Tsukuba class cruiser
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 The Japanese battlecruiser Tsukuba |
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| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Tskuba |
| Builders: | Kure Naval Arsenal, Japan |
| Operators: |  Imperial Japanese Navy |
| Planned: | Six |
| Completed: | Two |
| Cancelled: | Four |
| Lost: | One |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | battlecruiser |
| Displacement: | 13,750 tons |
| Length: | 134.11 metres (440.0 ft) |
| Beam: | 22.80 metres (74.8 ft) |
| Draught: | 7.95 metres (26.1 ft) |
| Propulsion: | Two Shaft Reciprocating VTE steam engine; 20 boilers, 20,500 shp (15290 kW) |
| Speed: | 20.5 knots (38 km/h) |
| Range: | 2000 tons coal; 160 tons oil 5,000 nautical miles (9,000 km) at 14 knots (26 km/h) |
| Complement: | 876 |
| Armament: |
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| Armour: |
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The two Tsukuba class cruisers (筑波型 巡洋戦艦 Tsukuba-gata junyōsenkan?) were battlecruisers operated by the Imperial Japanese Navy. They participated in numerous actions during the World War I.
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[edit] Background
Construction of the Tsukuba class heavy cruisers was ordered under the 1904 Emergency Fleet Replenishment Budget of the Russo-Japanese War, spurred on by the unexpected loss of the Yashima to a naval mine in the early stages of the war. As the new class was the largest design yet attempted independently by Japanese naval shipyards, contemporary American military observers were surprised (and concerned) at the rapid pace of construction, and that Japan had learned to build such large and powerful warships so quickly, and in such a short time. However, with rapid advances in naval technology and with increasing budget constraints on the Imperial Japanese Navy in the period immediately after the end of the Russo-Japanese War, the project was scaled back, and in the end, only Tsukuba and Ikoma were built out of what was intended to be a class of six vessels.
[edit] Design
The Tsukuba class cruisers were intended to be Japan's answer to the British Royal Navy's HMS Invincible. The design intent was to retain the speed and protection of the latest version armoured cruisers, but with the addition of the all big gun armament of the Dreadnought-design.
[edit] Armament
The main battery on the Tsukuba-class were four Type 41 12-inch 45 caliber naval guns, mounted in twin gun turrets to the fore and aft, along the centerline of the vessel. These were made by Japan Steel Works under licence from Vickers-Armstrong, and were the first large-caliber weapons manufactured in Japan. Secondary armament was provided by twelve Type 41 6 inch 40 caliber naval guns and twelve Type 41 4.7 inch 40 caliber naval guns.
[edit] Propulsion
Propulsion was by two vertical triple expansion steam reciprocating engines, two-shafts, with twenty boilers, yielding 20,500 shp (15290 kW) design speed of 20.5 knots (38 km/h) and a range of 5,000 nautical miles (9,000 km) @ 14 knots (26 km/h). During speed trials in Hiroshima Bay prior to commissioning, Ikoma attained a top speed of 21.75 knots (40 km/h)
[edit] Ships in class
Commissioned from Kure Naval Arsenal in 1907, Tsukuba served patrol duty during World War I primarily in the Pacific Ocean and in Southeast Asia. On 1917-01-14, Tsukuba exploded while in port at Yokosuka, and sank with a loss of 305 men.
Ikoma circumnavigated the southern hemisphere of the globe soon after commissioning from Kure Naval Arsenal in 1908. Ikoma served patrol duty during World War I primarily in the Pacific Ocean and in Southeast Asia. Ikoma was a victim of the Washington Naval Agreement of 1923.
[edit] References
- 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.
- Jane, Fred T. The Imperial Japanese Navy. Thacker, Spink & Co (1904) ASIN: B00085LCZ4
- 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
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