Japanese cruiser Hirado
 Hirado in 1916 |
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| Career |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | Hirado |
| Ordered: | 1907 Fiscal Year |
| Builder: | Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Kobe, Japan |
| Laid down: | 10 August 1910 |
| Launched: | 29 June 1911 |
| Commissioned: | 17 June 1912 |
| Struck: | 1 April 1940 |
| Fate: | Scrapped, 1947 |
| General characteristics (initial - final) | |
| Type: | Protected cruiser |
| Displacement: | 5,040 long tons (5,121 t) |
| Length: | 144.8 m (475 ft 1 in) o/a |
| Beam: | 14.2 m (46 ft 7 in) |
| Draught: | 5.1 m (16 ft 9 in) |
| Propulsion: | 2 shaft Curtiss turbine engines; 16 boilers 22,500 hp (16,800 kW) 1,128 tons coal |
| Speed: | 26 knots (30 mph; 48 km/h) |
| Range: | 10,000 nmi (19,000 km) at 10 kn (12 mph; 19 km/h) |
| Complement: | 414 |
| Armament: | • 8 × 152 mm (6 in) guns • 4 × 80 mm (3 in) guns • 2 × machine guns • 3 × 450 mm (18 in) torpedo tubes |
| Armour: | Belt: 50–89 mm (2.0–3.5 in) Deck: 37–57 mm (1.5–2.2 in) Conning tower: 100 mm (3.9 in) |
Hirado (平戸) 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 led 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 No.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
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In 1912
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At Auckland, New Zealand in 1912
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In dry dock at Cockatoo Island, Sydney 8 May 1917.
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