Japanese cruiser Hirado
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 Japanese light cruiser Hirado in 1916 |
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| Career |  |
|---|---|
| Builder: | Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Kobe, Japan |
| Ordered: | 1907 Fiscal Year |
| Laid down: | 10 August 1910 |
| Launched: | 29 June 1911 |
| Commissioned: | 17 June 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: | Two Shaft Curtiss Turbine Engines; 16 boilers; 22,500 shp |
| Speed: | 26.0 knots |
| Fuel & Range: | 1128 tons coal 10,000 nautical miles @ 10 knots |
| Complement: | 414 |
| Armament: |
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| Armor: |
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IJN Hirado (平戸 防護巡洋艦 Hirado bōgojunyōkan?) was the third and final vessel built in the Chikuma-class of second class protected cruisers of the Imperial Japanese Navy. The Hirado had two sister ships, Chikuma and Yahagi. Hirado was named for after the town of Hirado, Nagasaki.
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[edit] Background
Designed shortly after the Russo-Japanese War, the Chikuma-class light cruisers combined fairly heavy armament and displacement with newly-developed Curtis turbine engines, which gave it an incredible (for the time) 26.87 knot speed. However, problems with material strength in the gears of the new engines created a maintenance nightmare, and Hirado could seldom live up to its potential.
[edit] Service record
Hirado 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. Hirado and Yahagi were in the 2nd Southern Squadron lead by the battleship Satsuma and commanded by Rear-Admiral Matsumura Tatsuo.
On 26 March 1917, the British Admiralty further requested the deployment of Chikuma and Hirado to Australia and New Zealand to protect shipping against German raiding operations.
After the end of the war, Hirado 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.
During the 1920s and 1930s, Hirado was mostly assigned to guarding the southern approaches to Japan, and made frequent port calls to Manila and Macau. From 1932, it was re-assigned to patrol the northern coast of China, as relations between Japan and China continued to deteriorate after the Manchurian Incident, and was based at Port Arthur.
Considered a reserve vessel in 1933, Hirado was officially stricken from the Navy list on 1 April 1940. Re-designated Hai Kan Nr 11, it was moored as a barracks ship at Etajima, and then Kure. It was towed to |Iwasaki in December 1943. The hulk was scrapped in 1947, becoming part of the breakwater at Iwakuni port.
[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.
[edit] Gallery
 IJN Hirado in 1912 |
 IJN Hirado at Auckland, New Zealand in 1912 |
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