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A new monument has been unveiled in honour of the Varyag - an iconic warship which sank off the coast of Lendalfoot, Ayrshire, more than eighty years ago.
On February 9, 1904, after being notified that the Russian-Japanese war had begun, the commanders of the Varyag cruiser and the Koreyets gunboat made an unsuccessful attempt to break from the Korean port of Chemulpo to Port Arthur (Chinese port of Lushun). In a naval battle, the two Russian warships fought a Japanese heavy cruiser, five light cruisers and eight destroyers.
<!-- TEXT BLOCK 3 -->The Varyag cruiser, which was badly damaged, losing 122 sailors, and the Koreyets gunboat had to return to Chemulpo port. Rather than surrender, the heavily outgunned captain scuttled the Varyag. The Russian sailors who survived the battle returned to Russia through neutral ports. It was eventually salvaged, but, the February 1917 Revolution found the cruiser, which was at the time part of the Arctic Ocean Flotilla, on an overhaul in Britain. The "Varyag" was sold to Russian official agents after the Bolshevik Revolution of October 1917, and resold to Germany as scrap in 1920.
The ship never reached its destination. She was caught in a storm while being tugged across the Irish Sea and went down in the Firth of Clyde. The new owner determined to salvage the wrecked cruiser, but one attempt after another was thwarted by stormy seas, and the venture was finally given up in 1925. The cruiser sank once and for all just 500 yards off the coast of Lendalfoot.
See some STV news video here:
VARYAG
Looks like an impressive memorial of a ship I had never heard of. I'm going to try & get down there to see it.
On February 9, 1904, after being notified that the Russian-Japanese war had begun, the commanders of the Varyag cruiser and the Koreyets gunboat made an unsuccessful attempt to break from the Korean port of Chemulpo to Port Arthur (Chinese port of Lushun). In a naval battle, the two Russian warships fought a Japanese heavy cruiser, five light cruisers and eight destroyers.
<!-- TEXT BLOCK 3 -->The Varyag cruiser, which was badly damaged, losing 122 sailors, and the Koreyets gunboat had to return to Chemulpo port. Rather than surrender, the heavily outgunned captain scuttled the Varyag. The Russian sailors who survived the battle returned to Russia through neutral ports. It was eventually salvaged, but, the February 1917 Revolution found the cruiser, which was at the time part of the Arctic Ocean Flotilla, on an overhaul in Britain. The "Varyag" was sold to Russian official agents after the Bolshevik Revolution of October 1917, and resold to Germany as scrap in 1920.
The ship never reached its destination. She was caught in a storm while being tugged across the Irish Sea and went down in the Firth of Clyde. The new owner determined to salvage the wrecked cruiser, but one attempt after another was thwarted by stormy seas, and the venture was finally given up in 1925. The cruiser sank once and for all just 500 yards off the coast of Lendalfoot.
See some STV news video here:
VARYAG
Looks like an impressive memorial of a ship I had never heard of. I'm going to try & get down there to see it.
