Monument to legendary Russian naval ship unveiled in Scotland

14.09.2007 A monument to the Russian cruiser Varyag that sank several hundred meters away from the Scottish coast in 1920 was unveiled in the town of Lendalfoot on September 8.

Taking part in the ceremony were Russian and British defense officials and the crew of the major antisubmarine ship Severomorsk.

Retired rear admiral Viktor Samson, a member of the Russian official delegation, said the Scottish authorities take sincere care of memory of the Russian fleet heroes and glory of those, who are buried at the Irish Sea coast.

“The Scottish people are a sea nation that honours seafarers of other countries and their heroic deeds as their own. Moreover, heroism of the Varyag’s seafarers, who preferred to die and not to surrender is recognized worldwide as the demonstration of military bravery and courage,” he said.

The Varyag became a legend in Russia and many other countries during the Russian-Japanese war of 1904, when it took part in the battle of Chemulpo on January 27, 1904, engaging in a heroic and uneven fight with a squadron of fifteen Japanese ships.

The Varyag was scuttled then. The Japanese recovered it from seawater in 1905 and re-commissioned as a training ship named The Soya.

Russia purchased it back in 1916 and sent it for an overhaul to Britain, where it was arrested after the Bolshevik revolution of 1917.

The British eventually sold the Varyag to Germany as scrap metal.

It sank in the Irish Sea a few hundred meters away from the town of Lendalfoot in 1920, when it was tugged to a shipyard to be dismantled.

Source: ITAR-TASS