Hatsuse
|
|
|---|---|
 The hatsuse |
|
| Overview | |
| Type | Ship of the line |
| Shipyard |
Armstrong, Whitworth & Co , |
| Keel laying | January 10, 1898 |
| Launch | June 27, 1899 |
| delivery | January 18, 1901 |
| Whereabouts | sunk on May 15, 1904 after being hit by mines off Port Arthur |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
14,312 ts |
| length |
126.5 m waterline, |
| width |
23.4 m |
| Draft |
8.29 m |
| crew |
741 - 849 men |
| drive |
25 Belleville boilers |
| speed |
18 kn |
| Range |
7,000 nm at 10 kn |
| Armament |
• 4 × 305 mm L / 40 cannons in twin turrets |
| Armor |
• Belt: 102–229 mm |
| Sister ship | |
| similar |
Fuji , Yashima , |
The Hatsuse ( Japanese 初 瀬 ) was the third of the Japanese ships of the line that were ordered in England from 1896 and are known as the Shikishima class ( 敷 島 型 戦 艦 , Shikishima-gata Senkan ). The Hatsuse was already in 1904 in the Russo-Japanese War by a mine lost. As with the previous Fuji class , the Shikishima type ship even survived the Second World War , albeit disarmed .
Building history
As a result of the Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895) and the return of the Liaodong Peninsula to China , forced by Russian pressure , Japan began arming for possible further conflicts. This also included a 10-year program to strengthen the Navy. This envisaged the construction of six ships of the line and six armored cruisers as the core of the Imperial Japanese Navy . After the Fuji-class ships ordered before the war with China, four more ships of the line were ordered in Great Britain from 1896. The ships to be procured under this plan all came into service before the Russo-Japanese War from 1904 to 1905 and formed the core of the Japanese fleet.
The Hatsuse was ordered in 1897 from the Armstrong Whitworth shipyard in Elswick , which had also built the Fuji-class Yashima . The design came from Philip Watts and was an improved version of the Royal Navy's Majestic class, which entered service from 1895 to 1898 and, with a maximum displacement of 16,000 ts, were considered the largest and most modern battleships of their time. The keel of the new building with construction number 680 was laid on January 10, 1898. On June 27, 1899, the Hatsuse was launched .
The main battery of the Hatsuse corresponded to the armament of all six ships of the line of the upgrade program with two twin turrets with Elswick Ordnance Company 12 inch (305 mm) L / 40 Type 41 guns. They all used the same type of gun, but the turrets were different. The middle artillery since the Shikishima consisted of fourteen 6 inch (152 mm) L / 40 Type 41 rapid fire guns. There were also twenty 3-inch (76 mm) L / 40 Type 41 twelve-pounders, eight three-pounders and four 2.5-pounders, and the Hatsuse only had four whitehead torpedo tubes under water.
The hatsuse , like the ships completed before it, was armored with Harvey steel . The side armor was 228 mm thick and tapered to the front and top to 152 mm. The armor was 76 mm thick, it was reinforced around the barbeds to 252 mm and in the area of the casemates to 127 mm. This was no longer the best possible standard at the time of completion. The transition to hardened Krupp steel was only completed with the last ship of the series, the Mikasa .
The machines were triple expansion steam engines on two screws with Belleville tubular boilers. In her acceptance tests, the Hatsuse was able to achieve over 18 knots. Unlike the underlying Majestic class, it had no chimneys next to each other, but like the Shikishima three chimneys in a row. This also clearly distinguished her and her sister ship from the four other ships of the line in the construction program, which only had two funnels.
Mission history
The Hatsuse entered service on January 18, 1901 and had a very short career. Before leaving for Japan, she represented Japan in a naval parade on the occasion of Queen Victoria's funeral . When the Japanese fleet was reorganized again on December 28, 1903, the Hatsuse became the flagship of the 1st Squadron under Rear Admiral Nashiba Tokioki in the 1st Division of the 1st Fleet .
Russo-Japanese War
The Russo-Japanese War began in 1904 with pre-emptive strikes by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the Russian Pacific Squadron in Port Arthur and Chemulpo . Admiral Togo's plan for the United Fleet was directed against Port Arthur with the 1st Division, to which all six ships of the line of the newbuilding program belonged. The destroyer's night torpedo attack immobilized only three Russian ships. During the artillery attack, the Hatsuse was damaged, as were three other ships of the line, three armored cruisers and one other cruiser. In total, the Japanese ships had 53 staff failures, while the Russians had 128 failures, 22 of them dead. Tojo broke off the action because he found the Russians, contrary to what was expected, organized. Only the ship of the line Fuji needed repairs. The hatsuse took part in the attacks on Port Arthur in the following months without becoming involved in any combat.
On May 14, 1904 Admiral Nashiba ran with his flagship Hatsuse , the Shikishima and the Yashima , as well as the protected cruiser Kasagi and the torpedo cannon boat Tatsuta to Port Arthur to relieve the forces deployed in the narrow blockade. On the morning of May 15, the federation reached Encounter Rock and marched on to the northwest. 15 nautical miles from the Russian base of Port Arthur, they switched to an easterly course to observe the port, which the Japanese ships regularly sailed. This brought the association straight into a minefield that the Russian mine-layer Amur had laid the night before.
At 10:50 the Hatsuse ran into a mine and was listed because the compartment of her steering gear was full and her starboard engine failed completely. Shortly afterwards, the Yashima , which had to avoid the rudderless Hatsuse , ran into a mine. At 11:30 a.m. the Kasagi went alongside the hatsuse , the stern of which was almost under water and was listing 4 °. When the Kasagi handed over a tow, the Hatsuse received another mine hit. Their chimneys collapsed, the main mast broke, and the upper deck exploded. In 1.5 minutes, the vessel dropped to 38 ° 37 ' N , 121 ° 20' O . The Tatsuta and the Kasagi were able to save the admiral, Captain Nakao and 21 other officers and 313 men, but 38 officers and 458 men died with the ship.
Also, the hard hit Yashima could not be maintained above water and sank in the afternoon on the way to the Korean coast to 38 ° 34 ' N , 121 ° 40' O . Over 200 men of their crew died. The Tatsuta with the admiral on board ran the evening just before the advanced base for the fleet at Kuan Lun Tao to 39 ° 8 ' N , 122 ° 22' O .
Both ships of the line could not be replaced during the war, and on paper the Russian fleet has since been superior in the number of ships of the line (seven in Port Arthur) as well as in the number of their heavy artillery (20 versus 16 305 mm cannons). The Japanese tried to keep the loss of the two ships a secret. Not only was it one of their greatest losses during the war, they also feared that knowledge of the loss could have a very negative impact on the Japanese public regarding the continuation of the war, so that the loss of the Yashima was only announced shortly before the end of the war.
On the same day, the Japanese lost in the Yellow Sea on 38 ° 7 ' N , 122 ° 33' O the cruiser Yoshino , who in dense fog from the armored cruiser Kasuga was rammed and capsized immediately. When the cruiser sank, 319 men died; only 19 castaways could be rescued.
The Japanese fleet suffered considerable losses these days, mainly from mines. Thus the unprotected cruiser was the day before Miyako by mines to 39 ° 2 ' N , 121 ° 22' O lost. Two torpedo boats were also lost. On May 18, the gunboat went Oshima after collision with the gunboat Akagi 39 ° 1 ' N , 121 ° 8' O fortunately without casualties among.
literature
- Ronald Andidora: Iron Admirals: Naval Leadership in the Twentieth Century . Greenwood Press, 2000, ISBN 0-313-31266-4 .
- DK Brown: Warrior to Dreadnought, Warship Development 1860-1906 . Naval Institute Press, 1999, ISBN 1-84067-529-2 .
- David Evans: Kaigun: Strategy, Tactics, and Technology in the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1887-1941 . US Naval Institute Press, 1979, ISBN 0870211927 .
- JE Hoare: Britain and Japan, Biographical Portraits, Volume III . Routledge Shorton , 1999, ISBN 1873410891 .
- Stephen Howarth: The Fighting Ships of the Rising Sun: The Drama of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1895-1945 . Atheneum, 1983, ISBN 0689114028 .
- Fred T. Jane: The Imperial Japanese Navy . Thacker, Spink & Co., 1904
- Hansgeorg Jentsura: Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1869-1945 . Naval Institute Press, 1976, ISBN 0-87021-893-X .
- J. Charles Schencking: Making Waves: Politics, Propaganda, And The Emergence Of The Imperial Japanese Navy, 1868-1922 . Stanford University Press, 2005, ISBN 0804749779 .
Web links
Footnotes
- ↑ Tatsuta , 850 ts, Armstrong 1894, 21 kn, 73.1 m long, 2 × 120 mm L / 40 Armstrong guns, was interned in Aden from 1894–96 on the transfer to Japan ; Pictures ( Memento of the original from September 27, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ The Russian General Admiral Grand Duke Alexis informs the press about the mining successes, NY Times, May 21, 1904 ( Memento of the original from January 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Togo's Report on the Fall of the Hatsuse and the Yoshino , NY Times, May 21, 1904
- ^ Loss of Yashima admitted, NY Times June 2, 1905
- ↑ Yoshino , 4,150 ts, Armstrong 1892, 109.7 m long, 4 × 152 mm, 8 × 120 mm cannons
- ↑ Kasuga , 7,822 t, Ansaldo 1902, 111.7 m long, 20 kn, 1 × 250 mm, 2 × 203 mm, 14 × 152 mm cannons
- ↑ Miyako , 1,800 t, Kure 1898, 96 m long, 20 kn, 2 × 120 mm cannons
Fuji class ( Fuji , Yashima ) | Shikishima class ( Shikishima , Hatsuse ) | Asahi | Mikasa | Katori class ( Katori , Kashima ) | Satsuma class ( Satsuma , Aki ) | Kawachi class ( Kawachi , Settsu )