Japanese submarine tender Karasaki
Karasaki in the Seto Inland Sea circa 1930
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| History | |
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| Name: | Karasaki |
| Builder: | Hawthorn Leslie and Company, UK |
| Launched: | December 1896 |
| Completed: | 1897 |
| Acquired: | 1904 |
| Commissioned: | 4 July 1905 |
| Struck: | 1 April 1939 |
| Fate: | Scrapped 1942 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Submarine tender |
| Displacement: | 9,570 long tons (9,724 t) |
| Length: | 127.7 m (419 ft 0 in) o/a |
| Beam: | 15.2 m (49 ft 10 in) |
| Draught: | 4.85 m (15 ft 11 in) |
| Propulsion: |
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| Speed: | 12.6 knots (14.5 mph; 23.3 km/h) |
| Complement: | 249 |
| Armament: | |
Karasaki (韓崎?), was the first submarine tender operated by the Imperial Japanese Navy. She was named after a cape on northern Tsushima Island.
The Imperial Japanese Navy received its first submarines during the Russo-Japanese War, but these vessels were not operational until after the war ended. During the post-war period, submarine warfare was given a low priority for development, as the early submarines were regarded as unsafe, and useful only for short-range coastal point defense. However, the small Japanese submarine force required a support vessel, and Karasaki was modified for this role.
Karasaki had an overall length of 127.7 m (419 ft 0 in), and beam of 15.2 m (49 ft 10 in), with a nominal displacement of 9,570 long tons (9,724 t) and draught of 4.85 m (15 ft 11 in). She had a clipper bow, single stack, and two masts for auxiliary sail propulsion.
Karasaki was launched in December 1896 by the Hawthorn Leslie and Company of Newcastle on Tyne in the United Kingdom, as a combined passenger/cargo vessel ship named the SS Ekaterinoslav (Russian: Екатеринослав) for the Russian Volunteer Fleet, a ship transport association established in the Russian Empire in 1878, and funded from voluntary contributions collected by subscription.
On 6 February 1904, two days before the official start of the Russo-Japanese War, Ekaterinoslav was captured by the Imperial Japanese Navy off Busan. Due to her relatively new age, good condition and large capacity, she was immediately pressed into service as a transport with the unofficial name of Karasaki Maru, moving troops and war materials from the Japanese home islands to the Korean Peninsula and the Liaodong Peninsula in support of the Imperial Japanese Army. She served in this capacity to October 1904.
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