Japanese cruiser Akashi

Akashi (明石) was a Suma-class cruiser protected cruiser of the Imperial Japanese Navy. It was a sister ship to the JAPANESE CRUISER Suma. The name Akashi comes from an ancient name for a portion of the coastline near the modern city of Kobe in Hyōgo Prefecture.

Background
Suma was designed and built at Yokosuka Naval Arsenal, as part of an Imperial Japanese Navy program to end its dependence on foreign powers for modern warships. Construction took four years, from 1892-1896. While more lightly armed and armored than many of its contemporaries, its small size and relatively simple design facilitated its construction and its relatively high speed made it useful for many military operations. However, as with most Japanese designs of the period, she proved to be top-heavy and had issues with seaworthiness and stability.

Design
The design for Akashi was based on an all-steel, double-bottomed hull, with an armored deck, divided underneath by watertight bulkheads. Her armor covered only vital areas, such as the boilers, gun magazines and critical machinery, with a thickness of 25 mm on the deck. Her main battery consisted of two QF 6 inch /40 naval guns, one set in the forecastle and one in the stern. The main guns had a range of up to 9100 m with a nominal firing rate of 5.7 shots/minute. Secondary armament consisted of six QF 4.7 inch Gun Mk I–IV mounted in sponsons on the upper deck. These guns had a range of up to 9000 m with a nominal firing rate of 12 shots/minute. She also had ten QF 3 pounder Hotchkiss guns, with a range of up to 6000 m with a nominal firing rate of 20 shots/minute, mounted four on the upper deck, two on the poop, two on the after bridge and one each on the bow and stern, as well as four 1-inch Nordenfelt gun, which was later replaced by four 7.62 mm Maxim machine guns. She also was equipped with two 356-mm torpedoes, mounted on the deck.

Early years
After entering service in March 1899, Akashi experienced numerous mechanical problems and had to return to Yokosuka Naval Arsenal for repairs in October 1899 and January 1900, with additional repairs performed at Kure Naval Arsenal in May 1900 and at Sasebo Naval Arsenal in July 1900.

The first overseas deployment of Akashi was from July–November 1900, to support Japanese naval landing forces which occupied the port city of Tianjin in northern China during the Boxer Rebellion, as part of the Japanese contribution to the Eight-Nation Alliance.

Immediately on her return, she required repairs to her boilers at Kure. From April – October 1901, Akashi was sent to southern China, and was then again renovated in Kure. From February 1902, Akashi was again deployed to China but was forced once more to cut her deployment short when it was found that three of her boilers could not hold pressure, and she could not achieve over 14 knots. She returned to China in May, but had to return again in June. In August 1902, Akashi was deemed unfit for front-line service and was transferred to the reserve fleet.

Unwilling to write off the ship as a loss, the General Staff ordered Akashi to be completely overhauled at Kure Naval Arsenal in March 1903, and then sent the ship as a training vessel with instructors and cadets from the Imperial Naval Engineering Academy on a cruise around the coasts of China and Korea, marking port calls at Fuzhou, Shanghai, Yantai, Inchon, Busan and Wonsan, returning to Sasebo in September 1903. In October and November 1903, Akashi was able to participate in combat maneuvers with other cruisers in the fleet. Akashi was then assigned to escorting the Japanese cable laying vessels laying the first submarine telegraph cable between Sasebo and Incheon in Korea from January 8–17, 1904.

During speed trials conducted in January 1904, Akashi attained a top speed of 19.5 knots.

Russo-Japanese War
Akashi was based in Korea at the start of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, and was stationed at sea off the southeastern coast of the Korean Peninsula as a telegraphic relay station immediately before the outbreak of hostilities. She participated in the Battle of Chemulpo Bay at the start of the war, assisting in the landing of Japanese ground forces and participating in the sinking of the Russian cruiser RUSSIAN CRUISER Varyag and the gunboat RUSSIAN GUNBOAT Korietz. Afterwards, she participated in the naval Battle of Port Arthur as part of the 2nd Fleet (Imperial Japanese Navy). In 1905, she was reassigned to coastal patrol duties, but as part of the Combined Fleet it was present at the final crucial Battle of Tsushima, where it played a role in the sinking the armored cruiser RUSSIAN ARMOURED CRUISER Dmitrii Donskoi.

World War I
From 1908-1909, future Prime Minister of Japan Suzuki Kantarō served as captain of Akashi. In 1912, Akashi was re-boilered, with her nine horizontal locomotive-style boilers replaced with nine Niclausse boilers.

In World War I, Akashi was part of the IJN 2nd Fleet in combat against the Imperial German Navy at the Battle of Tsingtao. In 1916, she was assigned to patrol the sea lanes from Borneo to the Malacca Straits and eastern Indian Ocean against German commerce raiders, as part of Japan's contribution to the Allied war effort under the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, and was based at Singapore.

Rear-Admiral Kōzō Satō commanded the "Second Special Squadron" with Akashi as flagship with the 10th and 11th Destroyer Units (eight destroyers) based at Malta from 13 April 1917. He was reinforced by the 15th Destroyer Unit with four more destroyers from 1 June 1917 to carry out on direct escort duties for Allied troop transports in the Mediterranean. After being relieved by JAPANESE CRUISER Izumo, Akashi returned to Japanese home waters, where she spent the remainder of the war.

After the end of the war, Akashi was re-designated as a 2nd class Coastal Defense Vessel from 1 September 1921. She was removed from the navy list on 1 April 1928. Deemed obsolete, she was expended as a target for dive bombers south of Izu Ōshima on 3 August 1930.

The main mast of Akashi is preserved at the Japan Maritime Self Defense Academy at Etajima, Hiroshima.