Japanese cruiser Iwate

A postcard of Iwate at anchor, 1905
History
Empire of Japan
Name:	Iwate
Namesake:	Iwate Prefecture
Ordered:	19 July 1898
Builder:	Armstrong Whitworth, United Kingdom
Laid down:	11 November 1898
Launched:	29 March 1900
Completed:	18 March 1901
Reclassified:	1st-class coast-defense ship, 1 September 1921 1st-class cruiser, 1 July 1942 As training ship, 1943
Struck:	30 November 1945
Fate:	Sunk by air attack, 25 July 1945 Raised and scrapped, 1946–47
General characteristics
Class and type:	Izumo-class armored cruiser
Displacement:	9,423 t (9,274 long tons)
Length:	132.28 m (434 ft 0 in) (o/a)
Beam:	20.94 m (68 ft 8 in)
Draft:	7.21 m (23 ft 8 in)
Installed power:	14,500 ihp (10,800 kW) 24 Belleville boilers
Propulsion:	2 Shafts 2 Vertical triple-expansion steam engines
Speed:	20.75 knots (38.43 km/h; 23.88 mph)
Range:	7,000 nmi (13,000 km; 8,100 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement:	672
Armament:	2 × twin 20.3 cm/45 Type 41 naval guns 14 × single QF 6-inch guns 12 × single QF 12-pounder 12-cwt guns 8 × single QF 2.5-pounder Yamauchi guns 4 × 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: 127 mm (5.0 in)

Iwate (磐手^?) was the second and last Izumo-class 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 Britain. She participated in most of the naval battles of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05. The ship was moderately damaged during the Battle of Port Arthur, the Battle off Ulsan, and the Battle of Tsushima. Iwate played a minor role in World War I and began the first of her many training cruises for naval cadets in 1916, a task that would last until the end of 1939. The ship continued to conduct training in home waters throughout the Pacific War. Iwate was sunk by American carrier aircraft during the attack on Kure in July 1945. Her wreck was refloated and scrapped in 1946–47.

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 British 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. The revised plan is commonly known as the "Six-Six Fleet". Unlike most of their contemporaries which were designed for commerce raiding or to defend colonies and trade routes, Iwate and her half-sisters were intended as fleet scouts and to be employed in the battleline.