Mad Dog Rozhestvensky
The Russian admiral Zinovy Petrovich Rozhestvensky (1848–1909) bears the stigma of the defeat at Tsushima, one of the greatest ever defeats in naval warfare, which resulted in the destruction of the entire Russian Second Pacific Squadron, and also of the Dogger Bank Incident, when Britain came close to abandoning its neutrality and going to war against Russia side by side with Japan. The nickname Mad Dog did his reputation no favours either, and as a result of all of this people forget how much courage, skill, and strength of spirit it took for the Russian admiral to take a mixed squadron of ships and untrained sailors and steam around three continent from Kronstadt to the Gulf of Korea into a battle that was already lost and strategically futile.
V. P. Kostyenko, a ship's engineer on the Oryol, described Rozhestvensky as an extremely hardworking man with a steely, penetrating gaze and hard, curt manner of speech. He was tall, sturdy and slim, and gave the impression of being a man who knows what he was getting into, what he wants to get, and won't change course even in the slightest.
The close cropped greying beard with curly moustache concealed tight lips, but the penetrating eyes confirmed the strength of will, the tendency towards sarcasm and impulsive anger. When he saw how badly the captains manoeuvred and the gunners fired, he threw one telescope after another into the sea from the bridge of the Knyaz Suvorov, until Captain Klapje de Kolongs, his chief of staff, started to run out of them on the voyage to Tsushima! He had the reputation of an incorruptible man, which was extremely rare in the navy, he struck fear into many, and he did not hesitate to raise his fists against sailors, although this was not unusual on Russian Ships.
