Japanese cruiser Ibuki

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Career
Japanese heavy cruiser Ibuki
Builder:	Kure Naval Yards, Japan
Ordered:	FY1904 Fiscal Year
Laid down:	May 22, 1907
Launched:	November 11, 1907
Commissioned:	November 1, 1909
Fate:	Scrapped September 20, 1923
General Characteristics
Displacement:	14,636 tons (normal); 15,595 tons (max)
Length:	147.8 meters waterline; 137.2 meters overall
Beam:	23.0 meters
Draft:	8.0 meters
Propulsion:	Two Shaft Geared Turbine Engines; 24,000 shp
Speed:	21.5 knots
Fuel & Range:	2000 tons coal 218 tons oil
Complement:	844
Armament:	4 × 305 mm guns 8 × 203 mm guns 14 × 120 mm guns 4 × 80 mm guns 3 × 450 mm torpedo tubes
Armor:	belt: 100-180 mm barbette & turret: 125-180 mm conning tower: 200 mm deck: 75 mm

IJN Ibuki (伊吹)　was the lead ship in the Ibuki class of 1st class heavy cruisers of the Imperial Japanese Navy.

The Ibuki had one sister ship, the IJN Kurama. The Ibuki is named after Mount Ibuki located between Gifu prefecture and Shiga prefecture in Honshū. The class was planned during the Russo-Japanese War and was authorized under the 1904 Supplemental Naval Budget, at the same time has the IJN Tsukuba, but with heavier guns and with the new geared turbine engines which promised more power and hence, more speed. However, problems with the turbine engines delayed the construction of the Ibuki, and in the end, construction began almost two years later than her sister ship, the Kurama, which used standard reciprocating engines.

Shortly after commissioning, the Ibuki was sent on a voyage to Thailand for the coronation ceremony of the Thai king Rama VI.

On 28 August 1912, the Ibuki was re-classified as a battlecruiser by the Japanese navy.

It subsequently played an important role in World War I, in protecting British merchant shipping in the South Pacific and in the Indian Ocean, and participating in the hunt for the German East Asiatic Squadron and the SMS Emden. After the war, it felt victim to the Washington Naval Treaty and was scrapped after a short service life of only 15 years.

Afterwards, its guns were salvaged, and used in the shore batteries at Hakodate in Hokkaido and along the Tsugaru Strait separating Honshū and Hokkaido.