One thing Blue Jay left out: before they set sail, one of the battleships sank at its moorings because a port worker removed one of the hull panels and then left for the night without replacing it. You know, the kind of hull panel that KEEPS THE WATER OUT OF THE SHIP.
There was also a period when the fleet had no one commanding it, because the Admiral was out of commission after having a nervous break down because of all this Gobshite and his second in command just DIED from a stroke, so for several days, NO ONE was in charge of this mess.
@@weldonwin Or the part, where they were hiding from their own reinforcements, because the admiral knew that things would just get worse, if they joined the fleet.
@@harry68784 Or the officer who bought about 2000 cigarettes in Madagascar that turned out to contain heroine and which "Mysteriously Vanished" soon after
this story in particular is amazing and Drachnifel has a much longer and more in-depth historical account of it, but also bluejay is awesome and finds great stuff to make jokes about. all his stuff is great and it only gets better with time, this was actually one of his earlier videos
BTW The Vice-Admiral of that debacle, Zinovy Rozhestvensky, the only guy who is shown an ounce of competence, hated his Baltic fleet so much, that not only did throw binoculars into the ocean, not only did he address ships by provocative nicknames based on their competency instead of their actual names, but he even begged the Tsar for him to leave command of the fleet. The Tsar, not willing to lose his ONLY competent Admiral, said no.
Idk if this story is actually true, but apparently during his capture Rozhestvensky thanked the Japanese commander when he found out the ship he hated the most was destroyed.
He tried to hide from the 3rd pacific fleet which was somehow more problematic than his own fleet. They were mainly made up of the ‘sink them selves squadron’
Fun fact, the Snake survived, and was adopted by the Emperor after the battle. Apparently it didn’t care how it got smashed, easily switching from vodka to sake
@@RodolfoRamos-cd6zh He actually had to fire at his own ships sometimes to get them to stop disobeying his orders. All the other captains were morons who thought they knew better.
Recommendation for Drachnifel's video on "The Battle of Samar"... Also, the "Voyage of the Damned" as it is sometimes called had even more gross stupidity. BlueJay glosses over the stay in Madagascar but that was while the Captain was deathly ill and well... the crew of the ships managed to pick every STI known to man at the time at the local brothels. Also, the Protected/Light Cruiser Avrora was involved. Addendum: The fear of being ambushed by the Japanese in Europe was not entirely unfounded (just very much not a great possibility) as the United Kingdom was building ships of all types for Japan at this time. 11:45 > This captures the entirety of this affair. "...and then it got worse."
Re: the fear of torpedo boats being justified. It wasn't entirely unfounded... but it was still founded on outdated intelligence. By the time of the Russo-Japanese War, Japan's rapidly developing shipbuilding industry was pretty much finished with ordering small ships from European shipbuilding companies, because it could build those in Japan already. There was a battleship that was only just laid down in Britain shortly before the war, which wouldn't be finished by the time the war ended, and I vaguely recall reading about two cruisers being built in France, and that was about it for foreign construction of Japanese warship during the Russo-Japanese War.
The japanese Vessel saw the russian fleet and simply joined the convoy before contacting them. After they got information the Vessel just f* off and contacted their base. It's amazing.
The Russian/Soviet navy is such a catastrophe that they managed to lose their entire Pacific fleet high command, save one vice-admiral, in a _plane crash_ because they took command of the plane and ignored safety rules.
@@GM-xk1nw I don't know, The Black Sea fleet is getting obliterated as we speak. The russian navy cannot escape a legacy of doom. If I were Russian, you couldn't pay me to step foot on a boat.
@@bplup6419 thanks for letting us know that you don't know. What I know is that Black Sea is small enough for drones and ballistic missiles to be able to reach anywhere from one shore to another, making it pretty much impossible to find a safe place for docking.
@@MrLuzakman Because Russia can not protect itself against Drones and Missiles. Look up LazerPig's video on the Moskova and why it sank. Two missiles, just two. A ship designed to obliterate anti ship missiles. Mind you it was sunk while at sea not in port
I'm genuinely surprised that Admiral Rozy got them to where they did, their reinforcements of ironclads and coastal defence ships were called the "sink by themselves squadron" and somehow he got them all into battle, surprisingly despite how much failure there was here he was the most competent admiral alive and actually showed genuine bravery and did really try with what was considered woefully outdated and incompetent officers and crew. To show how far behind the Russian navy was at this point the Baltic Fleet was shadowed by the british home fleet which itself outnumbered the entire russian navy let alone just the baltic fleet and the british admiral thought of only using 4 of his modern battleships in case they had to fight to make it fair lol.
@YukoValis kinda sadly yes. He did what he was ordered to do to the best of his impressive abilities, but it might have been better in the end if he didn't.
@@Pylo-ry6ff He did make some dumb choices though. Like taking on double coal meant having to place it in gunnery and station areas. With the coal dust covering everything was just ready to explode. Not to mention the humid air and coal dust = choking deaths.
@riverroth3688 the reason that carrier is so shit is because they stole it from the Ukrainians after the collapse of the Soviet Union, with no facilities to properly care for it, so it just runs continuously in port... Also Russia's flagship of the Baltic fleet, the Moskva, was sunk by Ukrainian cruise missiles because it couldn't operate the radio and the radar to detect incoming missiles at the same time...
If you want the more detailed dry British wit version, Drachfinel is great. As is his video on the mark 14 torpedo's many faults. As for bluejay, The Worst Radioactive Ideas will give you some things to jaw drop over. And if you want a different kind of fail fest, Extra History' First crusade series is glorious.
10:36 the parrot said "Vragi prikhodyat iz vostoka!" which if I remember my Russian correctly (I'm a little rusty, sorry) means "enemies are coming from the east!"
The other thing he left out while the Dogger Bank Incident (Russian shooting Fishermen) happened the British Admiral of the Home Fleet proposed revenge on the russians but he would only use 4 of his Battleships as that would be more than enough for the whole russian Fleet.
Had there been a capable officer corps and well trained sailors, it might have been doable, though still quite hard. With this band of idiots, the Japanese would have had to have all been blind drunk on coal dusted sake for a Russian victory.
Reminds me of a funny note from a US navy friend. They will occasionally do man overboard drills by tossing a dummy overboard. They then measure the time till someone notices. The first person to see it fires a flare, and the ship turns to investigate. Well, as they were approaching, someone noticed the flare didn't look normal. It was blacker. They had actually hit the dummy with the flare. Now that's marksmanship! ;-)
"Like US presidents and convertibles, not everything can be a match made in heaven" That gets me every time. One of the best one-liners from a youtube content creator.
While this is the tale of the 2nd baltic fleet, it is also the tale of the 3rd baltic fleet. Halfway through the voyage both fleets combined since they caught up because they were able to use the canal. What was the 3rd baltic fleet made of? All the ships that were rejected for the 2nd fleet. In fact most of those were half sinking transport ships with guns glued to them.
The scary thing is about the only competent person in the entire fleet was the anger management admiral. And in typical Russian fashion, he was the one to take blame for all of this...
5:44 You think that's trauma? I once heard someone's phone make the Cloaker sound effect from Payday 2 and actually turned to look while my feet started backpeddling me away, exactly like I do in the game. I started playing a game IRL because of a sound I heard.
Thing is, even if this fleet was the most well trained, elite sailors known to man, the fleet was doomed already. Because the japanese fleet outnumbered them, by like, 4 to 1. The admiral knew this and protested against sending his fleet here, but was overruled.
In smaller vessels yes, but Russia had more capital ships. Though Japan had two modern battleships, it’s much closer on paper than how it actually went down. Russia’s navy, and well, their military overall was severely mismanaged, undisciplined, and incompetent at so many levels.
His brief coverage of the voyage of the damned is funny, but you have to find a more in depth telling of this story. It is absolute gold. So much that truly makes this story amazing is glossed over. Favorite part being the guy in charge was actually halfway competent took one look at his subordinates and went nah, pass. Then got voluntold he had to do it. Trued to quit several times, and told no.
I know of 1 singular story of the Russian Navy actually being a major winner in a capacity that effected the strategic outcome in their favor. All the way back during Catherine the Great's reign when she sent the Russian Navy out from the Baltic, around Europe, into the Mediterranean, and then into the Black Sea to ambush Ottoman fleets who thought themselves safe. I believe they also smacked the Ottomans around pretty well in the Crimean War, but then got bottled up by the British. Aside form that, it is mess after mess. Corruption, incompetence, desperation to seem as strong as ever after losing crucial industry, the party line being more important than the reality of the situation, etc.
You're kinda ignoring every Russo-Ottoman war from then until Bri'ish and French got upset that Ottomans are getting thrashed too hard and triple-teamed RI at the Crimean war. There were also some other minor stuff here and there, but yes, outside of 18th and the first half of 19th centuries russian navy wasn't doing great.
I'm late to this video but a few points: The peasant crew had no idea how far away Japan was nor how long it takes to get there. The route he showed here is incorrect, most of the fleet sailed around Africa first. The British already hated Russia so when the Humber fishing fleet got shot up it nearly started another war. (My home city still has a museum with the shelled smokestack of one of the trawlers.)
The admiral in charge was actually fairly competent and a rarity as he earned his rank and wasn't corrupt, bluejay oversimplified and cut alot of important details.
The Kamchatka… we don’t talk about the Kamchatka…ever. After being picked up after the battle, the Admiral asked if the Kamchatka survived when told it gone down in the battle, he cried tears of joy. It had caused so many issues across this voyage. The level of incompetence shown by this fleet makes me want to go out and hit my head against a brick wall, multiple times. This is a modern power in Europe. They’re not supposed to lose against Island nations of that size. Sorry I gotta go get a drink. Just thinking about this fleet makes me want to go forget I learned this by drinking. Now, where did I put the brain bleach?
Yes! These war stories are great in that they are so ridiculous that you would think that they are made up. But the fact that they are real makes it even better. If Alicia was down for it, she should totally react to Mike burn fire and Zach hazard's campfire stories from the military.
The Russian fleet today is not really better one of their ships sunk through a fire and the electronics where so badly in disrepair, that they couldn't tell if it was caused by an accident or a enemy rocket.
IF you enjoyed the video so much, Drachinifel made a 2 part 1h long video each of the entire debacle. So many more details, so many more facepalms, all sprinkled with sarcasm of the finest order. You might want to consider watching those by yourself. The first video is all about how the fleet got to the battle, and the second video is of the battle itself and the aftermath. Also, you will love BlueJay for his content and style of humor. Search more of his vids
Can someone please recommend her Drachinifel's version of this as well? That would be very amazing, that it explains way more of why things happened the way it did 😂 Voyage of the damned, is very fitting
If you haven't seen his other stuff, then I can recommend specifically his "worst olympics ever" vid, can't remember the name, but if you look for olympics in his channel you'll find it. I have seen it many times and I still bust up over it every time.
So if she's looking for stupidity should she watch Oversimplified's Pig War or the War of the Bucket?? i think she should try out Oversimplified's stuff.
If you think that was dumb, you should check out the USS William D. Porter, in the video "US Navy's Unluckiest Ship With An Untouchable Crew - USS William D. Porter" by The Fat Electrician.
If you like this I would recommend oversimplified, especially their episode on the "war of the pigs" video. They cover all shorts of wacky episodes in history with great animations.
Well it's been over 100 years and the Russian navy has learned from its mistakes. I mean, it not like they are currently losing navy ships to a country that has no Navy or anything like that .. 🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦 Another fun fact, after the Dogger Bank incident and the Royal Navy home fleet responded, the British Admiral said he would engage the Russian fleet with only 5 of his vessels just the give them a chance 😂
Two things please...I hope you're doing well Alicia! You're amazing and I hope everything went as amazingly. Second, could we maybe get another Fat Election video? Your reaction to one of his videos is actually how I found your channel 😅
If you want another ridiculous naval incident look up the battle of may island by Fredrick Knudsen and also the K class subarmine. They lead to the same thing.
You should watch more blue jay stuff. Guy is basically a spiritual successor to salmonella academy but has his own spin on things instead of just copying sam. Also if you want more military animal shenanigans i reccomend you watch some video about wojtek, polish artillery bear from ww2 (im fully serious). I think fat electrician has a decent one.
While this voyage is probably the worst incident the Russian navy has suffered due to its own incompetence it's far from the only one. The Channel "History of Everything" has a whole series (up to part 6 now) called "The Russian Navy Sucks" and the video about the voyage of the Baltic fleet is just part one. Turns out they kept the same level of competence through the whole Soviet era.
The channel History of Everything made a good video on this voyage too, called The Russian Navy Sucks Part 1. Goes more into historical detail, and I love me some Deets™
Yeah, let’s be honest whole Russo-Japan war was a big fuck-up from our side XD. But I must say, there is also many funny histories that happen in Russia, without shit like this.
Такие истории есть у всех стран будем честны. Все мы грешны когда у страны есть какая-либо история которая на словах это полный бред, а на деле это чуть не ли трагикомедия.
Oh I love Blue Jay! He's great! Also more Tex Talk Battletech please! Do both Urbanmech videos! One is short and kinda a joke, the other is more serious in tone. Good times!
Oh, let's do one better: the Kingdom Of Madness vid. Nice, short, Urbanmech, and Tex on a tear in MWO lobbies for 10 minutes of the greatest comms in history.
As a Russian, I can say with certainty that we had a real fleet only during the reign of Emperor Peter the Great, and after the formation of the USSR. After the collapse of the USSR, things went bad, but now everything is stable.
One thing Blue Jay left out: before they set sail, one of the battleships sank at its moorings because a port worker removed one of the hull panels and then left for the night without replacing it. You know, the kind of hull panel that KEEPS THE WATER OUT OF THE SHIP.
Russia pretty much simulated the mongols in being incompetent af in the ocean XD
There was also a period when the fleet had no one commanding it, because the Admiral was out of commission after having a nervous break down because of all this Gobshite and his second in command just DIED from a stroke, so for several days, NO ONE was in charge of this mess.
@@weldonwin Or the part, where they were hiding from their own reinforcements, because the admiral knew that things would just get worse, if they joined the fleet.
@@harry68784 Or the officer who bought about 2000 cigarettes in Madagascar that turned out to contain heroine and which "Mysteriously Vanished" soon after
This whole voyage was doomed from the start.
this story in particular is amazing and Drachnifel has a much longer and more in-depth historical account of it, but also bluejay is awesome and finds great stuff to make jokes about. all his stuff is great and it only gets better with time, this was actually one of his earlier videos
Do you see torpedo boats?
@@jordanpeterson5140 who let the kamchatka back into the formation
@@Android_ELITE Kamchatka does as Kamchatka pleases, you know that
@@Android_ELITEthe Kamchatka was the best ship the Japanese fielded
Yes. I would love to see a reaction to Drachinifel's version. So much stuff happened on this voyage.
BTW The Vice-Admiral of that debacle, Zinovy Rozhestvensky, the only guy who is shown an ounce of competence, hated his Baltic fleet so much, that not only did throw binoculars into the ocean, not only did he address ships by provocative nicknames based on their competency instead of their actual names, but he even begged the Tsar for him to leave command of the fleet. The Tsar, not willing to lose his ONLY competent Admiral, said no.
He wrote a letter of resignation midway through the voyage. It was rejected.
Idk if this story is actually true, but apparently during his capture Rozhestvensky thanked the Japanese commander when he found out the ship he hated the most was destroyed.
@@richardball5843 Yeah the Kamchatka, It did happen. Which is fucking hilarious.
He tried to hide from the 3rd pacific fleet which was somehow more problematic than his own fleet. They were mainly made up of the ‘sink them selves squadron’
Fun fact, the Snake survived, and was adopted by the Emperor after the battle. Apparently it didn’t care how it got smashed, easily switching from vodka to sake
That's both hilarious and wholesome in a weird sort of way.
Wait, which emperor?
@@littlevirus3562 the Japanese one
@@ntfoperative9432 ok, good, because let's be honest here, if it was the Russian one, it would have been killed by the soviets
If you are wondering the parrot didn’t survive one Russian winter. It’s stuffed in the Moscow naval museum.
Ironically the angry man was the only competent guy in the fleet which is scary.
No wonder he was so angry all the time, to the point that he needed a supply of binoculars because he kept throwing them at other ships.
@@RodolfoRamos-cd6zh He actually had to fire at his own ships sometimes to get them to stop disobeying his orders. All the other captains were morons who thought they knew better.
Don't forget the Chief Engineering Officer - he did great work just keeping all of these "ships" afloat.
I mean, if I was the only competent person to be found in the area, I'm pretty sure I'd be constantly angry too.
i'd be pissed too, my life is on the line of these INCOMPETENT idiots.
Recommendation for Drachnifel's video on "The Battle of Samar"...
Also, the "Voyage of the Damned" as it is sometimes called had even more gross stupidity. BlueJay glosses over the stay in Madagascar but that was while the Captain was deathly ill and well... the crew of the ships managed to pick every STI known to man at the time at the local brothels.
Also, the Protected/Light Cruiser Avrora was involved.
Addendum: The fear of being ambushed by the Japanese in Europe was not entirely unfounded (just very much not a great possibility) as the United Kingdom was building ships of all types for Japan at this time.
11:45 > This captures the entirety of this affair. "...and then it got worse."
Wait drachinifel covered this?!
@@Rendievalyes he did
I second both of these recommendations.
The story of Taffy 3 and their massive titanium balls must be told
Re: the fear of torpedo boats being justified. It wasn't entirely unfounded... but it was still founded on outdated intelligence. By the time of the Russo-Japanese War, Japan's rapidly developing shipbuilding industry was pretty much finished with ordering small ships from European shipbuilding companies, because it could build those in Japan already. There was a battleship that was only just laid down in Britain shortly before the war, which wouldn't be finished by the time the war ended, and I vaguely recall reading about two cruisers being built in France, and that was about it for foreign construction of Japanese warship during the Russo-Japanese War.
There was also the officer who brought about 2000 cigarettes aboard his ship, that turned out to contain Heroine and which "Mysteriously disappeared"
The japanese Vessel saw the russian fleet and simply joined the convoy before contacting them. After they got information the Vessel just f* off and contacted their base. It's amazing.
I shall honor my shinobi ancestors!
XD
Actual ninja doctrine practiced and carried out by AN ENTIRE FUCKING SEVERAL TON SHIP.
The Russian/Soviet navy is such a catastrophe that they managed to lose their entire Pacific fleet high command, save one vice-admiral, in a _plane crash_ because they took command of the plane and ignored safety rules.
one general stupidity doesn't equal the entire navy of two countries.
@@GM-xk1nwOk, vatnik
@@GM-xk1nw I don't know, The Black Sea fleet is getting obliterated as we speak. The russian navy cannot escape a legacy of doom. If I were Russian, you couldn't pay me to step foot on a boat.
@@bplup6419 thanks for letting us know that you don't know. What I know is that Black Sea is small enough for drones and ballistic missiles to be able to reach anywhere from one shore to another, making it pretty much impossible to find a safe place for docking.
@@MrLuzakman Because Russia can not protect itself against Drones and Missiles.
Look up LazerPig's video on the Moskova and why it sank. Two missiles, just two. A ship designed to obliterate anti ship missiles. Mind you it was sunk while at sea not in port
He even left out the religious cult they formed on madagascar.
I'm genuinely surprised that Admiral Rozy got them to where they did, their reinforcements of ironclads and coastal defence ships were called the "sink by themselves squadron" and somehow he got them all into battle, surprisingly despite how much failure there was here he was the most competent admiral alive and actually showed genuine bravery and did really try with what was considered woefully outdated and incompetent officers and crew.
To show how far behind the Russian navy was at this point the Baltic Fleet was shadowed by the british home fleet which itself outnumbered the entire russian navy let alone just the baltic fleet and the british admiral thought of only using 4 of his modern battleships in case they had to fight to make it fair lol.
The way I view it he got them all to climb a wall before falling right off the other side.
@YukoValis kinda sadly yes. He did what he was ordered to do to the best of his impressive abilities, but it might have been better in the end if he didn't.
@@Pylo-ry6ff He did make some dumb choices though. Like taking on double coal meant having to place it in gunnery and station areas. With the coal dust covering everything was just ready to explode. Not to mention the humid air and coal dust = choking deaths.
@@YukoValis Didn't really have an alternative, given the whole incident with the British resulted in a number of ports suddenly being closed off.
You're not the Marines. You're the entire circus.
The sad part this only half of what happen on the voyage of the damned, and it get's much worse.
Drachfinel take on this story is 48 minuts long and even that isn't the half of it, so this one is nothing more than a quick recap.
during samonella's hiatus, bluejay was absolutely a great way to get a similar content! gotta watch more of him!
There is a reason why Russian Navy is not known for its competency.
Considering they sit just below the Mongolian Navy, I'm pretty impressed with them
fortunately for everyone else, not much has changed
Consider, their one aircraft carrier does not ever leave port, and has caught fire I believe 3 times now at anchor.
@riverroth3688 the reason that carrier is so shit is because they stole it from the Ukrainians after the collapse of the Soviet Union, with no facilities to properly care for it, so it just runs continuously in port...
Also Russia's flagship of the Baltic fleet, the Moskva, was sunk by Ukrainian cruise missiles because it couldn't operate the radio and the radar to detect incoming missiles at the same time...
Dude, there is a reason why ships in 1900s were all shit and have bad aim. Nobody cares.
If you want the more detailed dry British wit version, Drachfinel is great. As is his video on the mark 14 torpedo's many faults.
As for bluejay, The Worst Radioactive Ideas will give you some things to jaw drop over.
And if you want a different kind of fail fest, Extra History' First crusade series is glorious.
10:36 the parrot said "Vragi prikhodyat iz vostoka!" which if I remember my Russian correctly (I'm a little rusty, sorry) means "enemies are coming from the east!"
The other thing he left out while the Dogger Bank Incident (Russian shooting Fishermen) happened the British Admiral of the Home Fleet proposed revenge on the russians but he would only use 4 of his Battleships as that would be more than enough for the whole russian Fleet.
Given that they somehow tied with an unarmed stationary neutral civilian fleet even that would be overkill.
The worst part of this was that the idea of this voyage had to get several green lights by Russian officials before it could happen
Had there been a capable officer corps and well trained sailors, it might have been doable, though still quite hard. With this band of idiots, the Japanese would have had to have all been blind drunk on coal dusted sake for a Russian victory.
Nah, the worst part is how the czar reacted to the news of their defeat.
Late Russian Empire's incompetent leadership is very much a meme even in Russia.
6:30 Fun fact: The fishing bot's captain reportedly had no idea they were being fired at.
The mental image of a parrot screaming "Cyka, Blyat!" makes me chuckle.
Reminds me of a funny note from a US navy friend. They will occasionally do man overboard drills by tossing a dummy overboard. They then measure the time till someone notices. The first person to see it fires a flare, and the ship turns to investigate. Well, as they were approaching, someone noticed the flare didn't look normal. It was blacker. They had actually hit the dummy with the flare. Now that's marksmanship! ;-)
"Like US presidents and convertibles, not everything can be a match made in heaven"
That gets me every time. One of the best one-liners from a youtube content creator.
Summon the Kamchatka and bring me my binoculars, oh also my parrot that hath learned every swear word in russian
After watching this and Drachneifels videos on this I legit flinch whenever I hear the word Kamchatka now.
@@buddyburroughs6072 Best ship the Imperial Japanese navy had.
The one universal constant: everyone has that one or more people so stupid it's cartoonish.
The Russian navy is currently losing boats to a country that doesn't have any.
Some things never change.
My favourite quote from world of warships is "Torpedos dead ahead ignore them, bring us closer"
Bluejay has got to be one of my favorite history TH-camrs.
So happy to see Bluejay on here. Hopefully we will get to see more of his work.
While this is the tale of the 2nd baltic fleet, it is also the tale of the 3rd baltic fleet. Halfway through the voyage both fleets combined since they caught up because they were able to use the canal. What was the 3rd baltic fleet made of? All the ships that were rejected for the 2nd fleet. In fact most of those were half sinking transport ships with guns glued to them.
Gotta love that the British empire chose vicious mockery over war when the details of dogger bank became well known. 🤣
It's like God was telling them this was a bad idea, even from the start, and they kept ignoring and going on anyways.
And eventually, thier god abandoned them
@@Yuki_Ika7 No. They didn't listen to Him.
For a second there Alicia sounded like the boss from smiling friends. " lookit mah fish. " 😅
The scary thing is about the only competent person in the entire fleet was the anger management admiral. And in typical Russian fashion, he was the one to take blame for all of this...
5:44 You think that's trauma? I once heard someone's phone make the Cloaker sound effect from Payday 2 and actually turned to look while my feet started backpeddling me away, exactly like I do in the game. I started playing a game IRL because of a sound I heard.
This story is so legendary that even mentioning it to someone who knows about it. Makes them laughing in some way shape or form.
Someone needs to make this story into a satirical movie.
"Knock it off! You're scaring the fish!" lol
Thing is, even if this fleet was the most well trained, elite sailors known to man, the fleet was doomed already. Because the japanese fleet outnumbered them, by like, 4 to 1.
The admiral knew this and protested against sending his fleet here, but was overruled.
In smaller vessels yes, but Russia had more capital ships. Though Japan had two modern battleships, it’s much closer on paper than how it actually went down. Russia’s navy, and well, their military overall was severely mismanaged, undisciplined, and incompetent at so many levels.
Holly hell, they can make a documentary about this voyage, on the same level of funny as scary movies.
His brief coverage of the voyage of the damned is funny, but you have to find a more in depth telling of this story. It is absolute gold.
So much that truly makes this story amazing is glossed over. Favorite part being the guy in charge was actually halfway competent took one look at his subordinates and went nah, pass. Then got voluntold he had to do it. Trued to quit several times, and told no.
I know of 1 singular story of the Russian Navy actually being a major winner in a capacity that effected the strategic outcome in their favor. All the way back during Catherine the Great's reign when she sent the Russian Navy out from the Baltic, around Europe, into the Mediterranean, and then into the Black Sea to ambush Ottoman fleets who thought themselves safe. I believe they also smacked the Ottomans around pretty well in the Crimean War, but then got bottled up by the British.
Aside form that, it is mess after mess. Corruption, incompetence, desperation to seem as strong as ever after losing crucial industry, the party line being more important than the reality of the situation, etc.
You're kinda ignoring every Russo-Ottoman war from then until Bri'ish and French got upset that Ottomans are getting thrashed too hard and triple-teamed RI at the Crimean war. There were also some other minor stuff here and there, but yes, outside of 18th and the first half of 19th centuries russian navy wasn't doing great.
"OK comrades, you need to lead the target....NOT THAT MUCH LEAD!"
I'm late to this video but a few points:
The peasant crew had no idea how far away Japan was nor how long it takes to get there.
The route he showed here is incorrect, most of the fleet sailed around Africa first.
The British already hated Russia so when the Humber fishing fleet got shot up it nearly started another war. (My home city still has a museum with the shelled smokestack of one of the trawlers.)
The entire time was a what in the hell is even happening moment for me. You got to be a special kind of incompetent for that fleet man...
This is also the abridged version: the real thing was somehow even dumber than this.
Alicia was the radio operator on Kamchatka = Confirmed
yay i suggested this video in a stream a while back im happy she got to see it ^^
Oh hey, I remember Lion Led by Donkeys doing an episode on that voyage.
Fun fact, Bluejay gets more psychotic as time goes on. It is both hilarious and terrifying at the same time.
The Santa Anna video this guy made is incredible.
The admiral in charge was actually fairly competent and a rarity as he earned his rank and wasn't corrupt, bluejay oversimplified and cut alot of important details.
Blue Jays videos are definitely worth a watch. My favorite video of his is the dumbest war nobody talks about
"You see Igor, Japanese PT boat cannot sink ship if we sink it ourselves!"
The Kamchatka… we don’t talk about the Kamchatka…ever.
After being picked up after the battle, the Admiral asked if the Kamchatka survived when told it gone down in the battle, he cried tears of joy. It had caused so many issues across this voyage.
The level of incompetence shown by this fleet makes me want to go out and hit my head against a brick wall, multiple times. This is a modern power in Europe. They’re not supposed to lose against Island nations of that size.
Sorry I gotta go get a drink. Just thinking about this fleet makes me want to go forget I learned this by drinking.
Now, where did I put the brain bleach?
>How do you mess that up?
By being ruled by an Austrian dynasty?
This is the same precedent for why we don't leave Alicia in charge of boats
Ahh, the fleet that lost a few sailors to their pet Nile crocodile. Not even exaggerating it a bit.
The Russian admiral was actually competent.
Which is why he was angry all the time
Can I get odds on the,bet that this is where Lucas,got the idea for storm troopers?
The fleet oiler Kamchatka - the only ship in history the sinking of which was cheered by its own navy.
Fleet repair ship actually.
Yes, that thing was the repair ship….
Alicia learning about fun history!
He left out while they were at Madagascar they contracted every std known to mankind.
Definitely recommend more bluejay videos, his content is great, not a specific video or anything, his content is all worth reaching to honestly.
Gumball is now my favourite measurement of distance or any kind of measurement
Bluejay's videos are hilarious. Can't wait to see more reactions to his videos.
Torpedo boats. Torpedo boats everywhere. And Drachinifal made a long, interesting video on this voyage of the damned.
Everyone else: Why not just build boats on land you own by the sea near the place you want?
Russia: NYET OUR WAY OR HIGHWAY
Oh they did have a Pacific fleet, it just wasn't floating anymore by the time the Baltic fleet arrived.
Please let BlueJay reactions become a staple of this channel xD
Yes! These war stories are great in that they are so ridiculous that you would think that they are made up. But the fact that they are real makes it even better. If Alicia was down for it, she should totally react to Mike burn fire and Zach hazard's campfire stories from the military.
Crossover from Battletech: this voyage in the Russian Navy is akin to what you get from a typical Lyran Commonwealth (aka House Steiner) campaign.
Blue Jay does a decent job of covering this historical voyage but Drachinifel’s video on it is by far the superior video on the matter.
The Russian fleet today is not really better one of their ships sunk through a fire and the electronics where so badly in disrepair, that they couldn't tell if it was caused by an accident or a enemy rocket.
Sunk by a country with no navy lmao
Those guys just kept rolling nat 1. 😁
IF you enjoyed the video so much, Drachinifel made a 2 part 1h long video each of the entire debacle. So many more details, so many more facepalms, all sprinkled with sarcasm of the finest order. You might want to consider watching those by yourself. The first video is all about how the fleet got to the battle, and the second video is of the battle itself and the aftermath.
Also, you will love BlueJay for his content and style of humor. Search more of his vids
BlueJay is an amazing channel! Infotainment done right!
I hope you'll be reacting to more of his content!
oh boy, some insane flabergastery is about to be underway!
Can someone please recommend her Drachinifel's version of this as well? That would be very amazing, that it explains way more of why things happened the way it did 😂 Voyage of the damned, is very fitting
Gotta watch Lazerpig's video on the Moskava and see that the tradition of the Russian navy being shit still is alive today
If you haven't seen his other stuff, then I can recommend specifically his "worst olympics ever" vid, can't remember the name, but if you look for olympics in his channel you'll find it. I have seen it many times and I still bust up over it every time.
I would have loved to see a battle between the Russian Baltic Fleet and the USS Willie D. Porter. That would have been so funny if it ever happened.
Porter stomps: only two of her mishaps (one of which was the torpedo friendly fire incident) actually happened.
So if she's looking for stupidity should she watch Oversimplified's Pig War or the War of the Bucket?? i think she should try out Oversimplified's stuff.
If you think that was dumb, you should check out the USS William D. Porter, in the video "US Navy's Unluckiest Ship With An Untouchable Crew - USS William D. Porter" by The Fat Electrician.
If you like this I would recommend oversimplified, especially their episode on the "war of the pigs" video. They cover all shorts of wacky episodes in history with great animations.
Well it's been over 100 years and the Russian navy has learned from its mistakes.
I mean, it not like they are currently losing navy ships to a country that has no Navy or anything like that .. 🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦
Another fun fact, after the Dogger Bank incident and the Royal Navy home fleet responded, the British Admiral said he would engage the Russian fleet with only 5 of his vessels just the give them a chance 😂
Two things please...I hope you're doing well Alicia! You're amazing and I hope everything went as amazingly. Second, could we maybe get another Fat Election video? Your reaction to one of his videos is actually how I found your channel 😅
If you want another ridiculous naval incident look up the battle of may island by Fredrick Knudsen and also the K class subarmine. They lead to the same thing.
The sad thing, it's still happening today.
Lazerpig.
You should watch more blue jay stuff. Guy is basically a spiritual successor to salmonella academy but has his own spin on things instead of just copying sam.
Also if you want more military animal shenanigans i reccomend you watch some video about wojtek, polish artillery bear from ww2 (im fully serious). I think fat electrician has a decent one.
While this voyage is probably the worst incident the Russian navy has suffered due to its own incompetence it's far from the only one.
The Channel "History of Everything" has a whole series (up to part 6 now) called "The Russian Navy Sucks" and the video about the voyage of the Baltic fleet is just part one. Turns out they kept the same level of competence through the whole Soviet era.
The channel History of Everything made a good video on this voyage too, called The Russian Navy Sucks Part 1.
Goes more into historical detail, and I love me some Deets™
Yeah, let’s be honest whole Russo-Japan war was a big fuck-up from our side XD.
But I must say, there is also many funny histories that happen in Russia, without shit like this.
Такие истории есть у всех стран будем честны. Все мы грешны когда у страны есть какая-либо история которая на словах это полный бред, а на деле это чуть не ли трагикомедия.
Yeah the Soviet/Ruzzian navy is well known to be pretty rubbish in general, be it incompetence, poor maintenance, disasters, etc.
never know when you will see Japanese torpedo boats in Denmark
Oh I love Blue Jay! He's great!
Also more Tex Talk Battletech please! Do both Urbanmech videos! One is short and kinda a joke, the other is more serious in tone. Good times!
Oh, let's do one better: the Kingdom Of Madness vid. Nice, short, Urbanmech, and Tex on a tear in MWO lobbies for 10 minutes of the greatest comms in history.
If you enjoy hearing about how bad the Russian Navy has always been, History of Everything has a series on it.
to be fair in 1900 era ship shooting accurate Fire was hard even with expert crew
Perhaps, but "Aim in the correct general direction" is pretty easy.
How is DLC not considered as "adding content"? what would it be if it doesn't add or unlock additional stuff to enjoy?
It's a bit long but I recommend The Battle of May Island | Down the Rabbit Hole by
Fredrik Knudsen or any other video on his channel.
As a Russian, I can say with certainty that we had a real fleet only during the reign of Emperor Peter the Great, and after the formation of the USSR.
After the collapse of the USSR, things went bad, but now everything is stable.
Everything is stable you say? Are you aware that your country is currently at war?
I highly recommend some of Potential History's stuff. Great stuff and memes about incredible moments in history, like Joe Berlyle.
I see it in other comments as well but I recommend reacting to Drachinifel's less abridged version of this. Along with some of his other videos.