Battle of Tsushima (1905): Baltic Fleet enters the theatre

In daylight on the 27th Togo crossed the Russian T -- the manoeuvre English naval histories never tire of drawing. Russian battleships were wrecked by fire and then by night torpedo attacks. Thousands of Russian sailors died or drowned; Japanese dead numbered in the hundreds. The war's naval decision was a weekend; the Treaty of Portsmouth (September 1905) followed under US mediation.

For Korean geography this is a home-water battle: the strait is Korea's door. The political sequel -- Japanese protectorate over Korea (1905) and annexation (1910) -- is not a footnote to Togo's turn. English memory treats Tsushima as a "Trafalgar of the East" and as a rehearsal of 1905 modernity (radio, rangefinders). Pair it with Midway: two decisive days, two orders of the same sea.

A world cruise, a strait, and a protectorate Tsushima was a gunnery action that ended a European fleet and opened a Japanese imperial decade on the Korean peninsula. Libau to Madagascar to Cam Ranh: a fleet that arrived exhausted, fouled, and politically already damaged by shooting at British trawlers (Dogger Bank). Coaling was a global logistic epic.