Hypothetical 1904: Endymion vs the Russian Lone Ranger

[MengJiao]

  After the Dogger Bank incident in 1904, tensions were very high between Russia and Great Britain.  Beresford, contrary to his wayward historical reputation, was actually
a moderately thoughtful fellow (I looked into his autobiography) and he figured it was lucky he didn't have to sink the Russian fleet because it would have been simple murder.
  The Russians thought the same as they sat in Vigo trying to get coal.

   Among the ships that might have fought in an action off Vigo, there would have been Endymion a protected cruiser (ie a deep armored deck way down in the hull and no belt armor) and 3rd or 4th ship of that name, the first being the Frigate that mangled the USS President before the US frigate was captured during the War of 1812.  On the Russian side there would have been the Vladimir Monomakh, an early armored cruiser named for a 12th century ruler of Kiev who inherited the epithet "monomakh" from a Byzantine Emperor.  "Lone Ranger" seems to be a reasonable translation of the term.  Stations Manned and Ready (SMR) gives Endymion a belt armor rating since as far as I know, no wargames have figured out what to do about protected cruisers since their armor is rather specialized and yet probably reasonably effective as far as anyone knows.

Beresford himself would have been in Ceasar, one of the final two Majestics that had the first classic pre-dreadnought "gunshields" (ie the turret as re-evolved from the barbette) and a modern ammunition and loading system with flash protection and the fully perfected 12-inch guns of the classic Pre-dreadnoughts and early dreadnoughts.

Were Beresford and the Russian right?  Would it have been a pure massacre?

[MengJiao]

 
Were Beresford and the Russian right?  Would it have been a pure massacre?

   Well maybe so...about 20 minutes into the battle, Ceasar and Jupiter both hit Orel at the insane range (for 1904, but the Royal Navy has range finders and even a primitive analog computer for fire control) of 12,000 yds inflicting a mess of critical damage.  The armor keeps the main guns and magazines intact, but there are fires and flotation problems in the Russian flagship and the battle is only beginning -- and the Russian guns are not even in range yet.  Oleg did score the first hit of the battle, but the cruiser's 6-inch guns didn't do much damage to Ceasar

[Sir Slash]

Interesting. Please continue.

[MengJiao]

Interesting. Please continue.

  Alas!  Nothing much happened.  Usually, even when one side outshoots the other (which did happen in this simulation), most of the overwhelmed fleet still can escape ( as at Dogger Bank in 1915 and Ulsan in 1904), though the slowest and most ancient of the overwhelmed usually doesn't get away.  In this case, Vladimir Monomakh got shot to bits after taking an engine hit and falling behind, but the rest of the Russian Fleet escaped.
Of course at Vigo in 1904, the Russians faced a lot more battleships...still a massacre seems to be an exaggerated likely outcome for the Russians...more likely scattered and quite a few escaping.

   Also, Beresford says he would have closed to 4000 yds, which would have made things more tumultious for both sides -- fewer escapes, but more loses even for the winner.  I, in Beresford's place, tried to maximize the long-range superiority of the later Majestics, but this let most of the Russians get away.