Japanese battleship Tango

300px
Career (Russia)
Name:	Poltava
Builder:	New Admiralty Shipyard, Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire
Laid down:	1 May 1892
Launched:	6 November 1894
Commissioned:	1898
Out of service:	Captured by the Japanese after the Siege of Port Arthur
Renamed:	Chesma in 1916
Struck:	1922
Reinstated:	Returned on 4 April 1916
Career (Japan)	Japanese Naval Ensign
Name:	Tango
Commissioned:	22 August 1905
Out of service:	Returned to Russia on 4 April 1916
Career (Soviet Union)	60px
Name:	Chesma
Fate:	Captured by the British in 1923 and scrapped
General characteristics
Class and type:	Petropavlovsk-class battleship
Displacement:	10,960 tons (normal) 11,400 tons (max)
Length:	111.9 metres (367 ft)
Beam:	21 metres (69 ft)
Draft:	7.8 metres (26 ft)
Propulsion:	Three Shaft Reciprocating Vertical Triple Expansion (VTE) Engines 30 boilers, 14,500 shp
Speed:	18 knots (33 km/h)
Range:	10,000 nautical miles (19,000 km) at 10 knots (19 km/h) 2,056 tons coal carried
Complement:	668
Armament:	4 × 305 mm 10 × 152 mm 16 × 80 mm 4 × 450 mm torpedo tubes
Armour:	belt 100-230 mm deck 60 mm gun mount 127 mm casemate 127 mm turret 150-250 mm conning tower 100-150 mm

For other ships of the same name, see Russian battleship Poltava and Russian battleship Chesma.

Tango (丹後) was one of eight Russian pre-dreadnought battleships captured by the Imperial Japanese Navy during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. She was built as the Russian Petropavlovsk-class battleship Poltava, and was commissioned into the Imperial Russian Navy in 1898. She was one of three ships in her class: her sister ships Petropavlovsk and Sevastopol were both sunk during the Russo-Japanese War.

History

The Poltava fought in the Battle of the Yellow Sea, but failed to escape and was scuttled during the Siege of Port Arthur. Salvaged after the war in October 1905, she was refloated, repaired, and taken into service in the Imperial Japanese Navy as the Tango, taking her name from the ancient Japanese province of Tango, now a part of Kyoto-fu.

File:Russian battleship Poltava destroyed at Port Arthur.jpg

Poltava destroyed at Port Arthur

On 28 August 1912, the Tango was re-classified as a 1st class Coastal Defence Vessel.

During World War I, Japan and Russia became allies, and the Tango was returned to the Russian navy on 4 April 1916, where she was renamed the Chesma, and transferred to the Arctic. Captured by the British during the Allied invasion of northern Russia during the Russian Civil War and damaged beyond repair, she was scrapped in 1923.

References

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