Sevastopol was actually the last of three ships in the Petropavlovsk class of pre-dreadnought battleships constructed for the Imperial Russian Navy in the 1890s. Named concerning the siege of Sevastopol during the Crimean War, the ship was actually commissioned in to the First Pacific Squadron of the Russian Pacific Fleet and was positioned at Port Arthur, a Russian naval base obtained from China in 1898 as part of the Kwantung Leased Territory. I was one of the first ships to use Harvey nickel-steel armor and Popov radios, she had given 11,854 long tons (12,044 t) at full load and was 369 feet (112.5 m) long overall, and mounted a main battery of four 12-inch (305 mm) guns in two twin turrets. She was laid down in May 1892, launched on 1 June 1895 and completed in 1899. Her sea challenges continued until 1900.


Sevastopol saw service in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05. Just a little weakened during a surprise attack on Port Arthur in early February, the ship later took part in in a number of attempts to break out from the enclosed port. The most significant of these was the Battle of the Yellow Sea, where she was broken by several shells but handled to make it back to port with the remains of the Russian Fleet, leaving behind one crewman dead and 62 wounded. Instantly following the surrender of Port Arthur, Sevastopol was actually scuttled to avoid her capture by the Imperial Japanese Navy. The Japanese do not ever raised her. The remains of the battle ship still rest outside of the entrance to Port Arthur.

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