Japanese battleship Katori

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The Japanese battleship Katori
Career (Japan)
Name: Katori
Builder: Vickers Barrow-in-Furness, UK
Laid down: 1904-04-27
Launched: 1905-07-04
Commissioned: 1906-05-20
Fate: Scrapped 1924
General characteristics
Class and type: Katori class battleship
Displacement: 15,950 tons (normal); 16,663 tons (max)
Length: 128.2 metres (420.6 ft) at waterline
Beam: 23.77 metres (78.0 ft)
Draught: 8.23 metres (27.0 ft)
Propulsion: 2-shaft VTE steam engine, 16,000 shp (11930 kW); 20 boilers
Speed: 18.5 knots (34.3 km/h)
Range: 1857 tons coal; 10,000 nautical miles (19,000 km) at 10 knots (19 km/h)
Complement: 864
Armament:


  • 4 ×12-inch (305 mm) guns
  • 4 x 10-inch (254 mm) guns
  • 12 ×6-inch (152 mm) quick fire guns
  • 4 x 3-inch (76 mm) 40-cal guns
  • 2 x 3-inch (76 mm) 28-cal guns
  • 5 ×18-inch (457 mm) torpedoes
Armour:


  • 229 mm main belt armor; 100 mm fore belt; 60 mm aft belt; 150 mm upper belt
  • 152 mm-300 mm barbette
  • 76 mm deck armor;
  • 152-230 mm turret, casement
  • 229 mm conning tower

Katori (香取 (戦艦) Kashima (senkan)?) was the lead ship in the Katori class of pre-dreadnought battleships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, designed and built by Vickers shipyards, in the United Kingdom. The name Katori comes from a famous Shinto shrine in Katori City, Chiba, located to the northeast of Tokyo. Its sister ship was the battleship Kashima.

Contents

[edit] Background

Kashima and Katori were ordered in response to the loss of Hatsuse and Yashima in Russo-Japanese War. Although the armored cruisers Nisshin and Kasuga successfully held their own in the line of battle during the crucial Battle of Tsushima, the Japanese Navy projected that a fleet of six battleships was the minimum necessary against potential threats from China, Russia or the United States. Although construction was rushed, Katori was delivered only after the end of the Russo-Japanese War. Prince and Princess Arisugawa were on hand for the official launching ceremony.[1]

[edit] Operational History

Katori arrived at Yokosuka on 1906-08-15 after her maiden voyage and shakedown cruise from Portsmouth, England.

During the visit of the United States Navy's Great White Fleet on its around-the-world voyage, Katori was part of the escort fleet through Japanese waters in October 1908. In a Naval Review off of Yokosuka on 1913-11-10, Katori had the honor of hosting the crown prince (the future Emperor Hirohito.

Although rendered obsolete by the development of the Dreadnaught class battleships, Katori participated World War I, albeit in a relatively minor role in the occupation of lightly defended German colonies in the Caroline Islands, Mariana Islands and Palau Islands groups.

After World War I, Katori served as part of the Japanese fleet involved in covering the landings of troops and coastal patrol during the Siberian Intervention of 1918-1921.

On 1922-03-03, Katori departed Japan with Prince Regent Hirohito on a six month tour of the United Kingdom and five other European countries: (France, Italy, Vatican City, the Netherlands, and Belgium) thus making him the first Japanese crown prince to travel abroad. Katori returned to Japan on 1922-09-03, and a series of commemorative postage stamps depicting Katori were issued by the Japanese government to commemorate the safe voyage.

As a result of the Washington Naval Agreement, the Katori was decommissioned on 1923-09-20, and was sent to the breakers at Maizuru Naval Arsensal in 1924. However, some of its larger guns were salvaged, and re-used in coastal artillery batteries around Tokyo Bay.

The battleship Katori should not be confused with the light cruiser Katori of the Pacific War era.


Japanese battleship Katori in China

Katori in 1906

Katori in 1915

[edit] References

  • Brown, D. K. (1999). Warrior to Dreadnought, Warship Development 1860-1906. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-84067-529-2. 
  • Evans, David (1979). Kaigun: Strategy, Tactics, and Technology in the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1887-1941. US Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0870211927. 
  • Howarth, Stephen (1983). The Fighting Ships of the Rising Sun: The Drama of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1895-1945. Atheneum. ISBN 0689114028. 
  • Jentsura, Hansgeorg (1976). Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1869-1945. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 087021893X. 
  • Schencking, J. Charles (2005). Making Waves: Politics, Propaganda, And The Emergence Of The Imperial Japanese Navy, 1868-1922. Stanford University Press. ISBN 0804749779. 

[edit] External links

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ New York Times, July 5 1905. A film of the launching is preserved at the British National Film Archives http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/590663?view=synopsis
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