Japanese cruiser Hirado

Hirado (平戸) was the third and final vessel built in the Chikuma-class of protected cruisers of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Hirado had two sister ships, JAPANESE CRUISER Chikuma and JAPANESE CRUISER Yahagi. She was named for after the island of Hirado, Nagasaki.

Background
Hirado was the last protected cruiser built for the Imperial Japanese Navy. Designed shortly after the Russo-Japanese War, she was laid down at Kawasaki Shipbuilding Corporation in Kobe on 10 August 1910, launched on 29 June 1911 and entered service on 17 June 1912.

Design
Hirado had a hull with an overall length of 144.8 m and width of 14.2 m, with a normal displacement of 5040 tons and draft of 5.1 m. Hirado was propelled by two Curtis steam turbine engines (also produced by Kawasaki, with a total capacity of 22,500 shp, which drove two screws. The engine had 16 Kampon boilers, which exhausted though four tall smokestacks. These newly developed engines gave the ship an incredible (for the time) 26.87 knot speed, but problems with material strength in the gears of the new engines created a maintenance nightmare, and Hirado could seldom live up to its potential. The ship was armed with eight QF 6 inch /40 naval guns, one each fore and aft, and three mounted in sponsons on each side of the hull. Ships of the Chikuma-class were unusual in having the same weapons for its side armament as for its main battery. These gun were supplemented by four QF 12 pounder 12 cwt naval guns and two 7.7 mm Lewis Guns. In addition, she carried three torpedo launchers with 457-mm torpedoes. After 1919, two 8 cm/40 3rd Year Type naval gun were added for anti-aircraft defense abeam of the fourth funnel, replacing three of the 12-pdrs.

Service record
Hirado participated in World War I, as part of Japan's contribution to the Allied war effort under the Anglo-Japanese Alliance. She was in the Japanese squadron which gave chase to the German East Asia Squadron led by Admiral-Graf Maximilian von Spee in 1914. Hirado and Yahagi were in the Allied 2nd Southern Squadron led by the battleship JAPANESE BATTLESHIP Satsuma and commanded by Rear-Admiral Matsumura Tatsuo, patrolling the region around Sumatra unsuccessfully for the German cruiser SMS Emden (1906)

On 26 March 1917, the British Admiralty further requested the deployment of Chikuma and Hirado to Australia and New Zealand to protect shipping against German commerce raiding operations.

After the end of the war, Hirado was assigned to patrol off the east coast of Russia to provide protection and support for supply convoys to Japanese ground forces in Siberia during Japan’s Siberian Intervention against the Bolshevik Red Army. Future Fleet Admiral Osami Nagano was captain of Hirado from 1919-1920 (his only ship command).,

During the 1920s and 1930s, Hirado was mostly assigned to guarding the southern approaches to Japan, and made frequent port calls to Manila and Macau. From 1932, she was re-assigned to patrol the northern coast of China, as relations between Japan and China continued to deteriorate after the Manchurian Incident, and she was based at Port Arthur. However, problems with her engines resulted in frequent stays in repair yards, and she was unable to participate in any combat operations in the Second Sino-Japanese War.

Considered a reserve vessel in 1933 and used primarily for training thereafter, Hirado was officially stricken from the navy list on 1 April 1940. Re-designated Hai Kan No.11, it was moored as a barracks ship at Etajima, and then Kure. It was towed to Iwasaki in December 1943. The hulk was scrapped from January through April 1947 by a Tokyo-based salvage company, becoming part of the breakwater at Iwakuni port.