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Japanese battleship Kawachi (1910) |
|
Career (Japan) |
 |
| Name: |
Kawachi |
| Ordered: |
1907 |
| Builder: |
Yokosuka Naval Arsenal,
Japan |
| Laid down: |
1 April 1909 |
| Launched: |
15 October 1910 |
| Commissioned: |
31 March 1912 |
| Struck: |
2 September 1918 |
| Fate: |
Sunk by magazine explosion, 12 July 1918 |
|
General characteristics |
| Class and type: |
Kawachi class battleship |
| Displacement: |
20,823 long tons (21,157 t) (normal) |
| Length: |
160.6 m (527 ft) |
| Beam: |
25.6 m (84 ft) |
| Draught: |
8.2 m (27 ft) |
| Installed power: |
18,642.5 kW (25,000 shp) |
| Propulsion: |
2 × Curtiss turbines,
16 × Miyabara boilers,
2 × shafts |
| Speed: |
20 kn (37 km/h; 23 mph) |
| Range: |
Coal: 2,300 tons; Fuel
Oil: 400 tons |
| Complement: |
986 |
| Armament: |
4 × 305 mm (12 in)/50 cal guns (2x2), 8 × 305 mm
(12 in)/45 cal guns (4x2), 10 × 152 mm (6 in)/45 cal
guns, 8 × 120 mm (4.7 in)/40 cal guns, 12 × 76 mm
(3 in)/40 cal guns, 4 × 76 mm (3 in)/25 cal guns, 5
× 457 mm (18 in) torpedo tubes |
| Armour: |
|
The Kawachi (河内
?) was the lead ship of the two-ship Kawachi-class of semi-dreadnought battleships of the Imperial Japanese Navy. She was
built at Yokosuka Naval Arsenal and
launched in 1910. The name Kawachi comes from Kawachi
Province, now a part of Osaka
prefecture.
Kawachi had a sister ship, the Settsu, which had a
clipper bow as opposed to the straight bow of the
Kawachi.
Background
Kawachi was ordered under the 1907 Fleet Expansion
Program as one of the first steps in full implementation of the Eight-Eight Fleet Program. The Japanese
Navy projected that a fleet of eight front-line battleships was the
minimum necessary against potential threats from China, Russia or the United States. Construction was delayed
by a severe world economic
depression. The 305 mm (12 in) guns were acquired
from Great
Britain, but the 18,642.5 kW (25,000 shp)
Brown-Curtis turbine engines were built under license by
Kawasaki Heavy Industries in
Japan.
Operational
History
Commissioned on 31 March 1912, Kawachi had a short
operational history. During World War I, Kawachi was assigned
to patrol the sea lanes
south of Japan, in the South China Sea and the Yellow Sea, as part of
Japan’s contribution to the war effort under the terms of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance. She
was also at the Battle of
Tsingtao.
Kawachi was sunk by an explosion caused by spontaneous
ignition of unstable cordite
in its ammunition magazine on 12 July 1918, while
anchored at Tokuyama Bay, with the loss of 621 officers
and crew out of a complement of 1,059 men. Stricken on 2 September
1918, its hulk was later salvaged and scrapped.
Gallery
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.
- 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.
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