Japanese battleship Satsuma
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 Japanese battleship Satsuma |
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| Career (Japan) |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | Satsuma |
| Ordered: | 1904 |
| Builder: | Yokosuka Naval Arsenal, Japan |
| Laid down: | 15 May 1905 |
| Launched: | 15 Nov 1906 |
| Commissioned: | 25 Mar 1910 |
| Fate: | Sunk as target, 7 Sep 1924 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Satsuma class battleship |
| Displacement: | 19,372 tons (standard), 19,700 (fully loaded) |
| Length: | 137.16 metres (450.0 ft) (waterline); 146.91 metres (482.0 ft) (overall) |
| Beam: | 25.48 metres (83.6 ft) |
| Draught: | 8.38 metres (27.5 ft) |
| Propulsion: | 2-shaft Reciprocating VTE steam engines; 20 Miyabara boilers; 17,300 shp (12900 kW) |
| Speed: | 18.25 knots (34 km/h) |
| Range: | 2860 tons coal; 377 tons oil |
| Complement: | 887 |
| Armament: |
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| Armour: |
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Satsuma (薩摩 (戦艦)? Satsuma (senkan) was a semi-dreadnought type battleship of the Imperial Japanese Navy, designed and built in Japan by the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal. The name Satsuma comes from Satsuma Province, now a part of Kagoshima prefecture. Some naval historians regard the battleship Aki as her sister ship, although Aki differed considerably in her power plant and silhouette.
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[edit] Background
Funding for Satsuma was approved as part of the 1904 Emergency Budget for the Russo-Japanese War, and she was the first battleship to be designed and built domestically in Japan, although the basis of the design was essentially a modified version of the Royal Navy's Lord Nelson class battleship and many parts were sourced from United Kingdom.
[edit] Design
Satsuma was the first ship in the world to be designed and laid down as an all-big-gun battleship, although gun shortages caused HMS Dreadnought to be the first one to be completed. She was also the largest battleship in the world at the time of her launch, which was witnessed by Emperor Meiji[1]
The Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905) and the Battle of Tsushima (1905) showed that uniform-caliber big guns were the best way to hit enemy warships at a distance large enough to avoid the threat of torpedoes, and to coordinate fire with identical salvoes.
| “ | "Laid down before Dreadnought and intended to carry 12-inch guns, she should have been completed as the world's first all-big-gun battleship. However there were not enough Armstrong 1904 pattern 12-inch guns available, and 10-inch guns had to be substituted for all but four of the weapons. Thus, it was that future all-big gun battleships were to be called "dreadnoughts", and not "satsumas"." (Jane's "Battleships of the 20th century"). | ” |
Both Satsuma and the all-big-gun 1908 USS South Carolina (BB-26), also designed before HMS Dreadnought, lacked the other big advance in British ship technology — the move from triple expansion steam engines to steam turbines for propulsion.
[edit] Operational History
After commissioning at Yokosuka on 25 March 1906, Satsuma was assigned to the IJN 1st Fleet. Satsuma participated in World War I, patrolling the sea lanes south of Japan, in the South China Sea and the Yellow Sea, and assisting in the occupation of the former German Caroline Islands, and in the Battle of Tsingtao.
After the war, Satsuma was used as a support vessel, to cover the landings of Japanese troops in Russia during Japan's Siberian Intervention.
Satsuma was scrapped to comply with the provisions of the 1922 Washington Treaty, and was used as a target, being sunk by gunfire 30 nautical miles (56 km) northeast of Miyakejima from the Kongō and Hyūga on 1924-09-07.
[edit] Gallery
 Satsuma in old postcard |
 Satsuma in December 1915 |
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[edit] Notes
- ^ New York Times, November 15 1906
[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.
- Hoare, J.E. (1999). Britain and Japan, Biographical Portraits, Volume III. RoutledgeCurzon. ISBN 1873410891.
- 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.
