After my grandfather's passing I was looking through his diaries. There I found some notes regarding yacht ship Svetlana, digging more I found out that my great-great grandfather served on it as a cook. Intrigued I contacted my father and he recollected that he did have discussion about same exact topic just prior to grandfather's passing.
The story goes that my ancestor served on a ship Svetlana. He was very critical of war and the way the ship was sent out to its doom. The ship was mostly used by royal family for pleasure and in his words, "not prepared for combat". When Russo-Japanese war broke out Svetlana joined the rest of the navy. During Battle of Tsushima it was lost with about 40% of the crew. What I was able to find out was mostly just stories told by him to my grandfather. They fought till they had no more ammunition, once the ship went under he said that one of the Japanese cruisers approached them and sailed several times through the surviving crew. He lost one of his closest friends, when he disappeared underneath the Japanese ship. He did not talk much about time in Japan's captivity. Again, in his own words there was a happy ending. All in all he spent about 15 years living in Japan, he claimed to have lived in a small village on the shores of Japan, he even became friends with the same men he fought against, supposedly he even had a mistress. In the end he stated that he missed Russia too much and went back.
I would appreciate any and all information about cruiser ship Svetlana you can provide, any sort of information about where the crew may have spent their time and how were they treated. Perhaps even somebody may have came across some documentation mentioning the ship? Thank you.
There I found some notes regarding yacht ship Svetlana, digging more I found out that my great-great grandfather served on it as a cook
Records of your great-great grandfather are of significant historical value. They should be preserved in archives and made available to historians. At very least they should be carefully scanned.
There I found some notes regarding yacht ship Svetlana
Originally, was built as a yacht for Tsar Nicholas II. So, it was serving in the Baltic sea. After war started, Svetlana was re-purposed as a light cruiser (бронепалубный крейсер) of 1st rank (there were plans to do that, tsar's yachts traditionally were fast cruiser ships with placeholders for real guns). Built in France.
He was very critical of war and the way the ship was sent out to its doom.
One of rare instances when public opinion in Russia was ~100% united - Russo-Japanese war was ill conducted and widespread public dissatisfaction was a major factor in First Russian Revolution of 1905-06. See Battleship Potyomkin.
They fought till they had no more ammunition, once the ship went under he said that one of the Japanese cruisers approached them and sailed several times through the surviving crew
Yep. Multiple accounts confirms that. Japanese cruisers Niitaka and Otowa. Svetlana was immobilized by hit into engine and out of ammo. At that point captain ordered to scuttle ship. Despite Svetlana being silent and not moving, japanese cruisers continued to bombard it at point blank - captain of Svetlana and most of officers were killed by last barrage. Then passed over the spot with crew afloat and sailed away. About two hours later, auxiliary ship "America-maru" saved whoever was still alive (water was cold and many sailors died from exposure). Survivors were interned ashore at Sasebo. Several more sailors died there from wounds and exposure. Other than initial incident (e.g. shooting of unresisting ship and sailors, not picking up crew right away - caused many unnecessary deaths) russian sailors were treated well.
Svetlana joined the rest of the navy.
To be precise - Svetlana joined 2^nd Pacific Squadron under flag of admiral Zinovy Rozhestvensky. At battle Svetlana performed as a rear-guard lookout. It received just one serious hit (which was below water line,) but it kind of determined the fate of Svetlana - fore ammo stores were flooded and ship slightly listed left. Speed decreased by 3 knots, ammo was short, only aft 6" gun was operational.
During Battle of Tsushima it was lost with about 40% of the crew.
Only 3 sailors were killed during the primary engagement (May 14^th ). Svetlana tried to break through into Vladivostok (with other surviving light cruisers and destroyers) and almost managed to do that - it ran thru the night undetected, but was spotted by Japanese cruiser patrol early on May 15^th , ~7 AM. Since it cannot run at full speed, with only half of main guns functioning and short on ammo, Svetalana's situation was hopeless. Still, it decided to keep flag on and proceeded to battle.
Sources
(russian) Cruiser 1^st rank Svetlana. Many technical details.
(russian) Melnikov R. M. Cruiser 1^st rank "Svetalana" - Shipbuilding, 1980 No2 = Мельников P.M. Крейсер I ранга «Светлана» // Судостроение. 1980. № 2.
(russian) Capt Nevyarovsky - Doom of "Svetlana" = Невяровский. Гибель «Светланы». Engineer-Mechanic, captain 2^nd rank Nevyarovsky recall last fight and scuttling of Svetlana.