The Tsar's Last Armada

On 14-15 May 1905, in the Tsushima Straits near Japan, an entire Russian fleet was annihilated, its ships sunk, scattered, or captured by the Japanese. It was among the top five naval battles in history, equal to those of Lepanto, Trafalgar, Jutland, and Midway. The Japanese lost only three destroyers, but the Russians lost 22 ships and thousands of sailors. Russian ships still put wreaths on the waves when passing the Korea Strait. The Russians had travelled for nine months to be destroyed in a few hours. As they were afraid of capture in the Suez Canal, their legendary admiral, dubbed "Mad Dog", led them on an extraordinary 18,000-mile detour from the Baltic Sea, around Europe, Africa, and Asia to the Sea of Japan. They were burdened by the Tsar's incompetent leadership and the old, slow ships that he insisted be included to bulk up the fleet. Moreover, they were under constant fear of attack, and there were no friendly ports to supply coal, food, and fresh water. The level of self-sufficiency achieved by this squadron was not again attained in naval practice until the Second World War.
In this work, Pleshakov tells of the Russian squadron's long, difficult journey and swift, horrible defeat.