was the second and last protected cruiser built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) in the 1880s. As Japan lacked the industrial capacity to construct such vessels, the ship was designed and built in the United Kingdom. She participated in the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895, playing a major role in the Battle of the Yalu River and lesser roles in the Battles of Port Arthur, Weihaiwei, the Pescadores Campaign and the invasion of Taiwan. Takachiho played a minor role in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905 where she participated in the Battle of Chemulpo Bay, briefly helped to blockade Port Arthur at the beginning of the war, helped to sink a Russian armored cruiser during Battle off Ulsan and participated in the climatic defeat of the Imperial Russian Navy in the Battle of Tsushima.
The ship was relegated to auxiliary roles as a depot ship and a training ship after the war and was converted into a minelayer in 1911. Takachiho was torpedoed and sunk by a German torpedo boat in 1914 during the Siege of Tsingtao in World War I with the loss of most of her crew.
Design and description
The Naniwa-class cruisers were designed by Armstrong Mitchell's chief naval architect, William White, as improved versions of the pioneering Chilean protected cruiser (later purchased by the IJN and renamed Izumi) and the Royal Navy's equivalent ships. When completed, Takachiho and her sister ship, Naniwa, were considered the most advanced and most powerful cruisers in the world. The cruisers displaced at normal load. The ships had a length between perpendiculars of and an overall length of , a beam of and a draft of at deep load. The cruisers were fitted with a plough-shaped naval ram of mild steel below the waterline and had a partial double bottom extending between the forward and aft magazines. They were powered by a pair of horizontal, two-cylinder double-expansion steam engines, each driving one shaft using steam produced by six cylindrical boilers. The engines were designed to produce a total of with forced draught to give the ships a maximum speed of . During her speed trials after arriving in Japan, Takachiho reached a speed of from . The Naniwa-class cruisers carried enough coal to gave them a range of about at a speed of . Takachihos crew consisted of 342 officers and men.
The main armament of the Naniwa-class ships initially consisted of two single Krupp cannon on pivot mounts in barbettes fore and aft of the superstructure. Each barbette was fitted with a fixed loading station in its rear and the guns had to return to this position to reload. The secondary armament was initially six Krupp cannon on pivot mounts in semi-circular sponsons on the main deck, three guns on each broadside. All of these guns were protected against the weather by gun shields. Defense against torpedo boats was provided by two quick-firing (QF) 3-pounder () Hotchkiss guns on the forward bridge, ten quadruple Nordenfelt guns positioned the length of the superstructure and four 10-barrel, Nordenfelt organ guns mounted in the fighting tops of the military masts. In addition, there were four above-water tubes in the hull for Schwartzkopff torpedoes, two on each broadside.
Takachihos armament frequently changed over her career and the first such was the replacement of her slow-firing 15-centimeter guns with Armstrong's QF guns in 1896 after the First Sino-Japanese War. At the same time four of the 1-inch Nordenfelt guns were replaced by two 3-pounders and two QF 6-pounder () Nordenfelt guns. The fighting tops and the 10-barrel organ guns were removed in 1898 and the main guns were replaced by a pair of Armstrong 6-inch guns in 1902. At the same time the 6-pounders and the remaining Nordenfelt guns were exchanged for more 3-pounders, giving the ship a total of ten 3-pounders and a pair of lighter Yamauchi QF 2.5-pounder (47-millimeter) guns.
The protection of the Esmeralda had been much criticized by the British Admiralty and White raised the height of the steel protective deck to a foot (30.5 centimeters) above the waterline. The sloped portion of the deck extended to a depth of below the waterline. Amidships, the highly subdivided compartments formed by the sloped portion of the protective deck were filled with coal and the fore and aft areas were fitted with cofferdams to limit any flooding. The walls of the conning tower were three inches thick and the loading station was protected by two inches of steel armor.
Construction and career Named for a mountain in the volcanic Kirishima range between Kagoshima and Miyazaki Prefectures in Japan, which was a prominent location in Japanese mythology, Takachiho was ordered from Armstrong Mitchell on 22 March 1884 as Japan lacked the ability to build the Naniwas itself. The ship was laid down at the company's Low Walker shipyard in Newcastle upon Tyne on 10 April as yard number 476 and launched on 16 May 1885. She was completed on 26 March 1886 and departed for Japan on 10 May with a British crew and captain.
Takachiho arrived at Yokohama on 3 July 1886 and was assigned to the Standing Fleet on 7 August as a second-class warship. The sisters hosted Emperor Meiji and his wife, Empress Shōken, on 26 November as the ships conducted torpedo-firing exercises. In early 1887 they transported the Emperor and Empress from Yokohama to Kyoto and back again. Takachiho and Naniwa participated in the fleet maneuvers from 22 August to 5 September. Two months later they circumnavigated the Home Islands together with four other ships. In mid- and late 1888, the sisters cruised to Okinawa, Taiwan, Wonsan, Kingdom of Korea, and Zhifu, China. By the following year, Takachiho was assigned to the Sasebo Naval District and was serving as the flagship of the Standing Small Fleet. Together with her sister, she visited ports in the Russian Far East, Korea and China while also participating in fleet maneuvers in the last half of the year.
After taking part in the 1890 Great Maneuvers with the Imperial Japanese Army, the cruiser was reviewed by the Emperor. On 23 August Takachiho and Naniwa were reclassified as first-class warships. Takachiho sailed to China in mid-1891 for a diplomatic visit between the fleet commander, Rear Admiral Arichi Shinanojō, and Li Hongzhang, Viceroy of Zhili. After the training ship damaged her propeller and hull in a heavy storm in Futami Bay on 4 October, Arichi transferred his flag to Naniwa while Takachiho towed Tsukuba to Kure Naval Arsenal for repairs. The sisters cruised to Hong Kong in early 1892 before participating in the annual Great Maneuvers. Takachiho was reduced to reserve in July while she was in a refit that lasted until 21 April 1893. She resumed her role as the fleet flagship as Rear Admiral Itō Sukeyuki hoisted his flag aboard the cruiser before she traveled to China in July so that Itō could meet with Li. On 13 August, the ship became the flagship of the Standing Fleet and visited Vladivostok later that month. On 6 March 1894, Takachiho departed Japan to relieve her sister in Honolulu, Hawaii, that was protecting Japanese citizens and interests there during the time that the Provisional Government of Hawaii controlled the country. The cruiser arrived on 21 March and remained there until tensions began to rise between Japan and China over Korea. She arrived at Yokosuka on 10 July and was assigned to the Main Squadron on 22 July.
First Sino-Japanese War Takachiho was transferred to the First Flying Squadron about 30 July where she joined her sister and the fast protected cruisers and , under the command of Rear Admiral Tsuboi Kōzō. On 9 August, Vice Admiral Itō, now commanding the Combined Fleet, took his ships to Weihaiwei, China, in search of the Beiyang Fleet and conducted a desultory bombardment of the port's coastal defenses when he did not find the Chinese ships. No damage was inflicted on either side and the Combined Fleet returned to Kunsan, Korea. For the rest of the month, the Flying Squadron escorted troop convoys to Kunsan. Itō sent a pair of cruisers back to Weihahiwei on 14–15 September to find the Chinese ships, but they were unsuccessful. Their failure convinced Itō that the Beiyang Fleet was further north.
The Flying Squadron led the rest of the Combined Fleet northwest on 16 September to investigate the anchorage at Haiyang Island. Finding it empty the following morning, Itō ordered his ships to head northeast and search the area around the Yalu River estuary. At 11:23 lookouts aboard Yoshino spotted the Chinese ships some away. Knowing that his ships were faster than the Chinese ones, Itō intended to cross the T of the Beiyang Fleet and then concentrate his fire on the weakly protected ships of the Chinese right wing.
Admiral Ding Ruchang's ships had been caught by surprise, but were able to weigh anchor and assume Ding's preferred line abreast formation while the Combined Fleet was still out of range. The Chinese ships opened fire at long range and were unable to hit any of the Japanese ships as they passed in front. The Flying Squadron's ships opened fire as the range closed to and soon set the unprotected cruisers and on fire. The battle quickly devolved into a melee at close range, and the protected cruiser and the armored cruiser were sunk as the Flying Squadron's ships concentrated on the Chinese cruisers. During the battle Takachiho was slightly damaged by five hits that killed one man and wounded two others. She fired 22 shells from her main guns, 89 from her secondary armament and several thousand from her smaller guns.
After the battle, the Combined Fleet escorted troop convoys through the Korea Bay to Chinese territory at the base of the Liaodong Peninsula and supported the IJA's advance down the length of the peninsula towards Port Arthur (modern Lüshunkou). This allowed the Beiyang Fleet to sail from Port Arthur to Weihei in early November without being detected. Itō sent Takachiho and Yoshino to see if the Chinese ships were still at Port Arthur on 8 November and only located them at Weihaiwei a week later. The Combined Fleet cruised off the Chinese port on 16–17 November, but Ding was under orders to refuse battle, and the Japanese ships departed to begin the blockade of Port Arthur in support of the IJA's impending successful assault on the port. Takachiho surveyed the area around the Hai River estuary on 7–11 December to evaluate its suitability for amphibious operations ultimately leading to an attack on the Chinese capital of Beijing. The specialists aboard the ship concluded that no such landings were possible during the winter season. Combined with pressure by the European nations not to attack Beijing, this forced the Japanese strategists to focus on the destruction of the Beiyang Fleet by assaulting its home port of Weihaiwei and Takachiho spent 23–26 December locating a suitable landing place on the Shandong Peninsula.
The Japanese landed troops in January 1895 and gradually encircled the city. Itō was unwilling to commit his lightly armored ships to attacks on the formidable fortifications defending the port as he had to be prepared to defeat the Chinese ships if they attempted to break through the blockade. Successful night attacks by his torpedo boats in early February sank or damaged the larger ships and the morale of the Chinese crews continued to decline. Ding failed to make his own nocturnal torpedo attacks against the blockaders, but the Chinese torpedo boats sortied on the morning of 7 February and unsuccessfully attempted to escape by steaming west along the coast towards Zhifu. All of them were either destroyed or captured, although the two fastest boats had to be pursued by Takachiho and Yoshino and were forced to beach themselves before reaching the port. It is unclear whether Ding ordered them to breakout or if they deserted before the Chinese surrender on 12 February.