Japanese corvette Tenryū

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Japanese armed sloop Tenryū
Career IJN Ensign
Builder: Yokosuka Naval Arsenal, Japan
Ordered: 1877 Fiscal Year
Laid down: 9 February 1878
Launched: 18 August 1883
Commissioned: 5 March 1885
Fate: Scrapped 20 October 1906
General characteristics
Displacement: 1547 tons
Length: 67.4 meters overall
Beam: 9.8 meters
Draft: 5.0 meters
Propulsion: One Shaft, Horizontally-mounted Reciprocating Engine; 4 boilers; 1260 shp
Speed: 12 knots
Fuel & Range: 256 tons coal
Complement: 210
Armament:
  • 1 × 170 mm gun (6.7" Krupp breech-loading)
  • 1 x 150 mm gun (5.9" Krupp breech-loading)
  • 4 x 120 mm guns
  • 1 x 75 mm gun
  • 4 x 25 mm quadruple Nordenfeld guns

IJN Tenryū (天龍 (スループ) Tenryū suru-pu?) was a wooden armed sloop in the early Imperial Japanese Navy. Tenryū was named after the Tenryū River in Shizuoka and Nagano Prefectures; the name was subsequently used for the World War II light cruiser Tenryū.

[edit] History

Although described by the rather ambiguous terms “gunboat” or “corvette”, Tenryū was designed as a three-masted bark-rigged sloop. It was based on the design of the Kaimon, except slightly larger in displacement and with slightly heavier weaponry. As with the Kaimon, construction took much longer than initially anticipated, and it required over seven years to complete. However, even after launching, numerous issues needed to be addressed, including a problem with stability that required the addition of bulges to the hull.

Tenryū saw combat service in the First Sino-Japanese War, at the Battle of Lushunkou and subsequently at the Battle of Yalu River (1894). After the war, Tenryū was designated a second-class gunboat, and was used for coastal patrol duties. It caught fire on November 1897, and required extensive repairs.

During the Russo-Japanese War, Tenryū was based as a guard ship at Kobe port. After the war, it was transferred to Maizuru, where it served as a training vessel. Tenryū was retired on 21 December 1911, and scrapped in 1912.

[edit] References

  • Chesneau, Roger and Eugene M. Kolesnik (editors), All The World's Fighting Ships 1860-1905, Conway Maritime Press, 1979 reprinted 2002, ISBN 0-85177-133-5
  • Jentsura, Hansgeorg. Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1869-1945. Naval Institute Press (1976). ISBN 087021893X

[edit] External links

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