Russian battleship Knyaz Suvorov Knyaz Suvorov ( ) was a pre - dreadnought battleship built for the Imperial Russian Navy in the first decade of the 20th century . Named after the 18th - century Russian general Prince ( " Knyaz " ) Alexander Suvorov , the ship was completed after the beginning of the Russo - Japanese War in 1904 . She became the flagship of Vice Admiral Zinovy Rozhestvensky , commander of the Second Pacific Squadron that was sent to the Far East a few months after her completion to break the Japanese blockade of Port Arthur . The Japanese captured the port while the squadron was in transit and their destination was changed to Vladivostok . " Knyaz Suvorov " was sunk during the Battle of Tsushima on 27 May 1905 . During the battle , the ship fell out of the main battle line after a shell hit her bridge , killing her helmsman and wounding her captain and Rozhestvensky . She was eventually torpedoed and sunk by Japanese torpedo boat s ; other than the 20 wounded officers evacuated by a destroyer there were no survivors . Description . " Knyaz Suvorov " was long at the waterline and long overall , with a beam of and a draft of , more than designed . Her normal displacement was , almost more than her designed displacement of . Her intended crew consisted of 28 officers and 754 enlisted men , although she carried 928 crewmen during the Battle of Tsushima . The ship was powered by two 4 - cylinder vertical triple - expansion steam engines , each driving one propeller shaft , using steam generated by 20 Belleville boiler s . The engines were rated at and designed to reach a top speed of . " Knyaz Suvorov " , however , only reached a top speed of from during her builder ' s machinery trials on 9 August 1904 . At deep load she carried of coal that provided her a range of at a speed of . " Knyaz Suvorov " s 40 - caliber 12 - inch guns were mounted in two twin - gun turret s , one each fore and aft . They had a rate of fire of about one round per 90 seconds . Sixty rounds per gun were carried . The twelve 45 - caliber guns were mounted in six electrically powered twin - gun turrets carried on the sides of the ship . They had a practical rate of fire of approximately three rounds per minute and were provided with 180 rounds per gun . Four of the twenty guns used against torpedo boat s were mounted in casemate s just below the forward main gun turret , two on each side . These guns were placed well above the waterline for use in any weather , unlike the remaining sixteen guns , which were mounted in casemates one deck lower and distributed over the length of the ship , close to the water . The unsuitability of the lower deck guns was graphically demonstrated when " Knyaz Suvorov " s sister ship made a high - speed turn during her trials , heeling 15° , and began taking water through the lower casemates . Each gun had 300 rounds available . The ship also mounted twenty Hotchkiss gun s for anti - torpedo boat defense . " Knyaz Suvorov " carried four torpedo tube s , one each above water in the bow and one in the stern with two torpedo es each , and a submerged tube on each side forward with three torpedoes each . " Knyaz Suvorov " s waterline armor belt consisted of Krupp armor and was thick . The armor of her gun turrets had a maximum thickness of and her deck ranged from in thickness . The armored lower deck curved downwards and formed an anti - torpedo bulkhead . Service . Construction began on " Knyaz Suvorov " , named after Prince Aleksander Suvorov , on 10 August 1901 at the Baltic Works in Saint Petersburg . The ship was laid down on 8 September 1901 , when the ceremonial laying of one of the plates was performed by Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich of Russia , general - admiral of the Imperial Russian navy . She was launched on 25 September 1902 , and completed in September 1904 at the cost of 13 , 841 , 000 rubles . On 15 October 1904 , " Knyaz Suvorov " , flagship of the 2nd Pacific Squadron , set sail for Port Arthur from Libau along with the other vessels of the squadron . Rozhestvensky had received numerous reports of Japanese agents and torpedo boats disguised as fishing vessels before sailing and he ordered maximum alertness after coaling at Skagen , Denmark on 7 October . Early on the evening of the following day , when the squadron was near the Dogger Bank , the auxiliary repair ship " Kamchatka " reported that she was under attack by torpedo boats in the rain . About four hours later , the squadron encountered British fishing trawlers working the Dogger Bank in the fog and opened fire on them at very short range . One trawler was sunk and at least three others were damaged ; several fishermen were killed and others wounded . The battleships also fired upon and damaged the cruisers and . The incident enraged the British population and caused a diplomatic incident with the British that nearly led to war until Russia apologized and agreed to pay reparations on 29 October . Rozhestvensky led his ships down the Atlantic coast of Africa , rounding the Cape of Good Hope , and reached the island of Nosy Be off the north - west coast of Madagascar on 9 January 1905 where they remained for two months while Rozhestvensky finalized his coaling arrangements . During this time , he learned of the capture of Port Arthur and changed his destination to Vladivostok , the only other port controlled by the Russians in the Far East . The squadron sailed for Camranh Bay , French Indochina , on 16 March and reached it almost a month later to await the obsolete ships of the 3rd Pacific Squadron , commanded by Rear Admiral Nikolai Nebogatov . The latter ships reached Camranh Bay on 9 May and the combined force sailed for Vladivostok on 14 May . While exact figures are not available for " Knyaz Suvorov " , it is probable that the ship was approximately overweight as she and her sisters were overloaded with coal and other supplies ; all of which was stored high in the ships and reduced their stability . The extra weight also submerged the waterline armor belt and left only about of the upper armor belt above the waterline . During the Battle of Tsushima , " Knyaz Suvorov " was the lead ship in the Russian battle line and she opened fire at the Japanese battleship " Mikasa " , flagship of Admiral Tōgō Heihachirō at 14 : 05 . " Mikasa " began to return fire about five minutes later , joined by the battleship and the armored cruiser . The battleship joined the others firing at " Knyaz Suvorov " around 14 : 20 , which had been set on fire by hits from the other ships . At 14 : 35 , Rozhestvensky and the ship ' s captain were wounded by splinters that entered the conning tower . Shortly afterwards , Rozhestvensky was knocked unconscious by a splinter in the skull and flames made the conning tower untenable so that the ship had to be steered from her auxiliary control position . Around 14 : 52 , another hit jammed the steering gear after a four point turn to starboard had been ordered and caused the ship make nearly a full circle before she could be steered by her engines . Splinters from numerous shell hits shredded water hoses and made it much more difficult to put the numerous fires out . By this time " Knyaz Suvorov " s aft 12 - inch gun turret had been destroyed by an explosion that blew its roof off onto the quarterdeck , her forward funnel had fallen down and her mainmast had been shot away . " Knyaz Suvorov " never regained her position in the battle line and was engaged at short range by " Mikasa " and the battleship as well as five cruiser s of Vice Admiral Kamimura Hikonojō ' s 2nd Division between 15 : 20 and 15 : 35 . " Mikasa " and two of the cruisers fired one torpedo each at her during this time , but none of them hit the ship . At 15 : 39 , the unprotected cruiser fired a pair of torpedoes and claimed one hit although no change was visible in " Knyaz Suvorov " s condition . " Chihaya " was hit by one shell just above the waterline during her attack that forced her to make emergency repairs . Around 15 : 40 the British observer aboard " Azuma " reported that " Knyaz Suvorov " was down by the bow with a heavy list to port and was a mass of thick gray smoke from forecastle to mainmast . By this time , the ship ' s forward 12 - inch gun turret had been knocked out , but some smaller guns were still in action . The Japanese 5th Destroyer Division attacked five minutes later with torpedoes at ranges under , but failed to score any hits with their five torpedoes . The destroyer leader was hit in the boiler room by a three - inch shell that may have been fired by " Knyaz Suvorov " . The ship found herself between the two fleets at 16 : 08 and was fired at by most of the Japanese ships at short range . Observers aboard those ships noted that she resembled " an island volcano in eruption " . " Mikasa " fired two torpedoes and " Shikishima " fired one torpedo at " Knyaz Suvorov " during this time without effect . Captain W . C . Pakenham , the Royal Navy ' s official military observer aboard the Japanese battleship under the Anglo - Japanese Alliance , noted that she was hit by a 12 - inch shell near the rear 6 - inch turret around 16 : 30 that caused an explosion and caused flames to spout in the air . At 17 : 05 the 4th Destroyer Division attacked with three destroyers ; only one of the six torpedoes hit " Knyaz Suvorov " . The ship which immediately took on a 10° list , but showed no signs of sinking . One shell from " Knyaz Suvorov " struck the destroyer , but did not inflict much damage . Around 17 : 30 , the Russian destroyer " Buinyi " , came and took off the wounded officers from " Knyaz Suvorov " , including Rozhestvensky , leaving an unwounded midshipman in command . The ship continued southwards at about and was engaged by many of the Japanese cruisers from about 18 : 30 until four torpedo boats of the 11th Torpedo Division attacked at 19 : 20 . They fired seven torpedoes of which two or three hit the ship . One was thought to have caused a magazine to explode as a cloud of yellow and black smoke poured out and " Knyaz Suvorov " listed further to port before capsizing at about 19 : 30 . Other than the 20 officers taken off by " Buinyi " , there were no survivors of the 928 crew aboard .