Shikishima
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|---|---|
 The Shikishima 1905 |
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| Overview | |
| Type | Ship of the line |
| Shipyard |
Thames Iron Works , Leamouth , London , |
| Keel laying | March 29, 1897 |
| Launch | November 1, 1898 |
| delivery | January 26, 1900 |
| period of service |
1900-1923 |
| Decommissioning | 1923 |
| Whereabouts | Demolished in 1948 |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
15,453 ts |
| length |
126.5 m waterline, 135.2 m above all |
| width |
23.4 m |
| Draft |
8.29 m |
| crew |
836 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 Shikishima ( Japanese 敷 島 ) was the lead ship of the Shikishima class ( 敷 島 型 戦 艦 , Shikishima-gataenkan ) of the Imperial Japanese Navy , which was ordered in England from 1896 .
As with the previous Fuji class , the type ship Shikishima even survived the Second World War , albeit disarmed since 1923 , while the sister ship Hatsuse was lost to mines in 1904 in the Russo-Japanese War .
Building history
After the two ships of the Fuji class, four more ships of the line were ordered in Great Britain from 1896. 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 conceivable 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. The ships to be procured under this plan had all come into service before the Russo-Japanese War from 1904 to 1905 and formed the core of the Japanese fleet.
The Shikishima was ordered from Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding and Engineering in London in 1897 . The design came from Philip Watts and was an improved version of the Royal Navy's Majestic class, which came into 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 main battery of the Shikishima with two twin turrets with 12 inch (305 mm) L / 40 Type 41 guns of the Elswick Ordnance Company in a modified turret type corresponded to the armament of the previous Fuji class. The Shikishima's middle artillery now consisted of fourteen 6-inch (152-mm) L / 40 Type 41 rapid-fire guns, eight of them behind gun ports in the lower battery deck and six also in closed casemates on the superstructure deck. There were also twenty 3-inch (76-mm) L / 40 Type 41 twelve-pounders and twelve 2.5-pounder (47-mm automatic cannons), four Whitehead torpedo tubes under water and one on deck. This means that the Shikishima even carried stronger secondary armament than the ships of the Formidable class that only came into service from 1901 .
The Shikishima and her sister ship were 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.
The Shikishima machines were triple expansion steam engines on two screws. In her acceptance tests, the Shikishima was able to achieve 18.7 knots, making it the fastest liner of the six ships in the first construction program for Japanese liners. Unlike the underlying Majestic class, the Shikishima did not have chimneys next to each other, but three chimneys in a row. This clearly distinguished her and her sister ship Hatsuse from the four other ships of the line in the construction program, which only had two funnels.
Mission history
The Shikishima , completed in January 1900 , arrived in Kure on April 17, 1900 .
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. During the artillery attack, the Shikishima was damaged as well as three other ships of the line, three armored cruisers and another cruiser and had 53 staff shortages, while the Russians had 128 missions, 22 of them dead. Togo broke off the engagement because he found the Russians, contrary to what was expected, organized. The Shikishima belonged to the association that had been laid on May 14, 1904 in a minefield by the Russian mine-layer Amur . Her sister ship Hatsuse sank and the Shikishima failed to tow the Yashima , which was also badly damaged, to safety.
The Shikishima also fought in the naval battle in the Yellow Sea in July 1904, which prevented the Russian squadron from breaking out of the Yellow Sea and drove it back in bulk to Port Arthur, where it was lost by the end of the year. She also took part in the decisive battle of the war at Tsushima and received ten hits.
Further missions
After the Russo-Japanese War, the Shikishima was stationed in Sasebo and was used regularly off the Chinese coast. Even during the First World War, the now obsolete ship remained in this area and its home waters. She suffered considerable damage from explosions on board on July 24, 1916 and August 16, 1917, but was repaired again.
In 1920 the Shikishima was used to support Japanese troops in Russia during the Allied intervention in Siberia . In 1921 the ship was overhauled for the last time, but then reclassified as a 1st class coastal defense ship and used for training purposes. Under the rules of the Washington Naval Agreement , the Japanese Navy dismantled the ship and used it at the submarine school in Sasebo from 1923. After brief use as a transporter, the Shikishima was struck off the fleet list in 1926.
Whereabouts
The hull was still in Sasebo as a residential ship and school complex. Like the Fuji , the Shikishima continued to swim at the end of the war and was not a victim of the American air raids, although it had not moved on its own for over 20 years. In 1948 it was demolished at the Sasebo Naval Arsenal.
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 0-87021-192-7 .
- JE Hoare: Britain and Japan, Biographical Portraits, Volume III . Routledge Shorton, 1999, ISBN 1-873410-89-1 .
- Stephen Howarth: The Fighting Ships of the Rising Sun: The Drama of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1895-1945 . Atheneum, 1983, ISBN 0-689-11402-8 .
- Jane, Fred T. 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 0-8047-4977-9 .
Web links
Footnotes
Fuji class ( Fuji , Yashima ) | Shikishima class ( Shikishima , Hatsuse ) | Asahi | Mikasa | Katori class ( Katori , Kashima ) | Satsuma class ( Satsuma , Aki ) | Kawachi class ( Kawachi , Settsu )