Russian battleship Poltava (1894)

Swedish postcard of Poltava
History
Russian Empire
Name:	Poltava
Namesake:	Battle of Poltava
Builder:	New Admiralty Shipyard, Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire
Laid down:	19 May 1892
Launched:	6 November 1894
In service:	1899
Captured:	January 1905 by the Japanese after the Siege of Port Arthur
Empire of Japan
Name:	Tango
Namesake:	Tango Province
Acquired:	January 1905
Commissioned:	22 August 1905
Fate:	Sold to Russia, 3 or 4 April 1916
Russian Empire
Name:	Chesma
Namesake:	Battle of Chesma
Acquired:	Bought, 4 April 1916
Renamed:	Chesma in 1916
Fate:	Taken over by the Bolsheviks, October 1917
Soviet Union
Name:	Chesma
Acquired:	October 1917
Struck:	3 July 1924
Captured:	By the British, March 1919 Recaptured by the Soviets, October 1919
Fate:	Scrapped, 1924
General characteristics
Class and type:	Petropavlovsk-class pre-dreadnought battleship
Displacement:	11,500 long tons (11,685 t)
Length:	376 ft (114.6 m)
Beam:	70 ft (21.3 m)
Draft:	28 ft 3 in (8.6 m)
Installed power:	10,600 ihp (7,900 kW) 14 Cylindrical fire-tube boilers
Propulsion:	2 Shafts 2 Vertical triple-expansion steam engines
Speed:	16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph)
Range:	3,750 nmi (6,940 km; 4,320 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement:	631–652
Armament:	2 × twin 12 in (305 mm) guns 4 × twin, 4 × single 6 in (152 mm) guns 12 × single 47 mm (1.9 in) guns 28 × single 37 mm (1.5 in) guns 4 × 15-inch (381 mm) above-water torpedo tubes 2 × 18-inch (457 mm) submerged torpedo tubes
Armor:	Krupp armor Waterline belt: 10–14.5 in (254–368 mm) Main Gun turrets: 10 in (254 mm) Secondary turrets: 5 in (127 mm) Conning tower: 9 in (229 mm) Deck: 2–3 in (51–76 mm)

The Russian battleship Poltava (Russian: Полтава) was one of three Petropavlovsk-class pre-dreadnought battleships built for the Imperial Russian Navy in the 1890s. The ship was transferred to the Pacific Squadron shortly after completion and based at Port Arthur from 1901. During the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05, she participated in the Battle of Port Arthur and was heavily damaged during the Battle of the Yellow Sea. She was sunk by Japanese artillery during the subsequent Siege of Port Arthur in December 1904, but was raised by the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) after the war and renamed Tango (丹後).

During World War I, she bombarded German fortifications during the Siege of Tsingtao. The Japanese government sold Tango back to the Russians at their request in 1916. She was renamed Chesma (Чесма) as her former name had been given to a new ship. En route to the White Sea, she joined an Allied force that persuaded the Greek government to disarm their ships. Her crew declared for the Bolsheviks in October 1917, but made no effort to resist when the British decided to intervene in the Russian Civil War in early 1918. In poor condition, the ship was used as a prison hulk. Abandoned by the British when they withdrew in 1919 and recaptured by the Bolsheviks, she was scrapped in 1924.