Japanese cruiser Yahagi (1911)
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 Japanese light cruiser Yahagi in 1916 |
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| Career |  |
|---|---|
| Builder: | Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Nagasaki, Japan |
| Ordered: | 1907 Fiscal Year |
| Laid down: | 20 June 1910 |
| Launched: | 3 October 1911 |
| Commissioned: | 27 July 1912 |
| Fate: | Scrapped 1 April 1940 |
| General characteristics (initial – final) | |
| Displacement: | 5,040 tons |
| Length: | 144.8 meters overall |
| Beam: | 14.2 meters |
| Draft: | 5.1 meters |
| Propulsion: | Four Shaft Parsons Turbine Engines; 16 boilers; 22,500 shp |
| Speed: | 26 knots |
| Fuel & Range: | 1128 tons coal 10,000 nm @ 10 knots |
| Complement: | 414 |
| Armament: |
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| Armor: |
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IJN Yahagi (矢矧 防護巡洋艦 Yahagi bōgojunyōkan?) was the second vessel in the Chikuma-class of second class light cruisers of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Yahagi had two sister ships, Chikuma and Hirado. Yahagi was named after the Yahagi River, which runs through Nagano, Gifu and Aichi prefectures.
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[edit] Background
Designed shortly after the Russo-Japanese War, it combined fairly heavy armament and displacement with newly-developed Parsons-type turbine engines, which gave it an incredible (for the time) 27.14 knot speed. However, problems with material strength in the gears of the new engines created a maintenance nightmare, and the Yahagi could seldom live up to its potential.
[edit] Service record
Yahagi participated in World War I as part of Japan's contribution to the Allied war effort under the Anglo-Japanese Alliance. It was in the Japanese squadron which gave chase to the German Asiatic Squadron led by Admiral-Graf Maximilian von Spee in 1914. Yahagi and Hirado were in the 2nd Southern Squadron lead by the battleship Satsuma and commanded by Rear-Admiral Tatsuo Matsumura.
From December 1914 to January 1915, the light cruisers Chikuma and Yahagi patrolled the coast off north Queensland, Australia.
On 7 February 1917 the Imperial Japanese Navy formed the First Special Squadron which composed the cruisers Yahagi, Tsushima, Suma and Niitaka, together with the Second Destroyer Flotilla. This squadron was based at Singapore and commanded by Rear Admiral Kozaburo Oguri. On 26 March 1917, the British Admiralty further requested the deployment of the Chikuma and Hirado to Australia and New Zealand to protect shipping against German raiding operations.
Yahagi and Suma were ordered to the Indian Ocean to continue cooperation with the British China Squadron, and Tsushima and Niitaka proceeded to Mauritius. The Yahagi continued to patrol the eastern coasts of Australia and New Zealand from May to October 1917. Yahagi, the last ship deployed by Japan to defend Australia and New Zealand, sailed from Sydney back to Japan on 21 October 1918.
The crew of Yahagi became stricken with influenza during the Great Influenza Epidemic of December 1918, and had to make an emergency port call at Manila harbor for 46 days, during which time 300 of her crew were incapacitated, and 48 died.
After the end of the war, Yahagi was assigned to patrol off the coast of Russia and to provide protection and support for supply convoys to Japanese ground forces in Siberia during Japan's Siberian Intervention against the Bolshevik Red Army.
Yahagi was mostly assigned to guarding the southern approaches to Japan, and made frequent port calls to Manila and Macau. From 1924, Yahagi was considered a reserve vessel and was used primarily as a moored training ship.
Stricken from the Navy list on 1 April 1940 and re-designated Hai Kan Nr 12 at the Etajima (Imperial Japanese Naval Academy), it served as a barracks ship for submarine crews until 1943. The hull was scrapped in 1947.
Yahagi should not be confused with the short-lived Agano-class light cruiser of the same name from the Pacific War period.
[edit] Gallery
 Yahagi from USS Black Hawk (AD-9) circa 1932, possibly in Manila Bay, Philippines |
 Yahagi in 1912 |
[edit] References
- Evans, David (1979). Kaigun : Strategy, Tactics, and Technology in the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1887-1941. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-192-7.
- Howarth, Stephen (1983). The Fighting Ships of the Rising Sun: The drama of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1895-1945. Atheneum. ISBN 0-68911-402-8.
- Jentsura, Hansgeorg (1976). Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1869-1945. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-893-X.
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