The Japanese battleship Aki |
| Career |
 |
| Built: |
Kure Naval Yards, Japan |
| Ordered: |
1904 Fiscal Year |
| Laid down |
March 15 1906 |
| Launched: |
April 14 1907 |
| Completed: |
March 11 1911 |
| Fate: |
Sunk as Target September 7 1924 |
| General characteristics |
| Displacement: |
20,100 tons (normal); 21,800 tons (max) |
| Length: |
146.9 meters @ waterline; 150 meters overall |
| Beam: |
25.50 meters |
| Draught: |
8.4 meters |
| Propulsion: |
2-shaft Curtis Turbine, 15 boilers; 24,000 HP |
| Speed: |
20 knots |
| Fuel |
172 tons oil; 3000 tons coal |
| Complement: |
931 |
| Armament: |
- 4 × 305 mm guns
- 12 × 254 mm guns
- 8 x 152 mm guns
- 7 x 80 mm guns
- 5 x 450 mm torpedo tubes
|
| Armor: |
- belt: 100-230 mm
- barbette:180-240 mm
- turret: 180- 200 mm
- conning tower: 150 mm
- deck: 50mm
|
The IJN Aki (安芸) was a dreadnought type battleship of the Imperial Japanese Navy, designed and built in Japan by the Kure Naval Yards. The name Aki comes from Aki Province, now a part of Hiroshima prefecture. Its sister ship was the battleship Satsuma. She was designed as an all-big gun battleship, but shortages of 12 inch （305 mm） guns only allowed her to have a combination armament. For this reason, she is sometimes defined as a "Semi-Dreadnought" battleship. The Aki was the last Japanese battleship built with coal-fired steam turbine engines, and the first Japanese battleship with turbine propulsion, which allowed her to reach a speed of 20.25 knots during trials in December 1910. The Aki's construction was delayed by some 10 months to allow for the completion of the cruiser Tsukuba. The Aki participated in World War I, patrolling the sea lanes south of Japan, in the South China Sea and the Yellow Sea, but without a notable battle record. As a result of the Washington Naval Agreement, the Aki was decommissioned on 20 September 1923. It was expended as a target, and sunk by the Nagato and the Mutsu off of Nojimasaki, southern Boso Peninsula, Chiba on 07 September 1924, in a ceremony witnessed by the then Crown Prince Hirohito and the heads of all the departments in the Japanese military. However, some of its larger guns were salvaged, and re-used in coastal artillery batteries around Tokyo Bay, including those at Misaki, Kanagawa, Miura Peninsula, and at Jogashima.
Gallery
