Japanese seaplane carrier Wakamiya
 |
|
| History | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Lethington |
| Owner: |
|
| Port of registry: | |
| Builder: | Robert Duncan and company, Port Glasgow, United Kingdom |
| Launched: | 21 September 1900 |
| Completed: | October 1901 |
| Notes: | chartered by Russia during Russo-Japanese War; Captured by Japan on 12 January 1905 |
| Fate: | Scrapped |
 Japan
|
|
| Name: | Wakamiya |
| Acquired: | 1913 |
| Commissioned: | 17 August 1914 |
| Renamed: |
|
| Reclassified: |
|
| Struck: | 1 April 1931 |
| Fate: | Sold to Eizo Aoki on 26 November 1931, scrapped in 1932 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Seaplane carrier |
| Displacement: | 7,720 long tons (7,844 t) |
| Length: | 111.25 m (365 ft 0 in) |
| Beam: | 14.6 m (47 ft 11 in) |
| Draught: | 5.8 m (19 ft 0 in) |
| Propulsion: | VTE engines, 3 boilers, 1 shaft, 1,590 ihp (1,190 kW) |
| Speed: | 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
| Complement: | 234 |
| Armament: |
|
| Aircraft carried: | 4 × Farman MF.11 seaplanes |
Wakamiya (Japanese: 若宮丸, later 若宮艦) was a seaplane carrier of the Imperial Japanese Navy and the first Japanese aircraft carrier. She was converted from a transport ship into a seaplane carrier and commissioned in August 1914. She was equipped with four Japanese-built French Maurice Farman seaplanes (powered by Renault 70 hp (52 kW) engines). In September 1914, she conducted the world's first naval-launched air raids.
Wakamiya was initially the Russian freighter Lethington, built by Duncan in Port Glasgow, United Kingdom, laid down in 1900 and launched 21 September 1900. She was captured on a voyage from Cardiff to Vladivostok during the Russo-Japanese War near Okinoshima in 1905 by the Japanese torpedo boat TB No. 72. She was acquired by the Japanese government, renamed Takasaki-Maru until given the official name of Wakamiya-Maru on 1 September, and from 1907 was managed as a transport ship by NYK.
In 1913 she was transferred to the Imperial Japanese Navy and converted to a seaplane carrier, being completed on 17 August 1914. She was a 7,720-ton ship, with a complement of 234. She had two seaplanes on deck and two in reserve. They could be lowered onto the water with a crane, whence they would take off, and then be retrieved from the water once their mission was completed.
From 5 September 1914, Wakamiya conducted the world's first naval-launched air raids during the first months of the First World War from Kiaochow Bay off Tsingtao, which is located in China. On 6 September 1914 a Farman aircraft launched by Wakamiya attacked the Austro-Hungarian cruiser Kaiserin Elisabeth and the German gunboat Jaguar in Qiaozhou Bay; neither ship was hit. Her seaplanes bombarded German-held land targets (communication centers and command centers) in the Tsingtao peninsula of Shandong province and ships in Qiaozhou Bay from September to 6 November 1914, during the Siege of Tsingtao.
...
Wikipedia