Latest / Crime and Horror / Russian Naval blunders are stranger than fiction

Transcript

Russian Naval blunders are stranger than fiction · Crime and Horror

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: No matter how absurd this story gets, just remember, it's true.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: But before we get into that story, if you're a
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: fan of the strange, dark, and mysterious Delivered in Story format,
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: then you come to the right channel, because that's all
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: we do, and we upload three or four times every week.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: So if that's of interest to you, please beg the
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: like button to have them give you their secret chocolate
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: chip cookie recipe, and then when they finally cave and
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: they do give it to you, immediately post it on
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Facebook with the caption, here's my chocolate chip cookie recipe. Also,
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: please subscribe to our channel and turn on all notifications
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: so you don't miss any of our weekly uploads.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: All right, let's get into today's story.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: Around the turn of the 20th century, Russia and Japan
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: got into a dispute over who should be in control
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: of Korea and China. Looking to avoid an armed conflict,
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: the Japanese sent the Russians a deal that came with
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: reasonable concessions on both sides.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: But the Russians didn't.
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: Like it, they rejected the deal, and they countered with
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: a pretty unreasonable deal that came with lots of concessions
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: for Japan and not so many for Russia. And so
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: Japan rejected that deal and then promptly launched a devastating
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: surprise attack on the Russian Navy stationed at Fort Arthur
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: in China. This attack would officially start the one-year-long Russo-Japanese War.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: The Russians knew they would need.
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: To send a replacement naval fleet up to Fort Arthur
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: to reclaim it from the Japanese, but unfortunately, the attack
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: at Fort Arthur had totally wiped out all of Russia's
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: best sailors and all their best ships, putting Russia at
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: a major disadvantage to start this war. And so as
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: Russians are wondering what they're gonna do next, the Russian Emperor,
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: Tsar Nicholas II, authorizes an unbelievable mission. He orders the
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: Russian Baltic Fleet to set sail from their harbor in
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: Northern Europe and sail 18,000 miles around the world to Japan,
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: where they will defeat the Japanese and then reclaim Fort Arthur.
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: The fact that none of the Baltic Fleet ships were
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: designed to sail that far of a distance, or that
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: there were literally zero refueling points along their massive projected path,
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: was considered largely inconsequential and ignored. What was also considered
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: inconsequential was how absurdly unqualified the Baltic crew was. The
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: sailors were mostly illiterate peasants that did not grow up
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: on the coasts, and so they showed up for military
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: training with no seafaring skills. And then after their military training,
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: they still had no seafaring skills, because the Baltic fleet's
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: harbor was frozen solid almost year-round. But the Tsar believed
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: the man he had put in charge of this crew,
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: Admiral Rojasvensky, would make up for their deficiencies.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: And this belief was not unwarranted.
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: Admiral Rojasvensky was the best Russian officer that had not
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: been killed in that Japan surprise attack. He had significant
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: combat experience, and he had a wickedly bad temper. He
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: didn't care who you were. If you were doing something
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: he didn't like, he was going to beat the crap
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: out of you.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: Literally. And when he was told he was going.
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: To be in charge of this fairly inexperienced crew, he
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: was certain his rough style would whip these Baltic boys
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: into shape, and they would be very successful.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: But when he laid eyes on the Baltic fleet.
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: he realized this was going to be a little bit
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: more challenging than he realized. In addition to being less
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: than satisfied with his fighting crew, he was equally dissatisfied
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: with the two senior officers that were.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: Assigned to be his direct support.
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: And he immediately gave them nicknames, and he would only
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: refer to them by their nicknames, right to their face.
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: The first one was the Manorsack, and the other was
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: a vast empty space.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: As for the Baltic Fleet's 45 ships... They were terrible.
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: Because this unit never went out on the ocean because
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: their harbor was always frozen, Russia didn't waste their good
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: ships on them. So all they had were really old,
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: obsolete warships and then non-military ships like ferries and yachts
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: that they just slapped random guns onto. They also had
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: ships that the Baltic Fleet crew enthusiastically called futuristic, which
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: were these ships that came out of Russia briefly copying
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: French engineering and which involved these crazy top-heavy ships that
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: sat so low in the water that their lowest rung
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: of weapons, their cannons that poked out the windows at
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: the bottom of the ship, they didn't work because they
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: sat under the water permanently. But regardless of their shortfalls,
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: the Baltic fleet was what Rojasvensky had been dealt, and
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: so he had to just get them moving if they
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: were going to win the war. And so on October 16th, 1904,
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: Admiral Rojasvensky ordered all of his men to take their
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: positions in all of.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: Their ships, and they set sail.
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: And immediately, 30 seconds into their trip, the lead ship
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: ran aground, and another ship lost its anchor, even though
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: it should not have been casting its anchor to begin with.
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: And so while one ship is trying to refloat, and
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: the other is trying to find its anchor in the ocean,
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: a third ship comes along and broadsides a fourth ship.
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: And it does so much damage to this fourth ship
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: That ship had to go back home. But once they
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: overcame these initial obstacles, the Baltic fleet, that now numbered
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: 44 ships, made it out of the harbor without any
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: more issues and then set sail for the narrow waters
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: between Denmark and Sweden. As they drew closer, Manursak informed
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: Rojasvensky that there might be an issue, that he had
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: heard rumblings amongst the crew that they believed Japanese torpedo
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: boats were stationed off the coast of Denmark waiting for
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: them to get there. Rojasvensky told Manuersak that that was impossible.
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: The Japanese torpedo boats did not have the capabilities to
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: sail 18,000 miles to Denmark. And even if they did
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: have the ability to do that, They could not have
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: gotten there in such a short period of time. But
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: Manursak told Rojasvensky that unfortunately, even though logically that makes sense.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: This rumor had spread all across the crew.
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: And so Rojasvensky began sending out messages to all the
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: other ships telling them there are no Japanese torpedo boats
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: waiting for us off the coast of Denmark. Everybody just
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: needs to calm down. And these messages did appear to
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: work at first. Because eventually, another rumor began to circulate,
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: one that Rojasvensky was not really aware of as it
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: was happening. And that was that the crew began to
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: believe there was a huge minefield underneath them. Everywhere they went,
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: there was a minefield. And everybody got so worked up
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: about it that it made its way back to a
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: lot of the captains actually piloting the different ships. And
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: at some point, the pilots just began doing these evasive maneuvers.
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: And Rojasvensky's looking around, wondering what they're doing. and they
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: began crashing into each other trying to avoid this minefield.
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: When Rojasvensky finally figured out what was going on, he
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: sent out even more messages telling them that there's no
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: minefield under us, it's totally safe, everybody just needs to
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: calm down. And so it took Rojasvensky going out on
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: deck and firing shots into the air to finally get
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: people to stop believing they were on top of a minefield.
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: But just a couple of hours later, after Rojasvensky had
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: gone back up to the bridge, and was just looking out,
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: surveying his fleet as they carried on towards Denmark and Sweden,
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: when all of the sudden, towards the very front of
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: his fleet, he heard this unbelievable barrage of cannon fire.
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: One of his own ships was engaging something out in
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: front of the fleet, but Rojasvensky was too far away
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: to see what it was, and then a message came
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: through from the attacking ship, whose name was Kamchatka, and
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: they said they were surrounded on all sides by at
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: least eight Japanese torpedo boats. And so Rojasvensky runs out
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: onto the deck, looking out towards the horizon, expecting to
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: see these eight Japanese ships, but he doesn't. And then
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: all of the sudden, the shooting just completely stops and
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: it's silent. And then Rojasvensky notices on his right side,
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: a small little fishing boat.
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: Is making its way right up alongside his.
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: It would turn out Kamchatka, the attacking ship, had confused
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: this little unarmed Russian fishing ship with eight Japanese torpedo
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: boats and had opened fire. But luckily, even though they
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: fired hundreds and hundreds of rounds at this little boat,
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: none of them hit the boat.
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: And so the fishermen were fine.
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: And the fishermen had actually been sent to the boat,
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: specifically by Tsar Nicholas II, to tell Rojasvensky that he
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: had been promoted. And so Rojasvensky apologizes to the fishermen
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: for having shot at them hundreds and hundreds.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: Of times and they said it was okay and the
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: fishermen carried on.
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: After Rojasvensky chewed out the crew of the Kamchatka, the
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: rest of the Baltic fleet gathered up and they continued
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: towards the narrow waters between Denmark and Sweden. When they
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: got close, a Danish resupply ship came out to meet
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: them to give them fuel and food and water and
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: the Baltic fleet mistook them for a Japanese torpedo boat,
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: causing them to ram them repeatedly. And then they realized
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: their mistake, but at that point, they had done severe
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: damage to the resupply ship, who had to immediately turn
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: around and go back to shore. After that, the Baltic
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: fleet did manage to get past Denmark and Sweden, and
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: they made it out to the North Sea.
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: But as soon as they got out there, there was trouble.
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: One of the captains of the ships that was towards
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: the front of the Baltic fleet's formation spotted four Japanese
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: torpedo boats coming right at them. And so this ship,
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: along with six others, immediately just began engaging these four
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: ships with everything they had. Cannons, big guns, small guns, everything.
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: It was absolute chaos from the front of this formation.
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: And the amount of gunfire that was going off towards
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: the front caused the rest of the ships that were
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: not part of the attack to begin to panic. and
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: the other ship captains began ramming into each other to
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: try to get away from this attack. And so while
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: that's going on, all the crew members on all the
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: ships begin drawing their swords and running around, expecting the
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: Japanese to board them at any moment. And the others
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: that did not draw their swords put on life jackets
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: and laid down on their back on the deck of
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: the ship, believing that was procedure for how to survive
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: a sinking ship. And so for the next 20 minutes,
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: it was just continuous gunfire coming from the front of
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: their formation. One of the attacking ships sent a message
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: back to Roger Spensky that said they had been hit
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: by a torpedo, and they were taking heavy fire, and
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: it was just absolute bedlam up there.
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: And then all of a sudden, it just totally stopped.
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: And when the smoke cleared, Rojasvensky and his ship had
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: been able to maneuver up a little bit closer and
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: they could see what they were shooting at. And it
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: would turn out, once again, it was a case of
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: mistaken identity. They were not being attacked by Japanese torpedo boats.
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: They had spotted four small British fishing boats. And in
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: the chaos of the gunfight, the Baltic fleet had inadvertently
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: begun to fire at each other, killing several crew members
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: and badly damaging their ships in the process. As for
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: the British fishermen, only one of their boats actually sunk,
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: despite the fact that the Baltic fleet had fired thousands
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: and thousands of rounds at them. and they had been
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: stationary the entire time. The Russian Czar immediately apologized to Britain,
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: but the British media went crazy and the British people
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: called for war, believing that this type of attack could
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: not possibly be an accident. But Russian diplomats leveled with
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: the British and said, no, this really was an accident.
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: And eventually they convinced them, avoiding starting yet another war.
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: Rojasvensky and his Baltic fleet were allowed to continue in
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: their journey, and after a couple of weeks, they were
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: getting close to Africa, when one of his ships, the Kamchatka,
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: the same ship that believed they were surrounded by eight
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: Japanese torpedo boats, they got separated from the main fleet
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: and got lost. And so Rojasvensky and the other officers
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: did what they could to try to locate them, but
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: nobody had seen where they went, and there wasn't great
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: technology to try to locate them, and so unfortunately, Rojasvensky
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: and the Baltic fleet just had to continue on, and
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: hoped that at some point the lost ship would find
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: them again. A few days later, the main body arrived
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: in Tangier, and lo and behold, Kamchatka showed up. And
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: they informed Rojaspensky that they had gotten lost, and they
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: didn't really have a good answer for that. But once
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: they were lost, they managed to engage three separate Japanese
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: torpedo boats.
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: But it would turn out they were not Japanese torpedo boats.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: They were, in fact, a German, a.
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: Swedish, and a French fishing boat, but none of Kamchatka's
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: rounds actually impacted any of the three vessels, and so
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: three more wars were averted. And so now that Rojasvensky
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: had his lost ship back, he gathered up his full
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: Baltic fleet and they left to Angier. But on their
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: way out, One of the ships managed to cut the
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: underwater telegraph line to Tangier, cutting off Tangier's communication with
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: Europe for the next four days. By now, the Baltic
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: fleet was very low on coal, but they had a
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: planned rendezvous with a German resupply ship off the coast
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: of West Africa. When they got there, the crew decided
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: they didn't want to do another resupply later on, and
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: so let's just take double coal this time. And so
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: they hauled all this extra coal onto their ships, despite
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: not having a place for it, And so, naturally, they
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: began throwing it in the halls and in their bedrooms
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: and basically anywhere there was space. And what that did
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: is it led to a fine layer of coal dust
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: all over everything in the ship. And that, combined with
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: the intense humidity off the coast of Africa, led to
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: this black, cold gunk getting trapped inside of all of
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: the sailors' lungs, which began.
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: Killing several of them.
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: A couple weeks later, as they rounded the southern tip
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: of Africa, it finally rained on them, washing away a
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: lot of that cold dust on their ships, which was
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: a big relief. But the rain turned into a pretty
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: bad storm, and so Rojasvensky decided he just wanted all
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: of his ships to call in and say they were okay.
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: And so one by one, each of the ships were
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: told to message him saying the words, we are okay.
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: And so one by one, each of the ships did
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: this until it got to Kamchatka's turn. And they accidentally
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: sent the message, do you see Japanese torpedo boats? And
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: of course, this message spread like wildfire across the entire crew,
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: which led to mass hysteria, and Rose Jasfensky's trying to
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: send out messages to say, no, there's no Japanese torpedo boats,
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: but it's too late, the other captains are panicking, and
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: they're ramming into each other and firing blindly into the wind.
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: From that point forward, every night, Rose.
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: Jasfensky would go up onto the bow of his ship,
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: and he would scream obscenities at Kamchatka. When the Baltic
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: fleet finally made it to Madagascar, the morale amongst the
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: crew was very low. And so when they docked in Madagascar,
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: the crew decided it would be a good idea to
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: boost their morale by buying some pets to bring back
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: on board the ship with them. And the pets they
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: decided to bring back were crocodiles and poisonous snakes. When
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: their handlers smuggled them back on board their ship, they
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: immediately escaped down into the bowels of the ship. When
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: they went looking for them, they couldn't find them because
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: the ships were in such bad shape. There were all
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: sorts of cracks and holes all over the interior for
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: these animals to escape to. And so the men just
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: had to accept there were very dangerous predators just living
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: on their ship with them. And so most men were
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: unable to sleep at night in fear of being attacked
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: by these animals. which led a number of them to
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: go for real insane. And so the Petz idea didn't
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: really boost morale amongst the Baltic fleet, and so one
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: of the officers decided he would take another crack at
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: boosting spirits. And so he went to a vendor in Madagascar,
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: and he purchased 2,000 of their finest cigarettes to bring
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: back on board. So he brings them back on board,
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: he hands them all out, and everyone's so thankful but
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: it turns out those cigarettes were laced with enormous amounts
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: of opium, which led to hundreds of the crew members
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: becoming hopelessly addicted to opium. Also in Madagascar, these sailors
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: picked up dozens of diseases, that began wiping them out
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: in droves.
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: During one funeral for a crew member.
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: The Kamchatka asked if they could fire a salute with
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: blank rounds. They were given permission, but they accidentally fired
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: live rounds into the ship right next to them. When
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: Rojaspensky and the rest of the Baltic fleet finally left Madagascar,
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: their only refrigerator on board one of their ships broke,
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: which spoiled all of their.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: Meat, tons and tons of meat.
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: And so they began throwing it overboard, which attracted hundreds
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: and hundreds of sharks which.
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: Circled their ships for the rest of their journey.
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: Rojasvensky desperately wanted to find a way to somehow train
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: the remainder of the Baltic fleet how to be somewhat
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: militarily competent, and so he decided he would make them
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: all do target practice because that had been a big
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: issue on this trip so far. And so he had
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: one ship attach a long line that was connected to
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: a target in the water, and that ship would pull
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: the target along, and the other ships would take shots
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: at the target. And so all of the ships on
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: Rojasvensky's call began firing at this target. And after thousands
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: and thousands of rounds, they didn't hit the target once. However,
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: they managed to continuously shoot the ship that was pulling
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: the target.
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: For Rojasvensky, this was the final straw. He felt like he.
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: Could do absolutely nothing to make the Baltic fleet an
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: actual military force. And so he sent a message back
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: to the Tsar and said, you've got to replace me.
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: I need to resign and somebody else needs to come
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: in and take over.
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: And the Tsar said, no, this is your fleet.
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: And so begrudgingly, Rojaspansky continued on leading the Baltic fleet
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: until they finally, after seven total months on the sea,
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: were within striking distance of their target in Japan. The
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: night before, as they prepared for their attack, they went
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: into stealth mode where all the ships killed all of
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: their lights. They're totally dark, with the exception of their
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: hospital ship. That kept their lights on. This was considered
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: a rule of war at the time, which both sides
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: abided by. And so while the Baltic fleet was sitting
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: out in the waters outside of Japan, a small fishing
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: boat began coming towards them. Now, the fishing boat could
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: only see the lit up hospital ship. They could not
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: see the 43 other darkened ships. And so a crew
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: member on board this hospital ship came up to the
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: railing and he recognized the fishing boat was actually a
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: Russian fishing boat. And so he waved them down. And
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: when the Russian fishermen came outside, the crew member told him,
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: you got to stop. Because there's 43 ships behind me
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: that have their lights off.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: Do not go this way. Go around.
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: And so the Russian fisherman thanked him and turned around
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: and went on his merry way.
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: Except that wasn't a Russian fisherman.
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: It was a Japanese sailor on board a Japanese torpedo boat.
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: And now they knew exactly where the Baltic Fleet was.
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: And so that night, the Japanese Navy completely surrounded the
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: Baltic Fleet. And then the next day, at daybreak, they
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: launched their attack. It was called the Battle of Tsushima,
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: and it was obscenely lopsided. The Japanese Navy completely wiped
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: out the Baltic Fleet, killing 4,000 of their crew members
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: and capturing 7,300 others, which included Roger Spensky, who had
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: been badly wounded in the battle, but he would survive.
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: In contrast, the Japanese only had 100 casualties. This victory
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: for Japan really marked the end of the war for Russia,
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: and shortly after the Battle of Tsushima, the Russians agreed
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: to surrender.
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: So that's going to do it, guys.
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: If you found the secret in today's episode, let us
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: know in the comments what it is and where you
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: found it. So give us the timestamp. And if you're
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: the first to do that, we will pin you at
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: the top of the comment section. If you enjoyed today's
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: video and you haven't done this already, please beg the
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: like button to let you have their secret chocolate chip
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: cookie recipe.
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: Tell them you won't share it with anyone.
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: And as soon as they do give it to you,
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: immediately post it on Facebook with the caption, here's my
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: chocolate chip cookie recipe. Also, please subscribe to our channel
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: and turn on all notifications so you don't miss any
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: of our weekly three or four video uploads. If you
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: want to get in touch with me, you can direct
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: message me on Instagram or on Twitter. My username for
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: both platforms is the same.
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: It's JohnBallin416.
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: I also have a ton of content over on TikTok.
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: Where my username is MrBallin.
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: I also have a second YouTube channel called MrBallinShorts where
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: I post random short videos as well as lost episodes.
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: If you have a story suggestion, please submit it to
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: our subreddit, just called Mr.
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: Ballin. It's linked in the description below.
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: So whether I see you on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Reddit, YouTube,
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: or some combination, just know that I really appreciate your support,
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: and until next time, that's going do it.
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: See ya.