Japanese battleship Sagami

File:IJN Sagami in 1906.jpg Ex-Russian battleship Peresvet, which later became the Japanese battleship Sagami
Career (Russia)
Name:	Peresvet
Builder:	Baltic Yards, Saint Petersburg
Laid down:	November 21, 1895
Launched:	May 19, 1898
Commissioned:	June 1901
Out of service:	Sunk at her moorings after Battle of the Yellow Sea, August 1904
Reinstated:	Returned to Russia, April 4, 1916
Fate:	Mined off Port Said, Egypt, January 4, 1917
Career (Japan)	Japanese Naval Ensign
Name:	Sagami
Acquired:	Salvaged October 1905
Out of service:	Returned to Russia, 4 April 1916
General characteristics
Class and type:	Peresvet-class battleship
Displacement:	12,674 long tons (12,877 t) normal 13,500 long tons (13,717 t) full load
Length:	129.2 m (424 ft)
Beam:	21.8 m (72 ft)
Draft:	8.3 m (27 ft)
Propulsion:	3-shaft Reciprocating Vertical Triple Expansion (VTE) Engines 14,500 shp (10,800 kW) 30 boilers 2,056 tons coal
Speed:	18 knots (33 km/h)
Range:	10,000 nautical miles (19,000 km) at 10 kn (19 km/h) 2,056 tons coal
Complement:	783
Armament:	• 4 × 254 mm (10 in) guns • 10 × 152 mm (6 in) guns • 16 × 80 mm (3.1 in) guns • 4 × 450 mm (18 in) torpedo tubes
Armour:	Belt: 100–230 mm (3.9–9.1 in) Deck: 60 mm (2.4 in) Gun mount: 127 mm (5 in) Casemate: 127 mm (5 in) Turret: 150–250 mm (5.9–9.8 in) Conning tower: 100–150 mm (3.9–5.9 in)

Sagami (相模) was one of eight Russian pre-dreadnought battleships captured by the Imperial Japanese Navy during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905. It was built as the lead ship of the Peresvet-class of battleships, with a design inspired by the British battleship HMS Centurion. They were designed as essentially enlarged armoured cruisers, with good range and seakeeping, higher speed but weaker armour and armament than contemporary first class battleships. The Peresvet was one of three ships in its class: its sister ship Oslyabya was lost at the Battle of Tsushima, and Pobeda at Port Arthur.

The Peresvet fought in the Battle of the Yellow Sea but failed to escape and was subsequently sunk at her moorings in Port Arthur harbor by Japanese siege guns. Salvaged after the war in October 1905, she was refloated, repaired, and taken into service as the Sagami, taking her name from the ancient Japanese province of Sagami, now a part of Kanagawa prefecture.

On August 28, 1912, the Sagami was re-classified as a First-class Coastal Defense Vessel.

During World War I, Japan and Russia became allies, and the Sagami was returned to the Russian navy on April 4, 1916, where she resumed her former name of Peresvet. She was due to be the flagship of the Russian Arctic flotilla, but was sunk on route by mines laid by German submarine U-73 outside Port Said, Egypt on January 4, 1917.

References

• Gibbons, Tony: The Complete Encyclopedia of Battleships and Battlecruisers
• Burt, R.A.: Japanese Battleships, 1897–1945