In 1868 in Japan coup “Meiji ISIN”, which restored the power of the Emperor, the Country emerged from the rule of feudal clans unified and became the Navy Military Ministry (in charge originally appeared, and the Navy) got a weird set of ships, which with the big stretch can be called a martial and which are not explicitly represented the Navy it consisted of ships and the bakufu feudal government, and the ships, inherited from his defeated opponents, first of all, the powerful clan of Satsuma Among them was the only battleship, purchased from rebel American Confederate southern States, a wooden Corvette and kolodka, as well as several armed steamers and sailboats to Japan in a dilemma, either to restore old ships, or upgrade your fleet, the Japanese have gone on the second way In 1870 was chosen as the benchmark the most powerful Navy in the world — the British.
Recently fully enclosed from the rest of the world has arrived several English instructors are engaged in training of seafarers and the transfer of modern technology, However, the Japanese were very careful and the British operated under numerous restrictions But for their allotted years, the British managed to do a lot of useful in Addition to fleet and training they have established the purchase of warships However, for the beginning it didn’t look inspiring among the first acquisitions were, for example, the Corvette “Tsukuba” with a displacement of around 1900 tons, built almost 20 years ago in the British colony — Burma, and then upgraded in the metropolis “Old man” (which language does not turn called cruiser) developed fallow more than 10 nodes, However, the Japanese belonged to this ancient and for all his fighting ships with a lot of care and love On it twice changed the artillery and, according to some information, in 1892, the “Tsukuba” even got four 152-mm quick-firing guns! In the final retirement the veteran was released after the Russo-Japanese war was Not much advantages and purchased in France 1400-ton Corvette “Asama”.
However, British experts is not limited to these obsolete ships In the shipyards of England were established already quite modern, armored units of the frigate “Fuso” (essentially, a small Armadillo) and corvettes “Hiei” and “Congo” is the latest Project developed by Edward reed, chief constructor of the Admiralty With a displacement of 2200 tons, they can reach 14 knots and had an iron belt with a thickness of up to 114 mm “Hiei” had yet to actively participate in Sino-Japanese war and to get their share of enemy shells in the battle at the mouth of the Yalu river is quite reasonably Decided “not to put all eggs in one basket”, The war Department abruptly changed the main supplier of ideas and ship Choices when it fell to archrival Britain By the beginning of 1880-x years in the far East began to arrive the French metallurgists and engineers They were able to complete their predecessors ‘ work and establish the construction of cruisers in the Japanese shipyards is Quite natural that at first all was not too smooth Wooden corvettes “Kaymon” and “Tenryu” with a displacement of only about 1,500 tons were built painfully long seven years each entered into operation only in 1885 — 1886 But turned out they are quite successful and rose to the Russo-Japanese war, during which in July 1904, “Kaymon” struck a mine in the Gulf of Talienwan and died, and “Tenryu”, successfully survived her, was excluded from the lists shortly after the conclusion of hostilities.
Successful project modernized, and the remainder of the stocks in Kosuke laid the following corvettes — “Musa-si” and “Katsuragi” Another Corvette of the same type, “Yamato”, was based on the state second shipyard in Kobe Ships had composite set with steel frames and wood paneling and was carrying a full sailing rig, taken at the turn of the century, in 1900 Accelerated and the construction, although a five-year term for a rather simple units, still remained insurmountable Practical “piece of wood” fit for study, but for serious war required ships bigger and more heavily armed Japanese were keen to get a strong and at the same time cheap modern cruiser, and French engineers are usually very vigilantly monitor such characteristics as stability, given “slack” Built in Le Havre “Wanbi” had all the external signs of the typical “franzwa”, such as “Sfax”, “Cecil” or “the Same”, had a fairly thick armor deck and good speed However, in an effort to satisfy the customer, the designers overdid the artillery, consisting of four heavy 240-mm kroposki guns, not counting the 150-millimetrovogo and other “stuff” as a result of an overloaded cruiser with sails dangerously careened and did not want to return to an even keel In this state, he left Le Havre on a long journey to the far East But it never arrived, completely disappeared somewhere between Singapore and Taiwan in October 1887.
The first loud “puncture” followed by further, albeit not so serious and completely different plan Refocusing on France brought to Japan ideas of the “young school”, was quite appropriate martial spirit of the samurai, Small boats, attacking armored giants, besides a good opportunity to show the valor of soldiers were also cheap, just affordable for a rapidly growing power, had too many desires and needs.
For the realization of new ideas from Europe arrived “heavy artillery” of the famous French shipbuilder Emile Bertin signed a three-year contract to stay in Japan, He proposed sverhoriginalnogo project three cruisers, armed with heavy guns and designed as the answer to fight against big battleships, is commissioned for the most powerful of the Northern squadron of the Chinese Navy “Matsushima”, “Hashidate” and “Itsukushima Shrine” were designated type “Sandakan” — “ships-landscapes”, as each piece bore the name of one of the three most famous in Japan species — the Bay of Matsushima in Miyagi Prefecture, sandbar AMA-but Hesitate in the Gulf of Miyazu, Kyoto Prefecture and the island of Tutuska in the Bay of Hiroshima, They are thought to act as a single unit, as if forming one “group Linkor” in which “Hashidate” and “Itsukushima Shrine” were “your towers” and “Matsushima” — “stern” Respectively, the main instrument, one of the most powerful at the time in the world 320-mm gun Kane, was located on the first pair in the nose, and on “closing” — in the stern in Addition to easily located in an armored Barbet guns-monster, each of the cruisers were carrying a substantial battery of 120-mm rapid-fire guns, just “coined” Skorostrel was located in a large battery in the center of the hull, firing through ports in both sides in the manner of the old frigates that they are on the case and was the primary weapon of “sankalana” But the small size of the ship was not allowed to provide them with protection, and therefore they were very vulnerable.
So no weird Martanovsky idea nor its implementing successful can not be called “Matsushima” failed to develop and so is not the sprint of 16.5-knots design speed, their boilers ran constantly and was denied However, the main disadvantage was their monstrous 320-graph paper, to which I had to sacrifice too much Themselves huge guns on such a small ship was almost useless 65-ton long barrel with the tip directly on Board noticeably banking housing, creating additional difficulties for the shooting, and not only his, but much more effective skorostrel even At a calm sea state from the “monster” managed to make no more than four shots per hour.
All the shortcomings of the project is fully manifested in the battle bad waited “sankeien” in the battle with the Chinese at the mouth of the Yalu river There for four hours the battle a 320 of graph paper gave 14 shots on all three, but unlike later battles, when the “Matsushima” wisely kept outside the effective return fire, they had to experience the impact of enemy shells. And then manifested all the shortcomings of close and unprotected 120 mm batteries One of the few caught shells with the Chinese battleships exploded among the ammunition on the “Matsushima”, causing a large fire, which injured nearly 100 people — about a third of the team, and half of them died Without a doubt, this hit became the most successful throughout the war and showed the extreme vulnerability of “pseudowintera” In the Russo-Japanese war “the infinity Trinity” took part in both major battles, but not in the Yellow sea and at Tsushima have not achieved a single hit, after all at least two dozen shells In General, the main benefit from the “scenery”, perhaps, was the process of “Assembly” “Hesitate” at the shipyard in ECOSOC (the other Two units were built in France) Is “build”, since almost all the mechanisms, equipment, materials and blueprints to Japan came from Europe, and the works were supervised by French engineers and knowledge is clearly not enough, and construction of “Hashidate” took twice the time It was commissioned three years later, “sisters”, However experience in the creation of a modern combat ship proved to be very useful.
94. Armored cruiser “Itsukushima Shrine” (Japan, 1891)
Built by company “e forges Chantiers” in La Seine (France) Displacement 4220 tons, waterline length 91,81 m, max of 104.29 m, width of 15.59 m, draft 6,05 m Capacity plants twin-shaft triple expansion 5400 l sec., speed 16.5 Arms one node 320-mm gun, eleven 120 mm rapid-fire guns, six 57-mm and twenty 37-mm small-caliber rapid-fire Booking deck 51 mm 1891 — 1894 built three units. “Matsushima”, “Itsukushima”, and “Hashidate” All participated in the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese wars “Matsushima” was killed in 1908 in the explosion cellars, two others from 1906 have been used as training ships, then, from 1912 —as a coastal defense ships Excluded from the lists of the fleet after the First world war, scrapped in 1925 — 1926.
95. Armored cruiser “Kasagi” (Japan, 1898)
It was built by the firm “crump” (USA) the Displacement of 4900 tons, length of maximum 121,47 m, width of 14.9 m, a draught of 5.41 m Power plants twin-shaft triple expansion 15000l s , speed 22.5 uspa Armed with two 203/45 mm, ten 120/40-mm and twelve 76/40-mm rapid-fire guns, six 47-mm small-caliber, four 457 mm torpedo allarat Booking deck 51 — 63 mm, bevels up to 114 mm, shields, guns 114 — 63 mm felling of 114 mm. In 1898 — 1899-built two units “Kasagi” and “Chitose”. In 1908-1912 gg upgraded with the replacement of boilers Participated in the Russian-alonsoi war “Kasagi” from 1910 was used as a training ship, the result of a navigation accident in 1916, was severely damaged and excluded from the lists of the fleet “Chitose” in 1922 put in reserve and disarmed, and then was used as target and sunk in 1931.
96. Armored cruiser “Niitaka” (Japan, 1904)
Built at the shipyard of the Navy in Kosuke 3365 tons Displacement, length of waterline 102,04 m, width of 13.44 m, draft 4,92 m Power pugmill plants “compound” 9500 liters , speed 20 knots Armament six 152/40 mm and ten 76/45 mm rapid-fire guns, four 47-mm-Booking deck 25 mm, the bevels 63 mm, shields, guns 51 mm, cutting 102 mm. In 1904 built two units of “Niitaka” and “Tsushima” Participated in the Russo-Japanese war “Niitaka” was lost in a hurricane in 1922 , “Tsushima” put in reserve in 1930 , 1936 was used as a training ship in 1939, disarmed and became a floating barracks, sunk in 1944 by American aircraft.
The failure of the implementation of extravagant ideas Bertina did not go unnoticed by the attentive Japanese still three years before the disaster with “Matsushima” In 1892 it was decided not to use the services of French Ministers Mikado quickly periodicals back to main competitors — the British And very successfully just in the 1890-ies began a rapid ascent up the pyramid of fame of the firm of Armstrong and his designers Actually, they largely created the modern Japanese Navy We have already talked about Allsvenskan “Yoshino”, armed solely korostelina and developed of 23 knots, which has done so much to win over the Chinese at the Yalu He was under the flag of Admiral Tsuboya led the “flying squadron”, consisting of most high-speed cruisers, attacked the enemy from the flank and finally the collapse of his regime.
Part of the “flying squadron” came the fast and modern cruiser, in addition to the “Yoshino”, El swinskie “Naniwa” and “Takachiho”, and the first modern Japanese buildings — “Akitsushima” He strongly resembled a smaller version of the American “alsviki” — “Baltimore” (which is not surprising since both projects was the chief designer of Armstrong William white) was built from materials brought from Britain.
First of all the Japanese cruisers built was a pair of “Suma” and “Akashi” Domestic finally had almost everything from design to materials, tools and equipment with the exception of the artillery was not to produce extra types of guns and ammunition, they left the English production of the same Armstrong British influence, albeit indirectly, was still very strong both ships is reminiscent of the “Akitsushima” by the layout and characteristics of Some step forward was the introduction of steam engines triple expansion vertical cylinders, however, the boilers are clearly “pulled back” type of locomotive had already almost completely disappeared from all more or less large warships They become a real headache for mechanics and not allowed to develop the contractual speed, and so is quite modest against the background of high-speed “alsviku” Not all at once managed and qualities such as seaworthiness Entered into operation the first “Suma” was not sufficiently stable and highly filled with waves, so the completion of “Akashi” was detained by modifying the hull design, which became Subsequently a flush-deck on both cruisers had replaced the archaic locomotive boilers on modern water-tube, but in the Russo-Japanese war, these ships had to suffer in the campaigns, trying to maintain something like full speed.
Built domestic cruiser is still too long, from four to five years, With the pace when there are only two shipyards capable of producing relatively large ships, the Japanese fleet was hopelessly behind their ambitious plans So the search was continued without success, in 1898, Armstrong had another great cruiser With a displacement a little less than 4200 t “Takasago” had a very powerful armament, including a pair of 203-mm, ten 120-mm and twelve 76-mm rapid-fire guns While the ship was perfect protection, which according to its creators, could withstand even an 8-inch shells So that the thickness of the slant deck in the Central part reached 114 mm in addition, the case had a large number of watertight compartments, the number of which exceeded a hundred Even a couple of almost entirely the same units have been ordered in the United States of America firms Kramp and the “Union Iron Works” Because at that time overseas, the technology is still lagged behind the capabilities allsvenska “magicians”, “Kasagi” and “Chitose” had a couple of large dimensions and displacement, with the same armament and protection it Should be noted, “the Englishman” was and more fast, reaching 23.5 per project site, while the “Americans” had to limit 22,5 the Main drawback of these very powerful for its size combat units volunteered their force of Two dozen guns, protected only by small shields, was located on the deck so closely that any projectile exploded there, was able to produce complete devastation among settlements With jasminewebcam having a well-understood problem of Heavy 113-pound projectile would be difficult to hold on not wide swinging deck even hefty Grenadier, and even more — not athletic build Japanese sailors So the designers have tried to help workers, providing installation and supply of electric motors Delivered by Elevator from the cellars of ammunition shells were laid out on a special cart that traveled on rails laid on the deck behind the gun to Push the projectile with such truck in the breech of the gun was, of course, much easier, but all this “railway services” remained highly vulnerable to enemy hits, including shrapnel.
It is clear that so thoroughly Laden ships had a very reasonable seaworthiness. However, the trio, along with experienced and just as fast “Yoshino” in the Russo-Japanese war made up the 3rd squadron of cruisers, a very actively used for reconnaissance and targeting on enemy with their main forces They brought a lot of unpleasant moments of our sailors nicknamed them for their overbearing “dogs” However, one of the “mongrels” have not lived up to Tsushima “Takasago” struck a mine in December 1904.
It should be noted that these powerful ships were built surprisingly quickly, “Takasago” was commissioned exactly two years after laying, and his American “cousins” — even faster.
But the Japanese were not on site Following a couple of domestic cruisers “Tsushima” and “Niitaka” has become much more successful than the long-suffering “Suma” and “Akashi” by increasing the displacement of about 700 tons, they received a single armament of six 6-Dujmovic, supplemented by a dozen 76-millimetrovogo the Ships were quite seaworthy and had very good stability of Course, their 20-node speed is a bit lost on the background of foreign records but it managed to develop without any problems and Decreased time of construction of the main shipyard of the country in Yokosuka managed to put into operation “Niitaka” two years and 20 days after laying, almost caught up with the leading firms of the main Maritime powers Interestingly, both had a dramatic boilers notorious type of Nicklaus, usually strongly swear at our experts and by historians (mainly on the example of “Varyag”), but throughout his career, Japanese sailors any problems with them not experienced.
But the next cruiser domestically-built, “Ready” was the first, who was also boilers domestic brands Unpretentious called “Canon” (i.e. “naval” or “naval”), they had a higher steam parameters than the vast majority of Western models (including those products of Nicklaus) and was very unpretentious and reliable in operation Somewhat smaller in comparison with their predecessors, the size of the ships forced to return to a mixed armament of 6 and 4.7-duymovic the type of “Akashi”, but the speed was increased to 21 site All Japanese armored cruisers as the high-speed “dog”, and less speed unit, descended from the slipway at Kure and Kosuke has been used extensively in the Russo-Japanese war, They were literally the servants on all hands, carrying the lookouts at Port Arthur and carrying out tactical reconnaissance and search in the battles I Must say that they were afraid of the larger and superior to the weapons (all except “dogs”) Russian “6-thousanders” and preferred to keep his light cruiser to a respectable distance from them and especially from our battleships, However, “fines” took a very active part in the search and the rebound smashed the 2nd Pacific squadron, taking advantage of its numerical superiority, “Ready” and “Niitaka” no problem caught up with corrupt “Svetlana” and sank her after an hour and a half battle But the immediate military success was the exception rather The same pair plus a detachment of Admiral Uriu (“Naniwa”, “Takachiho”, “Akashi” and “Tsushima”), the six of us are unable to cope with the old armored cruiser “Dmitry Donskoy”, although badly damaged it is Not always enough and speed since active service thoroughly “hooked” engines and boilers of virtually all units, few of which by the Tsushima battle could develop over 18 knots, “Chitose and “Akitsushima” was not able to catch up with the Emerald ring broke through the enemy at the surrender of the remnants of the squadron nevertheless, the activities of Japanese small cruisers should be recognized and useful, and successful, as evidenced by the fact that to Vladivostok got only four Russian light vehicle.
After the war with Russia, and without having a very mixed part of the Japanese cruising fleet has been enriched and trophies as a result, by 1907 created a unique situation In the Navy of the Mikado now there cruisers the production of virtually all major Maritime countries of England, France, USA, Germany, Russia and Италии1 an incredible mix of systems, mechanisms and weapons, and various naval architecture principles and techniques However, it is the experience of their operation has opened for Japanese designers is not available for the engineers of other powers the opportunity to choose the best And this experience was soon embodied in an original and powerful ships.
V. KOFMAN
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