Russian cruiser Varyag (1899)
 Varyag damaged, after the battle of Incheon | |
| Career | |
|---|---|
| Laid down: | 1898 |
| Launched: | 1899 |
| Commissioned: | January 14, 1901 |
| Fate: | Scuttled February 9, 1904 |
| Specifications | |
| Displacement: | 6500 t |
| Length: | 129.6 m (– ft) |
| Beam: | 15.8 m (– ft) |
| Draft: | 6.3 m (– ft) |
| Armament: | 12-6 in (152 mm), 12-75 mm, 6-47 mm, 6 torpedo launchers |
| Speed: | 23 kts |
| Complement: | 580 |
Cruiser Varyag (also spelled Variag; see Varangian for the meaning of the name) (Template:Lang-ru) was a Russian protected cruiser gone down to the military history of Russia. The Imperial Admiralty contracted William Cramp & Sons of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to build the ship and her keel was laid in October of 1898. Launched on October 31, 1899, she was commissioned into the Imperial Russian Navy on January 2, 1901.
During the Russo-Japanese war of 1904–1905, Varyag accepted a badly uneven battle with a Japanese squadron before Chemulpo (Incheon) harbour February 9, 1904. When outmanned and outgunned, the crew decided not to surrender, but to sink the ship. The crew was saved.
The Varyag was raised by the Japanese and repaired. She served with the imperial Japanese Navy as the Soya. During world war i Russia and Japan were allies and several ships were transferred by the Japanese to the Russians. She was returned to the Imperial Russian Navy at Vladivostok on 5 April 1916 and renamed Varyag. She was due to serve with the arctic squadron of the russian navy but was seized en route by the British as a result of the Russian Revolution on 8 december 1917. eved as a hulk and scrapped in 1923.
The name was inherited by the hapless Soviet aircraft carrier Varyag and some other Russian ships.
1. The Kynda Class missile cruiser, commisioned in 1965 and retired in 1990 2. The Varyag suspended in 1992 and sold to China 3. the Slava Class missile cruiser formerly known as the Chervonnaya Ukraina, which is inservice with the Russian Navy
