Tsushima in 1905 | |
History | |
---|---|
Empire of Japan | |
Name | Tsushima |
Ordered | 1897 Fiscal Year |
Builder | Kure Naval Arsenal |
Laid down | 1 October 1901 |
Launched | 15 December 1902 |
Completed | 14 February 1904 |
Stricken | 1936 |
Fate | Expended as a torpedo target, 1944 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Niitaka-class cruiser |
Displacement | 3,366 long tons (3,420 t) |
Length | 102 m (334 ft 8 in) w/l |
Beam | 13.44 m (44 ft 1 in) |
Draft | 4.92 m (16 ft 2 in) |
Installed power | 9,500 ihp (7,100 kW) |
Propulsion |
|
Speed | 20 kn (23 mph; 37 km/h) |
Complement | 287–320 |
Armament | |
Armor |
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Tsushima (対馬) was a Niitaka-class cruiser of the Imperial Japanese Navy. The vessel was a sister ship to Niitaka and was named for Tsushima Province, one of the ancient provinces of Japan, and corresponding to the strategic island group between Japan and Korea.
The Niitaka-class cruisers were ordered by the Imperial Japanese Navy under its 2nd Emergency Expansion Program, with a budget partly funded by the war indemnity received from the Empire of China as part of the settlement of the Treaty of Shimonoseki ending the First Sino-Japanese War. The class was intended for high speed reconnaissance missions. Tsushima was the first ship to be built by the new Kure Naval Arsenal, located at Kure, Hiroshima. Due to lack of experience by the builders, Tsushima took an extraordinary long time to compete, despite her small size and relatively simple design, with the keel laid down on 1 October 1901 and launching on 15 December 1902. Tsushima was not completed until 14 February 1904. [1]
In terms of design, Tsushima was very conservative in layout and similar to, but somewhat larger than the earlier Japanese-designed Suma. The increased displacement, heavier armor and lower center of gravity resulted in a more seaworthy and powerful vessel than Suma, and enabled Tsushima to outclass many other contemporary protected cruisers. [2]
In terms of armament, it is noteworthy that Tsushima was not equipped with torpedoes. Observing problems experienced by the United States Navy during the Spanish–American War with torpedo reliability and the dangers of sympathetic detonation, it was decided not to use this weapon on the new cruisers. The main battery was standardized to the QF 6-inch /40 naval gun found on most contemporary Japanese cruisers. [2]
The Niitaka-class cruisers were fitted with 16 Niclausse boilers, a great improvement on the locomotive boilers of the Suma class. [2]
Tsushima was commissioned during the middle of the Russo-Japanese War, but she was present with the 4th Detachment of the Japanese 2nd Fleet and participated in the shore bombardment of Russian positions during the Battle of Port Arthur on 9 March 1904. [3] From April, she was assigns to patrols of the Korea Strait and the Sea of Japan, but was not in position to participate in Battle off Ulsan on 14 August 1904.
On 15 August, Tsushima and Chitose pursued the Russian cruiser Novik, which she fought at the Battle of Korsakov. [4] During the duel, Tsushima scored 14 hits on Novik, but was holes under her waterline by a shot from Novik and was forced to stop for repairs. She did, however, assist in the rescue of Russian sailors off Novik after the battle. At the crucial final Battle of Tsushima on 27 May 1905, Tsushima was part of the Japanese squadron attacking the Russian cruisers Oleg, Aurora and Zhemchug as well as the already heavily damaged battleship Knyaz Suvorov. [4] Tsushima took six hits during the engagement, which killed four crewmen and a senior officer. On 28 May 1905, Tsushima took part in the final combat of the battle against the cruiser Dmitrii Donskoi.
After the war, Tsushima was assigned patrol duties off of the China coast.
At the start of World War I, Tsushima was initially assigned to patrol of the sea lanes between Borneo and Timor against German commerce raiders as part of Japan's contribution to the Allied war effort under the Anglo-Japanese Alliance. However, she was reassigned to the First Southern Expeditionary Squadron based in Fiji from December 1914 to protect British shipping around Australia and New Zealand from German commerce raiders and U-boats. The First Southern Expeditionary Squadron also consisted of the battlecruiser Kurama, two destroyers, and later the cruisers Chikuma, Yahagi and Ikoma. Together with the Japanese-American Expeditionary Squadron (which included the cruisers Izumo and Asama, and the battleship Hizen), she engaged in the pursuit of the Imperial German Navy Admiral Graf Maximilian von Spee's German East Asia Squadron. [5]
During the February 1915 Singapore Mutiny by Indian Sepoy troops against the British in Singapore, the Japanese government helped suppress the uprising by sending 158 marines from the cruisers Otowa, Niitaka and Tsushima.
From mid-1915 to 1918, Tsushima and her sister ship Niitaka were permanently based at the Cape Town, assisting the Royal Navy in patrolling the sea lanes linking Europe to the east. [5]
After the end of World War I, Tsushima was part of the Japanese fleet participating in the Japanese intervention in Siberia to help the White Russian forces against the Bolsheviks in the Russian Civil War by covering the landings of Japanese troops in Vladivostok.
On 1 September 1921, Tsushima was re-designated a 2nd class coastal defense vessel. She was re-armed in 1922 to carry six 15.2 cm and eight 12-pounder guns, but later an extra 12-pounder anti-aircraft gun was added. Tsushima's primary patrol area was along the Yangtze River in China, where as flagship for Kichisaburō Nomura, she commanded a squadron of gunboats protecting Japanese citizens and economic interests within China. [6]
Tsushima was partially disarmed in 1930 and was used as a training vessel. She was struck from the navy list in 1936 and was re-designated as training hulk Hai Kan No. 10 at Yokosuka Naval District until 1 April 1939. She was expended in the Pacific Ocean off Miura, Kanagawa, Japan, as a torpedo target in 1944.
The Battle of Tsushima, also known in Japan as the Battle of the Sea of Japan, was the final naval battle of the Russo-Japanese War, fought on 27–28 May 1905 in the Tsushima Strait. A devastating defeat for the Imperial Russian Navy, the battle was the only decisive engagement ever fought between modern steel battleship fleets and the first in which wireless telegraphy (radio) played a critically important role. The battle was described by Sir George Clarke as "by far the greatest and the most important naval event since Trafalgar".
Itsukushima (厳島) was the lead ship in the Matsushima class of protected cruisers of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Like her sister ships, the name Itsukushima comes from one of the traditional Three Views of Japan, in this case, the Itsukushima Shrine in Hiroshima prefecture on the Seto Inland Sea, home to a famous Shinto shrine dedicated to the goddess Benzaiten.
Izumo was the lead ship of her class of armored cruisers built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) in the late 1890s. As Japan lacked the industrial capacity to build such warships itself, the ship was built in Britain. She often served as a flagship and participated in most of the naval battles of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905. The ship was lightly damaged during the Battle off Ulsan and the Battle of Tsushima. Izumo was ordered to protect Japanese citizens and interests in 1913 during the Mexican Revolution and was still there when World War I began in 1914.
Zhemchug was the second of the two-vessel Izumrud class of protected cruisers built for the Imperial Russian Navy. She was sunk during World War I by the German light cruiser Emden in the Battle of Penang in 1914.
Niitaka (新高) was the lead ship of the Niitaka-class protected cruisers of the Imperial Japanese Navy. She was the sister ship of the Tsushima. Niitaka was named after Mount Niitaka in Taiwan, at the time, the tallest mountain in the Japanese Empire.
Chitose (千歳) was a Kasagi-class protected cruiser of the Imperial Japanese Navy. It was the sister ship to Kasagi.
Yakumo was an armored cruiser built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) in the late 1890s. As Japan lacked the industrial capacity to build such warships herself, the ship was built in Germany. She participated in most of the naval battles of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05, and was lightly damaged during the Battle of the Yellow Sea and the Battle of Tsushima. Yakumo saw no combat during World War I and began the first of many training cruises in 1917, although she was not officially reclassified as a training ship until 1931. Her last training cruise was in 1939, but the ship continued to conduct training in home waters throughout the Pacific War. Yakumo became a repatriation transport after the war and was broken up in 1946–47.
Akashi (明石) was a Suma-class cruiser protected cruiser of the Imperial Japanese Navy. She was a sister ship to Suma. The name Akashi comes from an ancient name for a portion of the coastline near the modern city of Kobe in Hyōgo Prefecture.
Suma (須磨) was a protected cruiser of the Imperial Japanese Navy, designed and built by the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal in Japan. She was the lead ship in the Suma-class cruiser, and her sister ship was Akashi. The name Suma comes from a geographic location near Kobe, in Hyōgo Prefecture.
Akitsushima (秋津洲) was a protected cruiser of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN), designed and built by the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal in Japan. The name Akitsushima comes from an archaic name for Japan, as used in the ancient chronicle Kojiki.
Otowa (音羽) was a protected cruiser of the Imperial Japanese Navy, designed and built by the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal in Japan. The name Otowa comes from a mountain in Kyoto, located behind Kiyomizu-dera. The waters from a waterfall at this temple were traditionally held to be a cure for all illnesses.
Novík was a protected cruiser in the Imperial Russian Navy, built by Schichau shipyards in Elbing near Danzig, Germany.
Yahagi (矢矧) was the second vessel in the Chikuma class of protected cruisers of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Yahagi had two sister ships, Chikuma and Hirado. She was named after the Yahagi River, which runs through Nagano, Gifu and Aichi prefectures.
The two Suma-class cruisers were protected cruisers operated by the Imperial Japanese Navy. While more lightly armed and armored than many of its contemporaries, their small size and relatively simple design facilitated their construction and their relatively high speed made them useful for many military operations. Both participated in combat during the Russo-Japanese War and World War I.
The two Niitaka-class cruisers were protected cruisers operated by the Imperial Japanese Navy. Both participated in numerous actions during the Russo-Japanese War and in World War I.
Izumrud was a protected cruiser of the Imperial Russian Navy, and the lead ship in the two-ship Izumrud class. Izumrud and her sister ship Zhemchug were based on the German-built Novik.
The Izumrud class were a group of two protected cruisers built for the Imperial Russian Navy.
The Battle of Korsakov, a naval engagement of the Russo-Japanese War, was fought on 20 August 1904 off the southern coast of Sakhalin island. The battle foiled an attempt by the Imperial Russian Navy protected cruiser Novik at escaping Port Arthur to join the Russian cruiser squadron at Vladivostok, Russia, after the Russian Pacific Squadron was scattered in the Battle of the Yellow Sea.
The Russian cruiser Svetlana was a protected cruiser of the Imperial Russian Navy. She was the flagship of the Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Russian Navy and was used as an imperial yacht in peacetime. She was sunk in combat during Battle of Tsushima in the Russo-Japanese War.
Chihaya (千早) was an unprotected cruiser of the Imperial Japanese Navy. The name Chihaya comes from Chihaya Castle, near Osaka, the site of one of the battles of the Genkō War of 1333.