Zipang Republic

Armoured man

Posted: July 12th, 2023, 4:08 pm

Posts: 325
Joined: June 7th, 2016, 4:53 pm

Tusryū Class Armoured Cruiser

With the end of the 19th century rapidly approaching, the Zipang Admiralty and the Navy as a whole were somewhat caught in a precarious position. Much of the already existing fleet was incredibly outdated with many of the ships dating all the way back to the 1860s and 70s, in fact, the newest ship in the fleet was the quite antiquated ironclad monitor Wanryu.

And despite wanting to expand and modernize, the Admiralty found this very difficult because of the strict budgetary limitations they were placed under by the current parliament of the time, which as one of its policies drastically cut military spending, particularly the navy budget, back to the absolute bare minimum that was essential to keep the navy operational.

However with continuing tensions between the Japanese and Zipang governments, and the fact of the Japanese ocean going battlefleet continued to grow year by year. The parliament was finally persuaded by the Admiralty and at the time grand Admiral Arashi Masashi, into allocating the appropriate funds for purchasing a squadron of Armoured Cruisers and two brand-new battleships.

Although despite initially wanting to build the ships domestically, the Admiralty was faced with the reality that the industrial capacity and the shipyards in Zipang simply did not have the expertise to build modern armoured Cruisers at that current time.

As such while the Admiralty sent multiple engineers and industrial architects overseas to study the new armoured Cruisers would be purchased from a foreign contractor, with the Admiralty eventually deciding on the French Builder Forges et Chantiers de la Gironde, being chosen to build the new class of Armoured Cruiser which itself was based on the Marine Nationale's Amiral Charner class of 1894.

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Tusryū ACR-1 as commissioned into the Zipang navy, 16th of December 1896)

Tusryū, and her three sisters that would follow, despite their unusual appearance unusual and somewhat ungainly appearance, were unremarkable armoured Cruisers, in fact even by the standards of the time they were considered somewhat small and under gunned with the main Armament only consisting of two 19cm guns into single turrets. However, despite all of that, the Navy still consider them more than adequate for what they were designed for.

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Taifūryū ACR-3 as she looked wearing the new standard grey paint scheme in 1907

Tusryū and her sisters Chōryū, Taifūryū and Yugeryū would be incorporated into the brand new 1st Cruiser Squadron, for the final years of the 1890s that's where they would stay, but none of the newer and much more capable Tsurumi class armoured Cruisers in 1898, Tusryū and her sisters would be split into two groups, Taifūryū and Yugeryū being moved from the 1st Cruiser Squadron to the brand new 2nd Cruiser Squadron, along with the brand new armoured Cruisers Hiji and Monobe. the first and second Cruiser Squadrons now forming the fast wings of the battle line, with them intended to support the slower and much more heavily armed battleship in any potential engagement.

The first decade of the 1900s would be completely uneventful for Tusryū and her sisters, all of them performing their duties well, but due to their French origins, the capacity for them to be useful units in Battle quickly began to deteriorate due to the unique and non-standard nature when compared to the rest of the rapidly growing Zipang Fleet. As such with the Navy beginning the early design work on a brand new class of Armoured Cruiser. Tusryū and her sisters were living on borrowed time, with all of them eventually being moved into the reserve fleet as the much more powerful and capable Akan class came into service. But with the rapidly deteriorating political situation in Europe, the old cruisers would quickly find a new lease on life.

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Chōryū ACR-2 as she looked during her Atlantic convoy service wearing a standard version of type 12 dazzle camouflage in mid-to-late 1918
The start of the Great War in 1914 would see all four members of the Tusryū class called back into service, all of them being split between the 1st and 2nd Cruiser Squadron which now with the addition of the old armoured Cruisers brought the total strength for both squadrons up to 12 ships. However Tusryū and her sisters wouldn't serve very long alongside their fellow armoured Cruisers, instead in 1915 they would be requisitioned by the British for convoy escort Duty in the Atlantic. And even though the service in the Atlantic was incredibly unremarkable, they would serve these duties well, often interacting with other British ships and even some of their distantly related French cousins in the form of various French armoured and protected Cruisers.

But with the end of the war in 1918, the service as convoy escort would come to an end, and even though they have not seen any surface action Tusryū were completely worn out in every respect, their engines. In particular, having seen so many miles that it was a miracle that all four of the ships have even made it back to Zipang waters in the first place without breaking down. As such due to their dilapidated condition, obsolescence and old age, Tusryū and her three other sister's would all be placed into the reserve fleet, before eventually being scrapped in late 1922 to comply with the Washington Naval Treaty.

Tusryū 1896

Displacement - 5,100 tonnes standard
Length: 387 ft O/A
Beam: 50 ft L.W.L
Draft: 20 ft At Standard Load
Installed power: 20x Belleville Coal Fired Boilers
11,000 shp
Propulsion: 2x shafts; 2x Triple Expansion Steam Engines
Speed: 19 knots
Range: 8,500 at 15 knots
Complement: 400
Main Armament: 2x1 Type-96 19cm/45 guns
Secondary Armament: 6x1 Type-96 13cm/45 guns
Tertiary Armament: 6x1 Type-96 7.62cm/40 guns, 4x1 Type-91 4cm/30 guns

Armour:
Main Belt: 6cm - 9cm
Conning tower: 10cm
Armoured Deck: 4cm - 7cm max
Main Battery: 10cm turret face, 5cm sides/top, 10cm barbettes

Ships in class

Tusryū (ACR-1) - Scrapped 1922
Chōryū (ACR-2) - Scrapped 1922
Taifūryū (ACR-3) - Scrapped 1922
Yugeryū (ACR-4) - Scrapped 1922

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Work list: 1. various pre-1900 Zipang ships 2. Some protected cruisers and other miscellaneous projects

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