Japanese cruiser Chishima
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 The cruiser Chishima (1890) |
|
| Career |  |
|---|---|
| Built: | France |
| Ordered: | 1885 Fiscal Year |
| Laid Down: | January 1890 |
| Launched: | November 1890 |
| Completed: | April 1 1892 |
| Commissioned: | November 24 1892 |
| Decommissioned: | November 30 1892 |
| Fate: | Accident |
| General Characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 741 tons |
| Length: | 71 meters |
| Beam: | 7.7 meters |
| Draught: | 2.97 meters |
| Propulsion: | Triple expansion engine, 2 screws; 5000 HP |
| Speed: | 22 knots (nominal), 19 knots (actual) |
| Complement: | 90 |
| Armament: |
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| Armor: | |
The IJN Chishima (千島) was a 3rd class cruiser of the Imperial Japanese Navy, designed by Emile Bertin, and built in the Chantiers de la Loire shipyards in France. She was part of the 1882 post First Sino-Japanese War expansion program of the Imperial Japanese Navy. The name Chishima (lit. Thousand Islands) is the Japanese term for the Kurile Islands. In keeping with the Jeune Ecole concept advocated by Bertin, the Chishima was small and lightly armed, so much so that sometimes the Chishima has been referred to as a destroyer or frigate instead of a cruiser.
The commissioning of the Chishima was delayed by a year, as the ship could achieve only 19 knots, instead of the promised 22 knots; the French government agreed to pay the Japanese government some financial compensation for the issue.
The shakedown cruise to Japan was made by a crew of 79 French sailors and 11 Japanese sailors, via Alexandria, the Suez canal and Singapore. The Chishima sank soon after being commissioned, in a night collision on 30 November 1892 with the British P&O merchant vessel Ravenna, off Matsuyama, Ehime prefecture, in poor weather. Her captain and all 90 sailors onboard drowned. This incident led to the establishment of the Japanese "Maritime Anti-Collision Regulations".
Afterwards, in a maritime tribunal held by the British consulate in Yokohama, P&O was found to be negligent, and the Japanese government was awarded 10,000 Pds in compensation, which corresponded roughly to the cost of the ship.
One of the cannons of the Chishima is preserved in a memorial at the Aoyama Cemetery in Tokyo.
Imperial Japanese Navy  |
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