Japanese corvette Hiei (1877)
| Japanese corvette Hiei | |
| Career | Japanese Navy Ensign |
|---|---|
| Name: | Hiei |
| Ordered: | 1874 Fiscal Year |
| Builder: | Pembroke Dock, Wales |
| Laid down: | 24 September 1875 |
| Launched: | 11 June 1877 |
| Commissioned: | 25 February 1878 |
| Struck: | 1 April 1911 |
| Fate: | Scrapped |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Hiei-class corvette |
| Displacement: |
2,250 long tons (2,286 t) standard 3,718 long tons (3,778 t) full load |
| Length: | 67.1 m (220 ft 2 in) o/a |
| Beam: | 12.5 m (41 ft 0 in) |
| Draught: | 5.3 m (17 ft 5 in) |
| Propulsion: |
1-shaft horizontally-mounted reciprocating engine 6 boilers 2,270 shp (1,690 kW) 340 tons coal |
| Speed: | 14 knots (16 mph; 26 km/h) |
| Complement: | 286-314 |
| Armament: |
• 3 × 170 mm (6.7 in) Krupp breech-loading guns • 6 × 150 mm (5.9 in) Krupp breech-loading guns • 2 × 75 mm (3 in) 1-pounder breech-loading guns • 4 × 25 mm quad-mount repeating guns • 2 × 11 mm dual-mount repeating guns • 1 × 360 mm (14 in) torpedo tubes |
| Armour: | Belt: 4.5 in (110 mm) at waterline |
IJN Hiei (比叡 (コルベット) Hiei bōgō-korubetto) was the lead ship in the Hiei-class of armored corvettes in the early Imperial Japanese Navy. Hiei was named after the Mount Hiei, outside of Kyoto and the name was subsequently used for the World War II battleship Hiei.
History
Hiei was designed by Edward James Reed and built at the Milford Haven shipyard at Pembroke Dock, Pembrokeshire, Wales. She arrived in Yokosuka on 22 May 1878 after her shake-down cruise from England, by a British crew, with the future admiral Togo Heihachiro onboard, who had just completed six years of study in Great Britain.
From 8 April 1880 to 17 September 1880, Hiei undertook one of Japan's first long distance navigational training voyages, visiting India, Persia and various ports in Southeast Asia. Further training missions, extending into the Mediterranean Sea were undertaken in 1889, 1890, 1891, 1897, and 1899.
With heightened tensions between Japan and Joseon dynasty Korea after the assassination of several members of the Japanese embassy, Hiei was assigned to patrols of the Korean coast in the summer of 1882.
Hiei saw combat service in the first Sino-Japanese war, and was damaged in the battle of the Yalu river.
During the Russo-Japanese War, Hiei was based as a guard ship at Maizuru, and was subsequently relocated to Port Arthur after that naval base had fallen to the Japanese.
After the war, Hiei was assigned to surveying duties until 1 April 1911 when she was stricken from the lists.
References
- Chesneau, Roger and Eugene M. Kolesnik (editors), All The World's Fighting Ships 1860-1905, Conway Maritime Press, 1979 reprinted 2002, ISBN 0-85177-133-5
- Jentsura, Hansgeorg. Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1869-1945. Naval Institute Press (1976). ISBN 087021893X
External links
- Nishida, Hiroshi. "Materials of the Imperial Japanese Navy". http://homepage2.nifty.com/nishidah/e/stc0104.htm.
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