page_title: Russian battleship Poltava (1894)
section_title: Japanese career
hierarchical_section_title: Russian battleship Poltava (1894) / Construction and service / Japanese career
caption_attribution_description: English: Battleship Tango. Русский: Линейный корабль Танго вскоре после вступления в строй, 1908-1909 годы.
context_page_description: The Russian battleship Poltava 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 after the war and renamed Tango.
  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 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 captured her during the North Russia intervention in early 1918. In poor condition, the ship was used as a prison hulk.
context_section_description: Following the capitulation of Port Arthur in January 1905, Japanese engineers refloated Poltava on 22 July, and commissioned her as Tango a month later, taking her name from the ancient Japanese province of Tango, now a part of Kyoto Prefecture. Classified as a 1st class battleship, she departed for Maizuru Naval Arsenal two days later and arrived on 29 August. Except for participating in the review of captured ships on 23 October 1905, she remained there under repair until November 1907. Tango then sailed to Yokosuka Naval Arsenal to complete fitting out.
  The IJN made several changes to the ship as she was repaired. Her fighting top was removed and her boilers were replaced by 16 Miyabara water-tube boilers. She retained her main guns, but their breeches were replaced by Japanese-built ones. Her secondary armament of eight 152 mm guns in twin turrets were retained, while her four casemated 152 mm guns were replaced by six Japanese-built 15 cm/45 41st Year Type guns; her light armament was revised to ten QF 12-pounder 12 cwt and four 37 mm guns. Four 18-inch above-water torpedo tubes replaced her original torpedo armament. Her crew now numbered 668 officers and crewmen.
  Tango joined the fleet in 1911 and was re-classified as a 1st class coast defense ship in 1912. In 1913 she participated in the annual fleet maneuvers as part of the "enemy" force. She was assigned to the 2nd Squadron, commanded by Vice Admiral Kato Sadakichi, shortly after World War I began. The squadron was tasked to blockade the German-owned port of Tsingtao, China, and to cooperate with the Imperial Japanese Army in capturing the city. Tango and the other ships of the squadron bombarded German fortifications throughout the siege until the Germans surrendered on 7 November.
caption: Tango at anchor around 1909
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