Tsukuba-class cruiser
Tsukuba at anchor at Kure, after 1913
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Class overview | |
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Name | Tsukuba |
Builders | Kure Naval Arsenal |
Operators | Imperial Japanese Navy |
Preceded by | Kasuga class |
Succeeded by | Ibuki class |
Built | 1905–1908 |
In service | 1907–1922 |
Planned | 2 |
Completed | 2 |
Lost | 1 |
Scrapped | 1 |
General characteristics | |
Type | Armored cruiser (later reclassified as battlecruiser) |
Displacement | 13,750 long tons (13,971 t) |
Length | 450 ft (137.2 m) |
Beam | 75 ft (22.9 m) |
Draft | 26 ft (7.9 m) |
Installed power | 20 Miyabara water-tube boilers, 20,500 ihp (15,300 kW) |
Propulsion |
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Speed | 20.5 knots (38.0 km/h; 23.6 mph) |
Complement | 820 |
Armament |
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Armor |
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The Tsukuba-class cruisers (筑波型 巡洋戦艦, Tsukuba-gata jun'yōsenkan) were a pair of large armored cruisers (Sōkō jun'yōkan) built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) in the first decade of the 20th century. Construction began during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05 and their design was influenced by the IJN's experiences during the war. The British development of the battlecruiser the year after Tsukuba was completed made her and her sister ship Ikoma obsolete, as they were slower and more weakly armed than the British, and later German, ships. Despite this, they were reclassified in 1912 as battlecruisers by the IJN.
Both ships played a small role in World War I as they unsuccessfully hunted for the German East Asia Squadron in late 1914. They became training ships later in the war. Tsukuba was destroyed in an accidental magazine explosion in 1917 and subsequently scrapped. Her sister was disarmed in 1922 in accordance with the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty and broken up for scrap in 1924.
Background
About a month after the Russo-Japanese War began in February 1904, the
Based on the experience at the Battle of the Yellow Sea in August 1904 where the Russians opened fire at ranges well beyond what had been anticipated before the war, the IJN decided to arm the ships with 12-inch (305 mm) 45-calibre (45 feet long barrel) guns, which outranged the 12" 40-calibre guns used by the Japanese battleships in the war.[2][3] The increase in armament was also justified by a change in the IJN's doctrine for these ships in which they were now intended to participate in the line of battle and overpower the enemy's screening armored cruisers.[4] The Tsukubas were "briefly the world's most powerful cruisers in service until the completion of the first true battlecruisers, the British Invincible class".[5] They were also the first capital ships to be designed and constructed entirely by Japan in a Japanese shipyard.[4]
This type of warships with speed of a cruiser and the firepower and protection armor of a battleship was advocated by First Sea Lord Jacky Fisher who coined the term 'battlecruiser' for the type in the UK later in 1908.[6]
Design and description
The Tsukuba-class design was very similar to that of the British
The Tsukubas had an
The Tsukuba-class ships had two 4-cylinder
Armament
The Tsukuba-class armored cruisers were armed with four 45-
Close-range defense against
Armor
In order to keep the displacement down and the speed the same as in the earlier armored cruisers, armor in the Tsukuba class was about the same in thickness, although in an improved layout. The waterline armor
The front of the main gun turrets were protected by armor plates 9.6 inches (244 mm) thick, the sides by 9-inch (229 mm) plates and they had a 1.5-inch (38 mm) roof. The main barbettes were protected by seven inches of armour. The thickness of the armored decks ranged in thickness from 1.5 inches on the flat and at the ends of the ship to 2 inches (51 mm) on the slope of the deck. The sides of the forward conning tower were 8 inches (203 mm) thick and it had a 3-inch roof.[23]
Ships in class
Ship | Namesake | Builder[2] | Laid down[2]
|
Launched[2]
|
Completed[2] |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Tsukuba | Mount Tsukuba[24] | Kure Naval Arsenal | 14 January 1905 | 26 December 1905 | 14 January 1907 |
Ikoma | Mount Ikoma[25] | 15 March 1905 | 9 April 1906 | 24 March 1908 |
Construction and service
The Yokosuka Naval Arsenal had the most experience in building warships, but the IJN feared a bombardment by the Russian 2nd and 3rd Pacific Squadrons then en route from the Baltic Sea and decided to build the Tsukubas at the less-exposed Kure Naval Arsenal, even though Kure's experience was with ship repair and conversions. This meant that skilled workers had to be brought from Yokosuka to train the workforce at Kure in construction techniques. Tsukuba was laid down after the newly constructed Slipway No. 3 was completed in November 1904 and Ikoma followed once the extension of Slipway No. 2 was finished. These ships were over three times larger than the biggest ship previously built in Japan, the 4,217-long-ton (4,285 t) protected cruiser Hashidate. Priority of effort was given to the building of Tsukuba and she was completed in a very creditable two years. Ikoma took an additional year to finish as the end of the war shortly after she was laid down reduced the pressure to complete her as fast as possible. In addition, her slipway initially lacked any cranes or derricks to lift heavy material until electrically powered steel shearleg derricks were improvised. Construction of both ships was somewhat delayed by difficulties in procuring enough steel plates and rivets; quantities of both had to be imported from the United States.[26]
Possibly due to the speed at which she was constructed, Tsukuba reportedly suffered from numerous defects.[9] Shortly after she was completed, the ship sailed for America where she participated in the Jamestown Exposition Naval Review in May–June 1907.[27] The ship then sailed to Europe where she made numerous port visits over the next several months.[28][29] While in Britain, Tsukuba was fitted with a Vickers fire-control system that calculated the firing data for each gun and with which the gunnery officer fired the guns in unison.[18] Ikoma visited England in July 1910 as part of the Japan–British Exhibition.[30]
The Tsukuba-class ships were reclassified as battlecruisers in 1912.[2] Around 1913–14, the main deck 6-inch guns were removed and six were reinstalled on the upper deck where they replaced four 4.7-inch guns. This gave them a total of ten 6-inch and eight 4.7-inch guns.[16] Shortly after the beginning of World War I in August 1914, Tsukuba was assigned to the 1st South Seas Squadron that searched for the East Asia Squadron in the German-owned islands in the Central Pacific.[31] On 7 October, a landing party from the ship occupied Ponape in the Caroline Islands.[32] Ikoma joined the squadron in November, shortly before it moved to Fiji in December.[33] Tsukuba was assigned as a gunnery training ship in 1916. By 1917, both ships were assigned to the 2nd Division[34] and Tsukuba was sunk by a magazine explosion on 14 January with the loss of 305 crewmen; her wreck was later salvaged and scrapped.[2]
Ikoma became a gunnery training ship in her turn in 1918
Notes
- ^ "Cwt" is the abbreviation for hundredweight, 12 cwt referring to the weight of the gun.
Footnotes
- ^ Itani, Lengerer & Rehm-Takahara, pp. 53–54
- ^ a b c d e f g Gardiner & Gray, p. 233
- ^ See Battle of Tsushima#Gun range and rate of fire
- ^ a b Itani, Lengerer & Rehm-Takahara, p. 55
- ^ Evans & Peattie, p. 159
- ^ Sumida 1993, p. 54
- ^ Itani, Lengerer & Rehm-Takahara, p. 64
- ^ Itani, Lengerer & Rehm-Takahara, p. 54
- ^ a b c d e f Jentschura, Jung & Mickel, p. 77
- ^ Itani, Lengerer & Rehm-Takahara, pp. 57–58
- ^ a b Itani, Lengerer & Rehm-Takahara, p. 73
- ^ Itani, Lengerer & Rehm-Takahara, pp. 64, 67, 79
- ^ Friedman, p. 272
- ^ Itani, Lengerer & Rehm-Takahara, p. 67
- ^ Friedman, p. 276
- ^ a b Itani, Lengerer & Rehm-Takahara, p. 68
- ^ Friedman, pp. 90, 276
- ^ a b c Itani, Lengerer & Rehm-Takahara, p. 71
- ^ Friedman, p. 278
- ^ Silverstone, p. 314
- ^ Friedman, p. 114
- ^ Itani, Lengerer & Rehm-Takahara, pp. 72–73
- ^ Itani, Lengerer & Rehm-Takahara, pp. 67–68, 72–73
- ^ Silverstone, p. 338
- ^ Silverstone, p. 331
- ^ Itani, Lengerer & Rehm-Takahara, pp. 56–57
- ^ Yarsinske, p. 125
- ^ "Japanese Cruisers Leave". Nottingham Evening Post. 20 June 1907. p. 5. Retrieved 13 June 2015 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- ^ "King Victor Emmanuel Received". Western Times. 29 August 1907. p. 2. Retrieved 13 June 2015 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- ^ "Honouring an Exhibition". Cambridge Independent Press. 1 July 1910. p. 1. Retrieved 13 June 2015 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- ^ Corbett, I, p. 290
- ^ Peattie, pp. 62–63
- ^ Hirama, p. 142
- ^ a b Preston, p. 191
References
- ISBN 0-89839-256-X.
- Evans, David & Peattie, Mark R. (1997). Kaigun: Strategy, Tactics, and Technology in the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1887–1941. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-192-7.
- Friedman, Norman (2011). Naval Weapons of World War One. Barnsley, South Yorkshire, UK: Seaforth. ISBN 978-1-84832-100-7.
- Gardiner, Robert & Gray, Randal, eds. (1985). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-907-3.
- Gibbs, Jay (2010). "Question 28/43: Japanese Ex-Naval Coast Defense Guns". Warship International. XLVII (3): 217–218. ISSN 0043-0374.
- Hirama, Yoichi (2004). "Japanese Naval Assistance and its Effect on Australian-Japanese Relations". In Phillips Payson O'Brien (ed.). The Anglo-Japanese Alliance, 1902–1922. London and New York: RoutledgeCurzon. pp. 140–58. ISBN 0-415-32611-7.
- Itani, Jiro; Lengerer, Hans & Rehm-Takahara, Tomoko (1992). "Japan's Proto-Battlecruisers: The Tsukuba and Kurama Classes". In Gardiner, Robert (ed.). Warship 1992. London: Conway Maritime Press. pp. 42–79. ISBN 0-85177-603-5.
- Jentschura, Hansgeorg; Jung, Dieter & Mickel, Peter (1977). Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1869–1945. Annapolis, Maryland: United States Naval Institute. ISBN 0-87021-893-X.
- Lengerer, Hans & Ahlberg, Lars (2019). Capital Ships of the Imperial Japanese Navy 1868–1945: Ironclads, Battleships and Battle Cruisers: An Outline History of Their Design, Construction and Operations. Vol. I: Armourclad Fusō to Kongō Class Battle Cruisers. Zagreb, Croatia: Despot Infinitus. ISBN 978-953-8218-26-2.
- Peattie, Mark R. (1992). Nan'yō: The Rise and Fall of the Japanese in Micronesia, 1885–1945. Pacific Islands Monograph. Vol. 4. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 0-8248-1480-0.
- Preston, Antony (1972). Battleships of World War I: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Battleships of All Nations 1914–1918. New York: Galahad Books. ISBN 0-88365-300-1.
- Sieche, Erwin F. (1990). "Austria-Hungary's Last Visit to the USA". Warship International. XXVII (2): 142–164. ISSN 0043-0374.
- Silverstone, Paul H. (1984). Directory of the World's Capital Ships. New York: Hippocrene Books. ISBN 0-88254-979-0.
- Sumida, Jon T. (1993). In Defense of Naval Supremacy: Financial Limitation, Technological Innovation and British Naval Policy, 1889–1914. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-04445-104-0.
- Yarsinske, Amy Waters (1999). Jamestown Exposition: American Imperialism on Parade. Vol. I. Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 0-7385-0102-6.