Takachiho
|
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|---|---|
 The takachiho |
|
| Overview | |
| Type | Protected cruiser |
| units | 2 |
| Shipyard |
Armstrong, Mitchell & Co , Low Walker , BauNr. 476 |
| Order | 1883 |
| Keel laying | April 10, 1884 |
| Launch | May 16, 1885 |
| delivery | December 1, 1885 |
| Namesake | Mountain near Kagoshima |
| Whereabouts | Sunk
off Tsingtau on October 17, 1914 |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
3,650 t , |
| length |
97.5 m over everything, |
| width |
14.0 m |
| Draft |
6.4 m |
| crew |
342 - 357 men |
| drive |
6 steam boilers |
| speed |
18.5 kn |
| Range |
9,000 nm at 13 kn |
| Armament |
• 2 × 260 mm L / 35 Krupp cannons |
| Armor |
• Deck: 50–75 mm |
| Sister ship |
Naniwa , |
The Takachiho ( Jap. 高千穂防護巡洋艦 , Takachiho Bogo jun'yōkan , "protected cruiser Takachiho") was the second -protected cruiser of Naniwa class provided by the shipyard Armstrong, Mitchell & Co in the UK for the Japanese Imperial Navy was built .
The ship was named after a 1,574 meter high mountain in the volcanic Kirishima Mountains on the border between the prefectures of Kagoshima and Miyazaki in Japan. The sister ship of the Takachiho was the type ship of the class, the Naniwa .
Development and construction history
The Naniwa and Takachiho were the first protected cruisers to be designed in Japan and then specially built abroad for the Imperial Japanese Navy. The Japanese ship designer , General Sasō Sachū ( 佐 双 左 仲 ; 1852–1907), had developed the design from the best features of several contemporary designs. The basis was the Japanese Izumi , which Armstrong had built as an Esmeralda for the Chilean Navy . It is considered to be the first protected cruiser in the world and the basis of the "Elswick cruisers" developed by Armstrong.
The ships were ordered in Great Britain. The ships were considered to be the best protected cruisers in the world when they were launched, even if this advantage was only temporary due to the intensive and rapid development of this type. The ships of the Naniwa class were smooth deckers with a high freeboard to increase seaworthiness and had a ram stern.
The 260 mm L / 35 Krupp cannons were set up in single turrets at the bow and stern. The 150 mm L / 35 Krupp cannons mounted in the broadside were located in so-called swallow nests at the level of the main deck. There were four torpedo launchers for 356 mm torpedoes on deck. After the Sino-Japanese War of 1894/1895, the 260 mm main guns were replaced with 150 mm guns and then the Krupp guns were replaced with 152 mm Armstrong rapid-fire guns to increase stability and reduce ammunition standardize in the Japanese fleet.
The lying steam engines acted on two shafts, enabled a speed of 18 knots and with a coal supply of 800 tons a range of 9000 nm at 13 knots.
Mission history
The Takachiho reached Yokohama in July 1886, a week after her sister ship Naniwa arrived in Tokyo . In 1893 the Takachiho , like her sister ship Naniwa , made two voyages to Honolulu on Oahu to protect Japanese citizens and to make clear the Japanese reservations against the abolition of the Kingdom of Hawaii by American marines and settlers.
At the First Sino-Japanese War , the Takachiho under Yashiro Rokurō took part in the sea battle on Yalu on September 17, 1894, where they formed the "Flying Division" of Rear Admiral Tsuboi Kōzō , which decided the battle, with the Yoshino , Akitsushima and the sister ship Naniwa and sank the cruisers Jingyuan (also King Yuen ) and Zhiyuan (also Chih Yuen ). She then patrolled the Gulf of Bohai and took part in operations off Port Arthur . When Chinese officials refused to accept the cession of the island of Taiwan after the end of the war in 1895 , the Takachiho was one of the Japanese units involved in the occupation of the island . On June 3, 1895, she was involved in the bombardment of the Chinese coastal forts at Keelung .
On March 21, 1898, the Takachiho was reclassified to a 2nd class cruiser and the 15 cm Krupp guns were replaced by British 152 mm Armstrong rapid fire guns, which were also installed in place of the 26 cm Krupp guns before 1900. During the Boxer Rebellion in 1900, she supported Japanese landings in China.
During the Russo-Japanese War from 1904 to 1905, the Takachiho was judged to be too lightly armed and armored so that it was not expected to be of great use in the war. Therefore, she was assigned to the 4th squadron of the fleet. Under Rear Admiral Uryū Sotokichi , the squadron blocked the Russian cruiser Varyag in Chemulpo on the sister ship Naniwa . After its unsuccessful attempt to break out on February 9, 1904, the Varyag and the gunboat Korejez were forced to sink themselves . On March 10, both cruisers were off Port Arthur with the main Japanese fleet. When the Russian Vladivostok Squadron advanced into Tsushima Street on June 15, both cruisers with the 4th Squadron were stationed in Tsushima, but could not prevent the sinking of Japanese transporters . The Naniwa was in Osaki with the other Japanese cruisers , the Takachiho in Takeshiki for repairs . During the next advance of the Vladivostok squadron, the 2nd Japanese squadron under Vice Admiral Hikonojo Kamimura were traveling together with the two cruisers and had passed the Russians unnoticed. On the march back, the two squadrons collided and on August 14, 1904, a sea battle broke out at Ulsan .
When the Rossija and the Gromoboi left the severely damaged Rurik behind, Kamimura followed them with his four armored cruisers. Takachiho and Naniwa stayed with the Rurik , which was badly hit and sunk itself unmaneuverable. 625 men (305 wounded) were rescued by the Japanese.
As at the beginning of the war, Takachiho and Naniwa, as the flagship of the 4th Squadron, took part in the decisive battle of the war on April 27-28. May 1905 at Tsushima .
On August 28, 1912, the Takachiho was reclassified as a coastal defense ship 2nd class and converted into a mine- layer and mine-clearing training ship. All that remained was a 152 mm L / 40 Armstrong QF bow gun. There were also ten 76 mm L / 40 Armstrong rapid-fire guns on the upper deck, two 47 mm (2.5 Pdr) Yamauchi guns and the ability to carry up to 200 mines.
After Japan declared war on the German Empire in the First World War on August 23, 1914, the Takachiho was assigned to the Allied forces, which were besieging the German naval base in Tsingtau . On October 17, 1914, the cruiser was hit by a torpedo from the torpedo boat S 90 . The Takachiho sank with the loss of 271 men (including the commander Ito Sukeyasu). This was the largest single loss by the Japanese armed forces during the entire world war.
Sister ship Naniwa
The Naniwa was ordered together with the Takachiho in 1883 , launched on March 18, 1885, and completed on December 1, 1885. It played an important role in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894/95, especially in the Pungdo Sea Battle on July 25, 1894 and on September 17 in the Sea Battle on Yalu . She also supported the operation against Port Arthur and took part in the occupation of Taiwan in 1895 and the bombardment of Chinese fortifications at Keelung on June 3 and Kaohsiung on October 13, 1895. In 1897 she again represented Japanese interests in Hawaii and in 1900 supported the landing of Japanese troops in China during the Boxer Rebellion. During the Russo-Japanese War she was the flagship of the 4th Squadron and, with the Takachiho, was initially involved in the naval battle off Tschemulpo against the Russian cruiser Varyag on February 9, 1904, in the naval battle at Ulsan on August 14, 1904 and finally on 27./ 28. May 1905 in the decisive battle of the war near Tsushima, where it was slightly damaged. However, a hit near the waterline resulted in an early withdrawal from the battle.
In 1911 she was converted into a mine layer. In 1912 she was used as a fisheries protection ship in the North Pacific and was lost on June 26, 1912 when she stranded in thick fog off the Kuril island of Urup and sank on July 18. The wreck was sold for scrapping on June 26, 1913.
Web links
literature
- Peter Brooke: Warships for Export: Armstrong Warships 1867-1927 , World Ship Society, Gravesend (1999), ISBN 0-905617-89-4
- David Evans: Kaigun: Strategy, Tactics, and Technology in the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1887-1941. US Naval Institute Press, 1979, ISBN 0-87021-192-7 .
- 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 .
- 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 .