Fuji (ship)
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|---|---|
 The Fuji 1905 |
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| Overview | |
| Type | Ship of the line |
| units | 2 |
| Shipyard |
Thames Iron Works , |
| Keel laying | August 1, 1894 |
| Launch | March 31, 1896 |
| delivery | August 8, 1897 |
| Namesake | the Fuji |
| period of service |
1897-1922 |
| Decommissioning | September 20, 1923 |
| Whereabouts | Canceled in 1948 |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
12,533 ts |
| length |
114 m over everything |
| width |
22.25 m |
| Draft |
8.08 m |
| crew |
726 men |
| drive |
14 steam boilers |
| speed |
18.25 kn |
| Range |
7,000 nm at 10 kn |
| Armament |
• 4 × 305 mm L / 40 Armstrong cannons in twin turrets |
| Armor |
• Belt: –457 mm |
| Sister ship | |
| similar |
Shikishima , Hatsuse , |
The Fuji ( Japanese 富士 ) was the lead ship of the two-ship Fuji class ( 富士 型 戦 艦 , Fuji-gata Senkan ) and the first ship of the line of the Imperial Japanese Navy and one of the six ships of the line in the building program of 1894 to create a modern fleet . Named after Japan's most famous mountain, the Fuji was the Fuji with its sister ship Yashima and the like battleships Shikishima , Hatsuse , Asahi and Mikasa the core of the Japanese fleet in the Russo-Japanese War 1904-1905.
history
At the end of the 19th century, the strategy of the Imperial Japanese Navy was based on the principles of the French Jeune Ecole , which was formulated and represented in particular by the French Emile Bertin . Not all Japanese Navy leaders believed in this theory, but there has been considerable fear in Japan since the Chinese Qing Dynasty procured European battleships for their northern fleet in the early 1980s. Since Japan did not have the ability to build such ships itself, the Japanese Navy ordered two modern ships of the line in Great Britain.
The Japanese government struggled to find the necessary funds. The first attempt by the Japanese Prime Minister Matsukata Masayoshi failed in 1891. Matsukata pursued the idea and, after another defeat, dissolved his cabinet. His successor, Prime Minister Itō Hirobumi , tried again in 1892 to obtain the necessary funds, but also failed. This led to an unusual intervention by the Emperor Meiji in a statement dated February 10, 1893, in which the Emperor offered to finance the two ships of the line from his funds by reducing the expenses for the imperial budget and at the same time suggested that all government employees should reduce should agree to their salaries by ten percent. Shortly after this declaration, Parliament approved the necessary funds.
After the end of the first Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895) and the forced return of the Liaodong Peninsula to China by Russia , Japan began building a powerful army to prepare for any further conflicts. To this end, Japan announced a ten-year plan to build up its naval forces. The core of the plan was the construction of six battleships and six armored cruisers . All six ships of the line were ordered in Great Britain. The two Fuji- class ships became the first ships in this construction program.
draft
The design of the Fuji class was a further development of the Royal Sovereign class of the British Royal Navy . The ships of the Royal Sovereign class were considered to be the most modern, largest and fastest liners of their time and were designed by Sir William White . Compared to the basic design, the ships the Fuji and her sister ship were improved in a number of details. In particular, with their speed of 18.25 knots, they were faster than the Royal Sovereign draft with 17 knots.
Armament
As the main armament, the Fuji- class was completed with new Type 41 12-inch (305-mm) L / 40 cannons manufactured by the Elswick Ordnance Company , which had been developed for the Royal Sovereign , but only began in 1898 in of the Formidable class as a 12-inch Mark IX were installed. They were set up in two twin towers in front and behind. Japan bought a total of 44 guns, which were installed in the first six ships of the line from the Fuji to the Mikasa . They could fire their 390 kg bullets up to 14,000 m. Various warheads were available. This type of gun was later developed independently in Japan.
The middle artillery consisted of ten 152 mm L / 40 rapid fire guns of the Type 41, which were set up far apart in closed casemates so that a single hit could not lead to the failure of several guns. They corresponded to the type developed by Armstrong, which had been used in the Royal Navy since 1892 and were soon manufactured under license in Japan. The range of the 45 kg projectiles was a little over 9000 m.
There were also sixteen 76 mm guns , commonly referred to in Great Britain as "twelve pounders", for anti-torpedo boats, as they have been used on all British ships since 1894. These guns developed by Armstrong were then also manufactured and further developed under license in Japan.
There were also four so-called three-pounders of the Hotchkiss 47 mm type , which were already manufactured under license in Elswick . Of the five torpedo tubes, four were under water. They used the latest Whitehead type torpedoes .
Armor
The Fuji and her sister were heavily armored with Harvey steel . The armored belt was 2.6 m high and up to 50 cm thick, with the thickness at the ends in front of the barbeds still about 35 cm. There was armor about 10 cm thick over the main belt.
The armor was reinforced by approximately 3 m wide coal bunkers, which also offered additional protection after a hit due to their subdivision. The deck was 6.5 to 7.6 cm thick. The weakly armored ends should be flooded if necessary.
Mission history
The Fuji and her sister ship Yashima were the first major newbuildings for Japan . The Fuji was ordered from Thames Iron Works , London in 1894. The work of the shipyard was overseen by a team of over 240 Japanese engineers and naval officers, including the future Prime Ministers Saitō Makoto (as captain) and Katō Tomosaburō (as lieutenant).
After its completion, the Fuji took part in the naval parade for the 60th crown anniversary of Queen Victoria before leaving for Japan via the Suez Canal . The Fuji reached Yokosuka on October 31, 1897. At that time she was by far the largest ship in the Japanese fleet, which had previously been the largest ship of the old, formerly Chinese battleship Chin'en . During test drives off Kobe , the Japanese Emperor Meiji inspected the ship on November 19, 1898.
The Russo-Japanese War began 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, which, in addition to the flagship Mikasa with the Hatsuse , the Shikishima , the Asahi , the Fuji and the Yashima, belonged to all six ships of the line of the newbuilding program, and the 2nd Division which consisted of the armored cruisers Iwate , Azuma , Izumo , Yakumo and Tokiwa . These main battle ships were supported by the cruisers Kasagi , Chitose , Takasago and Yoshino and 15 destroyers and about 20 smaller torpedo boats .
On the night of February 9, 1904, ten destroyers attacked Port Arthur. The first four destroyers to arrive hit the Pallada amidships, which caught fire, and the Retwisan in the forecastle. A total of 16 torpedoes were fired, but only one more hit was scored, which, however, put the powerful battleship of the line Zessarewitsch out of action. The two best ships of the line and the protected cruiser Pallada were out of action for weeks. In the morning, the four cruisers under Vice Admiral Dewa Shigetō cleared the Russian base, and Dewa recommended an artillery attack because he thought the Russians were disorganized. The Japanese concentrated the fire of their heavy artillery on the coastal batteries. The central artillery of the ships of the line and the armored cruisers fired at the Russian squadron and damaged the ships of the line Petropavlovsk , Poltava and only slightly the Pobeda and the Sevastopol . The armored cruisers Bajan and Novik , Diana and Askold were also hit harder .
The Japanese ships hit Mikasa , Fuji , Hatsuse , Shikishima , Adzuma , Iwate , Yakumo and Takasago had 53 staff shortages, while the Russians had 128 layoffs , 22 of them dead. Tojo broke off the fight because he found the Russians organized. The Fuji was hit twice.
Used again to bombard the port on March 22nd, the Fuji was hit so badly that extensive repairs in Japan were necessary. The Fuji was ready for action again for the naval battle in the Yellow Sea on August 10, 1904 . She fired at Pobeda and Pereswet , which received many hits, and was the only Japanese ship of the line to not suffer a severe hit. In the sea battle near Tsushima on May 27, 1905, the Fuji suffered eleven hits, but scored the decisive hits on the Russian liner Borodino , whose explosion and sinking only one of the 830 men on board survived.
After the Russo-Japanese War, the Fuji was overtaken. Their fighting stands on the masts were removed and new, more modern boilers were installed. She was one of the Japanese warships that accompanied the American Great White Fleet in Japanese waters. In 1910, the old British-made heavy guns were replaced by Japanese guns. She was reclassified as a 1st class coastal defense ship. With the new capital ships based on the dreadnought model , the Fuji was outdated and became a training ship for gunners and sailors with a top speed of only 11 knots.
This did not change after the First World War . The Fuji remained in Kure as a training ship during the war .
In 1922 the Fuji was disarmed and decommissioned under the terms of the Washington Treaty . It was preserved as a living ship, but without propellers, main towers and all guns. Large wooden deckhouses and training platforms were installed on the ship. So it stayed in the Yokosuka Training Center for over 20 years. In 1944, the rest of the old ship was used as a test and development center for the development of new camouflage patterns using models of the Japanese aircraft carriers that were about a meter long. She also suffered from American air raids, but survived the war by swimming and was only demolished by the Uraga Dock Company in 1948 .
Sister ship Yashima
The sister ship of the Fuji , the Yashima ( 八 島 ) was built under the hull number 625 by the Armstrong shipyard in Elswick, Tyne and Wear. The keel of the shipyard's largest ship at 12,320 tons was laid on December 28th, 1894, then launched on February 28th, 1896 and taken over by the Japanese Navy on September 9th, 1897. The ship with the ancient poetic name for "Japan “Had a very short life.
The ship, designed by Sir Philip Watts for the shipyard in Newcastle on Tyne, belonged to the 1st Division of the 1st Squadron in the 1st Fleet during the war on Port Arthur.
On May 14, 1904, she ran in this division under Rear Admiral Nashiba Tokioki on the Hatsuse with the ship of the line Shikishima , as well as the protected cruiser Kasagi and the Aviso Tatsuta to Port Arthur to replace the ships used there. When the ships made a control voyage before leaving port on the morning of May 15, they ran into a minefield newly laid by the Amur . The ships of the line Hatsuse and Yashima both immediately suffered two mine hits and the Hatsuse sank immediately. Kasagi and Tatsuta were able to recover 336 men, including the admiral, from the sinking flagship. 496 men died on the hatsuse .
The Japanese tried to tow the Yashima into a Korean port, but it too was lost in the tow. Over 200 men of their crew died. Both ships could not be replaced during the war, and on paper the Russian fleet has since been superior in number of ships of the line as well as in number of heavy artillery. 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 feared that knowing the loss could have a very negative impact on the Japanese public regarding the continuation of the war.
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
- Materials of the Imperial Japanese Navy, Fuji class
- LOSS OF YASHIMA ADMITTED .; Japan Announces That Battleship Struck a Mine a Year Ago. NY Times June 2, 1905
Footnotes
- ↑ Schencking: Making Waves: Politics, Propaganda, And The Emergence Of The Imperial Japanese Navy, 1868-1922 .
- ↑ Hoare: Britain and Japan, Biographical Portraits Volume III. P. 186 ff.
- ↑ The Fighting Ships of the Rising Sun: The Drama of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1895-1945
- ↑ English called AP ( armor piercing ), HP ( high explosive ) or GP ( general purpose )
- ↑ Description of the British and Japanese "twelve pounders"
- ^ Hoare: Britain and Japan. Biographical Portraits Volume III, pp. 187ff.
- ^ Hoare: Britain and Japan, Biographical Portraits. Volume III, p. 188 ff.
- ↑ Andi Dora: Iron Admirals: Naval Leadership in the Twentieth Century. P. 24 ff.
Fuji class ( Fuji , Yashima ) | Shikishima class ( Shikishima , Hatsuse ) | Asahi | Mikasa | Katori class ( Katori , Kashima ) | Satsuma class ( Satsuma , Aki ) | Kawachi class ( Kawachi , Settsu )