Japanese cruiser Hashidate
Hashidate in a 1904 postcard.
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| History | |
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 Empire of Japan
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| Name: | Hashidate |
| Ordered: | 1886 Fiscal Year |
| Builder: | Yokosuka Naval Arsenal, Japan |
| Laid down: | 6 August 1888 |
| Launched: | 24 March 1891 |
| Completed: | 26 June 1894 |
| Struck: | 1 April 1922 |
| Fate: | Scrapped 1927 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Matsushima-class cruiser |
| Displacement: | 4,278 long tons (4,347 t) |
| Length: | 91.81 m (301 ft 3 in) w/l |
| Beam: | 15.6 m (51 ft 2 in) |
| Draft: | 6.05 m (19 ft 10 in) |
| Propulsion: | 2-shaft reciprocating; 6 boilers; 5,400 hp (4,000 kW), 680 tons coal |
| Speed: | 16.5 knots (19.0 mph; 30.6 km/h) |
| Complement: | 360 |
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Hashidate (橋立?) was the third (and final vessel) in the Matsushima class of protected cruisers in the Imperial Japanese Navy. The ship was the only one of the class constructed in Japan. Like sister ships, (Matsushima and Itsukushima) her name comes from one of the traditional Three Views of Japan, in this case, the Ama-no-hashidate in northern Kyoto prefecture on the Sea of Japan.
Forming the backbone of the Imperial Japanese Navy during the First Sino-Japanese War, the Matsushima-class cruisers were based on the principles of Jeune Ecole, as promoted by French military advisor and naval architect Louis-Émile Bertin. The Japanese government did not have the resources or budget to build a battleship navy to counter the various foreign powers active in Asia; instead, Japan adopted the radical theory of using smaller, faster warships, with light armor and small caliber long-range guns, coupled with a massive single 320 mm (12.6 in) Canet gun. The design eventually proved impractical, as the recoil from the huge cannon was too much for a vessel of such small displacement, and its reloading time was impractically long; however, the Matsushima-class cruisers served their purpose well against the poorly equipped and poorly led Imperial Chinese Beiyang Fleet.
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