Japanese cruiser Ikoma

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Japanese heavy cruiser Ikoma
Career Japanese Navy Ensign
Builder: Kure Naval Yards, Japan
Ordered: FY1904 Fiscal Year
Laid down: March 15, 1905
Launched: April 9, 1906
Commissioned: March 24, 1908
Fate: Scrapped September 20, 1923
General Characteristics
Displacement: 13,750 tons (normal); 15,400 tons (max)
Length: 134.1 meters waterline; 137.1 meters overall
Beam: 22.8 meters
Draft: 8.0 meters
Propulsion: Two Shaft VTE Reciprocating Engines; 20 boilers; 20,500 shp
Speed: 20.5 knots
Fuel & Range: 1911 tons coal
160 tons oil
Complement: 879
Armament:
  • 4 × 305 mm guns
  • 12 × 152 mm guns
  • 12 × 120 mm guns
  • 4 × 80 mm guns
  • 3 × 450 mm torpedo tubes
Armor:
  • belt: 100-180 mm
  • barbette & turret: 180 mm
  • conning tower: 200 mm
  • deck: 75 mm

IJN Ikoma (生駒) was the second ship in the Tsukuba class of 1st class heavy cruisers of the Imperial Japanese Navy.

The Ikoma had one sister ship, the IJN Tsukuba. The Ikoma is named after Mount Ikoma located on the border of Osaka and Nara prefecture. The class was intended to be Japan’s answer to the British Royal Navy’s HMS Invincible (1907). As construction began before the end of the Russo-Japanese War, construction progressed at a rapid pace, and contemporary American military observers were surprised (and concerned) that Japan had learned to build such large and powerful warships so quickly, and in such a short time. The Ikoma was one of the first ships in the Japanese navy with boilers capable of burning either coal or heavy oil.

Shortly after commissioning, the Ikoma was sent on a voyage to Argentina for that nation’s centennial of independence celebrations, and from there it continued on to London in England and to other ports in Europe before returning to Japan.

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

The Ikoma participated in missions in World War I in the South Pacific and in support of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance from 1 November 1914 to 17 January 1915. based out of Hong Kong, Singapore and Townsville, Australia.

It was a victim of the Washington Naval Agreement of 1923, and was scrapped as part of Japan’s compliance with that accord.

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Tsukuba-class cruiser

Tsukuba | Ikoma

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