Oskar Starck (16 August 1846-13 November 1928) was an Imperial Russian Navy Admiral during the Russo-Japanese War.
Biography[]
Oskar Ludvig Starck was born in Helsinki, Finland, Russian Empire on 16 August 1846, and he came from a family of Scottish, Finnish, and Swedish ancestry. He joined the Imperial Russian Navy in 1864 and commanded a gunboat during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878 before being promoted to Vice-Admiral in 1902. Starck was given command of the Pacific Fleet that same year, and, on 8 February 1904, the Japanese launched a pre-emptive strike on his fleet at Port Arthur at the start of the Russo-Japanese War. Although the Japanese were unsuccessful in destroying the Russian fleet or capturing the port, Czar Nicholas II of Russia regarded the inconclusive battle as a huge defeat and had Starck replaced by Stepan Makarov. Starck retired in 1908 and died in Finland in 1928.