Japanese ironclad warship Fusō

300px Japanese ironclad warship Fusō
Career (Japan)	50px
Name:	Fusō
Ordered:	1875
Builder:	Samuda Brothers, Cubitt Town, London
Laid down:	1875-09-24
Launched:	1877-04-17
Commissioned:	January 1878
Decommissioned:	1908-04-01
Fate:	Scrapped 1910
General characteristics
Class and type:	ironclad warship Fusō
Displacement:	3,717 tons
Length:	67.06 metres (220.01 ft)
Beam:	14.63 metres (48.00 ft)
Draught:	5.49 metres (18.01 ft)
Propulsion:	2-shaft reciprocating triple expansion steam engine; 8 boilers, 3,500 shp (2,610 kW)
Speed:	13 knots (24 km/h)
Range:	360 tons coal 4,500 nautical miles (8,000 km) at 10 knots (19 km/h)
Complement:	377
Armament:	4 × 240 mm/20 caliber guns 4 × 170 mm/25 caliber guns 4 x 7.5 mm guns 2 x Nordenfelt quadruple machine gun 2 x 35.6 mm torpedos
Armour:	100-230 mm belt 200 mm battery 175 mm bulkhead

Fusō (扶桑, Fusō) was an ironclad warship of the early Imperial Japanese Navy. She was built by the Samuda Brothers at Cubitt Town, London, United Kingdom, and commissioned in January 1878. She was the first armored warship to be built for the Imperial Japanese Navy in England. Tōgō Heihachirō, later a prominent Japanese admiral, supervised its construction. It should not be confused with the later (1914-era) dreadnought battleship Fusō. The name Fusō was taken for an ancient name of Japan in Chinese legend.

Background

Fusō was ordered in 1875, as part of Japan's first steps towards building a modern navy. As Japan lacked the expertise and the industrial infrastructure to construct such a vessel, the order was placed to a shipyard in England, and a number of promising young Japanese junior officers were sent to England to supervise the construction, and to receive training in operations and engineering.

The design of Fusō was based on a scaled-down version of HMS Iron Duke, an Audacious-class central battery ironclad, familiar to the Japanese as the flagship of the Royal Navy China Station from 1871-1875. As early coal fired steam engines were unreliable, Fusō was built with two fully functional sailing masts for auxiliary propulsion.

Operational History

Fusō arrived in Yokohama from 1878-06-11 via the Suez Canal and the Indian Ocean and was classed as a second-class warship due to her small size. Fusō hosted Emperor Meiji for one of the first naval reviews of the Imperial Japanese Navy on 1878-07-11 in Tokyo Bay. Emperor Meiji later made use of Fusō on a visit to Kyoto in July 1880, and on a tour of Hokkaidō in August 1881.

Fusō collided with the new cruiser Takachiho on 1889-12-18, but suffered little damage.

Originally scheduled for retirement in 1891, Fusō went into dry dock at Yokosuka Naval Arsenal from November 1891-July 1894 for repairs and upgrades.

With the start of the First Sino-Japanese War, Fusō saw front-line combat at the Battle of the Yalu River of 1894-09-17 (during which it took 8 direct hits, with 2 crewmen killed and 12 wounded), and at the Battle of Weihaiwei.

On 1897-10-29, Fusō collided with the cruiser Matsushima in rough weather off the coast of Iyo (Shikoku) and sank. Captain Uryū Sotokichi was confined to the brig for three months over the incident. Refloated the following year, Fusō was repaired at Kure Naval Arsenal and re-classed as a second-class battleship on 1898-03-21, and refitted with new Krupp cannons; repairs continued through April 1900.

Fusō again saw combat service during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, where it was assigned to the blockade of Port Arthur, and patrol of the sea lanes around the Strait of Tsushima and the coast of Korea. It served as flagship of Rear Admiral Sukeuji Hosoya, Seventh Division, Third Squadron, and was held in reserve independent of the Combined Fleet until the crucial Battle of Tsushima.

Already extremely obsolete, Fusō was re-classed as a second-class Coastal defence ship immediately after the Russo-Japanese War, on 1905-12-11, and officially retired on 1908-04-01. It was broken up for scrap in Yokohama in 1910.

500px

References

• Chesneau, Roger (1979). Conway's All The Worlds Fighting Ships, 1860-1905. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-133-5. 
• Howarth, Stephen (1983). The Fighting Ships of the Rising Sun: The Drama of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1895-1945. Atheneum. ISBN 0689114028. 
• Jane, Fred T (1904). The Imperial Japanese Navy. Thacker, Spink & Co. ASIN: B00085LCZ4. 
• Jentsura, Hansgeorg (1976). Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1869-1945. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 087021893X. 
• Schencking, J. Charles (2005). Making Waves: Politics, Propaganda, And The Emergence Of The Imperial Japanese Navy, 1868-1922. Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-4977-9.