Japanese cruiser Azuma

Colorized photo of Azuma at anchor, Portsmouth, 1900
Class overview
Operators:	Imperial Japanese Navy
Preceded by:	Yakumo
Succeeded by:	Kasuga class
History
Name:	Azuma
Namesake:	Kantō region
Ordered:	12 October 1897
Builder:	Ateliers et Chantiers de la Loire, Saint-Nazaire, France
Laid down:	1 February 1898
Launched:	24 June 1899
Completed:	28 July 1900
Reclassified:	As 1st class coast-defense ship, 1 September 1921
Struck:	1941
Fate:	Scrapped, 1946
General characteristics
Type:	Armored cruiser
Displacement:	9,278 t (9,131 long tons)
Length:	137.9 m (452 ft 5 in) (o/a)
Beam:	17.74 m (58 ft 2 in)
Draft:	7.18 m (23 ft 7 in)
Installed power:	18,000 ihp (13,000 kW) 24 Belleville boilers
Propulsion:	2 Shafts 2 Vertical triple-expansion steam engines
Speed:	21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph)
Range:	7,000 nmi (13,000 km; 8,100 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement:	670
Armament:	2 × twin 20.3 cm/45 Type 41 naval guns 12 × single QF 6 inch /40 naval guns 12 × single QF 12 pounder 12 cwt naval guns 8 × single QF 3 pounder Hotchkiss guns 5 × single 457 mm (18.0 in) torpedo tubes
Armor:	Waterline belt: 89–178 mm (3.5–7.0 in) Deck: 63 mm (2.5 in) Gun Turret: 160 mm (6.3 in) Barbette: 152 mm (6.0 in) Casemate: 51–152 mm (2.0–6.0 in) Conning tower: 356 mm (14.0 in) Bulkhead: 76 mm (3.0 in)

Azuma (吾妻^?) (sometimes transliterated (archaically) as Adzuma) was an armored cruiser built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) in the late 1890s. As Japan lacked the industrial capacity to build such warships herself, the ship was built in France. She participated in most of the naval battles of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05 and was lightly damaged during the Battle off Ulsan and the Battle of Tsushima. Azuma began the first of five training cruises in 1912 and saw no combat during World War I. She was never formally reclassified as a training ship although she exclusively served in that role from 1921 until she was disarmed and hulked in 1941. Azuma was badly damaged in an American carrier raid in 1945, and subsequently scrapped in 1946.

The 1896 Naval Expansion Plan was made after the First Sino-Japanese War, and included four armored cruisers in addition to four more battleships, all of which had to be ordered from overseas shipyards as Japan lacked the capability to build them itself. Further consideration of the Russian building program caused the IJN to believe that the battleships ordered under the original plan would not be sufficient to counter the Imperial Russian Navy. Budgetary limitations prevented ordering more battleships and the IJN decided to expand the number of more affordable armored cruisers to be ordered from four to six ships, believing that the recent introduction of tougher Krupp cemented armor would allow them to stand in the line of battle. The revised plan is commonly known as the "Six-Six Fleet". The first four ships were built by Armstrong Whitworth in the United Kingdom, but the last two ships were built in Germany and France. To ensure ammunition compatibility, the IJN required their builders to use the same British guns as the other four ships. In general, the IJN provided only a sketch design and specifications that each builder had to comply with; otherwise each builder was free to build the ships as they saw fit. Unlike most of their contemporaries which were designed for commerce raiding or to defend colonies and trade routes, Azuma and her half-sisters were intended as fleet scouts and to be employed in the battleline.