Early Naval Career
Rozhestvensky graduated from the Sea Cadet Corps in 1868 and the Mikhailovsky Artillery Academy in 1873. he initially served with the Baltic Fleet as a gunnery officer. In 1876 he transferred to the Black Sea Fleet. During the Russo Turkish War he served on board the gunboat Vesta. On June 10, 1877 six torpedo boats, five of which were armed with spar torpedoes, attempted to attack four ironclads of the Turkish Navy. The then Lieutenant Rozhestvensky volunteered to lead the first attack against the Turkish warships, but his torpedo boat became caught up in the rope boom defenses that protected the enemy ships. The attack was beaten back by Turkish gunfire which destroyed one torpedo boat and the remaining boats withdrew, leaving the enemy ironclads intact. In July 1877 while still assigned to the Vesta, he engaged and damaged a Turkish warship, the Fethi-Bulend, and Rozhestvensky was awarded the Order of Saint Vladimir and Order of St George for this action.
In 1883 to 1885 Rozhestensky was seconded to the newly formed Bulgarian Navy. He returned to Russian service and was senior officer on the battery ship Kreml and the cruiser Gerzog Edinburgski. He then commanded the clipper Naezdnik and gunboat Grozyachiy. In 1891-93 he was naval attache in London. In 1894 he commanded the Vladimir Monomakh which was part of the Russian Meditarranean squadron under the command of Admiral Stepan Makarov. In 1896-98 he commanded the coast defence ship Pervenets. In 1898 he became commander of the gunnery school of the Baltic Fleet. In 1900 he commanded the salvage operation for the Admiral Graf Apraksin. In 1902 he was appointed Chief of the Naval Staff and proposed a plan for strengthening the Russian Navy in the Far East.
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