Russian Cruiser Zhemchug

Imperial Russian Naval vessel in the Russo-Japanese War

Jul 12, 2008
Christopher Eger

Zhemchug 1904 - public domain

New and fast, the Zhemchug was a bright star in the Russian Imperial Navy during the Russo-Japanese War in 1904-1905

The Russian light cruiser Zhemchug (the Russian word for Pearl) had a short and storied career with the Imperial Russian Navy. She and her sister the Izumrud (Emerald) were based on an experimental German design from a craft of the Novik class. They were unique for their time. The ships were 111m (364feet) long and weighed 3,100 tons. This made them much larger than any contemporary destroyers of the time yet also smaller than almost every other modern cruiser afloat. Sleek and fast with a good armament they were to be the scouts of a larger armored fleet and capable of engaging enemy commerce on the high seas. They were armed with 8x 4.7inch (120mm) guns, 9 smaller 47mm and 37mm mounts and a brace of torpedo tubes. They could make 25 knots for nearly 3000 miles which was rather fast for a steam powered vessel of her day. It must be remembered that most steam powered battleships of the time could barely make 15knots on a good day The main drawback of the vessels of the Zhemchug’s type was that they sacrificed armor and size for speed and were therefore not capable of fighting it out with other first rate naval cruisers.

The outbreak of the Russo Japanese War in 1904 saw the ship called to the fight. She was fast, modern and seen as being well armed. The Zhemchug, under command of Captain 2nd Class Levitsky, took part in the epic 18,000 mile voyage of the 2nd Pacific Squadron from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean. While on the nine month voyage the Zhemchug underwent a number of traumatic events. She lost her cutter when the davits that secured it broke in the Baltic Sea. After passing through the Mediterranean where her crew was the scourge of the bars on the Greek island of Crete, she slipped through the Suez Canal and sailed with her squadron through the Indian Ocean and around the Malaccan straits. In Madagascar one of her crewman went berserk and tried to leave the ship in the middle of the ocean. In the Pacific she performed the role of the greyhound of the fleet and stopped a number of steamers in the search for war contraband.

The combined Russian fleet met with the Japanese at the one-sided Battle of Tsushima on May 27, 1905. At the start of the battle the Zhemchug led the main column into the fray and even fired the first rounds at a Japanese ship. The light cruiser took many hits and was the only ship in the main column that survived. Russian Rear Admiral Oskar Enkvist broke away from the losing fleet battle with the scarred cruisers Oleg, Aurora and Zhemchug and made for internment in the Philippines arriving in Manila June 3, 1905. The Zhemchug and her fellow cruisers were among the only 6 survivors of the 34 Russian ships that had started the battle and were not sunk or captured. There they were interned under the protective guns of the US Asiatic Fleet until the end of the war in October. After the war the damaged Zhemchug was repaired and was the only other cruiser, besides the elderly Askold, left in the Pacific fleet for a period of ten years. When World War One erupted she added another chapter to her tale.