Japanese cruiser Izumo

A Japanese postcard of Izumo at anchor in 1905
History
Empire of Japan
Name:	Izumo
Namesake:	Izumo Province
Ordered:	24 September 1897
Builder:	Armstrong Whitworth, United Kingdom
Laid down:	14 May 1898
Launched:	19 September 1898
Completed:	25 September 1900
Reclassified:	As 1st class coast-defense ship, 1 September 1921 As 1st class cruiser, 1 July 1942 As training ship, 1943
Struck:	20 November 1945
Fate:	Sunk by air attack, 24 July 1945 Scrapped, 1947
General characteristics
Class and type:	Izumo-class armored cruiser
Displacement:	9,503 t (9,353 long tons)
Length:	132.28 m (434 ft 0 in) (o/a)
Beam:	20.94 m (68 ft 8 in)
Draft:	7.26 m (23 ft 10 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)

Izumo (出雲^?, sometimes transliterated Idzumo) was the lead ship of her class of armored cruisers 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 often served as a flagship and participated in most of the naval battles of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05. The ship was lightly damaged during the Battle off Ulsan and the Battle of Tsushima. Izumo was ordered to protect Japanese citizens and interests in 1913 during the Mexican Revolution and was still there when World War I began in 1914.

She was then tasked to search for German commerce raiders and protect Allied shipping off the western coasts of North and Central America. The ship assisted the armored cruiser Asama in early 1915 when she struck a rock off Baja California. In 1917, Izumo became the flagship of the Japanese squadron deployed in the Mediterranean Sea. After the war, she sailed to Great Britain to take control of some ex-German submarines and then escorted them part of the way back to Japan.

The ship spent most of the 1920s as a training ship for naval cadets and became flagship of the IJN's China forces in 1932 during the First Shanghai Incident. Izumo participated in the Battle of Shanghai five years later and was not damaged, despite repeated aerial attacks. The ship played a minor role in the Pacific War, supporting Japanese forces during Philippines Campaign until she struck a mine. She returned to Japan in 1943 and again became a training ship for naval cadets. Izumo was sunk by American carrier aircraft during the attack on Kure in July 1945. Her wreck was refloated and scrapped in 1947.