Japanese cruiser Nisshin

Nisshin (日進), also transliterated as Nissin, was a Kasuga-class cruiser armored cruiser of the Imperial Japanese Navy designed and built by Ansaldo in Genoa Italy, where the type was known as the Giuseppe Garibaldi-class cruiser. Designed as a cross between a battleship and a cruiser, but with a very small displacement, it had the ability to stand in the line of battle and the speed to avoid action with battleships. Its armor belt was only 6 in thick, but covered a far greater percentage of the hull than previous armored cruiser designs. The second ship of her class, Nisshin was sister ship to the JAPANESE CRUISER Kasuga.

Background
Nisshin was the last of the Giuseppe Garibaldi-class cruiser armored cruisers to be built. The first ship in the class had been completed in 1895 and the series had enjoyed considerable export success, and had evolved with improvements over the years based on operational experience.

Originally ordered by the Italian Navy as Roca in the spring of 1902, it was sold immediately after launch to the Argentine Navy, who renamed it the Mariano Moreno. However, the possibility of war between Argentina and Chile abated before the ship was completed, making it surplus. The Italian government attempted to sell the ship to Russia, but in December 1903 rejected the Russian counter-offer. The Japanese government quickly stepped in and purchased it due to increasing tension with Russia.

The keel was laid in May 1902, and the vessel was launched on 9 February 1903. The ship was designated Nisshin on 7 January 1904.

Design
Nisshin had an overall length of 111.73 m, and beam of 18.71 m, with a nominal displacement of 7698 LT and draught of 7.4 m. The ship was armored with Italian-made Terni Steel, similar to Krupp armor in performance.

She was powered by two vertical triple expansion steam engines made by Ansaldo, with eight cylindrical boilers, driving two screws. This type of boiler was considered obsolete at the time, but was used to provide standardization with other ships in the Argentine Navy. The engine had a nominal output of 14896 shp, which yielded a theoretical speed of 20.15 kn) (although for practical purposes, Nisshin could only make around 18 kn).

Her main armament consisted of four 20.3 cm/45 Type 41 naval guns, paired in gun turrets in the bow and stern. Secondary armament consisted of 14 QF 6 inch /40 naval guns and 10x QF 12 pounder 18 cwt naval gun and six QF 3 pounder Hotchkiss. She also had four 457-mm torpedo tubes.

Service record
Still not fully completed in January 1904, Nisshin and Kasuga sailed, from Genoa to Japan under the command of British captains with combined British, Italian and Arab crews. Nisshin was commanded by Captain J.H. Lea and Kasuga was commanded by Captain H.H. Paynter, both captains having their Royal Navy commissions temporarily withdrawn in order to avoid a diplomatic incident should the ships came into conflict with Russian forces. During the voyage, the Imperial Russian Navy shadowed the two vessels with the intention of sinking them as soon as the conflict started, however, the Royal Navy cruiser HMS King Alfred (1901) also shadowed the Japanese ships in the Indian Ocean once they had passed Port Said. On their arrival in Japan, the officers and men of both ships were welcomed as heroes in Japan, and their British captains had the honor of an interview with Emperor Meiji.

Russo-Japanese War
Nisshin and Kasuga reached Yokosuka Naval District on 16 February 1904 just as Japan opened up hostilities with its naval attack on Port Arthur, and work to obtain combat readiness status was accelerated. Both vessels were declared ready on 11 April 1904, and joined the IJN 1st Fleet under the overall command of Admiral Tōgō Heihachirō. Immediately on arrival, on 13 April Nisshin participated in the action outside Port Arthur which led to the sinking of the Russian battleship RUSSIAN BATTLESHIP Petropavlovsk and the death of Russian admiral Stepan Makarov. On 14 April, under the command of Vice Admiral Kataoka Shichirō, Nisshin took part in the shore bombardment of the town and land fortifications of Port Arthur using indirect fire over the intervening range of hills.

At the start of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, the Imperial Japanese Navy had six modern battleships. This was slightly fewer than the number of Russian battleships in the Pacific. On 15 May 1904 in a major disaster for the Imperial Japanese Navy, two Japanese battleships were lost to Russian mines, and Kasuga accidentally rammed and sunk the cruiser JAPANESE CRUISER Yoshino in a fog bank. With a third of Japan's battleships thus depleted, the unprecedented decision was taken to use Nisshin and Kasuga in the line of battle together with the remaining four first line battleships JAPANESE BATTLESHIP Mikasa, JAPANESE BATTLESHIP Asahi, JAPANESE BATTLESHIP Shikishima and JAPANESE BATTLESHIP Fuji during Battle of the Yellow Sea (10 August 1904). Nisshin received significant damage, including 16 killed and 15 wounded, but stayed in the fight.

At the subsequent Battle of Tsushima on 26 May 1905, Nisshin, as flagship of Vice-Admiral Misu Sotarō (second in command after Admiral Tōgō Heihachirō), was 6th and last in the line of battle, following Kasuga. At 14:15, Nisshin opened fire on the RUSSIAN BATTLESHIP Oslyabya, the lead ship in the second column of the Russian fleet at a range of 7000 yd. At 14:40 Nisshin received her first hit as a Russian 12 in shell cut the right 8-inch gun of her forward turret in half. Between 14:57 and 15:05, the Japanese fleet reversed course to block Russian northward movement, which put Nisshin as the first ship in the battle line. At 15:00, a Russian 12 in shell punched through the armor belt of Nisshin one foot below the waterline and flooded a coal bunker. Another 12 in shell hit the belt about three feet above the waterline but did not penetrate. At 15:06, the Russian cruiser RUSSIAN CRUISER Zhemchug charged the Japanese line for a torpedo attack but was driven off by fire from Nisshin, Kasuga and JAPANESE CRUISER Iwate at 3300 yd.

At 15:30, the Japanese line again reversed course, placing Nisshin at the rear again. Another 12 in hit was made on Nisshin but without any significant damage. At 16:05, Nisshin was struck once more by a 9 in hit on the forward turret sent shell splinters into the conning tower, wounding Admiral Misu. By 17:07, the Japanese line was firing into the light of the setting sun and the Russian line had better visibility. Nisshin was hit again at 17:20 by another 12 in shell, which cut the left 8-inch gun of her aft turret in half. She was now down to half her main armament. As daylight was dying, Nisshin was hit yet again at 19:00 by a 12 in shell with the left 8-inch gun of her forward turret being cut in half. She now just had a single 8 in gun operable: the right gun of her aft turret. After nightfall, the action of the main Japanese line concluded. Nisshin had expended 181 8 in shells during the battle. Her rate of expenditure obviously decreased significantly as she lost first one, then two and finally three of her four 8 in guns.

While serving on Nisshin at the Battle of Tsushima, then Ensign Yamamoto Isoroku lost two fingers on his left hand.

Of the battle damage received by the Japanese, Nisshin received the second most hits after JAPANESE BATTLESHIP Mikasa. Mikasa received over 40 hits, of which ten were from 12 in shells. Nisshin was hit 13 times, including six 12 in and one 9 in hits. Given the number of hits on Nisshin and the fact that she stayed in line throughout the battle, it can certainly be said that she had validated the hopes of the designer: a cruiser able to stand in the line of battle. The performance of the Japanese armored cruisers during the Battle of Tsushima and that of Nisshin in particular was such that it led to a burst of construction of armored cruisers in the world's navies and also directly led to the battlecruiser designs that were shortly to follow.

After the battle, Nisshin participated in the July–August 1905 invasion of Sakhalin.

World War I and subsequent history
From 1917, Nisshin participated in a limited extent in World War I. During the early part of the war, she participated in the unsuccessful search in the Pacific Ocean for the cruiser squadron of the Imperial German Navy, from a forward base in Truk in the Caroline Islands.

Later in the war, from 1917, she was assigned to the Mediterranean theater, where she led a group of eight Japanese destroyers based in Malta, in a mission to protect Allied shipping against German and Austrian submarine attacks, as part of Japan’s contribution to the Allied war effort under the Anglo-Japanese Alliance.

On 1 September 1921, Nisshin was partially disarmed in accordance with the Washington Naval Treaty and was reclassified as a Coastal Defense Vessel. She was used to transport Japanese soldiers and supplies to Siberia in 1922 as part of Japan's Siberian Intervention.

She was used from 1927 primarily as a training vessel for officer cadets at the Imperial Japanese Navy Academy and was based out of Yokosuka Naval District until decommissioned in April 1, 1935. Renamed Hai-Kan No.6, her hulk was sunk as a target ship during live fire exercises off of Kure in the Seto Inland Sea in 1936.

Nisshin was later raised, and towed as a target by the battleship JAPANESE BATTLESHIP Mutsu at the Kamegakubi Naval Proving Ground in the Seto Inland Sea, 15 mi SW of Kure (34.08333°N, 132.88333°W). There, on 18 January 1942, it was sunk again by the battleship JAPANESE BATTLESHIP Yamato with her new 18.1 inch guns.

The city of Nisshin in Aichi prefecture was named after the cruiser Nisshin in 1905.