Russian ship. Sissoi Veliky, assisted by a flotilla of tugs, barely passed the shallow entrance to the Suez Canal, but Victorious ran aground near Port Said and abandoned pursuit. Aside from this incident, the east-bound voyage was uneventful, and the ship safely reached Port Arthur on , 1898. In the summer of 1898 Sissoi Veliky sailed to Nagasaki for repairs and returned to her new base in Vladivostok where she stayed for the rest of 1898 and 1899. In April 1900 the fleet sailed to Port Arthur for a massive landing exercise intended to intimidate the Boxers. The warning was not heeded, and the Boxer Rebellion intensified, compelling the Russian government to intervene. On , 1900 the Viceroy of the Russian Far East, Admiral Yevgeni Alekseyev, dispatched the Far Eastern Squadron from Port Arthur to the Taku Forts. Sissoi Veliky, the battleship , the armoured cruiser and a host of other European ships blockaded the mouth of the Hai River and the smaller gunboats moved up the river to protect amphibious landings which began on . The incursion provoked the Boxer siege of Beijing; the Russians responded by sending a company of sailors from Sissoi Veliky and Navarin to defend the embassy in Beijing. The company reached the city without meeting any opposition and at first it seemed that the European troops in Beijing could easily defend the Embassy Row from the disorganized mob. On the rebels received reinforcements from the regular Chinese Army and, on the afternoon of , they began a massive assault on the diplomatic missions. One month later the Chinese managed to burn down the Austrian, Dutch and Italian legations. The sailors stood their ground with American and French Marines until the arrival of reinforcements on . During the seven weeks of the siege, three men from Sissoi Veliky were killed in action, one died of disease, and twelve were wounded. Sissoi Veliky remained in the Far East for another year; in December 1901 an accumulation of mechanical troubles that could not be fixed in Far Eastern docks compelled the fleet commander to send her back to the Baltic. She returned to Libau via Nagasaki, Hong Kong and Suez in April 1902. The last voyage In May 1902 Sissoi Veliky attended a fleet review honouring the state visit of President of France, Émile Loubet. In June she was moved into a drydock in Kronstadt. All available