Takasago (ship)
|
|
|---|---|
 The Takasago |
|
| Overview | |
| Type | Protected cruiser |
| Shipyard |
Armstrong Whitworth , |
| Keel laying | April 2, 1896 |
| Launch | May 18, 1897 |
| delivery | May 17, 1898 |
| Whereabouts | sunk
off Port Arthur on December 13, 1904 |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
4,160 ts |
| length |
118.2 m waterline, |
| width |
14.2 m |
| Draft |
5.2 m |
| crew |
425 men |
| drive |
8 boilers |
| speed |
23.5 kn |
| Range |
5500 nm at 10 kn |
| Armament |
2 × 203 mm cannon |
|
Armor deck, guns command tower |
|
| Sister ship | |
| similar |
Yoshino , |
The Takasago ( Japanese 高 砂 ) was a 2nd class armored cruiser of the Imperial Japanese Navy . The cruiser designed and built by Armstrong Whitworth was lost in the night of December 12th to 13th, 1904 by a mine hit with 273 dead as the last Japanese warship in the Russo-Japanese War .
Building history
The ship, started in April 1896 under construction number 660 at the Armstrong shipyard in Low Walker, which actually only built warships to maintain full employment, was sold to Japan in July 1896. The Takasago was a typical Elswick cruiser and an improved version of the Veinticinco de Mayo type cruiser built for the Argentine Navy , which Sir Philip Watts had designed. Watts, director of warship development at Armstrong Whitworth in Elswick near Newcastle upon Tyne since 1885 , had already designed the guns of the Naniwa class (3650 ts) and the Yoshino (4150 ts, 1892) delivered to the Japanese Navy in 1885 . The Takasago , similar in appearance to the Yoshino , is sometimes regarded as its sister ship, as it had the same hull size. The Takasago differed in the heavier armament, the modified propulsion system with four double-ended boilers and four simple cylinder boilers and the improved armor with a larger area of maximum strength, which should withstand 203-mm projectiles.
The main armament of the new cruiser was two single 203 mm L / 45 Elswick guns behind protective shields, which were used in twin turrets on the armored cruisers built at the same time for the Japanese Navy, a cannon newly developed for export by Armstrong's gun factory. The same was true of the 120 mm L / 45 guns on the sides.
The cruiser, started in April 1896, was launched on May 18, 1897, was completed on May 17, 1898 and arrived in Yokosuka in August 1898 . The name Takasago comes from the city of the same name on Honshū on the Japanese inland sea in Hyōgo prefecture .
Mission history
In 1900 the new cruiser was used as part of the international fleet off China during the Boxer Rebellion . In 1902 the Takasago represented the Japanese Navy with the armored cruiser Asama from June 24th to 27th at the naval parade in Spithead on the occasion of the coronation of the British King Edward VII. On the way out, the cruisers visited Singapore , Colombo , Suez and Malta and on the return journey Cardiff , Lisbon , Gibraltar and Naples , Aden , Colombo, Singapore, Bangkok and Hong Kong . On their voyage from April 7 to November 28, 1902, the two cruisers covered 24,718 nautical miles.
Russo-Japanese War
The Russo-Japanese War began in 1904 with pre-emptive attacks by the Japanese Navy against the Russian Pacific Squadron . The Takasago belonged to the 3rd Division of the United Fleet off Port Arthur with the cruisers Kasagi , Chitose and Yoshino . The destroyer's night torpedo attack immobilized only three Russian ships. The Takasago took part in the bombardment of the base the following day. In the following days she captured the merchant ship Manchuria (6075 BRT, 1900, 12 kn) of the Russian East Asia shipping company off Port Arthur, which came into Japanese service as Kanto Maru as a transporter. On March 10th she came into action with the restored bayan . Until May, she was one of the units that closely monitored the Russian squadron.
On May 15, she supported the rescue attempts by mine hit heavily damaged battleship Yashima , which the Association of Admirals Nashiba along with its flagship Hatsuse , which also struck a mine and sank, the Shikishima , and the cruiser Kasagi and the torpedo gunboat Tatsuta off Port Arthur ran into a minefield that the Russian miner Amur had laid the night before. However, the Yashima was lost in tow shortly before the advanced base at the Elliot Islands had been reached.
During the Russian escape attempts in June and August, the Takasago shadowed the Russian squadron and monitored Zessarevich , who escaped from the Battle of the Yellow Sea on August 10, 1904 to the German base in Tsingtau , and the destroyers who had escaped there until they were interned.
Sinking of the Takasago
In October 1904 the Takasago went to Japan for overhaul.
When she reached Port Arthur again, on the night of December 13, 1904, while searching for broken Russian ships that wanted to reach Chefoo , she ran into a mine 37 km south of Port Arthur, which triggered a serious subsequent explosion of its own ammunition. The inrush of water proved to be uncontrollable during storms, blowing snow and heavy seas and the Takasago , which could not launch any boats, sank within 23 minutes to 38 ° 10 ′ N , 121 ° 15 ′ E, , killing 273 sailors. 162 men could still be rescued by the accompanying cruiser Otowa . The Takasago was the last Japanese warship to be lost in the Russo-Japanese War.
literature
- Peter Brooke: Warships for Export: Armstrong Warships 1867-1927. World Ship Society, Gravesend 1999, ISBN 0-905617-89-4 .
- Hansgeorg Jentsura: Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy 1869-1945. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis 1976, ISBN 087021893X .
- Arthur W. Jose: The Royal Australian Navy 1914-1918 The Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-1918. 9th edition, Sydney 1941.
- John Roberts, HC Timewell, Roger Chesneau, Eugene M. Kolesnik (eds.): Warships of the World 1860 to 1905 - Volume 2: USA, Japan and Russia. Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Koblenz 1983, ISBN 3-7637-5403-2 .
Web links
- The protected cruiser Takasago (engl.)
- Material from the IJM on Takasago
- The protected cruiser Takasago (Russian, with picture and crack of the ship)
Footnotes
- ↑ Description of the Elswick 8 "gun ( not called Takasago !)
- ↑ Description of the Elswick 4.7 "gun .
- ↑ Article in the NY Times 1902
- ↑ Manchuria , 1900 Burmeister & Wain BN ° 210, 6075 BRT, 7200 tdw, 130.5 × 15.1 × 9.3m, burned out in Port Said on July 6, 1903, repaired by the shipyard
- ↑ 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; Images ( Memento from September 27, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Otowa , 3000 ts, Yokosuka 1903, 21 kn, 98 m long, 2 × 152 mm, 6 × 120 mm guns