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Thursday, 13 April 2017

Japanese battleship Suwo blockading German colony Tsingtao according to the Dutch newspaper Bataviaasch nieuwsblad dated 23 September 1914

Japanese Suwo

An item reported that Tsingtao (1) was blockaded by the Japanese battleship Suwo which was the former Russian armoured cruiser Podjeda. Commanding officer of the second Japanese squadron was vice admiral Kato. The Suwo was supported by 2 cruisers and 11 destroyers.(2)

Notes
1. Nowzdays Qingdao, China, between 1891-1914 occupied by Germany.
2. Of the Russian pre-dreadnought battleships Peresvet-class. Laid down as the Pobeda at Baltic Works, St. Petersburg, Russian on 21 February 1899, launched on 10 May 1900, building costs 10.050.000 rubles, commissioned in October 1902, sunk on 7 December 1904 off Port Arthur, after Port Arthur fell in January 1905 in Japanese waters, refloated on 17 October 1905 and commissioned in the Japanese navy as 1st class battleship and renamed Suwo on 25 October 1905, reconstructed between May 1905 and 10 October 1908 at the Yokosuka Naval Yard and of which part of her armament was removed, reclassified as coastal defence ship on 28 August 1912, used as training ship for cadets and engineers, active service in 1914, gunnery training ship since 1916, armour removed and disarmed at the Kure Naval Arsenal in April 1922 as a result of the Washington Naval Treaty and capsized on 13 July 1922. Her final faith is somehow uncertain, some sources claimed she was broken up between 1922 and 1923, but is also claimed that she was not earlier broken up at Kure as in 1946.