Pobeda was the last of the three Peresvet-class pre-dreadnought battleships built for the Imperial Russian Navy at the end of the nineteenth century. Launched on 10 May 1900, the ship was assigned to the Pacific Squadron upon completion, and in 1903 was based at Port Arthur. During the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, she participated in the battles of Port Arthur and the Yellow Sea. Having escaped serious damage in these engagements, Pobeda was sunk by gunfire during the Siege of Port Arthur, and then salvaged by the Japanese and placed into service under the name Suwo. Rearmed and re-boilered by the Japanese, Suwo was classified by the Imperial Japanese Navy as a coastal defense ship in 1908 and served as a training ship for several years. She was the flagship of the Japanese squadron at the Battle of Tsingtao at the beginning of World War I and continued in that role until she became a gunnery training ship in 1917. The ship was disarmed in 1922 to comply with the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty and probably scrapped around that time. (Full article...)