With the launch of hms dreadnought in 1906, the kanati navy along with many other navies realised that all current battleships obsolete, however hms dreadnought wake up call to the kanati islands Naval staff, so starting in late 1907 Naval staff began looking to the idea of constructing brand new class of battleships to the replace obsolete Kashima class per dreadnought, by early 1908 a new class of battleship was designed, the class would be named the ishizuchi and Akatsuki.
Ordered: 7 October 1908
Laid down: 10 November 1908
Launched: 5 April 1910
Commissioned: 9 September 1912
Decommissioned: 19 February 1947
Struck: 28 February 1947
Fate: Sold 19 December 1950
Status:Broken up for scrap
General characteristics
Displacement: (21.298 t)
Length: 656 ft (200 m)
Beam: 76 ft 5 in (23 m)
Draft:26 ft (8 m)
Installed power:75,000 shp
24 × toumaci water-tube boilers
Propulsion: 4 × shafts 2 × Brown-Curtis steam turbine sets
Speed: 27.5 knots (50.9 km/h; 31.6 mph)
Armament:
5 × twin TYPE 10 30cm/45 (305 mm) guns
18 × single TYPE 11 15cm/50 ( 152mm) guns
8 x single TYPE 13 12cm/40 ( 120mm) guns
After reconstruction:
5 × twin TYPE 10 30cm/45 (305 mm) guns
10 × single TYPE 11 15cm/50 ( 152mm) guns
4 x twin TYPE 24 12cm/45 ( 127mm) guns
4 x twin TYPE 27 4cm/66 (40mm) guns
Armour:
Waterline belt: 254–102 mm (10–4 in)
Deck: 51 mm (2 in)
Gun turrets: 279 mm (11.0 in)
Barbettes: 305 mm (12 in)
Conning tower: 351 mm (13.8 in)
Bulkheads: 305–102 mm (12–4 in)
with the outbreak of world war 1 the Ishizuchi and the cruisers Isuzu and Ōi were sent to Great Britain. the Ishizuchi became part of the 1st Battlecruiser Squadron, and the Isuzu,Ōi became part of the 1st Light Cruiser Squadron. in January 1915 kanati navy ship's along the british ships were sent to intercept a German raiding squadron, during the battle the Ishizuchi managed to score a critical hit on the Moltke
causing her art magazine to explode, this cause the Moltke to sink in under 4 minutes with the lost 916 of her crew. after the battle of Dogger Bank the Ishizuchi was sent to the Indian Oceans to intercept german convoys with the newly Commissioned battleship Asagir, after the end of the war Ishizuchi and Asagir were recall to the kantai islands, the Ishizuchi assign to 1st Battleship Squadron with her newly Commissioned sister Akatsuki.
in 1919 the Ishizuchi along with the Akatsuki and Isuzu were underway in the Korea Strait when they encountered heavy fog, this forced the ships to sail at reduced speed however at the sametime the Michishio a small ocean liner which was returning from Hong Kong
was also sailing at reduced speed, the Ishizuchi and Michishio didn't see each other until it was too late, the Ishizuchi rammed the Michishio so hard that she broke in to, the too Halves of the Michishio sank in under 1 minute only 10 survivors were rescue.
in 1922 the Ishizuchi underwent modernization, forward funnel was capped to address smoke interference as well as three searchlight platforms were added and The four 120mm gun casemates were removed , and four 76mm dual purpose guns were added on Lattice platforms.
At the start of 1924 the Ishizuchi was beginning to look her age When she was commissioned in 1912 she was considered state of the art however unlike her sister Akatsuki had served very actively through WWI as a result many of the ships mechanical systems were extremely worn out and unfortunately the navy didn't have the funds to do an extensive overhaul on her, but her sister the Akatsuki had an almost completely different machinery setup instead of having coal fired boilers she had oil fired boilers and less of them but yet she had the exact same power and speed as her sister, another big difference was the fact that the Akatsuki had a turbo electric drive system for her propeller shafts, this turbo electric system had many advantages over the much older geared system with the turbo electric drive system it could have full power to its propellers while in reverse also unlike her sister she also had a 6m rangefinder fitted upon her in 1917 completion and in 1922 the 6 m rangefinder was replaced with 8mm rangefinder all of these differences maybe Akatsuki a superior ship in almost every way so so it was ultimately decided in 1926 that the Ishizuchi would be decommissioned as soon as newer battleships came into service, so in July 1929 she was decommissioned however she wasn't scrapped she was quickly designated a historical landmark by the government and was put on display, at the Heguri naval academy where she resides in this very day.
Ships in class: (laid down-launched-commissioned - fate)
Ishizuchi 1908-1910-1912 -Decommissioned 1929
Akatsuki 1909-1914-1917 - ?