Sevastopol was the last of three ships in the Petropavlovsk class of pre-dreadnought battleships built for the Imperial Russian Navy in the 1890s. Named for the siege of Sevastopol during the Crimean War, the ship was part of the Russian Pacific Fleet at Port Arthur, a Russian naval base acquired from China in 1898. One of the first ships to use Harvey nickel-steel armor and Popov radios, she displaced 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 launched on 1 June 1895 and completed in 1899. Sevastopol saw service in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05. Slightly damaged during a surprise attack on Port Arthur in early February, she later participated in several attempts to break out from the besieged port, including the Battle of the Yellow Sea, where she was damaged by several shells but managed to make it back to port with the remnants of the Russian Fleet. Immediately after the surrender of Port Arthur, Sevastopol was scuttled to prevent her capture by the Imperial Japanese Navy. The remains of the ship still lie outside the entrance to Port Arthur. (Full article...)
... that one reason South African judge Dunstan Mlambo permitted live broadcasting of the Oscar Pistorius murder trial was to educate the public about criminal proceedings?
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