IJN Tsukuba

IJN The Story of Tsukuba

To compensate for losses during the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905), the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) received permission to build new warships. In June 1904, the Emergency Fleet Supply Budget allocated funds for this initiative, and the cruiser Tsukuba and her sister Ikoma came to fruition from the joint venture.

These warships were used to replace the IJN Yashima and IJN Hatsuse, which were originally destroyed by Russian mines.

Tsukuba was laid on January 14, 1905 and commissioned on January 14, 1907 - too late to be used in the conflict with Russia. Nonetheless, the two-man team continued to serve into the postwar period.

At this time, however, increasingly powerful battlecruisers were being built for the IJN, forcing Tsukuba to be reclassified as a "battlecruiser" on 28 August 1912.

Upon completion, Tsukuba will displace 14,000 tons under normal load and 15,600 tons under full load. She measures 450 feet in length, 75 feet in beam and 26 feet in draft. Power comes from 20 Miyabara boilers feeding 2 vertical triple expansion steam engines driving 20,500 hp to 2 shafts. It has a top speed of 20.5 knots and a range of 5,000 nautical miles.

The number of occupants was 879. Armor protection ranges from 7 inches on the belt and turret to nearly 8 inches on the conning tower. The deck is covered with 3 inches of protection.

Armament consists of 4 x 12" main guns and 12 x 6" secondary guns. Carry 12 x 4.7" guns and 4 x QF 3lb Hotchkiss guns. Torpedo laying elements were also installed via 3 x 450 mm tubes - a common feature of warships of the time.

During this decade, Tsukuba made several peaceful trips to the United States and Europe. In October 1908, it participated in the passage of the U.S. Navy's "Great White Fleet" through Japanese waters. The warship served until the First World War (1914-1918) and was used to blockade Qingdao, China, as it was still under German control (treaty).

She was then used to hunt down the German East Asia Squadron, which was eventually destroyed in the Battle of the Falklands in December 1914. Since then, Tsukuba was recalled and remained there during the war.

On January 14, 1917, when she was docked in Yokosuka, her magazine ignited, killing between 200 and 300 crew members. The explosion was attributed to the accidental burning of aged garnet powder. The ship sank, but not completely, which means that with some effort, it was able to rise again.

The warship was subsequently targeted by IJN pilots before being removed from the naval register on September 1, 1917, out of wartime use, and sold as scrap in 1918.

Her sister IJN Ikoma was scrapped in 1923 under the terms of the Washington Naval Agreement of 1922.

IJN Tsukuba Code

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