The Russian Baltic fleet sailed
18,000 miles to fight the IJN at Tsushima and most of the rest of the world assumed they'd steam roller them when they got there, but in fact they were doomed. Amazingly logistics went pretty well (that was largely hired out to German colliers), but there was an epic diplomatic snafu on the way that could have got them massacred by the British Royal Navy, morale was rock bottom, and the good idea fairy was vomiting advice into the Czar's ear every day even as they finally entered Pacific waters ("dear admiral, please park your mutinous crews on a tropical island for a few months while we reinforce you with worn out muzzle loader armed coastal defense boats that can't maneuver with you because they have half your speed and are manned by farmers we impressed yesterday"). This book is almost entirely from the Russian POV, and you practically feel like you sailed with the poor bastards.
I'm reading
Kaigun: Strategy, Tactics, and Technology in the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1887-1941 right now, just coming up on the Russo-Japanese war. If you want to know how the IJN was made a lean mean professional fighting machine by 1905, Kaigun is great.