interpretations and systems, the fluid nature of the sanctions, the complexity of shipping in general and then the willingness of some countries to break the rules to make a quick buck, you can see why this situation has developed.

Fixing this will not be easy . Diplomatic pressure probably can’t do a lot to suppress the dubious new African registries and Indian insurers. There’s some indication that naval presence can deter some of the most egregious behaviour: two days ago the Greek Navy conducted a naval exercise in the Laconian Gulf, a regular place for ship to ship transfers of illegal Russian oil. Merely issuing a Notice to Mariners advising ships to keep clear drove all the illegal transfers out of the area. Naval presence can have an effect.

Stepping up beyond this would be highly problematic, however. The Western powers spend a lot of time and effort defending and preserving the principle of freedom of navigation (FON) on the high seas . US and other warships frequently conduct passages through places like the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea to push back against Chinese claims to own those waters, and a large naval task force is currently battling the Houthis of Yemen in an attempt to preserve FON through the Bab-el-Mandeb strait and the southern Red Sea.

International maritime law only permits warships to board foreign flagged vessels on the high seas in certain clearly defined circumstances such as piracy, slave trading etc. If we wanted to board and inspect ships to check that they weren’t violating the Russian price cap, we would need a UN Security Council resolution to operate under, as we had against Iraqi oil smugglers in the 1990s – I was involved in many boardings back then. But as Russia and China are both permanent Security Council members, the chance of getting a resolution this time is zero.

At a recent hearing of the US House Armed Services Committee, Representative Austin Scott asked the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff – America’s top military officer – if there was a military solution to this. The answer was interesting not just because it was basically ‘no’ but because it suggested that large-scale maritime interdiction was not on the Chairman’s radar. And indeed it would be odd of the Joint Chiefs to be simultaneously conducting “FON Ops” in various locations to preserve freedom of navigation while simultaneously trying to prevent it in others.

It should be clear, of course, that Vladimir Putin does not respect the rules-based international order, and obeys or invokes it only as is convenient to him: his invasion of Ukraine was a clear violation of that order. China has not crossed that line as clearly, but its “Nine Dash Line” claim in the South China Sea, which it backs up every week with violence – though not usually lethal force – is just as without basis under the rules. And Iran has long pushed the boundaries of what is tolerable, both directly around the Strait of Hormuz and via its Houthi proxies in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

A rag-tag Iran proxy militia in Western Yemen can effectively restrict the trade of its adversaries, but the US and its allies cannot. China can violate the maritime rights of its neighbours, and nothing happens. Russia can sell oil to China, Iran – and India – in defiance of the wishes of the Western world, and we cannot prevent it because of the very rules we seek to defend. We don’t even get angry with India for bankrolling Putin’s evil war , quite the contrary. We scramble to do deals there.

It may no longer be time to ask if the rules-based order can continue to stand. It may be time to ask if it has already fallen – after all, we are said to be in a “pre-war” period .

If our enemies can block our trade and violate freedom of navigation, maybe it is time for them to learn that we can do such things too – without a UN Security Council resolution, just as they have no UNSCR to permit their actions. At the moment the violations are entirely one-way.

In the meantime, the likelihood that a dark fleet tanker will deposit its oil all over a beach near you keeps going up. 

Tom Sharpe is a former Royal Navy officer

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About 115 miles north of Alaska, a U.S. Navy submarine emerges from several feet of thick ice.

The Navy’s 68 submarines could be anywhere at any time — patrolling the Arctic and the Persian Gulf, or near Russia, China or North Korea.

Their missions are closely-held secrets, but a frigid training exercise offers a glimpse of military life deep undersea.

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Secretary of State mobile office makes maiden voyage to Mackinac Island

May 03, 2024

Three days of mobile office service save Island residents and visiting workers a trip to the mainland ahead of busy 2024 tourist season

MACKINAC ISLAND, Mich. – This week, the Michigan Department of State brought the new Upper Peninsula Secretary of State mobile office  to Mackinac Island to serve permanent residents and seasonal workers. The three-day mobile office visit April 29 through May 1 was sponsored by a grant from the Mackinac Island Community Foundation , which covered the cost of shipping the mobile office van via ferry from St. Ignace as well as the facility fee for use of the Mackinac Island Community Hall.   “Mackinac Island is one of Michigan’s greatest treasures and I’m proud we could bring our mobile office services to the Island for the first time,” Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said . “Mobile offices are a critical part of our mission to meet people where they are and bring state government right to them in a way that’s convenient, accessible, and equitable. We’re grateful to the Mackinac Island Community Foundation for their generous grant that brought us to the Island to support the residents, businesses, and employees as they gear up for another busy tourist season.”   A total of 120 residents and workers came to the mobile office for Secretary of State transactions including applying for or renewing a driver’s license or state ID, renewing vehicle plates, and updating their address. The Island’s nearest Secretary of State offices are in St. Ignace and Cheboygan, both requiring a trip by ferry.   Lifetime resident and Mackinac Island Mayor Margaret Doud was one of the mobile office’s first customers on Monday.   “I think it’s a major convenience for us,” Mayor Doud said. “And we really appreciate that because we’re an island – for everybody to get off and get over it takes almost takes a day’s time. This is wonderful and we’re very thankful.”   “To have the mobile office come to Mackinac Island is wonderful,” said Stephanie McGreevy, CEO and executive director of the Mackinac Island Community Foundation . “We’re super excited and we hope this will become a bi-annual event for both our year-round residents and our workforce so they can do the transactions they need to do right here – just steps away from their home or work.”      “We estimate that we need about 5,000 seasonal workers on a yearly basis,” said Tim Hygh, CEO of Mackinac Island Tourism . “About 1,200 or 1,300 are international workers and the rest are U.S. workers, all types of workers – mostly from Michigan – and they need Secretary of State services. Once we start work here it’s kind of like Groundhog Day – one day leads to the next and to the next. You don’t get many days off, so not having to leave the Island and go to either Cheboygan or St. Ignace and being able to get it done here, conveniently, means the world to us.”   Secretary Benson launched the mobile office program in the fall of 2021 with a single van serving Southeast Michigan. Since then, the fleet has grown to seven vehicles serving the entire state. Mobile offices have participated in more than 500 events in communities throughout Michigan and conducted nearly 14,000 transactions for residents.   Mobile offices also visit senior centers, veterans’ organizations, addiction recovery centers, and communities where residents have limited mobility or unreliable internet access.     Community organizations interested in hosting a mobile office can fill out a request form at Michigan.gov/SOSMobile .  

  WATCH: Secretary of State mobile office visits Mackinac Island

The Upper Peninsula Secretary of State mobile office van waits on the freight ferry docks at St. Ignace for its trip to Mackinac Island. While motor vehicles are not allowed on the Island, the Department of State got special permission to bring the van over on the ferry and park it at the docks on the Island. The Mackinac Island Community Foundation provided grant funding to cover the fee to send the mobile office on the ferry as well as the rental of the Mackinac Island Community Hall. 

Michigan Department of State staff haul mobile office equipment from the ferry docks to the Mackinac Island Community Hall. 

Secretary of State mobile office staff assist Mackinac Island Mayor Margaret Doud (L) with her license plate and driver's license renewals. Mobile office transactions took about 10 minutes for residents and seasonal workers. 

Secretary of State mobile office staff assist customers with transactions at the Mackinac Island Community Hall. The mobile office served 120 residents and seasonal workers as the Island prepared for the 2024 summer tourist season.

Media Contact:

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