Japanese battleship Kawachi
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 Japanese battleship Kawachi (1910) |
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| Career |  |
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| Builder: | Yokosuka Naval Yards, Japan | ||||||||
| Plan: | 1907 Fiscal Year | ||||||||
| Laid down: | 1 April 1909 | ||||||||
| Launched: | 15 Oct 1910 | ||||||||
| Completed: | 31 March 1912 | ||||||||
| Stricken: | 2 Sept 1918 | ||||||||
| Fate: | Sunk by magazine explosion, 12 July 1918 | ||||||||
| General Characteristics | |||||||||
| Displacement: | 20,823 tons (normal) | ||||||||
| Length: | 160.6 meters | ||||||||
| Beam: | 25.6 meters | ||||||||
| Draught: | 28.2 meters | ||||||||
| Propulsion: | Two shaft Curtiss turbine engines; Miyabara 16 boilers, 25,000 hp (19 MW) | ||||||||
| Speed: | 20 knots (37 km/h) | ||||||||
| Fuel: | 2300 tons coal; 400 tons oil | ||||||||
| Complement: | 986 | ||||||||
| Armament: | • 4 × 305 mm / 50 cal guns • 8 × 305 mm / 45 cal guns • 10 × 152 mm guns • 8 × 120 mm guns • 4 × 80 mm guns • 5 × 450 mm torpedo tubes |
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| Armor: |
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The Kawachi (河内) was a dreadnought type battleship of the Imperial Japanese Navy. She was built in Yokosuka and launched in 1910.
The name Kawachi comes from Kawachi Province, now a part of Osaka prefecture. The Kawachi had a sister ship, the Settsu, which had a clipper bow as opposed to the straight bow of the Kawachi.
The Kawachi was a modified version of the IJN Aki initially designed with six dual 12 inch / 50 caliber guns, but completed as a "semi-dreadnought" with a mixed main battery of 12" / 50 caliber and 12" / 45 caliber guns due to worldwide shortages of 12" / 50 caliber guns. Construction was also delayed by a severe world economic depression. The 12 inch guns were acquired from Great Britain, but the 25.000shp Brown-Curtis turbine engines were built under license by Kawasaki.
The Kawachi participated WW-1, patrolling the sea lanes south of Japan, in the South China Sea and the Yellow Sea, and assisting at the Battle of Tsingtao.
The Kawachi was sunk by an explosion caused by spontaneous ignition of instable cordite in its ammunition magazine on 12 July 1918, in Tokuyama Bay, with the loss of 621 officers and crew out of a complement of 1059 men. Stricken on 2 September 1918, its hulk was later salvaged and scrapped.
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