1.
Auxiliary ship
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An auxiliary ship is a naval ship which is designed to operate in any number of roles supporting combatant ships and other naval operations. Auxiliaries are not primary combatants, although they may have some limited combat capacity, auxiliaries are extremely important for navies of all sizes, as without them, the primary fleet vessels can not be effective. Thus, nearly every navy maintains a fleet of auxiliaries. However, the composition and size of these auxiliary fleets varies depending on the nature of each navy, smaller coastal navies tend to have smaller auxiliary vessels focusing primarily on littoral and training support roles. Larger blue-water navies tend to have large auxiliary fleets comprising longer-range fleet support vessels designed to provide support far beyond territorial waters, replenishment One of the most direct ways that auxiliaries support the fleet is by providing underway replenishment to major fleet units. This allows the fleet to remain on station, with the replenishment vessels bringing up fuel, ammunition, food, oilers are vessels specifically designed to bring fuel oil to the fleet, while the earlier Colliers supplied coal burning steamships. Tenders are specifically designed to support a type of smaller naval unit, most often submarines or seaplanes, transport Supporting forward operating bases requires immense transportation capacity. Transports are often converted merchant ships commissioned into naval service. Tankers are transports specifically designed to ship fuel to forward locations, transports are often employed not only carrying cargo for naval support, but in support of all forces of a nations military. In particular, troopships are used to large number of soldiers to operational theatres. Some transport ships are highly specialized, like the ships employed by the US Navy. Repair vessels range from small equipment ships to floating dry docks and these vessels also help maintain the harbor by dredging channels, maintaining jetties and buoys, and even providing floating platforms for port defense weapons. List of auxiliaries of the United States Navy List of auxiliary ship classes in service Cutler, Deborah W. Cutler, morris, Christopher G. Academic Press Dictionary of Science and Technology. Media related to Auxiliary ships at Wikimedia Commons
2.
Warship
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A warship is a naval ship that is built and primarily intended for naval warfare. Usually they belong to the forces of a state. As well as being armed, warships are designed to damage and are usually faster. Unlike a merchant ship, which carries cargo, a warship typically carries weapons, ammunition. Warships usually belong to a navy, though they have also operated by individuals, cooperatives. In wartime, the distinction between warships and merchant ships is often blurred, in war, merchant ships are often armed and used as auxiliary warships, such as the Q-ships of the First World War and the armed merchant cruisers of the Second World War. Until the 17th century it was common for merchant ships to be pressed into naval service, until the threat of piracy subsided in the 19th century, it was normal practice to arm larger merchant ships such as galleons. Warships have also often used as troop carriers or supply ships. The development of catapults in the 4th century BC and the subsequent refinement of technology enabled the first fleets of artillery-equipped warships by the Hellenistic age. During late antiquity, ramming fell out of use and the galley tactics against other ships used during the Middle Ages until the late 16th century focused on boarding. Naval artillery was redeveloped in the 14th century, but cannon did not become common at sea until the guns were capable of being reloaded quickly enough to be reused in the same battle. The size of a required to carry a large number of cannons made oar-based propulsion impossible. The sailing man-of-war emerged during the 16th century, by the middle of the 17th century, warships were carrying increasing numbers of cannon on their broadsides and tactics evolved to bring each ships firepower to bear in a line of battle. The man-of-war now evolved into the ship of the line, in the 18th century, the frigate and sloop-of-war – too small to stand in the line of battle – evolved to convoy trade, scout for enemy ships and blockade enemy coasts. During the 19th century a revolution took place in the means of propulsion, naval armament. Marine steam engines were introduced, at first as an auxiliary force, the Crimean War gave a great stimulus to the development of guns. The introduction of explosive shells soon led to the introduction of iron, the first ironclad warships, the French Gloire and British Warrior, made wooden vessels obsolete. Metal soon entirely replaced wood as the material for warship construction
3.
Seaplane tender
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A seaplane tender is a boat or ship that supports the operation of seaplanes. In maritime parlance a tender is a vessel that is used to support the operation of other vessels, in British usage, the term tender was used for small craft, with the term depot ship being used for large sea going vessels. Flying boats and float planes even when based at home in ports, British tenders were small craft of launch to pinnace size. All those functions that on land would require wheeled ground support equipment had a need for a watercraft equivalent. e and those functions which in a land based airfield would be fulfilled by buildings. The first seaplane carrier appeared in 1911 with the French Navy La Foudre, La Foudre carried float-equipped planes under hangars on the main deck, from where they were lowered on the sea with a crane. La Foudre was further modified in November 1913 with a 10 m -long flat deck to launch her seaplanes, another early seaplane carrier was HMS Hermes, an old cruiser converted and commissioned with a flying-off deck in mid-1913. However, HMS Ark Royal was the first ship in history designed, in the Battle of Tsingtao, from 5 September 1914, the Imperial Japanese Navy seaplane carrier Wakamiya conducted the worlds first naval-launched air raids from Kiaochow Bay. The four Maurice Farman seaplanes bombarded German-held land targets and damaged a German minelayer in the Tsingtao peninsula from September to 6 November 1914, when the Germans surrendered. On Christmas Day 1914, the British carried out the Cuxhaven Raid and these carriers had hangars for storing and maintaining the aircraft, but no flight deck as in a true aircraft carrier. Instead, they used cranes to lower the aircraft into the sea for takeoff, the ships were normally converted merchant vessels rather than specially constructed for the task. As aircraft improved the problems of using seaplanes became more of a handicap, the aircraft could only be operated in a smooth sea and the ship had to stop for launching or recovery, both of which took around 20 minutes. The tender was often stationed 10 mi or so in front of the battle fleet with the cruiser screen so that it would not fall hopelessly behind when it launched its aircraft. Seaplanes also had poorer performance than other aircraft because of the drag, the British HMS Ark Royal was a seaplane tender with a flying-off deck. In the inter-war years, it was common for cruisers and battleships to be equipped with catapult-launched reconnaissance seaplanes, a few navies — especially those without true aircraft carriers — also acquired catapult-equipped seaplane carriers for fleet reconnaissance. During the Second World War, both the American and the Japanese Navies built a number of tenders to supplement their aircraft carrier fleets. However, these often had their catapults removed, and were used as support vessels that operated seaplanes from harbours rather than in a seaway. These aircraft were generally for long range reconnaissance patrols, nazi Germanys Kriegsmarine in World War II did not operate any seaplane tenders. However, the Luftwaffe had nineteen seaplane tenders and these ships were mostly converted from existing civilian seaplane tenders, and were capable of carrying 1-3 seaplanes
4.
Depot ship
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Depot ships may be identified as tenders in American English. Depot ships may be designed for their purpose or be converted from another purpose. Depot ships provide services unavailable from local naval base shore facilities, industrialized countries may build naval bases with extensive workshops, warehouses, barracks, and medical and recreation facilities. Depot ships operating within such bases may provide more than command staff offices. Services provided by a depot ship depend upon whether typical client warship missions are measured in hours, or days, or weeks. A warship crew may be expected to remain at their stations for missions measured in hours, but longer missions may require provisions for dining, sleeping, the crew of small warships may carry individual combat rations and urinate or defecate from the weather deck. Longer missions typically require storage provisions for drinking water and preserved food, cooking may be limited to warming food on an exhaust vent, and buckets may be used for bathing, laundry, and sanitary waste. Depot ships are similar to repair ships, but provide a range of services to a smaller portion of the fleet. Depot ships undertake repair work for a flotilla of small warships, depot ships also provide personnel and resupply services for their flotilla. Some depot ships may transport their short-range landing or attack craft from home ports to launch near the scene of battle. The following summary of World War II depot ships indicates the range of locations and warships served, the survey ship HMS Endeavour served as a depot ship for boom defence in Singapore and the Mediterranean Sea. Requisitioned merchant ships HMS Aberdonian and Vienna and the French Belfort were used as ships for Coastal Forces of the Royal Navy. Aberdonian started at Fort William, Scotland, but spent most of the war at Dartmouth, Devon, the Loch-class frigates Loch Assynt and Loch Torridon became coastal forces depot ships HMS Derby Haven and Woodbridge Haven, respectively. USS Alcor served in the Pacific after conversion from a ship in 1944. USS Altair served in the Atlantic, USS Black Hawk was with the Asiatic Fleet in 1941 and transferred to Alaska for the remainder of the war. HMS Blenheim served with the Home Fleet, at Iceland, USS Cascade USS Denebola served in the Atlantic. USS Dixie served in the Pacific, USS Dobbin served in the Pacific. HMS Greenwich served in Scapa Flow, Canada, Iceland, USS Hamul HMS Hecla was based at Greenock and Iceland before being sunk in the Mediterranean during Operation Torch
5.
Philippines
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The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is a sovereign island country in Southeast Asia situated in the western Pacific Ocean. It consists of about 7,641 islands that are categorized broadly under three main geographical divisions from north to south, Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, the capital city of the Philippines is Manila and the most populous city is Quezon City, both part of Metro Manila. The Philippines has an area of 300,000 square kilometers, and it is the eighth-most populated country in Asia and the 12th most populated country in the world. As of 2013, approximately 10 million additional Filipinos lived overseas, multiple ethnicities and cultures are found throughout the islands. In prehistoric times, Negritos were some of the archipelagos earliest inhabitants and they were followed by successive waves of Austronesian peoples. Exchanges with Chinese, Malay, Indian, and Islamic nations occurred, then, various competing maritime states were established under the rule of Datus, Rajahs, Sultans or Lakans. The arrival of Ferdinand Magellan in Homonhon, Eastern Samar in 1521 marked the beginning of Hispanic colonization, in 1543, Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos named the archipelago Las Islas Filipinas in honor of Philip II of Spain. With the arrival of Miguel López de Legazpi from Mexico City, in 1565, the Philippines became part of the Spanish Empire for more than 300 years. This resulted in Roman Catholicism becoming the dominant religion, during this time, Manila became the western hub of the trans-Pacific trade connecting Asia with Acapulco in the Americas using Manila galleons. Aside from the period of Japanese occupation, the United States retained sovereignty over the islands until after World War II, since then, the Philippines has often had a tumultuous experience with democracy, which included the overthrow of a dictatorship by a non-violent revolution. It is a member of the United Nations, World Trade Organization, Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. It also hosts the headquarters of the Asian Development Bank, the Philippines was named in honor of King Philip II of Spain. Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos, during his expedition in 1542, named the islands of Leyte, eventually the name Las Islas Filipinas would be used to cover all the islands of the archipelago. Before that became commonplace, other such as Islas del Poniente. The official name of the Philippines has changed several times in the course of its history, during the Philippine Revolution, the Malolos Congress proclaimed the establishment of the República Filipina or the Philippine Republic. From the 1898 Treaty of Paris, the name Philippines began to appear, since the end of World War II, the official name of the country has been the Republic of the Philippines. The metatarsal of the Callao Man, reliably dated by uranium-series dating to 67,000 years ago is the oldest human remnant found in the archipelago to date and this distinction previously belonged to the Tabon Man of Palawan, carbon-dated to around 26,500 years ago. Negritos were also among the archipelagos earliest inhabitants, but their first settlement in the Philippines has not been reliably dated, there are several opposing theories regarding the origins of ancient Filipinos
6.
USS Vestal
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USS Vestal was a repair ship in service with the United States Navy from 1913 to 1946. Before her conversion to a ship, she had served as a collier since 1909. The Vestal served in both World Wars and she was damaged during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and received two battle stars for her World War II service. Y. Launched on 19 May 1908, Vestal was placed in service as a collier, with a civilian crew. Vestal served the fleet as a collier, operating along the Atlantic coast and in the West Indies from the autumn of 1909 to the summer of 1910. After a voyage to Europe to coal ships of the Atlantic Fleet in those waters, the ship underwent nearly a years worth of yard work and was commissioned as a fleet repair ship in 1913 under the command of Commander Edward L. Beach, Sr. USN. After fitting out, Vestal departed her conversion yard on 26 October for Hampton Roads, Virginia, where she conducted her shakedown between 29 October to 10 November. After touching at Key West, Florida, for coal on 14 November, Vestal moved on to Pensacola, Florida, her base for operations as a repair ship for the Atlantic Fleet. The auxiliary vessel provided repair services at Vera Cruz from 2 May to 20 September before she sailed for Boston, as of December 1914, Commander U. T. Holmes was the officer and Lieutenant Commander L. J. Connelly performed as executive officer. Oberlin and F. M. Perkins serving as staff officers, Vestal then operated off the Virginia Capes and in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, before she returned to the Boston Navy Yard on 10 June 1915, after calls at New York City and Newport, R. I. She took on stores and provisions at Boston and underwent repairs there before she rejoined the fleet at Narragansett Bay on 19 May 1916. Following the U. S. entry into World War I and she stayed there for the duration of the war and beyond, finally returning in 1919. For the next six years Vestal served the Scouting Force and Battle Fleet, during the navy-wide assignment of alphanumeric hull numbers on 17 July 1920, Vestal was classified as a repair ship, AR-4. In 1925 she underwent modification that changed her from a ship to an oil-fired one. Soon thereafter, on 25 September, the submarine USS S-51 was rammed and sunk by the SS City of Rome, Vestal conducted her salvage operations from October to early December 1925 and again from 27 April to 5 July 1926. During the latter period, the submarine was raised from her watery grave, following the completion of recovery, Vestal was transferred to the Pacific Fleet in 1927. The Pacific Fleet was shifted to a new base at Pearl Harbor following Fleet Problem XXI in the spring of 1940, Vestal also made the move and served there until the outbreak of war following the attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941
7.
Royal Navy
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The Royal Navy is the United Kingdoms naval warfare force. Although warships were used by the English kings from the medieval period. The modern Royal Navy traces its origins to the early 16th century, from the middle decades of the 17th century and through the 18th century, the Royal Navy vied with the Dutch Navy and later with the French Navy for maritime supremacy. From the mid 18th century it was the worlds most powerful navy until surpassed by the United States Navy during the Second World War. The Royal Navy played a key part in establishing the British Empire as the world power during the 19th. Due to this historical prominence, it is common, even among non-Britons, following World War I, the Royal Navy was significantly reduced in size, although at the onset of the Second World War it was still the worlds largest. By the end of the war, however, the United States Navy had emerged as the worlds largest, during the Cold War, the Royal Navy transformed into a primarily anti-submarine force, hunting for Soviet submarines, mostly active in the GIUK gap. The Royal Navy is part of Her Majestys Naval Service, which includes the Royal Marines. The professional head of the Naval Service is the First Sea Lord, the Defence Council delegates management of the Naval Service to the Admiralty Board, chaired by the Secretary of State for Defence. The strength of the fleet of the Kingdom of England was an important element in the power in the 10th century. English naval power declined as a result of the Norman conquest. Medieval fleets, in England as elsewhere, were almost entirely composed of merchant ships enlisted into service in time of war. Englands naval organisation was haphazard and the mobilisation of fleets when war broke out was slow, early in the war French plans for an invasion of England failed when Edward III of England destroyed the French fleet in the Battle of Sluys in 1340. Major fighting was confined to French soil and Englands naval capabilities sufficed to transport armies and supplies safely to their continental destinations. Such raids halted finally only with the occupation of northern France by Henry V. Henry VII deserves a large share of credit in the establishment of a standing navy and he embarked on a program of building ships larger than heretofore. He also invested in dockyards, and commissioned the oldest surviving dry dock in 1495 at Portsmouth, a standing Navy Royal, with its own secretariat, dockyards and a permanent core of purpose-built warships, emerged during the reign of Henry VIII. Under Elizabeth I England became involved in a war with Spain, the new regimes introduction of Navigation Acts, providing that all merchant shipping to and from England or her colonies should be carried out by English ships, led to war with the Dutch Republic. In the early stages of this First Anglo-Dutch War, the superiority of the large, heavily armed English ships was offset by superior Dutch tactical organisation and the fighting was inconclusive
8.
HMAS Albatross (1928)
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HMAS Albatross was a seaplane tender of the Royal Australian Navy, which was later transferred to the Royal Navy and used as a repair ship. Albatross was built by Cockatoo Island Dockyard during the mid-1920s and entered service at the start of 1929, after five years in reserve, Albatross was transferred to the Royal Navy to offset the Australian purchase of the light cruiser Hobart. Although the British had little use for a carrier, the ship found a niche after two aircraft carriers were sunk by the Germans early in World War II. Albatross was initially based in Freetown, Sierra Leone for patrol and convoy duties in the southern Atlantic. Albatross was torpedoed in October, but survived to be towed back to England, after repairs completed at the start of 1945, she served as a minesweeper depot ship, but was decommissioned after the wars end. Albatross was sold into service in August 1946, and after several changes of hands was renamed Hellenic Prince in 1948. The vessel was chartered by the International Refugee Organisation to transport refugees from Europe to Australia, Hellenic Prince saw service as a troopship during the 1953 Mau Mau Uprising, but was broken up for scrap a year later. In 1925, Governor-General Lord Stonehaven announced the construction of a seaplane carrier, the ship displaced 4,800 tons at standard load. The propulsion machinery consisted of four Yarrow boilers supplying Parsons geared turbines and these generated 12,000 shaft horsepower, which was fed to two propeller shafts. Although Albatross was designed with a speed of 20 knots. At that speed, she had a range of 4,280 nautical miles, the ships company consisted of 29 RAN officers,375 RAN sailors,8 RAAF officers, and 38 RAAF enlisted. Development of the ship from the Admiralty sketch design was based around the Fairey IIID seaplane being operated for the RAN by the Royal Australian Air Forces No.101 Flight, three recovery cranes were used to manipulate the aircraft. The Faireys were removed from service shortly before Albatross entered service, the Mark IIIs were unsuited for operations aboard Albatross, particularly as the aircraft were not durable enough to withstand catapult launches. Albatross was removed from seagoing service in 1933, two months before the Mark Vs entered service, although the aircraft were operated from the vessel while she was at anchor. Albatross was laid down by the Cockatoo Docks and Engineering Company at Cockatoo Island and she was launched by the wife of the Governor-General of Australia, Baron Stonehaven of Ury on 23 February 1928. Albatross was completed on 21 December 1928, and commissioned into the RAN on 23 January 1929 and she cost 1,200,000 pounds to construct. HMAS Albatross began her first cruise a week after commissioning, visiting Tasmania and Victoria. On 11 April 1929, the ship was sent from Sydney to off Wyndham, Western Australia to search for Sir Charles Kingsford Smith and the Southern Cross, before the ship could reach the area, Smith was found, having made an emergency landing near the Glenelg River
9.
Italian cruiser San Giorgio
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The Italian cruiser San Giorgio was the name ship of her class of two armored cruisers built for the Royal Italian Navy in the first decade of the 20th century. Commissioned in 1910, the ship was damaged when she ran aground before the start of the Italo-Turkish War in 1911. During World War I, San Giorgios activities were limited by the threat of Austro-Hungarian submarines, although the ship did participate in the bombardment of Durazzo, Albania, in late 1918. She acted as a yacht for Crown Prince Umbertos 1924 tour of South America. San Giorgio served as a ship from 1930 to 1935 and was then rebuilt in 1937–38 to better serve in that role. San Giorgio was forced to scuttle herself in early 1941 as the Allies moved in to occupy the port and her wreck was used as an immobile repair ship by the British from 1943 through 1945. Salvaged in 1952, she sank while under tow to Italy to be broken up, the ships of the San Giorgio class were designed as improved versions of the Pisa-class design. San Giorgio had a length between perpendiculars of 131.04 metres and a length of 140.89 metres. She had a beam of 21.03 metres and a draught of 7.35 metres, the ship displaced 10,167 tonnes at normal load, and 11,300 tonnes at deep load. Her complement was 32 officers and 666 to 673 enlisted men, the ship was powered by a pair of vertical triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one propeller shaft using steam supplied by 14 mixed-firing Blechynden boilers. Designed for an output of 23,000 shaft horsepower. The ship had a range of 6,270 nautical miles at a speed of 10 knots. The main armament of the San Giorgio-class ships consisted of four Cannone da 254/45 A Modello 1908 guns in turrets fore. The ships mounted eight Cannone da 190/45 A Modello 1908 in four twin-gun turrets, for defense against torpedo boats, they carried 18 quick-firing 40-caliber 76 mm guns. Eight of these were mounted in embrasures in the sides of the hull, the ships were also fitted with a pair of 40-caliber QF47 mm guns. The San Giorgios were also equipped with three submerged 450 mm torpedo tubes, during World War I, eight of the 76 mm guns were replaced by six 76 mm anti-aircraft guns and one torpedo tube was removed. The ships were protected by a belt that was 200 mm thick amidships and reduced to 80 mm at the bow. The armoured deck was 50 mm thick and the conning tower armour was 254 mm thick, the 254 mm gun turrets were protected by 200 mm of armour while the 190 mm turrets had 160 mm
10.
HMS Vindictive (1918)
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HMS Vindictive was a warship built during the First World War for the Royal Navy. Originally designed as a Hawkins-class heavy cruiser and laid down under the name Cavendish, renamed in 1918, she was completed a few weeks before the end of the war and saw no active service with the Grand Fleet. The following year she participated in the British campaign in the Baltic against the Bolsheviks during which her aircraft made attacks against the naval base at Kronstadt. Vindictive returned home at the end of the year and was placed in reserve for years before her flight decks were removed. The ship retained her hangar and conducted trials with a aircraft catapult before she was sent to the China Station in 1926. A year after her return in 1928, she was placed in reserve. Vindictive was demilitarized and converted into a ship in 1936–1937. At the beginning of the Second World War she was converted into a repair ship and her first role after the conversion was completed in early 1940, however, was to transport troops during the Norwegian Campaign. She was then sent to the South Atlantic to support British ships serving there and, in late 1942, Vindictive returned home in 1944 and was damaged by a German torpedo off the coast of Normandy after the Allies invaded France. She was reduced to reserve after the war and sold for scrap in 1946, the Hawkins-class cruiser was designed to hunt enemy commerce raiders overseas. This required a ship to provide the necessary endurance for sustained operations away from supporting bases. The design was given high freeboard to allow it to maintain its speed in heavy weather. Sir Eustace Tennyson dEyncourt, the Director of Naval Construction, included both coal and oil-fired boilers to provide the ship with no matter the supply conditions. By this time the threat from German cruisers and raiders had ended, the cruisers had an overall length of 605 feet, a beam of 65 feet, and a mean draught of 19 feet 3 inches at deep load. They were designed to displace 9,750 long tons and had a complement of 37 officers and 672 enlisted men, the ships had four Parsons geared steam turbines, each of which drove one propeller shaft. The turbines were designed to produce a total of 60,000 shaft horsepower for a speed of 30 knots, steam for the turbines was provided by 12 Yarrow boilers,8 of these were oil-fired while the remaining 4 used coal. They had a capacity of 800 long tons of coal and 1,600 long tons of fuel oil. The main armament of the Hawkins-class cruisers consisted of seven 45-calibre 7.5 in Mk VI guns in pivot mounts, at maximum elevation these guns fired a 200-pound shell to a range of 21,114 yards
11.
Japanese battleship Asahi
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Asahi was a pre-dreadnought battleship built for the Imperial Japanese Navy in the late 1890s. As Japan lacked the capacity to build such warships itself. Shortly after her arrival in Japan, she became flagship of the Standing Fleet and she participated in every major naval battle of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05 and was lightly damaged during the Battle of the Yellow Sea and the Battle of Tsushima. Asahi saw no combat during World War I, although the ship participated in the Siberian Intervention in 1918. Reclassified as a coastal ship in 1921, Asahi was disarmed two years later to meet the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty, after which she served as a training. She was modified into a salvage and rescue ship before being placed in reserve in 1928. Asahi was recommissioned in late 1937, after the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War, in 1938, she was converted into a repair ship and based first at Japanese-occupied Shanghai, China, and then Cam Ranh Bay, French Indochina, from late 1938 to 1941. The ship was transferred to occupied Singapore in early 1942 to repair a light cruiser. She was sunk en route by the American submarine USS Salmon and these ships were paid for from the £30,000,000 indemnity paid by China after losing the First Sino-Japanese War. Asahi, the fifth Japanese battleship to be built in Britain, was ordered from the Clydebank Engineering & Shipbuilding Company shipyard in Clydebank, Asahis design was a modified version of the Formidable-class battleships of the Royal Navy, with two additional 6-inch guns. The ship had a length of 425 feet 3 inches, a beam of 75 feet. She displaced 15,200 long tons at normal load, Asahi had a complete double bottom with 55 watertight compartments. Her hull was subdivided into 223 watertight compartments. She was fitted as a flagship and her crew numbered about 773 officers and enlisted men and she carried a maximum of 2,000 long tons of coal which allowed her to steam for 9,000 nautical miles at a speed of 10 knots. The ship was fitted with three steam-driven 4. 8-kilowatt dynamos, Asahis main battery consisted of the same four Elswick Ordnance Company 40-calibre twelve-inch guns used in all of Japans preceding battleships. They were mounted in turrets fore and aft of the superstructure. The hydraulically powered mountings allowed the guns to be loaded at all angles of traverse, each mount could traverse a total of 240 degrees. They fired 850-pound projectiles at a velocity of 2,400 ft/s
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