Russian cruiser Varyag (1899)

Type

Protected Cruiser

Period

19th Century

Nation

Russia

Overview: Varyag was a Russian protected cruiser built for the Imperial Russian Navy by William Cramp and Sons of Philadelphia, launched in 1899 and commissioned in 1901. She is one of the most celebrated ships in Russian naval history, famed for her defiant last stand at the Battle of Chemulpo Bay in 1904 against an overwhelming Japanese squadron. Specifications: The ship displaced about 6,500 long tons, measured roughly 129.6 m at the waterline with a 15.8 m beam, and could reach 23 knots on triple-expansion engines fed by Niclausse boilers. Her armament comprised twelve 152 mm guns, twelve 75 mm guns, eight 47 mm guns, two 37 mm guns, and six above-water torpedo tubes, with a crew complement of around 570. The ship type is best described as a protected cruiser, a late-19th-century cruiser design relying on an armored deck rather than belt armor for protection. Service History: Rather than surrender at Chemulpo Bay on 9 February 1904, Varyag and the gunboat Korietz engaged a much larger Japanese force before being scuttled by her own crew to avoid capture. The Japanese later raised and repaired her, commissioning her into their navy as the cruiser Soya; she was returned to Russia in 1916, seized by Britain in 1918 during a refit, and ultimately ran aground and was scrapped in the Firth of Clyde in the 1920s. Notable Facts: The saga of her six flags — American-built, twice Russian, Japanese, "Red" Russian, and finally British-held — makes her an unusually rich subject for modelers interested in a ship with a layered, cross-national history. Her ship's bell was later recovered and is displayed at the Central Naval Museum in Saint Petersburg, and her story inspired a well-known Russian patriotic song commemorating the crew's bravery.