The torpedo boat Kotaka (1887)
Career
Designed:
Laid down:	1887
Launched:
Completed:	October 10th, 1888
Commissionned:	August 19th, 1890 (First-class torpedo boat)
Decommissionned:	April 1st, 1908
General Characteristics
Displacement:	203 tons
Length:	50.3 m
Beam:	5.8 m
Draught:	1.7 m
Propulsion:	1,400 HP Coal, and mix coal/oil engine from 1904 Jump to: navigation, search Image File history File links Kotaka. ... Japanese naval ensign adapted from Flags of the World. ... 1887 is a common year starting on Saturday (click on link for calendar). ... Jump to: navigation, search 1888 is a leap year starting on Sunday (click on link for calendar). ... 1890 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... 1908 is a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ...
Speed:	19 knots
Range:
Complement:
Armament:	4x 37mm guns 6x 360mm torpedoes
Armor:

The Kotaka (Jp:小鷹, "Falcon") was a torpedo boat in the Imperial Japanese Navy. She was built in parts in Great Britain by the shipbuilder Yarrow along Japanese specifications, and then assembled in Yokosuka, Japan. Species About 37; see text. ... Jump to: navigation, search Ensign of the Imperial Japanese Navy. ... Binomial name Achillea millefolium L. Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) is a common herb found throughout North America and Europe. ... Categories: Cities in Kanagawa Prefecture | Japan geography stubs ...

She participated to the Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895) and the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905). She was decommissionned on April 1st, 1908, to become a training ship. She was retired on March 1st, 1916, but again reactivated in 1917, to end her career in January 1927. There were two wars known as the Sino-Japanese War (between China and Japan): The First Sino-Japanese War occurred between 1894 and 1895, primarily over control of Korea. ... Greater Manchuria, Russian (outer) Manchuria is region to upper right in lighter Red; Liaodong Peninsula is the wedge extending into the Yellow Sea The Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905) was an extremely bloody conflict that grew out of the rival imperialist ambitions of Russia and Japan in Manchuria and Korea. ...

When launched in 1888, the Kotaka, at 203 tons, was the largest torpedo boat in the World, and "was the forerunner of torpedo-boat destroyers that appeared a decade later" (Kaigun, David C. Evans). She was armed with four 1-pounder quick-firing guns and four torpedo tubes. In the following years, the Imperial Japanese Navy equipped herself with much smaller torpedo boats of French design, but in her trials in 1899, the Kotaka demonstrated that she could go beyond a role of coastal defense, and was capable of following larger ships on the high seas. The British shipbuilder Yarrow "considered Japan to have effectively invented the destroyer" (Howe). USS Lassen, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast and maneuverable yet long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet or battle group and defend them against smaller, short-range attackers (originally torpedo boats, later submarines and aircraft). ... A modern torpedo, historically called a self-propelled torpedo, is a self-propelled guided projectile that (after being launched above or below the water surface) operates underwater and is designed to detonate on contact or in proximity to a target. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1899 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ...

In 1904, she was experimentally refitted with a mix oil and coal engine, instead of her original coal-only propulsion.

References

• "KAIGUN Strategy, Tactics, and Technology in the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1887-1941", David C. Evans, Mark R.Peattie, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland ISBN 0870211927
• "The Origins of Japanese Trade Supremacy", Christopher Howe, The University of Chicago Press, ISBN 0226354857