Japanese cruiser Nisshin

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Career

Ordered:	FY1903
Laid down:	May 1902
Launched:	February 09 1903
Commissioned:	January 7 1904
Fate:	Scuttled 1936
Struck:	January 18 1942
General Characteristics (initial – final)
Displacement:	7,698 tons
Length:	357 feet waterline (108.8 m), 366 feet 6 inches overall (111.73m)
Beam:	61 feet 6 inches (18.9 m)
Draft:	24 feet (7.32m)
Propulsion:	Two Shaft Reciprocating Vertical Triple Expansion (VTE) Engines; 13,500 shp
Speed:	20 knots
Range:
Complement:	600
Armament:	4 × 20 cm gun, 14 × 15.2 cm gun (1×14), 10 × 8 cm gun (1×10), 6 × 47 mm gun, 2 × Maxim machine guns, 4 × 45 cm Torpedo tubes
Aircraft:	0

Nisshin (Jp:日進), also transliterated as Nissin, was a Kasuga-class armored cruiser of the Imperial Japanese Navy designed and built by Ansaldo in Italy, where the type was known as the Garibaldi class. Designed as a cross between a battleship and a cruiser, but with a very small displacement, it had the ability to stand in the battle line and the speed to avoid action with battleships. Its armor belt was only 6 inches thick but covered a far greater percentage of the hull than previous armored cruiser designs.

The Nisshin had a sister ship, the Kasuga.

[edit] History

The Nisshin was the last of the Garibaldi-class armored cruisers to be built. Ordered by the Italian Navy as the Roca, in the spring of 1902, it was sold immediately after launch to the Argentine Navy, who renamed it the Mariano Moreno. However, the possibility of war between Argentina and Chile abated before the ship was completed on January 7, 1904, making it surplus. The Japanese quickly purchased it due to increasing tension with Russia.

Completed in January 1904, she was convoyed to Japan by British sailors under Royal Navy escort, so that she could arrive in Japan safely (the Russian Navy was shadowing her with the intention of sinking her as soon as the conflict started). The British sailors were welcomed as heroes in Japan, and the British captain had the honor of an interview with the Meiji emperor.

At the start of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, the Imperial Japanese Navy had six modern battleships. This was slightly fewer than the number of Russian battleships at Port Arthur, but Japan had an edge in armored cruisers. On May 15, 1904. in a major disaster for the Imperial Japanese Navy, two Japanese battleships were lost to Russian mines, and the Kasuga accidentally rammed and sunk the cruiser Yoshino in a fog bank.

With a third of Japan’s battleships thus depleted, the unprecedented decision was taken to use the Nisshin and Kasuga in the line of battle during Battle of the Yellow Sea (August 10, 1904). The Nisshin received significant damage but stayed in the fight.

At the subsequent Battle of Tsushima on May 26, 1905, Nisshin, as flagship of Vice-Admiral Misu Sotaru (second in command after Admiral Tōgō Heihachirō), was 6th and last in the line of battle, following the Kasuga. At 14:15, Nisshin opened fire on the Oslayaba, the lead ship in the second column of the Russian fleet at a range of 7,000 yards.　At 14:40 Nisshin received her first hit as a Russian 12-inch shell cut her right 8-inch gun of the forward turret in half. Between 14:57 and 15:05, the Japanese fleet reversed course to block Russian northward movement, which put the Nisshin as first ship in the battle line. At 15:00, a Russian 12-inch shell punched through the armor belt of Nisshin one foot below the waterline and flooded a coal bunker. Another 12-inch shell hit the belt about three feet above the waterline but did not penetrate. At 15:06 the Russian cruiser Jemtchug charged the Japanese line for a torpedo attack but was driven off by fire from Nisshin, Kasuga and Iwate at 3300 yards.

At 15:30, the Japanese line again reversed course, placing Nisshin at the rear again. Another 12-inch hit was made on the Nisshin but without any significant damage. At 16:05, Nisshin was hit once more A 9-inch hit on the fore turret sent shell splinters into the conning tower, wounding Admiral Misu. By 17:07, the Japanese line was firing into the light of the setting sun and the Russian line had better visibility. Nisshin was hit again at 17:20 by another 12-inch shell, which cut the left 8-inch gun of the aft turret in half. She was now down to half her main armament. As daylight was dying, Nisshin was hit yet again at 19:00 by a 12-inch shell with her left 8-inch gun of the forward turret being cut in half. She now just had a single 8-inch gun operable, the right gun of the aft turret. After nightfall, the action of the main Japanese line concluded. Nisshin had expended 181 8-inch shells during the battle. Her rate of expenditure obviously decreased significantly as she lost first one, then two and finally three of her four 8-inch guns.

While serving on the Nisshin at the Battle of Tsushima, then ensign Yamamoto Isoroku lost two fingers on his left hand.

Of the battle damage received by the Japanese, Nisshin received the second most hits after Mikasa. Mikasa received over 40 hits, of which ten were from 12-inch shells. Nisshin was hit 13 times, including six 12-inch and one 9-inch hits. Given the number of hits on the Nisshin and the fact that she stayed in line throughout the battle, it can certainly be said that she had validated the hopes of the designer, a cruiser able to stand in the line of battle. The performance of the Japanese armored cruisers during the Battle of Tsushima and that of Nisshin in particular was such that it led to a burst of construction of armored cruisers in the world's navies and the battlecruiser designs that were shortly to follow.

Japanese armoured cruiser Nisshin in the Mediterranean (Malta, 1919).

From 1917, the Nisshin participated in World War I in the Mediterranean theater, where she led a group of eight Japanese destroyers based in Malta, in a mission to protect Allied shipping against German and Austrian submarine attacks.

During the 1920s, Nisshin was partially disarmed in accordance with the Washington Naval Treaty, and was used to transport Japanese soldiers to Siberia in 1922. She was then used as a training ship until decommissioned in 1935. In 1936, she was scuttled.

In a strange footnote in history, the Nisshin was later raised, and towed as a target by the battleship Mutsu at the Kamegakubi Naval Proving Ground, Inland Sea, 15 miles SW of Kure. There, on January 18, 1942, it was sunk again by the Yamato with her new 18.1 inch shells.

[edit] References

"Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860-1905"
Delorme, Pierre, Les Grandes Batailles de l'Histoire, Port-Arthur 1904, Socomer Editions (French)
Dull, Paul S. (1978) A Battle History of The Imperial Japanese Navy ISBN 0-85059-295-X
Gardiner, Robert (editor) (2001) Steam, Steel and Shellfire, The Steam Warship 1815–1905, ISBN 0-7858-1413-2
Tōgō Shrine and Tōgō Association (東郷神社・東郷会), Togo Heihachiro in images, illustrated Meiji Navy (図説東郷平八郎、目で見る明治の海軍), (Japanese)
Kofman,V.L. Armored Cruiser Type Garibaldi, Morskaya Kollektsia 3-1995 *Blond Georges, Admiral Togo
Campbell N.J.M., The Battle of Tsu-Shima